are waiting on the counter in the bathroom. They’ll need to be bathed first.”
“Of course.” Ross’s tone was so clipped Cara had the sensation of being briefed for battle.
“Other than that, the twins can be a handful once they realize I’ve left them for the evening, but they are usually well behaved. If they act out in any way, feel free to give them a paddling, but I’ve rarely found such a measure necessary.”
Cara bit her lip to keep from saying that she was a proponent of time-out rather than spanking. It wasn’t any of her business how Ross chose to discipline his children.
“If you have any problems at all, please call me. I’ve made arrangements to leave early, so I should be home no later than eleven.”
He stopped in front of a set of double doors. Glancing at his watch, he depressed the brass handle. “I won’t stay other than to quickly introduce you. If the children catch on that I’m going somewhere without them, they’ll scream and cry. They handle things better if I go quickly.”
“That’s fine. I’m sure we’ll all have a great evening together.”
Ross’s brow creased. “I wouldn’t go at all if there were any way to get out of this event. But…”
Despite his stern manner, her heart warmed at his apparent reluctance to leave the children even for a few hours. “We’ll be fine. Feel free to call if you want to check on us.”
“No. That won’t be necessary. I’ve always had good luck with the people sent by your agency.” He paused, opened his mouth as if to say something, then clearly thought better of it. “Well, here goes…”
In one smooth motion he opened up the door, revealing a child’s fantasy playroom on the other side.
“Becca, Brianne…this is Melba’s friend, Cara. She’s come to play with you for a little while. You be good for her, okay?”
In that instant a pair of children came running from the other side of the room, moving into Cara’s line of sight.
And in the space of a heartbeat, the bottom dropped out of her world.
Chapter Two
Somehow Cara managed to hold on to her instinctive cry until she heard the whisper of Ross’s footsteps disappear down the hall. Even so, she didn’t dare move until the slam of the door was followed by the low growl of his car.
The trembling began in her extremities, moving inward until she was forced to grip the doorjamb to remain upright. Her eyes were glued to the children playing on the floor in front of her. As much as her mind rebelled against what she saw, the twins were so like her own—one a carrottop with cornflower-blue eyes; the other a strawberry-blonde with deep-indigo eyes. If not for the way the girls’ haircuts were different—short and left to curl naturally—Cara would have believed that her own little girls had been brought to the house as part of an elaborate joke.
But they weren’t her twins. When Ross’s twins looked at her there was no recognition in their gazes. Instead they broke into hysterical cries and rushed to the window overlooking the drive.
“Daddy! Daddy, don’t leave us!” one of them cried while the other pounded on the glass and sobbed.
They were “Daddy’s girls.” Heidi and Zoe had adored their father, as well. It had taken months for them to stop asking for Cara’s brother. Now they tended to be reticent around males, probably because their world was more generally populated with women.
“Shh, shh, there’s no need to cry.”
Cara’s instincts sent her body into autopilot. Pushing her own confusion aside, she quickly comforted the little girls, then showed them the treasures she’d brought with her in the duffel bag.
Soon the twins were assembling a floor puzzle decorated with cartoon animals. Yet, they must have sensed something in her manner because they regarded her now and again with concern and a hint of shyness.
Cara’s smile was hollow and automatic. She felt numb, even though her limbs continued to tremble with shock and disbelief.
Cara’s children were rarely shy. They raced up to engage strangers in conversation as if meeting long-lost friends. But these youngsters…
No. They weren’t her children. They were two completely different individuals.
Cara’s stomach flip-flopped in sudden dread, and she sank into a child-size chair drawn up to a gaily painted table. In a rush she remembered the many times that her brother had teased his wife about the origins of Zoe’s red hair. Patrick, her brother, had Cara’s own strawberry-blond hair and indigo eyes, while his wife, Deirdre, had been a dark brunette with brown eyes.
Several times they had all joked halfheartedly that one of the twins had been switched at birth. After all, there had been a horrible blizzard the night the children were born, resulting in a blackout through much of northern Utah. Although the hospital’s power had been running, due to an emergency generator, the weather had caused more than eight women to go into labor at the same time. Heidi and Zoe had been born in an ambulance en route to the hospital, and there had been rumors that another couple had given birth to twins in the hallway. Both women had been forced to wait in the corridor until rooms could become available for them and their babies could be taken the nursery.
Suddenly the family joke didn’t seem nearly so funny. Was it possible that two sets of identical twins really had been switched during their stay in the hospital? Had that error created two sets of fraternal twins from what had once been two sets of identical twins? Had Deirdre accidentally brought home little Zoe, when in reality Zoe had no biological ties to the family that had raised her?
Cara’s head swam at the very idea. But even as her brain tried to tell her that she was overreacting and the whole situation was a horrible joke, her heart suspected the truth. Somehow she knew her theory was right and that two sets of identical twins had been “jumbled up” before being sent home with their parents, creating two sets of fraternal twins. As impossible as it sounded, it was the only logical explanation for the girls.
Raking her fingers through her hair, Cara took a deep, shuddering breath. Think. Think.
What was she going to do now? What was she supposed to do now?
Why couldn’t she think!
Fortunately Ross’s children seemed unaware of her turmoil. Fighting her fear and panic, Cara dragged the duffel toward her and reached into one of the pockets, removing her cell phone.
Her fingers shook so badly it took three tries before Cara was able to punch in the numbers. One ring. Two.
“Come on, Polly, please,” Cara whispered, her eyes still glued to Ross Gifford’s twins.
They were growing unsettled by her rapt attention. Whispering to themselves, they pushed their puzzle a few feet farther away from Cara and resumed their play.
So quiet. Cara’s twins were rarely quiet and rarely still. She couldn’t ever remember them sitting in one place for more than a few minutes at a time, let alone quietly working on a puzzle. Becca and Brianne didn’t even talk much to each other. Instead, they worked
