she drew back and pulled her emotions into order. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to drown you two.” She wiped tears off Spence’s shirt and Taylor’s forehead, then blotted Taylor’s face with a washcloth. “You did just great,” she assured the young woman.
“Did I?” Taylor said shakily. She looked from Ally to Spence to Rose. “Thanks for being here. It was just like having a real family—” She stopped as her lips trembled.
Rose patted her arm. “We are a real family, and you’re a special part of it. Thank you for this wonderful gift.”
“You’ll want pictures before I take them to the warmers,” the baby nurse said. She handed one infant to Ally. The other she plopped in Spence’s arms. “Here, Daddy.”
Ally couldn’t help but laugh as Spence reacted in typical surprised-bachelor horror. The child could have been a bomb ready to detonate instead of his nephew.
“I’m not the father,” he hastily corrected. He carefully held the baby out in both hands. The nurse ignored his desperate expression.
“He’s the uncle,” Ally explained.
Rose grabbed a camera from her purse. “Hold Nicholas in the crook of your arm, Spence, the way Ally has Hannah.”
Ally grinned when he looked worried and gingerly held the baby as directed. Rose snapped pictures like mad.
“Now Taylor with the babies,” Ally requested. “Spence, put your hand over Taylor’s on that side.” She did the same and leaned close. “Lean down, Spence. And smile. This is a happy event.”
After they had taken every possible combination of photo for the babies’ album, the kind nurse whisked the little ones off to the warmer. Taylor yawned.
Ally was aware that Spence had played his part gallantly…after he got over the shock of being in on the birthing. She felt an enormous sense of pride about the whole event and everyone’s part in it.
However, she was a tad embarrassed about the emotional kiss she’d plastered on him when he had caressed her in that gentle way. Poor bachelor uncle. This would be a day he wouldn’t soon forget. Rose had some explaining to do to her handsome, and single, son.
Spence remained in the waiting room while the babies were bathed and put in a warmer—he imagined something like a chicken incubator with dozens of babies tucked into their little individual pockets. Ally had gone with the baby nurse to help with the twins while his mom stayed with Taylor.
In the nearby nurses’ station, he heard two student nurses discussing someone. Rachel—another nurse, he surmised—was pregnant and due to deliver soon. They speculated on possible candidates for the father and mentioned Dr. Reid.
Spence was surprised. Dennis Reid was chief of staff at the clinic and sometimes a pain in the neck for Rose in her role as administrator. The man was nearly fifty, a tad old to be getting a woman pregnant out of wedlock.
He wondered if there was a paternity case in the offing, and knew he wasn’t going to handle it if there was. His specialty was ranching cases, not personal problems. He and Johnny were contract attorneys.
He sipped the bitter coffee from the machine. Ugh. It was hard to take on an empty stomach. As if by way of a gentle reminder, his stomach growled.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said.
Ally bustled into the room. “Hi. Talking to yourself? Better watch it. That’s the second sign of senility.”
“What’s the first?” he asked, falling into her teasing mood, even as it made him remember days gone by.
“I forget,” she said, then burst into laughter.
Listening to her husky voice with its intriguing little breaks, he laughed, too. She had always had the ability to make him feel better. When she was in an exuberant mood, as she was now, she was prone to laugh and tease unmercifully.
But she had also listened to his problems and shared her feelings with him…in those long ago days when they were friends.
“Coffee?” he asked, tearing himself away from the memories with an effort.
“Not on an empty stomach. Rose and I did a study, and that stuff can eat through stainless steel in three days, gospel truth.” She held up a hand in a pledge of honor.
He tossed the cup into the trash bin. “How about dinner? I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“That would be great. Taylor and the babies are all asleep, so it would be a good time to go. I’ll get Rose.”
He nodded, but she was already gone, a whirlwind of energy, shedding radiance on all who came into her orbit.
His heart pounded suddenly. The birthing had caused some strange twists in him that afternoon. He hadn’t realized it would be so emotional and affecting.
Right now, after the excitement of all that…okay, after the kiss that had seared him right down to the soles of his feet…well, he kept thinking of other things, things he hadn’t let himself think of in years.
Ally stuck her head in the door. The hall light turned her blond hair into a golden halo around her slender, oval face. She had “big” hair. Shoulder-length, it always looked tousled. Her cheeks were always pink. As if she’d just come in from some fun exercise in the outdoors. Or climbed out of bed. His body stirred hungrily.
For a second, he considered what it would be like to share the excitement of bringing a new life into the world with a beloved mate. And the excitement of creating that new life. Heat pounded through him. There in the birthing room, as he held the two babies, an image had flashed through his mind—of him and a woman and their children….
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yes.” His voice was husky, sexy. He cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said again, more firmly this time.
Yeah, it was good that his mom would be with them.
He followed Ally along the corridor. He heard groans and pants emanating from a couple of rooms as they passed. The sounds took on a whole new meaning for him now that he knew exactly what they were. He still couldn’t believe his mother had deliberately set him up for the birthing scene. He intended to ask her about that.
“Rose? We’re ready,” Ally called softly to his mom, who was still in the room with Taylor. When Rose joined them, Ally whispered, “Let’s go by the nursery.”
Spence patiently accepted the women’s eagerness to peek at the twins once more before they left. At the nursery window, he saw the babies tucked into little plastic buckets on wheels, a bright light shining down on each one. Both kids wore a tiny stocking cap on their heads and slept peacefully in spite of the lamp.
“Ohhh,” Ally croaked, her voice breaking. “They are so beautiful.”
A hand closed around his arm. Ally leaned against him and looked up, her eyes glowing like a laser beamed through sapphires.
“Aren’t they just darling?” she crooned.
Spence squinted and tried to see what made them
