also been warned that wildlife here could be unpredictable and that vervet monkeys considered open doors an open invitation. He made a mental note to check his bags and equipment for anything missing—once he found his missing kids.
An area of flowering shrubs and fruit trees that shaded benches fashioned from thick, twisted branches, extended beyond the rustic stone patio. Twelve thatched-roof bungalows, joined by stone-lined dirt paths, sat in a semicircle around the main lodge, complete with reception area, restaurant and pool. Considering the view of the golden savanna in the distance, this upscale safari lodge watered its gardens well. It seemed a wasteful luxury for a region that suffered severe drought seasons, but then again, for what he was paying for an extended stay, the lodge could afford the extra water.
Water. He knew exactly where to look for them first—the one place he’d forbidden the twins to go alone.
He headed for the main lodge, rounding a small cove where urns of flaming red hibiscus surrounded a metal sculpture of a giraffe and its baby. The scent of pool water and earsplitting squeals hit him before he cleared the garden.
“Out. Now.”
“Dad! Jump in!”
Ivy disappeared under the water and shot across the pool so quickly that all he could make out was a blur of purple. Fern popped her head out of the water and pulled one of her green swimsuit straps higher on her shoulder.
Sandy had chosen the two colors when she was planning their nursery and outfits before they were born. The purple-and-green color coding had stuck as a way of telling the identical twins apart and, even now, the girls considered them each their favorite colors because their mother had chosen them. As for Dax, it made life a lot easier when he wasn’t wearing his contacts or when he was too tired to pay attention to their subtle differences, like the fact that Fern had always weighed a pound or two less than Ivy.
“Not happening. Now, both of you, out.”
He grabbed a complimentary towel from a stack and tossed it to Fern as she hoisted herself onto the edge of the pool. Ivy hedged her bets and flipped around for one more lap before obeying.
“You’re not really mad, Dad,” Fern said, wrapping her wet arms around him. “Are you? Because I’d feel guilty, and you know how that knots up my stomach and makes it so I can’t eat.”
Guilt trip, huh? He loved them to death, but these two were going to age him twice as fast. Make that four times as fast if they’d inherited their ability to guilt him into doing what they wanted from his mother.
“I totally am, and I would never make you eat if you weren’t up to it.” Dax tossed another towel at Ivy as she dripped on over to them. “So glad you could finally join us.”
“Oh, come on, Dad. Didn’t you have ‘physical education’ written on the schedule you made up for our nanny? Since she’s not here yet, we figured we should get it done anyway, like the responsible individuals you’re raising us to be,” Ivy said.
“Yep, we’re on time and everything. In fact, isn’t math up next, Ivy?”
Fern smiled at her sister, and something unspoken passed between them. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but his parental instincts screamed conspiracy. Was math a code word or something? Man, he wished he could tap into their telepathic twin phone line. He narrowed his eyes and put a hand on each of their shoulders when they tried slipping past him.
“Math and reading were the only things you were supposed to do the past three hours. That and staying put.”
“But the power went out again,” Fern said.
That would make it twice since they’d arrived yesterday—if she was telling the truth. Being at the mercy of generators was something they’d have to get used to during their stay here.
“You don’t need power. Your math was printed out and there’s plenty of sunlight for reading.”
They started to argue and he cut them off.
“I’m not kidding, you two. I set your ground rules to keep you safe. Swimming without supervision isn’t okay—”
“But we’re good swim—”
“Don’t interrupt me, Ivy. I don’t care if you’re Olympic gold medalists. Things can happen. You could hit your head jumping and get knocked unconscious in the water. Or something even worse. And everyone here is a stranger—staff and guests. What if there was a creep hanging out here? Or a wild animal?”
There wasn’t even a lifeguard on duty, for crying out loud.
The images he’d seen of the South Asian earthquake-triggered tsunami that killed thousands—including families on vacation, lounging around pools—flicked through his mind. He’d been a sophomore in college at the time, and his friend had been on vacation in Indonesia. He’d died in the tsunami, along with his parents and sister.
The entire family. Gone. Unexpectedly.
The tragedy had hit Dax hard, eclipsing the other disasters ruining his life at the time, like his girlfriend dumping him and his parent’s divorce announcement.
He hated the unexpected.
Dax sucked in a deep breath, rubbed the base of his throat, then put his hands on his hips.
The tsunami was a memory. The past. The reason he’d decided to study quakes. To save people. To stop natural disasters from shaking and tearing lives apart like fissures in the crusty earth. It wasn’t something he talked about, especially not to the girls.
“We’re at a lodge, Dad. I think we’d need to go on a safari to see the wild animals.” Fern folded her arms and shifted her weight to one side. They’d been begging for him to take them on a safari, once they arrived in Kenya, but he didn’t have time for one yet. They weren’t here on vacation. He had work to do. People to answer to.
“Should I forward you the article I read about an elephant that kept breaking onto hotel grounds to drink from their pool? Besides, if gators and snakes can make it into toilets and pools in Florida, then I wouldn’t be surprised if something more dangerous slinked into a pool out here. And by dangerous, I mean more dangerous than the two of you.”
“Very funny.” Ivy grinned. “So, when’s Number Seven supposed to get here?”
“That’s Miss Melissa, to you. Don’t you dare call her Nanny Number Seven. She has no idea how many you’ve been through. Unless you told her.”
“Why would we do that?” Ivy pursed her lips as if to keep from smiling as she dried her hair.
There was that fleeting exchange between them again. Dax pinched the bridge of his nose, then raked his hair back.
Melissa had been with them only a week before he’d signed this contract with Erebus Oil. The contract had been an offer he couldn’t refuse. Due to his expertise and reputation as a seismologist, they were paying him more than he’d ever make in research...even more than he’d made on his last two jobs in the petroleum industry. And the living allowance Erebus offered as incentive was helping him afford Tabara Lodge. He’d told them upfront that he’d need a living situation amnenable to bringing his daughters along. That part of the deal had been nonnegotiable. His daughters and
