Unexpected Babies

Not a very good husband. He’d blamed their uneasiness on the stress of raising a teenager who was about to leave home. He’d assumed they’d find their way back to each other after Dan left.

Not that he’d resented Cate’s devotion to their son. They’d both wanted to be better parents than their own. But he’d lost sight of Cate, the woman, in his reliance on her. Over the years, he’d become the provider. She’d been the mom. Had their roles divided them, or had Cate stopped loving him?

“What’s on your mind, Alan? Something else is going on.” Caroline’s conviction reminded him of Cate after she’d seen through all his half truths. “You’ve never stormed in here before to point out my responsibilities to Cate.”

“Help her. Make her remember.”

“Make her?” Caroline blanched. “You’re thinking she chose to forget? I wonder, too. Who made her so unhappy? You? Me? I’ve let her take care of me as if she really were older.”

“She is. She takes those thirteen minutes seriously.”

“And twenty-seven seconds.” Caroline poured coffee in her cup and lifted it to her mouth for a wary sip. “Don’t forget those twenty-seven seconds.”

“She never meant to make you think you couldn’t take care of yourself.”

“Sometimes I couldn’t. I needed her, but I couldn’t admit it. I always wanted to prove I knew how to handle my own life.”

Her guilt sounded too familiar. He’d needed Cate to believe he was her knight in shining armor, but he’d tried so hard to be a professional success—and then failed so spectacularly—he’d broken her ability to trust him at all.

Damn it, he’d learn how to win back her faith, but she still needed the rest of her family. “Why don’t you take care of her this time?”

She widened her eyes, as if she hadn’t thought of the possibilities. That happened when guilt overwhelmed you. “What’s to stop me?” She toasted him with her coffee cup. “I will go. Tonight. Evening visitor’s hours.”

He set his own cup on the counter. “I have to go into the office for a few hours. Can you fax me your budget for the medical center interiors?”

“Sure. Why are you working on Sunday, Alan?”

He had no choice. He still had to save the company. Caroline and too many others depended on him for their jobs. “I’ve spent so much time at the hospital I have to catch up on paperwork. How close are you to the figures we discussed when we started the project? Not over budget anywhere?”

She plucked a pair of glasses from the shelf beside the sink and slid them onto her nose. Cate didn’t need glasses. “I’ll get the file now if you want. We’re close on window treatments, and I hooked us up with the rugs.”

“Hooked us up?”

She flashed a grin. “Don’t you ever talk to Dan? I worked us a deal.”

Like her, he felt more at ease talking about work, a topic he and Cate rarely discussed. Lately, he’d tended to share tense silence with his wife. Silence couldn’t bide easily between two people hiding life-altering secrets.

“I’M DR. DAVIS. I hear you don’t remember me.”

Cate looked up from her book, relieved to quit pretending she could concentrate enough to read. A tall woman stood in the doorway, finely dressed in a beige suit that complemented her dark-mocha skin. Her looks were lovely, but the supreme confidence in her eyes brought Cate the deepest sense of assurance she remembered feeling.

“I’m happy to meet you.” Cate took a get well card from the table and slid it into her book to mark her place. “Come in.”

The other woman set a file on the nightstand. “Did you tell Alan about the baby?”

“Yesterday.” She left out the part where he’d gone and not come back.

“He didn’t take it well?” Dr. Davis reached for the call button on the cord at Cate’s shoulder. “You can’t blame him for that?”

“Maybe. Who are you calling?”

“A nurse. I’d like to examine you now that you haven’t spotted for several days. Your body has endured a great deal of trauma, and I’d like to make sure the baby’s perfectly healthy.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Relax if you can.”

Cate tried to disguise her distress. “I’m not sure I could even if I remembered how a pelvic feels.”

Dr. Davis laughed. “Good point.”

The nurse came, and the doctor began her exam. She seemed dissatisfied with what she found. From her particularly vulnerable position, Cate still tried to be brave. “What?” she asked bluntly.

“Nothing to worry about.” Dr. Davis peered over her shoulder at the nurse. “Open Cate’s file and remind me of her dates.”

The date of Cate’s last cycle seemed to make matters worse. Cate fought her increasingly primitive need to remove herself from the doctor’s hands. “You’re scaring me, and I really need to shove you away.”

The doctor straightened, peeling off her gloves. “Don’t be afraid. Nothing’s wrong, but I need to listen.” Taking the stethoscope from around her neck, she placed it all over Cate’s belly.

“I think we need an ultrasound.”

Cate grabbed her arm, pulling her close with strength that surprised her and the doctor. “You can’t hear a heartbeat?”

Humor softened the doctor’s wide eyes. “I hear plenty of heartbeats.”

Her response made no sense at first. Finally, Cate remembered she was a twin. She dropped back. “Plenty?” she squeaked.

“Just two, but I don’t rely on my ears this early on. Why don’t we make sure before you pass out?”

“An ultrasound will tell you? Ultrasounds don’t lie, do they? I mean I’m not suddenly going to come up with triplets, am I?”

“Try to stay calm. Sudden isn’t the way triplets show up.” Dr. Davis pulled the sheet up to Cate’s waist. “Why don’t I use my influence to run the test now?”

Calm? At thirty-eight, with a nearly grown son and a husband she didn’t know? “Now would be perfect.”

Dr. Davis picked up the large, insulated cup that stood on the nightstand. She shook the cup and then smiled as water and ice sloshed together. “Start drinking this.”

LATER THAT EVENING, Cate stared at the ultrasound photo. Two babies. In another twenty-two weeks or so, she’d give birth to twins.

The two small beings on the ultrasound screen had reconnected her to the process of living. She wrapped herself in the happiness she’d felt at watching the two twisting shadows. They needed her, and she resolved to figure out who she was in time to be a good parent to all her children.

And she’d learn to be a wife to her husband. He wanted their marriage. She must have wanted it, too. Their children deserved two healthy parents.

Someone knocked softly on her door. Cate lifted the top of her table and slid the ultrasound photo inside. “Come in,” she called. She smoothed the sheet around her hips and legs and prepared to interrogate her visitor about her past.

Caroline leaned around the edge of the door. Her face still jolted Cate, but another scream seemed inappropriate.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Caroline asked.