The Cowboy's Twins

“With water,” she teased. “Don’t worry, we’ll get there. I’m sure somebody can show you how it’s done. Your mom has probably given babies a bath or two in her time.”

“No doubt,” he said, the corner of his mouth stretching up. “And I imagine my brothers and I were more trouble than these little girls are going to be.”

Faith chuckled, imagining three rough-and-tumble boys in the bathtub. Jax’s mother must have had a stern hand to have kept them in line.

“Maybe one of them has a birthmark,” he suggested, bringing Faith’s mind back to the present.

“How about dimples?” She’d known identical twins in high school, and that was how she’d been able to tell them apart, especially at first.

“Great idea. My baby has them. Both cheeks and a big one on her little chin.”

“There you go, then.” She nodded toward the baby in her arms. “This little sweetheart doesn’t.”

“One problem solved.” Jax groaned. “But being able to tell them apart isn’t going to help me if I don’t know their names. I can’t believe Susie did this to them.”

Faith’s heart swelled into her throat, and she could barely breathe around it. He wasn’t thinking of the inconvenience to himself as much as the well-being of his babies. As for Faith, she couldn’t believe Jax’s ex-wife could do that to him. Maybe it was a good thing this Susie character had decided to leave the sweet little babies with Jax. At least he was mature and responsible. He’d take care of them. A woman who’d just leave her helpless babies on a doorstep in the Texas heat didn’t even deserve to be called a mother.

“Thing One and Thing Two?” She spoke blithely, hoping somehow to lighten his very heavy load.

The other corner of his lips rose like the first, but his expression still looked strained, especially around his scar. “That would be one solution.”

“I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t be making so light of it,” Faith continued. “It’s pretty heavy stuff. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around Susie’s actions. I can’t believe a mother would up and abandon the babies the way she did. You have so little to go on, and it’s not just baby supplies that you’re lacking. You don’t have a clue about what names might be on their birth certificates.”

Jax scowled. “I don’t even know if I’m listed on the birth certificates.”

Probably not.

Given the circumstances, Faith doubted the woman would have officially acknowledged Jax’s paternity until it suited her purposes, but she didn’t tell him so. “You’ll have to investigate that. I’m sure there are legal ways you can establish your paternity, whether your name is listed on the birth certificate or not. But in the meantime, I suggest you come up with nicknames for your daughters. You have to call them something.”

The crease between his eyes deepened. “Like what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You could use family names. Maybe your grandmothers’?”

His jaw worked as he thought it over. “I like the idea of naming them after Granny Jane and Grandma Victoria, and if I’d had any say in it—on what went on their birth certificates—I might have suggested just those names. But if I name them Jane and Victoria, don’t you think that might confuse them later when they realize the names on their birth certificates don’t match what I’ve always called them?”

That was true enough. She nodded.

“I can probably explain a nickname as just a pet name I came up with, though that’s not a conversation I ever want to have to have. I can’t believe this. It’s imperative that I speak to Susie again, and the sooner, the better. I’m sure that’s why she’s not picking up her phone. She’s going to avoid me for as long as possible.”

He growled in frustration. The baby he was holding squeaked and flapped her arms in distress, and Jax softened his tone. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Daddy’s here.”

Faith’s heart welled again. Everything Jax did with the babies seemed to have that effect on her.

He cringed and sent her a pleading glance. “Help me out here, Faith. I want to think of something soft and feminine but I’m at a complete loss. Sweetheart and Little Darlin’ just aren’t going to cut it, and I’m just not good at stuff like this.”

This was new territory for Faith as well, but she didn’t say so.

“Flowers?” Faith suggested tentatively. “Or colors?”

“How do you mean?”

“Marigold and you could call her Mary?”

His brow creased. Given the angle of his scar, she couldn’t tell if he was amused or cringing.

“Daffodil and we could call her Daffy?”

A chuckle rumbled through his chest.

It was amusement, then. He was a hard man to read. She’d have to remember what his smile looked like.

She admired someone who could laugh in the face of adversity, and Jax was taking this remarkably well. She suspected most people would have fallen completely apart.

Her, for example. She would have lost it and would have been useless to anyone. She knew she would have. Unlike Jax, who was working through the stress and holding himself together, Faith was more inclined toward outright panic.

Even though she hadn’t known him for more than a handful of hours, she already perceived that the infants were blessed to have a father like Jax. It was clear he’d take good care of them. They were so sweet and delicate, and oh so vulnerable, but they had someone to protect them.