Make Way For Babies!

She was surprised. “I don’t. I never would—”

He laid his mouth over hers until the words were stilled. “We have something special. We shouldn’t have…It was my fault. I shouldn’t have let it go this far. I didn’t mean to—”

“What did you mean to do?”

“Talk.” He smiled briefly, almost sadly. “Share a kiss for old times’ sake. Not this…not this far, not this much. It was a…surprise.”

His explanation made no sense. “What?” she asked. “What was a surprise?”

He lifted her from him and moved to his seat. She suddenly felt chilled. When he handed her the clothing, she pulled it on hurriedly. After yanking his T-shirt over his head, he turned back to her, lifting her face to his with a finger under her chin. His expression was gentle, kind.

“Don’t be ashamed,” he ordered, reading her reaction correctly. “This was natural. It just wasn’t what I had planned. You’re my friend. I want to keep it that way.”

Pride made her face him without flinching. “I understand. I’d better get home. I have to get up at five to pick up my papers.” Fatigue swept over her as reality shoved its way into her consciousness.

He had driven them to town, away from the moonlight and its induced madness, her heart too numb to ache. Yet…

Ally picked up her coffee cup. It was empty. She realized she’d been sitting there for an hour, reliving the past. Frowning, she jumped to her feet. The day was wasting. Where were the men who were supposed to be working on the house?

The ringing of the doorbell jarred Ally out of a sound sleep. She sat up on the sofa and wondered who was so darned impatient at her front door. She noted the afternoon was half over and still no carpenters.

She checked the peephole and opened the door. “Hello, James. What happened to you?”

The carpenter’s son stood on the porch, his arm in a cast from fingers to elbow. “Uh, Dad and I, we had a wreck this morning on our way over.”

“Oh, no! How’s your father? Is he hurt?”

James nodded, his summer-blond hair falling over his forehead in a carefree manner, belying the seriousness of his face. “He’s in the hospital, leg broke in three places. They’ll have to put pins in it.”

“I’m so sorry. Was anyone else in the truck? Your mom?”

“No, just the two of us. The guy in the dump truck wasn’t hurt at all. He just barged through a red light and mowed us down.”

She tsked in sympathy. “Come in out of the heat,” she invited, opening the door wider. “I have some tea—”

“I need to get back to the hospital and stay with my mom. They’re gonna operate on the old man as soon as the surgeon gets there. He’s out playing golf or something.” He gestured vaguely with one hand. “I don’t think we’ll get back to your job for two or three months.”

She thought that was an optimistic estimate. “Don’t worry about it. I can do the painting myself.”

He nodded, looking miserable. “I called several buddies but they’re all working on the new construction job over on the other side of town. You know, the fancy apartment complex they put in over by the lake.”

She knew where he meant. Spence had moved into a bachelor apartment there last February. The planned community was modern and had lots of activities for singles, she’d heard.

“Don’t worry about a thing here,” she assured the young carpenter. “I’ll take care of it. Or it’ll be waiting for you when you’re able to work again.”

“Thanks. Well, I’d better run.”

“Tell your dad I said hello and to take care. You, too.”

He nodded and loped off, his hair flopping against his collar until he pulled on a baseball cap, the bill backwards. She smiled, feeling much older than the injured twenty-five-year-old. Seven years. It could be the difference between one lifetime and the next.

Of course, one night could do the same.

After those wild kisses, from the time Spence had dropped her off, making sure she was safely inside her aunt’s house, and the dawn of the next day, she had aged considerably. The bubbles had evaporated from her blood and her mind. She had taken a good hard look at herself.

Her looks were not extraordinary. Her thick hair, which had some natural curl, was okay, she supposed. And when she was eighteen, it still had some gold in it. Her friends at school had been envious. Big blond hair was in.

Her eyes were a nice shade of blue, but her lashes were short and a medium sort of brown. So were her eyebrows. Her hair would probably be the same when she grew older.

But she didn’t mind working hard. And she was well-organized. She could take on a lot of tasks, even drudgery.

With her aunt’s blessings and some savings left over from her parents’ insurance, plus her paper route, baby-sitting and lawn mowing money, she’d started classes at the local college the week after graduation and had devoted the next six years of her life to earning degrees, with only a short break for a honeymoon between classes.

Going into the bedroom to change into fresh clothes before picking up the twins, she wondered when she’d had time to date Jack, not to mention get married and take over home responsibilities, too. She must have been crazy…..

No. Lonely. The haunting sadness strummed through her again. Her college days had been busy, but she lived them basically alone, running from work to class and back to work. There’d been little time for fun.

During her senior year, her aunt had decided to sell the house, the only home Ally had known since she was eleven, and move to a retirement community in a warmer climate.

When her aunt had told her, Ally had realized she would have no one nearby. She’d lived in an apartment in Durango while completing her studies, but she’d spent one Sunday each month with her only relative.

At least it had been contact with a person who had some kind of bond with her. In fact, she and her aunt had dealt very well with each other once she was grown.

Ally thought the responsibility for rearing a child had weighed on her aunt, who had never been around children much. Now they visited once or twice a year, usually with Ally going down to the senior citizens’ community at Tucson in early spring and her aunt coming to Buttonwood for Thanksgiving. It was a satisfying arrangement.

She wondered if the visits would continue now that she had two children to raise. That would probably frighten her aunt into moving to Florida or somewhere equally remote.

Grabbing her handbag, she headed for the garage, her spirits high once more as she went to claim the children she’d wanted for so long. She laughed as she backed out of the drive, the two infant seats already strapped into the back of the family-size vehicle.

One thing for sure, she wouldn’t be lonely for the next eighteen to twenty years.

Chapter Three

Ally discovered Rose wasn’t at the clinic when she stopped by the administrative office after signing the insurance forms and paying the hospital bills. The older woman had gone home with a migraine.

A tremor of unease ran over her. Her mom-in-law was supposed to help her with the twins that evening, in case she had trouble getting them settled.

She could manage. After all, babies slept most of the time. She had a fresh supply of formula in neat little plastic pouches, the twin bassinets were ready and boxes of diapers and infant gowns were stored in the closet.

“Is Taylor still here?” she asked Rose’s secretary.

“She’s checked out. She said to tell you she had a paper to turn in tomorrow, but would be in touch.”

Ally nodded and smiled as if she didn’t have a qualm in the world about taking home two babies and being responsible for them for the next eighteen years…all by herself.

She suddenly felt young and vulnerable, the way she had at eleven when she’d arrived in Buttonwood, with only her clothes and a favorite doll, to live with her aunt. Or when she went off to college, living in one room in an old Victorian house and working two jobs to make her own way.

This was a far cry from those days, she reminded herself. She was an adult and a child psychologist. She knew all about children. Sure, from a textbook standpoint, a less confident part of her replied.