Читать книгу The Texas Valentine Twins - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 9

Chapter Three

Wyatt was still reeling from the news that he was a dad, when his younger sister met them at the door of Adelaide’s home, where she had been babysitting the twins. Sage caught the equally shell-shocked look on Adelaide’s face. “What happened to you?” Immediately incensed, his sister swung back to him and demanded, “Are you responsible?”

If Sage only knew, Wyatt thought ironically. Feeling joy—that he finally had the kids he had secretly wanted for a long time. And shock—that the woman he’d once thought—erroneously—was the love of his life, was the mother who had provided them.

He had no idea why fate kept propelling them together this way. When it was abundantly clear he and Adelaide could not be more wrong for each other.

Yet there was nothing of the cruel joke of nature when it came to the sweetly slumbering children, he thought, gazing down at Jenny and Jake in reverence and awe.

They were perfect.

And they were his.

As well as Adelaide’s...

Oblivious to the ambivalent nature of his thoughts, Adelaide turned back to Sage and made a shushing motion with her hand. “It’s complicated,” she told his sister.

Sage looked them both up and down. Sighed, as a twinkle came into her eyes. “Isn’t it always with the two of you?”

Reluctantly, Wyatt turned away from the twins, who were still sleeping angelically in their Pack ’N Plays. Eager for some time alone with them, he grabbed his sister’s coat and bag and ushered her toward the door. “Thanks for babysitting.”

Sage dug in her heels. “I can stay awhile longer if you need me.”

Adelaide’s expression broadcast the need for privacy. “Wyatt and I have some things we need to discuss.”

Which probably, Wyatt admitted grudgingly, should be done before the twins woke up.

“Uh-huh.” Sage shrugged on her coat and patted Wyatt’s arm. “Be good to Adelaide, big brother.”

As if he had ever wanted to be anything but, Wyatt thought grumpily. Even if things hadn’t worked out.

Sage shut the door behind her.

Adelaide’s small house felt even tinier.

Looking as tense and upset as he felt, she went to the kitchen, stood on tiptoe and pulled out a bottle of Kahlua. Wyatt knew how she felt. He could use a good stiff drink himself. Even if it was barely ten in the morning.

Hands trembling, she made two drinks. Wordlessly, they each took a stool at her kitchen island. “What are we going to do?” she asked in a low, jittery voice, lifting the glass to her lips.

He sipped the concoction of milk, ice and coffee-flavored rum. “The only thing we can. Raise them together.”

She looked down her nose at him. “I’m not staying married for all the wrong reasons.”

He grimaced as the too-sweet mixed drink stayed on his tongue. “I’m not asking you to stay married,” he retorted in exasperation. “I still think we should get a divorce.”

“Good.” Relief softened her slender frame. “I’m glad we agree on that, because the last thing I want Jenny and Jake to suffer through is a marriage like my parents had,” she vowed, her cheeks turning an enticing pink. “With both of them fighting all the time.”

He gazed into her eyes. “I promise you. For the sake of the kids, we won’t fight.” And especially not the way Paul and Penny Smythe had, before Penny had died in that Jet Ski accident when Adelaide was fourteen. He could still remember how unmaternal Adelaide’s mother had been, her dad only a little more interested in their only child. Had it not been for the teachers, camp counselors and horse-riding instructors who had taken an interest in the shy but eager to please little girl, he wasn’t sure what would have happened to Adelaide.

Her face grew pinched. “I promise you, too. We’ll keep things civil in the way we haven’t managed to in the past.”

Regret tightened his gut. It wasn’t the first time he had felt remorse over having given her such a hard time. “Then, we had no reason to buck up,” he admitted shamefully.

She nodded, accepting her own culpability in the ongoing tension between them. “Now, we certainly do.”

The unmistakable ache in her tone caught him unawares. He studied her, realizing for the first time she might wish that things had turned out different for them, too, despite her avowals to the contrary.

Silence. She lifted her eyes to his, then looked at him long and hard. “The question is, how are we going to arrange it?”

He drained his glass. “I don’t want a judge to tell us how the twins are going to divide their time.”

She pushed her unfinished drink away. “I don’t want them to divide their time at all,” she said firmly, sending him a probing look that sent heat spiraling through him. “Not when they are this young.”

It took everything he had not to touch her again. Haul her into his arms. And... “What are you suggesting?” he bit out.

She angled her chin. “That we work together to get you up to speed on all the daddy stuff and make you and the twins comfortable with each other.”

That sounded good in terms of the kids, but there were still wrinkles to work out. “I’m not moving into my mother’s bunkhouse, Adelaide.” He anticipated enough family interference as it was. From his mother, who never seemed to trust him to be able to succeed without her help. And his way too idealistic younger sister, Sage, whose own unsatisfying love life prodded her to look outward for her fix of romance.

“Well, we can’t stay here. The work on the addition to my home is due to start in two days, and the movers are coming to take the bigger items, like the twins’ cribs and changing tables and so on, tomorrow.” She rose and carried her glass to the sink.

Wyatt took his over, too. “I don’t understand why you just didn’t buy a bigger place to begin with when you moved here from Dallas last fall.” Their shoulders touched as they leaned over to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.

Adelaide shut the lid and straightened. “I thought about waiting until spring, when more properties were likely to be on the market, and renting something else in the meantime, but I also knew that the modest price and the location of the cottage—just blocks from downtown where I work—couldn’t be beat. So I put an offer on it that was immediately accepted.”

Okay, that made sense, even if his urge to kiss her again did not. “Why didn’t you do the addition before the twins were born?”

She raked her teeth across her lower lip. “Because Molly and Chance were both busy with other jobs, and I wanted one or both of them to handle it for me.”

That he could also understand. His contractor brother and his fiancée had the best building teams around.

Adelaide moved away, giving him a brief, enticing view of her curvy backside in the process.

She swung back to face him, picking a piece of lint from the knee of her trim black wool skirt. “I also didn’t think the twins would need separate bedrooms for a couple of years. But, given the way they keep waking each other up, I figured it would be better if they each had their own space now. A dedicated space for me to work in, when I do work at home, would be nice, too. And since I was able to get a low-interest construction loan from the bank and Molly and Chance were able to fit my project into their schedule... I went for it.”

“Makes sense.” Even if it would cause a lot of temporary upheaval.

Adelaide removed the coated elastic band from her wrist, gathered her wavy dark hair into a knot on the back of her head and secured it there. “Unfortunately, the babies can’t be around construction dust and fumes. It’s not safe.”

The good thing about Adelaide was that she could be easily persuaded to do what made sense logically. The bad thing was that she often came to regret her ready acquiescence if the situation did not continue to align with her wants and needs. Still, she was also known for making the best of whatever situation she found herself in. A propensity he knew would be helpful to both of them in the coming months. Briefly he covered her hand with his own. “You and the babies can stay at Wind River with me. I’ve got plenty of room at the ranch.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked even more stressed than she had in Jackson McCabe’s office. “That will cause a lot of talk.”

Why did people always think gossip was the worst thing in the world? When what really sucked was hiding the truth out of fear of scandal. He shrugged. “There’s going to be a lot of talk anyway.”

Adelaide looked like she wanted to thrust herself against him and hold on to him for comfort. But of course she didn’t.

She ran her finger along the edge of the granite countertop. “How are we going to handle that?” she asked anxiously.

Wyatt worked on keeping his emotions in check, too. This situation was hard enough without adding messy feelings to the mix. He looked Adelaide in the eye. “For starters? By getting my family together.”

* * *

ADELAIDE COULDN’T RECALL ever being this nervous. “Are you sure you want to do this right now?” she asked, as she bundled up the twins and strapped them into their car seats.

Wyatt grinned, as confident as she was on edge. “Sage already knows something’s up. Garrett works at the hospital, so he may have heard we were there with the twins earlier in the week. Then there’s the court-ordered bloodwork, the fact that both our attorneys were at your house with us. Singularly, none of those details may have caused much gossip, but all together...”

Trying not to notice how he towered over her when they stood side by side, she shut the rear passenger door.

“Besides—” he rested his big hands on her shoulders “—the fact I have two children, that the twins have a daddy to love and watch over them, is fantastic news.”

“You’re right.” She stepped back, aware having his kids was, in many ways, her deepest held romantic fantasy come true.

She’d never imagined it would actually be possible, though. Or dreamed he would ever be able to forgive her for changing her mind about marrying him. Because it had been more than his pride that had been destroyed that day. Her actions had eradicated his trust in her. And in them. She still wasn’t sure his faith in her would ever be resurrected, at least not entirely.

And without that, even becoming friends again would be a challenge.

But, given the situation, there was nothing to do but try to forge some peace.

Go on from there.

* * *

THEY TOOK BOTH vehicles out to his mother’s ranch, the Circle H. By the time they arrived, the Lockhart family was already there, save Wyatt’s brother Zane, who was on assignment with Special Forces.

The rest were gathered in the main room of the bunkhouse. Garrett and Hope, and her eleven-month-old son, Max. The newly engaged Molly and Chance, and her three-year-old son, Braden. Wyatt’s sister, Sage, and his mother, Lucille.

Adelaide settled the twins, who were still fast asleep in their carriers, at one end of the long plank table, while Wyatt asked them all to have a seat toward the other end.

“So what’s up?” Sage asked.

Adelaide’s pulse raced as Wyatt moved to stand beside her. She hadn’t expected to ever want to rely on him again, but right now, she did.

Especially with his family looking at them so curiously.

“Adelaide and I eloped in Vegas on Valentine’s Day, when we were eighteen,” Wyatt announced, as if it were no big deal.

Brows rose all around.

“We thought we annulled it before we left the state, but apparently we were mistaken.”

Garrett cocked his head, clearly as shocked and disbelieving as everyone else. “So you’re still married,” he concluded.

Adelaide lifted her hand. “Yes, but we’re getting a divorce,” she clarified quickly.

Wyatt frowned. “Eventually,” he said.

Lucille pressed a hand to her heart, her joy surfacing as the reality sunk in. “You’re going to give the marriage a try?” The matriarch of the Lockhart clan looked delighted. There was nothing she wanted more, Adelaide knew, than to have all five of her children married and living happily-ever-after.

“No,” Adelaide corrected hastily, glad to see that at least Lucille did not look disappointed in them. At least not yet. “But we have to learn how to live together because...” She cleared her throat. Oh heck, she really did not know how to put this.

The man of the hour did.

Casually, Wyatt related, “We hooked up a while ago, at a wedding, when Adelaide thought she was already pregnant via artificial insemination, and long story short—” he couldn’t quite suppress a triumphant grin “—we just found out the twins are mine. Ours.”

A second really shocked silence reverberated around the table.

Glad to see this, too, was happy news, Adelaide added, with an outer confidence she couldn’t begin to feel, “Naturally, we want to do what is best for everyone. So Wyatt and I have decided to join forces and move in together at his ranch, until such a time as we can figure out a way to be a family without being married or living under one roof.”

Chance and Garrett exchanged looks. “How long do you expect this to take?” Chance asked.

Adelaide had no clue. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was in no rush to let the twins out of her sight for more than a few hours every day. Given how quickly he was stepping up to the plate, she assumed Wyatt would soon feel the same.

“A year. Maybe more,” Wyatt said.

“However long it takes us to consciously uncouple,” Adelaide agreed.

Sage tilted her head, looking every bit as happy as her mother, Molly and Hope. “Well, if it works for the Hollywood stars, why shouldn’t it work for the two of you?”

Chance and Garrett both guffawed.

“This is serious.” Lucille frowned. “Under the circumstances, I think you should both forget about ever getting divorced. And have a proper wedding, here on the ranch, as soon as possible, with all your friends and family present.”

The pressure of that kind of public hoopla made Adelaide reel. “Not going to happen, Mom,” Wyatt said. A little too quickly for Adelaide’s taste.

Was the thought of doing what was best for the twins in the conventional sense really so distasteful to him? Did he hate her that much?

On the other hand, she knew he was certainly being practical in wanting to go into the arrangement with their eyes wide open.

“We should at least have a party to officially welcome Adelaide and the twins into the family,” Lucille insisted.

“Once the dust settles on the news, that is probably a good idea,” Hope concurred, her considerable expertise as a crisis manager and public relations expert coming into play.

“How do we get the word out?” Sage asked.

Hope smiled. “The usual way—via announcement.”

The women promptly went to work. Fifteen minutes later, they had a rough draft of the whimsical announcement. There was a border of hearts, with a stork across the top, carrying two babies, one in pink, one in blue. Followed by the words:

And just when you think you’ve heard it all...

Nearly ten years ago, on Valentine’s Day, at the tender age of eighteen, Adelaide Smythe and Wyatt Lockhart eloped.

They soon got cold feet. And had it annulled. Until fate intervened, and they met up again on another starry romantic night.

Twin babies and a surprisingly still legal marriage were the result!

Please join us on the Circle H Ranch, on Saturday March 1, at 4:00 p.m., to welcome Adelaide and the twins, Jake and Jenny, into the Lockhart family, and celebrate the unconventional events that brought them all together. And brought all of us such happiness and love.

“It can be a combination belated wedding reception slash baby shower,” Lucille decreed.

Wyatt and Adelaide exchanged worried looks. Adelaide was willing to go along to get along, to a point. Not add more deception to the mix. “I think we might want to add something about our plans to eventually amicably divorce,” she said. “Otherwise, we will just face even more scandal down the road.”

“Nonsense,” Lucille huffed. “If you two want to consciously uncouple, that is your business and can be done privately until such time as you are actually ready to divorce. Right now, the emphasis has to be on the twins. They deserve the kind of fairy-tale entry all children merit as they enter this world. When they look back on these events, as they certainly will someday, I want them to see an unconventional beginning brimming with love and joy.”

As much as Adelaide wanted to, she could not argue that.