The woman swallowed. “I think we’ll marry at the Brewer Hotel. Thanks!” she said and practically ran out.
Shelby laughed. “One baby is a lot of work. She’s not wrong.”
“But the more the merrier,” Norah said, lifting her iced coffee for a toast.
“Got that right,” Shelby said and tapped her cup. “Of course, you know what this means.”
“What what means?”
“You and Reed got married at the chapel. You’re going to have more multiples. Omigod, Norah, you’re going to have, like, ten children.”
She imagined three babies that looked like Reed Barelli. The thought made her smile.
“Jeez, you are far gone,” Shelby said.
“Heaven help me. But I am.”
She was falling in love with her business partner of a husband. She had to put the brakes on her feelings. But how did you do that when the floodgates just opened again?
Chapter Nine
That night, Norah arrived at the Wedlock Creek Community Services Center with her stack of handouts, her laptop, for her slideshow on her favorite baby products, and a case of the jitters. As she stood at the front of the room, greeting students as they entered, she took a fortifying gulp of the coffee she’d brought in a thermos. As she’d left the ranch, she was surprised by how much she wished Reed had been there to see her off and give her a “you’ve got this” fist bump or something. She was beginning to need him a little too much for comfort. But he was working late, following up on a promising lead about David Dirk, who was still missing.
A woman’s belly entered the room before she did. “If my water breaks while I’m sitting down, here’s my husband’s cell number,” she said to Norah with a smile. “I’m not due for another month, but you never know.”
You never know. No truer words ever spoken.
Norah smiled and took the card with the woman’s husband’s information. “I’m glad you’re here. And if your water does break, I’ve got my cell phone at the ready and a list of emergency medical numbers.”
“Pray I don’t give birth until after the last class!” the woman said on a laugh. “I need to learn everything!” she added and slowly made her way over to the padded, backed benches that had been brought in specifically for women in her condition.
There were several pregnant women with their husbands, mothers, mothers-in-law and various other relatives all wanting to learn the basics of caring for newborn multiples. Several women had infant multiples already. Norah glanced around the room, seeing excitement and nerves on the faces. That was exactly how she’d felt when she’d shown up for the first class.
She was about to welcome her students when the door opened and Reed walked in. “Sorry I’m a minute late,” he said, handing her a printout of his online registration form. He took an empty seat next to one of the husbands, giving the man a friendly nod.
Reed was taking her class?
Of course he was.
Norah smiled at him and the smile he gave her back almost undid her. Don’t think about what happened in the hallway last night, she ordered herself. Stop thinking about his hands on your bare skin. You’re standing in front of a room full of people!
She sucked in a breath, turned her attention away from Reed and welcomed her students. “Eight months ago, I was all of you,” she said. “I was nine months’ pregnant with BGG triplets—that’s boy, girl, girl—and I was a nervous wreck. Not only was I about to give birth to three helpless infants who would depend on me for everything, but I was a single mother. I will tell you right now that the most important thing I have learned about being the mother of triplets, particularly in my position, is to ask for help.”
Norah looked around the room. All eyes were on her, interested, hanging on her every word, and some were actually taking notes.
So far, so good, she thought. “Ladies, don’t expect your husbands to read your minds—if you want him to change Ethan while you change Emelia, ask him! No passive-aggressive stewing at the changing table while he’s watching a baseball game. Speak up. Ask for what you need!”
“She’s talking to you, Abby,” the man next to Reed said and got a playful sock in the arm from his wife.
The students laughed. This was actually going well! She was standing there giving advice. People were responding! “And men, while you have infant twins or triplets or quadruplets, you’re not going to be watching the game unless you have a baby or two propped in your arms, one hand on a bottle, the other burping another’s little back.”
A guy got up and headed for the door. “Just kidding,” he said with a grin. More laughter.
Norah smiled. “And you grandmothers-to-be...what I learned from my mother? You’re the rock. You’re going to be everything to the mother and father of newborn multiples. Not only do you have experience, even if it’s not with multiples yourselves, but you’ve been there, done that in the parenting department. You love those little multiples and you’re there to help. Sometimes your brand-new mother of a daughter or daughter-in-law may screech at you that she’s doing it her way. Let her. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. But what matters is that you’re supporting one another. You’re there.”
She thought of her mother and her aunt Cheyenne and her sister. Her rocks. She couldn’t have done it without them—their love and support and good cheer.
“So that’s my number one most valuable piece of information I can offer you. Ask for help when you need it. When you think you’ll need it. Because you will need it. If some of you don’t have a built-in support system, perhaps you can create one when you go home tonight. Friends. Caring neighbors. Folks from your house of worship. Think about the people you can turn to.”
From there, Norah started up her slideshow of products she’d found indispensable. She talked about cribs and bassinets. Feeding schedules and sleep schedules. How laundry would take over entire evenings.
“You did all that on your own?” a woman asked.
“I lived on my own, but I have a fabulous mother, fabulous aunt and fabulous sister who were constantly over, taking shifts to helping me out, particularly that first crazy month. So when I tell you help is everything, I mean it. Just don’t forget that thank-yous, hugs and homemade pies go a long way in showing appreciation for their support.”
Fifty-five minutes later the class was winding down. Norah let them know that in two weeks she’d be bringing in her triplets for show-and-tell with her mom as a volunteer assistant, demonstrating how to perform necessary tasks with three babies. After a question-and-answer session, Norah dismissed the students.
Huh. She’d really done it. She’d taught a class! And she was pretty darn good at it.
One of the last to pack her notebook and get up was a woman who’d come to the class alone. Early thirties with strawberry blond hair, she looked tired and defeated and hadn’t spoken much during the period. She walked up to Norah with tears in her eyes.
Oh no. This woman had the look of multiple-itis.
“I have twin six-week-olds,” the woman said. “My mother is with them now, thank God. They’re colicky and I’m going to lose my mind. My husband and I argue all the time. And I only have twins—the bare minimum to even have multiples—and I’m a falling-apart wreck!”
Norah put her hand on the woman’s arm. “I totally hear you.” She offered the woman a commiserating smile. “What’s your name?”
“Sara Dirk.”
Norah noticed Reed’s eyebrows shoot up at the name Dirk.
“Welcome, Sara. I’m really glad you’re here. I haven’t personally dealt with colic, but I’ve known colicky babies, and let me tell you, you might as well have sextuplets.”
Sara finally smiled. “They don’t stop crying. Except to breathe. I don’t know how my mother does it—the screeching doesn’t even seem to bother her. She just walks up and down with one baby whil
e she watches the other in the vibrating baby swing, then switches them. I hear those cries that go on forever and I just want to run away.”
Reed walked over and sat in the chair at the side of the desk, collecting Norah’s handouts. She knew he was intently listening.
“That’s wonderful that your mom is so supportive, Sara. I tell you what. Stop by the Pie Diner tomorrow and let anyone there know that Norah said they’re to give you two of your and your mom’s favorite kinds of pies on the house.”
“I love the Pie Diner’s chocolate peanut butter pie. It always cheers me up for a good ten minutes.”
Norah smiled. “Me, too. And I’ll research some tips for dealing with colic,” she said. “I’m sure you have already, but I’ll talk to the mothers I know who’ve dealt with it and survived. I’ll email you the links.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”
Reed stood with Norah’s folders and laptop. He extended his hand to Sara. “Did I hear you say your last name is Dirk?”
Sara nodded.
“Are you related to David Dirk?” he asked.
Sara nodded. “My husband’s first cousin.”
“I’m Reed Barelli, a detective with the Wedlock Creek Police Department. I also knew David when I was a kid. I’m trying to find him.”
“I sure hope he’s okay,” Sara said. “We just can’t figure out what could have happened. The night before he went missing, he stopped by for a few minutes to drop off a drill he’d borrowed from my husband and he seemed so happy.”
“Any particular reason why—besides the upcoming wedding, I mean?” Reed asked.
“He said something had been bothering him but that he’d figured out a solution. And then the twins started screaming their heads off, as usual, and there went the conversation. He left and that was the last time I saw him.”
“Do you know what was bothering him?” Reed asked.
“No idea. I know he’s madly in love with Eden. Things are going well at work, as far as I know.”
“When did you see him before that last time?” Reed asked.
“Hmm, maybe a couple nights before. We—my husband and I—needed a sitter for an hour and my mother couldn’t do it, so we begged David. He and Eden watched the twins. Do you believe that after babysitting our little screechers, that woman is hoping for triplets or even quadruplets? Craziest thing. She loves the idea.”
“More power to her,” Norah said.
“Well, I’d better get back and give my mother a break. See you next week, Norah. Oh, and, Detective Barelli, I do hope you find David. Eden must be out of her mind with worry.”
Norah watched Reed wait until Sara had left, then hurried to the door and closed it.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
“I have so many thoughts running through my head that it could be any number of them.”
“About David Dirk. And why he suddenly went missing.”
Norah tilted her head and stared at Reed. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s recount the facts and evidence. David Dirk has a cousin with colicky twins. David Dirk and his fiancée babysit said colicky twins. Despite the screeching in their ears for over an hour, Eden is hoping for multiples.”
Norah wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “Okay,” she said. “What does that have to do with his disappearance?”
“Well,” he continued, “she and David are to be married at the Wedlock Creek chapel, where legend says those who marry will be blessed with multiples. The night before he went missing, David told Sara something was bothering him but he’d figured out a solution. Cut to David’s fiancée telling me that on the morning he disappeared, he’d asked her to elope. But she reminded him how badly she wanted to marry at the chapel.”
Ah. Now she was getting it. “Oh boy.”
“Exactly. Because why would David want to elope instead of marrying at the Wedlock Creek chapel?
“The only reason folks in this town don’t get married there is because they don’t want multiples.” But was David really so freaked out by his cousin’s colicky babies and his fiancée wanting sextuplets that he ran away? No way. Who would do that? She herself had dated him, and he’d seemed like a stand-up guy, even if they’d had zero to talk about other than the weather and which restaurants they liked in town.
She remembered the woman who’d approached her and Shelby in the coffee shop yesterday. She’d wanted to avoid that legend like the ole plague. So maybe it was true. David had run!
“I’m thinking so,” Reed said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Yesterday I spoke with a friend of his who seemed nervous, like he was hiding something. Maybe he knew the truth—that David took off on his own—and had been sworn to secrecy.”
“What a baby David is,” Norah said.
“Pun intended?”
Norah laughed. “Nope. He’s just really a baby. Why not tell Eden how he felt? He has family and friends scared that something terrible happened to him. He had a friend lie to a police officer.”
“Based on everything I’ve heard, I’m ninety-nine percent sure he took off on his own. I just have to find him. Maybe the friend can shed some light. I doubt he’ll tell me anything, though.”
“So how will you find David, then?”
“The right questions,” Reed said. “And maybe my own memories of where David would go when his world felt like it was crashing down. I might know where he is without even realizing it. I need to do some thinking.”
She nodded. “So let’s go home, then.”
“Home to the ranch. I like the sound of that.”
Norah smiled and took his hand before she realized they weren’t a couple. Why did being a couple feel so natural, then?
* * *
“Tell me more about the legend of the Wedlock Creek chapel,” Reed said to Norah as they sat in the living room with two craft beers and two slices of the Pie Diner’s special fruit pie of the day—Berry Bonanza.
“Well, as far as I know, back in the late 1800s, a woman named Elizabeth Eckard, known for being a bit peculiar, married her true love at the chapel.”
“Peculiar how?”
“Some say she was a witch and could cast spells,” Norah explained. “It was just rumor, but most shunned her just in case they got on her bad side.”
Reed raised an eyebrow. “Apparently her true love wasn’t worried.”
Norah smiled. “Legend says he was so in love with Elizabeth, he married her against his parents’ wishes, who refused to have anything to do with them.”
“Jeez. Harsh.”
“Yup. But he loved her and so he married her at the beautiful chapel that she had commissioned to be built. Elizabeth had inherited a bit of money and wanted the new town of Wedlock Creek to have a stately chapel for services of all kinds.”
Reed took a bite of the pie. “That must have buttered up the townspeople. Did his family come around?”
“Nope. And the townspeople still shunned her. Some even avoided services at the chapel. But some started noticing that those who attended church seemed luckier than those who didn’t. And so everyone started going.”
Reed shook his head. “Of course.”
“Well, the luck didn’t extend to Elizabeth. All she wanted was children—six. Three boys and three girls. But she never did get pregnant. After five years of trying, her husband told her there was no point being married to her if she couldn’t give him a family, and he left her.”
“That’s a terrible story,” Reed said, sipping his beer.
Norah nodded. “But Elizabeth loved children and ended up turning her small house into a home for orphans. She had the children she’d always wanted so much, after all. But when her only sister found herself in the same position, not getting pregnant, her sister’s husband went to the
officiants of the chapel and demanded an annulment. That night, Elizabeth crept out to the chapel at midnight and cast a spell that those who married at the chapel would not only be blessed with children, but multiples.”
“Come on,” Reed said.
Norah shrugged. “Nine months later, Elizabeth’s sister had twin girls. And all the couples who married at the church that year also had multiples. Whispers began that Elizabeth had blessed the church with a baby spell.”
“Did she ever marry again? Have her own multiples?”
Norah shook her head. “No, but she took in orphans till her dying day, then hired people to keep the home going. It was going strong until the 1960s, when foster care became more prominent.”
“It’s crazy that I actually think that David Dirk, reasonable, intelligent, suspicious of everything, believes in this legend to the point that he fled town to avoid marrying at the chapel. It’s just an old legend. There’s no blessing or spell.”
“Then what accounts for all the multiples?” Norah asked.
“A little help from science?” he asked.
“Maybe sometimes,” she said. “But I know at least ten women who married at the chapel and had multiples without the help of a fertility doctor.”
“Don’t forget me,” he said.
“You?”
“I married at the chapel and now I have triplets.”
She smiled, but the beautiful smile faded. “Are you their father, Reed? I mean, we didn’t actually ever talk about that. You said you felt responsible for them and me. You said you would help raise them and help support them and be there for them. But are you saying you want to be their father?”
He flinched and realized she caught it. “I—” He grabbed his beer and took a swig, unsure how to answer. Did he want to be the triplets’ father? He was their mother’s husband—definitely. He was doing all the things Norah said when it came to caring for Bella, Bea and Brody. He was there for them. But was he their father?
That word was loaded.
“This is a partnership,” she said, her voice formal as she sat straighter. “Of course you’re not their father.” She waved a hand in the air and made a strange snorting noise, then cut a forkful of berry pie. “It was silly of me to even use the term.” A forced smile was plastered on her face. “So where do you think David Dirk is?”
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