The Twin Birthright

by Catherine Mann

  After scanning the babies, checking that their chests rose and fell evenly, he glanced at the pulse in Naomi’s neck. He grounded himself in the steady rhythm.

  “Royce?” she whispered.

  Her soft voice drew his gaze to her face. The look in her tired but beautiful eyes was...incredible. Shining brighter than the flashlight overhead.

  He’d had her, and she’d slipped away from him.

  It still grated deep in his gut how she’d pushed him away, given up on what they’d shared, what they could have had in the future. It was hard as hell to forgive how she’d just let go.

  He brushed back her hair from her forehead, the softness of her skin soaking into him. “Here we are again, stuck together.”

  “Your SUV is almost as big as that little cabin you were staying in.” She smiled at him wryly. “Somehow, we always manage the craziest scenarios. The way you chased that bear off my car when we first met.”

  Memories of that day filled him. How she’d bluffed her way into his cabin retreat to convince him to sign on his research with her family’s oil business—Alaska Oil Barons, Incorporated. He’d been resistant, but man, how she’d won him over with her lawyer skills—and her smile.

  And her bravado in the face of an unexpected grizzly climbing on the hood of her vehicle when she’d arrived at his cabin. “I suspect you could have handled that massive Pooh Bear yourself.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “It was intended as one.”

  She was a gutsy woman with an indomitable spirit he admired. Pulling his gaze away from her intoxicating whiskey-brown eyes, he looked out the window. The snow had turned to sleet, pinging on the rooftop in the silence between them.

  Naomi shifted and settled. “Now you’ve saved me again. And my girls. Maybe I could have handled that bear, but I couldn’t have delivered my own babies.”

  “Happy to help. And even happier everyone’s okay.” Relief still burned through his veins. So much could have gone wrong. Still could, if help didn’t arrive soon. “As much as it seems we have these somewhat similar crazy turns in our lives, a lot is different.”

  She chuckled hoarsely. “Like the fact that there’s not a chance we’ll be having sex this time.”

  He tapped his temple. “I’m intuitive that way.”

  Except he hadn’t been so intuitive at the start. He’d fallen for the deception that brought her into his life. She’d hidden her identity as a Steele, hoping to get an inside scoop on his research, and ultimately lure him into signing on with her family business. He’d seen only her, wanted her, was determined to have her. And he’d ignored all the warning signs. In fact, he could see now how they’d both used sex to avoid talking about the deeper issues that would later tear them apart.

  Resting her head on his shoulder, she sighed. “Thank you, so much. You were amazing and calm. I can’t believe everything went okay. They’re healthy and alive and I’m still here.”

  “Yes, you are.” He swallowed hard.

  “They’re beautiful.” Her voice rang with awe and love.

  “That they are.” Like their mama. “Have you settled on names yet?”

  “Mary for my mother...” She pressed a kiss to the forehead of her firstborn, still wrapped in his jacket. “And I was thinking Breanna and call her Anna—” she kissed the clenched fist of her baby wrapped in her pink parka “—in honor of my sister.”

  Both of whom had died in a plane crash.

  He knew well what a mark her sister and mother’s deaths had left on her ability to believe happiness could last. Her teenage bout with cancer had piled onto that doubt, chipping away at what remained of her capacity for trust in happy endings.

  “That’s a lovely tribute. What about middle names?”

  “Mary Jaqueline, after both of my parents, Mary and Jack. And I hope you won’t mind if I name the other Breanna Royce.” Naomi’s eyes filled with emotion and a sheen of regret. “You’ve been here for me, but I understand if—”

  “That’s perfect. Thank you. I’m honored.” Emotion, too much, threatened to steal his focus. He sealed it off and looked for tangible, logical facts. “I would guess they each weigh nearly six pounds. That’s remarkable for twins a month early.”

  She studied him for an intense moment before blinking and glancing away. “No wonder I looked as big as a house.”

  “You were—and are—beautiful.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s nice not to be arguing with a woman who just gave birth in a car.”

  “I don’t fight.”

  “True.” She crinkled her nose, shadows chasing across her face. “But you seethe, holding it in either out of some reclusive habit, or fear of spiking the blood pressure of the pregnant woman.” She touched his arm lightly, her nails short and painted a pale pink. “I mean that nicely. You’ve been kind when you had every right to hate me.”

  Her words stabbed him clean through. “I could never hate you.”

  “We’re just wrong for each other.”

  He couldn’t deny that, as much as it hurt to admit. Things had moved so fast with them. And then they were done.

  “Life’s complicated.” He studied each baby’s face, their features imprinting themselves in his mind. In his heart. “But right now, it feels blessedly simple.”

  Or at least he wanted it to be. Here in the dimly lit car, the whistle of the wind cutting through the Alaska night. A dream he’d entertained more than once in the past. Before. A whimsical thought that wasn’t like him.

  She’d insisted he was trying to replace the fiancée who’d walked out on him after miscarrying their child years ago. That he’d been trying to replace that baby, as well. He couldn’t deny those losses had hurt like hell. But the breakup with Naomi had been exponentially worse.

  Maybe she was right about his need to fill a hole in his life that had never healed after the baby he’d lost. But all he’d known after breaking up with Naomi was that no matter what had happened between them, he needed to usher the twins into the world before he could walk away.

  Light sparked behind his eyes. Becoming stronger and stronger until he couldn’t blink it away. He frowned, sitting up, looking outside.

  Car lights approached, twin beams streaking ahead, an emergency light strobing. Help had arrived. Thank God. Yet with that help came another realization.

  As much as he’d thought he could cut ties once the babies were born, he still couldn’t walk away. Not tonight.

  Two

  Naomi shivered under the blankets in the ambulance as she stretched out on the gurney. She had no reason to be cold. The heater was blasting and the emergency technicians had piled blankets on top of her.

  Supposedly it was the aftermath of childbirth making her teeth clatter together. That and relief. Her two little girls—Mary and Anna—had been checked over thoroughly and both declared healthy miracles.

  Twins, born in a car, in a snowstorm.

  Amazing.

  Both her babies were bundled up and being secured by the younger of the two techs in preparation for the ride to the hospital. A pediatrician would be waiting for them there.

  Her teeth chattered faster and she searched beyond the open back door for Royce. He stood a few feet away, under a spotlight the techs had placed outside. The halogen beam shone down on his hair, made all the darker by the dampness from a fresh sprinkle of snowflakes collecting and melting. She heard the low, confident rumble of his voice. The tones grounded her with reassurance far more than the blankets. Holding strong to keep him at a distance proved hard right now, with her emotions so close to the surface.

  “Thank you,” he said to the older of the two techs. “I appreciate your coming out on roads as messy as these.”

  “That’s what we’re here for.” The medic tugged his knit cap more firmly over his head, wind whipp
ing flurries sideways.

  “And they’re all really okay.” Royce’s broad shoulders rose and fell with a sigh so heavy she couldn’t miss it.

  “Mom’s blood pressure is a little higher than we would like, but we’re monitoring her and we’ll be on the road shortly.” He nodded. “You handled everything very well, especially considering the circumstances. The babies both have a ten Apgar score.”

  “That’s good to know. When they were born, they both had blue hands, but they came out crying, actively kicking.”

  “That’s excellent. You did a great job in a tough situation. There’s really nothing more anyone could have done in those circumstances.”

  Royce scrubbed the back of his neck, a gesture she recognized as weariness. “Other than not go for an impromptu scenic ride with a pregnant woman.”

  “You can beat yourself up later, Dad.” The older man clapped Royce on the shoulder.

  Dad? Naomi’s throat closed and she bit her lip against a tremble.

  Royce shrugged. “I’m not...their dad.”

  The pain in his voice tore at her heart. For him, for herself and for her children. She and Royce had made such plans for the future. He was a good man who would have loved her children as much as if they were his own. If only she could have escaped the feeling he was filling a void left by the loss of his own child.

  By the loss of his fiancée, a woman he’d known so much longer than his and Naomi’s few, intense months together.

  Turning, he walked toward the ambulance, stepping up on the bumper and then inside, his eyes trained on Naomi, his broad shoulders nearly filling the opening.

  The ambulance shifted again with the arrival of the other tech, angling past him. “My bad, man. I assumed you two were married.”

  Royce shook his head. “Not married. Not a couple. Not the dad. Just a...friend.”

  “Then I’m sorry, sir.” The man smiled apologetically. “You’ll have to step out of the rig. You can follow us in the tow truck.”

  Royce’s face went tight for a moment before he shot her a forced smile. “Naomi, I’ll see you and the girls at the hospital. I promise.”

  He stepped back out and the void where he’d been seemed to expand. Naomi’s stomach sank as the doors closed, sealing Royce out. He dropped out of sight.

  She thought she’d gotten used to the idea of doing this on her own, but having him with her through the birth of the babies had felt so right, the connection between them fragile, but there.

  The door to the rig slammed, and they pulled onto the road, taking with them the last hint of how things might have been.

  * * *

  Royce couldn’t will his feet to move, eyes fixed on the glass that separated him from the nurse’s station where the twins were being settled. He watched the staff cradle the girls, tugging a tiny T-shirt and cap on each newborn before swaddling them in a blanket. Try as he might, he couldn’t avert his gaze now that he’d finally made it to the hospital.

  The trek here looped in his mind as he remembered the sinking feeling in his chest, being stuck in a damn tow truck with no rights to Naomi or the babies. He’d called to postpone his guest lecture series at the university. He’d also arranged for a car to pick him up in the morning, and sent an email to his administrative assistant at the oil company to start the paperwork for a replacement SUV. A new version of the one he’d had. He didn’t like change in his life. From a make and model of a vehicle to a brand of boots.

  At least he hadn’t been stuck finding a ride tonight. The driver had taken pity on him and brought him all the way to the hospital before leaving with the demolished SUV.

  Monitors beeped, briefly calling his attention away from the smells of disinfectant and stale coffee. Even late at night, the hospital hummed with activity here in the maternity ward. The low din of a family huddled together waiting to hear the news. A couple of grandparents at the window, tapping. A cart rattled by, pulled by a nurse. A mother walked slowly down the hall, pushing a wheeled hospital bassinet.

  A rush of cold air pricked the hairs on the back of his neck as he registered the sound of doors opening. Barely enough time to digest the herd of people flooding in. Naomi’s family filled the room, rushing toward him and the glass window pane. Concern became a common, identifiable feature on everyone’s brow.

  So. Many. Brows.

  Her sister, Delaney; two of her brothers, Broderick and Aiden. Broderick’s wife, Glenna, and a slew of other Steeles and Mikkelsons, whose faces all started to become a blur after a while, there were so many of them.

  So many people here to support Naomi and the girls. That was a good thing. He should be fine with leaving. She didn’t want him here. She’d pushed him away.

  But he wasn’t anywhere near okay with turning his back on them. He needed to see her settled in with the girls after the tumultuous delivery. He could provide a buffer between her and her overprotective family. He’d already sent out messages to excuse himself from work for a few days, his research taking a back burner to this.

  Delaney—a shier version of Naomi—tugged her dark ponytail tighter, her eyes welling with tears that glistened even brighter than her diamond stud earrings. “Ohmigod, Royce, what happened to my sister?”

  “The babies?” Glenna’s gaze was direct.

  Broderick stepped up behind his wife. “In a snowstorm?”

  The Steeles and Mikkelsons were out in full, overwhelming force.

  In days past, they would have been at each other’s throats. Now they were a unified wall of huge personalities.

  Royce shifted toward them, while keeping his body angled enough toward the window that he could still see the infants out of the corner of his eye. “We had just left the doctor’s appointment. She got a clean bill of health, so we took a drive to get a bite to eat. The storm came out of nowhere right as she went into labor.” He gestured toward the side-by-side warmers, with pediatricians and nurses gathered on the other side of the partition glass. “Those are your nieces.”

  Delaney stepped closer with a soft, “Oh, my.”

  Glenna pulled her cell phone from its monogrammed leather case, smiling, her CFO, no-nonsense demeanor fading. “We need photos. Lots. Mom and Jack are already texting me like crazy for updates.”

  The Steele patriarch and Mikkelson matriarch were on a belated honeymoon.

  Broderick, the oldest of the Steele siblings—and a numbers person like his wife—gripped his Stetson. “Well, you certainly came through. I can’t thank you enough.”

  Glenna stepped nearer to her husband, her phone in her hand and her eyes still fixed on the window. “It had to be scary for you.”

  Teenager Aiden Steele didn’t even look up from the screen of his social media feed when he snorted, then said, “Like any guy’s going to admit that.”

  Royce exhaled hard, muttering, “It was scary. As hell.”

  Broderick’s stern face went taut. “Damn straight, it was.” He pinned his youngest brother with a quick stare. “Only young fools don’t know when to be afraid.” He looked back. “Being scared and pushing ahead, that’s bravery.”

  Royce cleared his throat. “I’m just glad everyone’s all right,” he repeated, for what felt like the millionth time, but knew it could never be said enough to ease the chill inside him. The room started to close in on him with all these people.

  Glenna wrapped her arms around herself, visibly trying to calm down as she rubbed her hands over the elbows of a cashmere cardigan. “Marshall—” the middle Steele son “—flew out to get Mom and Jack and bring them back here.”

  “I’m sure Naomi wouldn’t want to interrupt their honeymoon.” Royce waved a hand. Despite the difficulties between them, he knew Naomi could do without the fanfare. She wanted to prove she was capable all on her own. And the last thing he wanted was for her stress level to rise right now and have her blood pressur
e spike as a result.

  Jack and Jeannie had certainly waited long enough for a real honeymoon. They’d had to delay their wedding and their trip after Jack’s spinal injury in a horseback riding accident. Luckily, he’d made a miraculous recovery after the surgery. They’d gotten married shortly after he’d gotten the neck brace off, but their celebration trip had been further delayed.

  Broderick shook his head. “Like Dad was going to take our word for it that his little girl’s okay?”

  “Fair enough.” Royce scrubbed a hand over his bleary eyes. The magnitude of the night’s events threatened to overwhelm him until he rocked back a step. “I’m going to find the coffee machine. Text me if you hear any news.”

  He wouldn’t have been able to sit idly by, twiddling his thumbs, until he’d seen Naomi and the babies. He still needed to clamp eyes on them again.

  Then he could walk away.

  * * *

  Naomi’s shakes had waned, but reality was just as rattling now that she was tucked in her hospital bed.

  The magnitude of all that could have gone wrong kept pounding through her head. She’d faced the possibility of death as a teenager with cancer, bringing memories too close to the surface anytime she visited a hospital. But the thought of something happening to her babies?

  That scared her more than anything she’d ever experienced.

  Hospital beds, even in the maternity ward, never did Naomi’s back any favors. The hospital decor spoke of an attempt at making the place seem more like a homey living room, but fell short of the mark. Doing her best to adjust her position, she sat straighter, determined to make a rapid recovery. The interminable bed rest of her pregnancy had made her stir-crazy. She blinked against the harsh lights of the room as her doctor and the pediatrician exited into the too white hallway.

  Despite the roadside delivery, the pediatrician had given her a positive report that ought to have put her mind at ease. Instead, Naomi fidgeted, rubbing her fingers together as the redheaded nurse with freckled constellations on her cheeks adjusted the covers and set a glass of room-temperature water on the rolling bedside table.