Twins on the Doorstep

by Marie Ferrarella

Cole frowned at Garrett. “No.”

  “You’re sure about that?” Jackson asked, looking at Cole closely.

  “Absolutely,” Cole answered, but just the slightest note of hesitation had entered his voice.

  What if...?

  No, no way. It wasn’t possible.

  The only woman he’d been intimate with in the last year had been Stacy Rowe. But Stacy had suddenly taken off not too long after that, leaving without a single word to him. Leaving as if the evening they had spent together had filled her with regrets.

  Or maybe, according to the rumor he’d heard later, her Aunt Kate had insisted Stacy come with her on “the vacation of a lifetime,” then whisked her off on a prolonged tour of Europe.

  Having her leave like that, without warning, had really hurt him, although he’d said nothing to anyone, not even his family. He’d thought that he and Stacy had something unique going, but obviously she hadn’t shared his feelings.

  In time, he got over it.

  Or so he told himself.

  “Well,” Jackson was saying, turning to look at him. “What are you going to do with them?”

  Cole looked at the other man, stunned. “Me?”

  “Well, yes,” Jackson replied. “They were left on your doorstep.”

  Cole still doubted that had been the person’s actual intention. He didn’t always stay over the same days. He could just as likely have not been here. “Undoubtedly by mistake.”

  “Maybe not,” Jackson said thoughtfully.

  “What are you talking about?” Cole asked.

  “Your brother Cody came to his future wife’s rescue and wound up delivering a baby,” Jackson reminded him. “And didn’t Cassidy rescue that baby from the river not too long after that?”

  “Yes,” Cole answered cautiously, not sure where Jackson was going with this.

  “Can’t be a coincidence,” Jackson told him. “Somebody probably feels that your family’s good with babies. Want my suggestion?” Before Cole could say anything in response, Jackson told him, “Take the babies home with you until you can sort this whole thing out.”

  “Wait,” Cole said, feeling as if this whole thing was just spinning out of control. “You’re forgetting one important thing. You’ve got a ranch full of teenage boys, all of them old enough to father a child—or two,” he pointed out.

  Jackson studied the infants for a moment. “My guess is that these babies are about three or four weeks old. Maybe less.”

  “Okay,” Cole said, waiting for Jackson to make a point.

  “That means that if they were fathered by one of the boys on the ranch, it would have had to have happened about ten months or so ago,” Jackson told him.

  “Right,” Cole agreed, still waiting for Jackson’s point.

  “Well, we’ve only got three boys who have been here that long,” Jackson concluded. “The rest have been here for less time than that.” There were several who had graduated the program and returned home in that time frame, but for now, he decided not to mention that. He still felt that the infants might be Cole’s.

  “Okay!” Cole was on his feet. “Let’s go talk to those three hands.”

  The babies were making more noise. Jackson’s attention shifted to them. “Well, before we do that, I think these two little people need to be fed first.”

  Feeling suddenly, totally, out of his depth, Cole looked around.

  “Is Debi here?” Jackson’s wife, Debi, was a registered nurse who worked at the town’s only medical clinic.

  Jackson shook his head. “She went in early today. It’s her turn to open the clinic.”

  “What about Kim?” Cole asked hopefully, looking at Garrett.

  “Sorry, out of luck there,” Garrett told him. “Kim’s away on assignment. She left last week. She still keeps her hand in,” he explained proudly, “doing occasional stories for the magazine that brought her out here in the first place.”

  Obviously taking pity on Cole, Jackson volunteered, “However, Rosa’s here,” referring to the Healing Ranch’s resident housekeeper.

  Cole was immediately hopeful. “Do you think that she could...?”

  “She might, if we ask her nicely,” Jackson speculated.

  “She’s probably in the kitchen. I’ll go get her,” Garrett volunteered, taking off.

  The babies were beginning to fuss in earnest now. Cole looked at Jackson. “You don’t think that these belong to one of those boys you mentioned, do you?”

  “Highly doubtful,” Jackson said. Moving toward the basket, he picked up the louder of the two infants and began rocking it in an attempt to quiet the baby. “You’ve seen the hands. By the end of the day, they’re all too tired to chew, much less try to romance some little lady. Besides, so far this is still an all-male program we have going here. To find a girl his age, our Romeo would have to ride all the way out to town or the reservation. I’d probably know about it if that happened,” Jackson assured him.

  “Where did these babies come from?” Rosa Sanchez asked as she walked into the living room.

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Jackson told the woman.

  Maternal instincts rose to the surface. Rosa picked up the other infant from the basket and held it against her ample bosom.

  “Oh, the poor little thing,” she cooed. “He is hungry.”

  Cole stared at her, surprised. “You can tell it’s a he? How?” he asked, then pointed out, “The baby’s all bundled up. They both are.”

  Rosa merely smiled. “He is noisier. Men usually are,” Rosa told him knowingly. She looked at Jackson. “Bring the other one,” she instructed the man who was technically her boss. And then she turned toward Cole. “You bring the basket. There is no place to lay them down while I take turns feeding them, so the basket will do.”

  “Rosa, how are you going to feed them? We don’t have any baby bottles,” Garrett asked.

  “Boil a cloth,” Rosa instructed Jackson.

  He looked at her in confusion. “And just how is that going to...?”

  “When it is clean, we will dip a corner of the cloth into a cup of warm milk and the baby will suck on that.”

  “Won’t that take a long time, feeding him that way?” Cole asked.

  Rosa gave him what passed for a patient smile. “Just until one of you comes back from the general store in town with two baby bottles,” she replied. “Now go, go,” she urged them. “These babies are getting hungrier by the minute.”

  “I’ll go to the general store,” Garrett volunteered, no doubt thinking that was the safest thing for him to do.

  “I’ll make breakfast for the boys,” Jackson told his housekeeper, handing off the baby he’d been holding to Cole. “You stay here with Cole and the babies, and do what needs to be done.”

  Rosa smiled at him patiently. “Yes, Mr. Jackson.”

  * * *

  THE PROCEDURE WAS slow and tedious, but, to Cole’s surprise, feeding the infants Rosa’s way seemed to satisfy them, at least for the time being.

  “I think this one’s going to suck in the cloth,” he marveled, watching the infant in his arms going at the milk-soaked cloth he was bringing to its lips.

  “Don’t forget to keep soaking the cloth,” Rosa prompted. “You don’t want it getting dry.”

  “Right,” Cole murmured, taking the cloth he had wrapped around his index finger away from the infant’s mouth and dipping it into the milk he had standing in one of the coffee mugs.

  “Mr. McCullough?” Rosa said.

  Cole raised his eyes away from the infant he was attempting to feed. It was touch and go at the moment. “Yes?”

  “You are sure you are not the father of these babies?” she asked in a low voice. Before he could say anything, she assured him, “It is just the
two of us here right now. You can tell me.” She leaned her head in toward him and said in a low voice, “I will not tell anyone.”

  “I’m sure, Rosa,” Cole said patiently.

  And, for the most part, he was. There was just this tiny little inkling of doubt left, but he knew he was needlessly torturing himself. If there had been a baby—or babies—because of that one wondrous night, Stacy would have told him.

  Wouldn’t she?

  “Then why would someone leave them on your doorstep?” Rosa asked, dipping the edge of her cloth in the warm milk. “Why not with the sheriff or on the clinic’s doorstep?”

  “I really don’t know, Rosa.” The next moment, he exclaimed, “Wow! I sure am glad this baby doesn’t have teeth yet. He’s got really strong lips for an infant.”

  He carefully maneuvered his finger out of what appeared to be a steely rosebud mouth.

  “She,” Rosa corrected.

  He looked at the housekeeper, confused. “She?”

  Rosa nodded her head.

  He gazed at the infant. She was all bundled up in yellow. Both of the babies were. Yellow was neutral. It didn’t indicate either male or female. “How would you know that?”

  Rosa smiled. “I have a gift,” she told him calmly.

  His eyes narrowed just a little. “You unwrapped this one, didn’t you?”

  The corner of Rosa’s eyes crinkled just a little more as she laughed. “Perhaps I did, a bit,” she admitted.

  Rosa’s laugh was infectious and Cole caught himself laughing, as well. Doing so made him feel just a little better—at least, for now.

  Chapter Two

  Stacy Rowe was amazed.

  She’d been born and raised in Forever, and a little more than eight months ago she would have said that it felt as if things never changed in this tiny town. And then Aunt Kate had whisked her away on that European vacation—insisted on it, really—saying that she wanted Stacy to open her eyes and see that there was a world beyond Forever.

  And, more importantly, a world beyond Cole McCullough.

  The second his name flashed across her mind, Stacy clenched her fists at her sides as if that would somehow chase away any and all thoughts of the tall Texan.

  She wasn’t ready to think about Cole yet.

  Cole was the reason that she’d left Forever eight months ago.

  And he was the reason she almost hadn’t come back. She didn’t want to see him, not yet.

  Maybe not ever.

  Not after what had happened.

  But she really didn’t have that much choice in the matter. Aunt Kate, that unbelievably hearty, dynamo of a woman, had suddenly become ill in Venice. Never one to complain, Aunt Kate had waved away all of Stacy’s voiced concerns—right up to the time she’d taken a turn for the worse and died before a flight home could be hastily arranged.

  Aunt Kate’s death had complicated matters far beyond the immediate emotional component. Alone in a foreign country, Stacy had felt utterly stranded. Aunt Kate had always insisted on handling everything and it was easier than arguing with the woman, so she had let Aunt Kate do it.

  It had taken every fiber of her being for Stacy to rally, pull herself together and do what needed to be done.

  Per her aunt’s specified last wishes, she’d had her aunt’s body cremated and then she’d flown back to Forever with an urn filled with Aunt Kate’s ashes.

  Stacy would rather have flown anywhere else, but in all honesty, she couldn’t afford to travel any longer or go anywhere except the town she’d always called home. Aunt Kate had been the one with all the money.

  Her aunt had left her a little money in her will, but that, too, required a trip back to Forever. Olivia Santiago, along with her partner, Cash Taylor, ran the only law firm there. As Aunt Kate’s attorney and executor, Olivia had the only copy of her aunt’s will.

  So, with a heavy heart and more than a little reluctance, Stacy had returned. Once back, she’d presented Olivia with a copy of her aunt’s death certificate.

  And that was when she discovered that some things in Forever had changed. The house that she’d grown up in, the one that her mother had left to her when she died and where she and Aunt Kate had lived before they’d gone off to Europe, had burned down while they’d been away.

  The other thing that had changed while she’d been gone was that Forever had finally gotten its first hotel up and running. What that meant was that at least she had a place to stay while she waited for Olivia to square things away for her when it came to the will.

  This was her first week back and, hopefully, her last.

  Getting up, Stacy got ready quickly, intending to go downstairs to get some much-needed coffee and eggs over easy. The hotel, still in its infancy, had just opened a small restaurant on its premises. She’d heard it was having some trouble with a faulty refrigerator, but supposedly that had been taken care of. She crossed her fingers.

  Stacy got off the elevator and was crossing the lobby to get to the restaurant when she heard Elsie, the young woman behind the reception desk, let out a loud, bloodcurdling scream.

  Hurrying over, Stacy put a comforting hand on the young girl’s shoulder and asked, “What’s wrong, Elsie? Can I help?”

  Elsie didn’t appear to hear her or even be overly aware that anyone was standing next to her. Her attention was completely centered on the paper she was clutching.

  “I did it!” Elsie cried, waving what looked like a letter in her hand. “I did it! I’m going to college!” she squealed.

  Scurrying out from behind the desk, she threw her arms around Stacy, and then around Rebecca Ortiz, the hotel manager who had been drawn out of her office by the noise. “I’m going to college!” Elsie repeated, obviously beside herself with joy.

  “Somewhere not too far away?” Rebecca asked, obviously doing her best to share the moment with the receptionist.

  Elsie stopped abruptly and then happily grinned at the manager. “I’m going to be going to the University of Texas in Austin,” she told her small audience proudly.

  “Oh. That means you’ll be going away to school.”

  “Yes, it will,” Elsie cried happily, her eyes all but dancing as she moved around the lobby. “And I can’t wait to go.”

  “Well, you’ve still got some time,” Rebecca pointed out. From her expression, she was already trying to figure out how to get a replacement for Elsie. “You just came back from an extended vacation. And next September’s a long way away.”

  Elsie shook her head so hard it looked as if it was going to go spinning off. The young girl held the letter up higher.

  “No, it says here I can start in January, just like I applied.” The girl’s eyes were dancing. “There are so many things I have to do! I can’t wait to call my parents and tell them about this!”

  “You didn’t tell them when you opened the letter?” Stacy asked.

  With all her heart, she wished she had parents she could share things with. With Aunt Kate gone, she was on her own.

  “I, um, didn’t open the letter when I got it,” Elsie confessed, sounding just a little subdued for a moment, like she was tripping over her words. “I’ve been carrying it around since yesterday. I was afraid that the school had rejected me. But they didn’t!” she exclaimed, her voice rising again. “They said yes!”

  “Yes, we know, dear.” Rebecca sighed. “Looks like I’m going to have to find a new receptionist for the hotel. Quickly,” she added.

  Turning toward Stacy, she ventured, “You wouldn’t be looking for a job, would you?”

  “Well, if it’ll help you out—” Stacy began, gauging her words slowly.

  Rebecca’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, it would, it definitely would,” she assured Stacy. “I realize that you probably won’t be staying permanently, bu
t I’d really appreciate you taking over for Elsie when she leaves.” As an afterthought, Rebecca turned toward the receptionist and asked, “When are you planning on leaving, dear?”

  “This minute!” Elsie all but shouted. It was like watching champagne bubbling out of a bottle a moment after the cork had been pulled. “I’ve got so much to do between now and January.” Moving from foot to foot, the now former receptionist gave the impression that she was about to jump out of her skin at any second. “Things are finally turning around and going my way,” she cried. “I’ve got to get home. I’ve got to tell Mom and Dad I’m going to college.” She paused for a split second before charging out the front door. “I’m going to college!” she cried, as if she couldn’t get enough of the simple declaration.

  And the next moment, she was gone.

  Rebecca shook her head and laughed. “Can you remember ever being that excited?” she marveled, glancing in Stacy’s direction.

  “Once, a lifetime ago.”

  At least, it felt like a lifetime ago. But in reality, it wasn’t. She’d been that happy when she’d found herself falling hopelessly in love with Cole McCullough. In the beginning she’d been convinced that it was strictly one-sided—until he began paying attention to her.

  She remembered every word of every conversation they’d ever had. Cherished all the islands of time that they’d shared together. Back then—had it really been less than a year ago?—she’d honestly believed that maybe, just maybe, they were on their way to meaning something to one another.

  Oh, Cole had meant a great deal to her, he had for years now, but it wasn’t until they started spending time together that she began to believe that maybe, just maybe, there was a happily-ever-after in store for her. For them.

  She should have realized that she was too old to believe in fairy tales, Stacy admonished herself. They’d had one wonderful, magical night together, and then he’d turned around and told her that maybe things were moving too quickly. That they should slow down before it was too late.

  As far as she was concerned, it was already too late. Like a lovestruck idiot, she’d thought he felt the same way about her that she did about him. She should have known better.