Twins on the Doorstep

by Marie Ferrarella

  After diapering the newest patients, Debi loosely swaddled each infant and placed one in Cole’s arms and one in Stacy’s, much to their surprise.

  “There’s no sense in wrapping them up in their blankets just yet,” she told the duo. “The doctor will only have to unwrap them to do his exam.” Debi was about to leave when she paused and turned around. “Have either of you come up with any names we could put on the charts for the time being?” She glanced over toward the charts. “Baby Boy Doe and Baby Girl Doe just sound so terribly lonely.”

  Cole had his doubts about doing that. “Do you think it’s right, naming them?” he asked. “I mean, we’re bound to find the parents.”

  A rather bemused smile curved Debi’s mouth. She was originally from Chicago and had worked in a city hospital where a much harsher reality prevailed. Parents didn’t always come back for their children. She’d had experience with babies being abandoned, left on the hospital doorstep without a backward glance and never reclaimed.

  But she had come to know a kinder, gentler reality in Forever, and she really hoped that it would win out in this instance, as it had in others.

  “I know,” Debi said, smiling at the two people in the exam room. “This would only be temporary. I just think that it would just make things—more personal. Any ideas as to names?” she asked, looking from Cole to Stacy.

  Cole debated saying anything. And then, before he knew it, he heard himself suggesting, “How about Kate for the girl?” He looked at Stacy when he offered the name.

  “Kate,” Stacy repeated. She could feel a warmth growing within her, as well as gratitude toward Cole for having suggested it. Very quietly, she said, “Aunt Kate would have liked that.” Then, speaking up, Stacy said, “Yes, sure, why not?”

  “All right, then. Kate it is,” Debi pronounced. Picking up the appropriate chart, she wrote the name on top of the paper. Picking up the second chart, she asked, “And the boy?”

  Stacy looked at Cole. She appreciated the fact that he had just paid her late aunt a compliment by naming the infant girl after her. Turnabout was only fair play.

  “How about Mike?” she asked, looking at Debi.

  Mike, Stacy knew, had been Cole’s father’s name. From the stories that she’d heard Cole tell, he and his siblings had all been close to the hardworking man who had raised them.

  Cole pressed his lips together, getting control over his emotions. “Sounds good,” Cole agreed, nodding his head.

  “Okay, so now we have names for them. Temporarily,” Debi added, more for Cole and Stacy’s benefit than for accuracy. “I’ll tell Dr. Davenport you’re here,” she told them. “I think he’s the next one free—unless you want Dr. Cordell to see them.”

  “No, Dr. Davenport’s fine,” Cole assured her.

  Daniel Davenport, a New York transplant, had been the one to reopen the clinic. Prior to that, the clinic had been closed for more than thirty years. The doctor had been the first to tell people that he didn’t come halfway across the country to reopen the clinic out of any selfless devotion to his profession. He’d initially wanted to be a surgeon attached to one of the more well-known, prestigious hospitals in New York. It was his younger brother who had been the dedicated one, and he was the doctor who was supposed to come to Forever.

  But the night before his brother was to leave, Dan had convinced him to go out for one last celebratory drink. On the way home, a drunk driver had plowed into their car. Dan had gotten away with a few scratches. His brother hadn’t been so lucky. He’d died at the scene.

  Guilt had made Dan come out to the tiny Texas town in the middle of nowhere in his brother’s place, but only until he could find a suitable replacement.

  That had been a number of years ago, and since then, Dan had made a life for himself here in Forever—and now he said that it was the best decision he had ever made.

  A tall, robust man who seemed to thrive on the long hours he put in, Dr. Davenport came into the room less than two minutes after Debi had left.

  “I hear Forever has two brand-new citizens,” he said, crossing to the exam table where Stacy and Cole were watching over the two infants. The babies were lying side by side, taking in the world around them in wide-eyed wonder.

  Dan nodded at Stacy. “Nice to see you back in Forever, Stacy. You’re looking a little paler than I remember. Are you feeling all right?”

  “I’m fine, Doctor,” she said almost defensively. “I’m just here to help with the babies.”

  “Well, then, I’d better get to it and make sure these babies are as healthy as they look,” Dan said, turning his attention to the infant closer to him.

  Stacy breathed a subtle sigh of relief, glad the focus was off her.

  Chapter Five

  “I’m happy to tell you that both of these little people appear to be in good health,” Dan told Cole and Stacy as he put away his stethoscope and the other instruments he had used to check out the babies’ state of well-being.

  “Doc, about how old would you say they were?” Cole asked.

  Dan laughed softly as he considered the question. “Well, unfortunately, babies aren’t like trees. You can’t just check their rings. There is no surefire way to ascertain just how old they are, but going by experience, I’d say that these two appear to be approximately three weeks old.”

  “And you don’t recognize them?” Cole pressed hopefully.

  Dan regarded the man next to him. “Do you mean have I seen them before because their mother or father brought them in?” He saw the hopeful expression that came into Cole’s eyes, but he had to shake his head. “Sorry, these two have never been here before. I definitely would have remembered twins,” he added.

  Cole wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “What if they were brought in one at a time?”

  Dan smiled kindly at the cowboy. “Now you’re really reaching, Cole—but I’m afraid my answer’s still the same.” He glanced at the twins, back on the exam table with Cole and Stacy positioned on either side of them again. “I’ve never seen them before.”

  Kate was wiggling and she managed to loosen the blanket that had been tucked around her after her exam was completed. Dan observed with approval as Stacy refastened the blanket around the infant.

  “Have you tried bringing them to Miss Joan?” he suggested.

  “Yes,” Cole replied, a touch of dejection in his voice. “No luck.”

  Dan thought of his brother-in-law, Rick Santiago. “You could try the sheriff, I guess. If Rick doesn’t recognize them, either, he might still be able to locate the mother—or the father. I would imagine that either would do in this case.”

  “Would they?” Stacy asked, speaking up. “I mean, if these babies were abandoned, then maybe neither one of the parents is the right person to leave them with—even if we could find them.”

  “You might have a point, but I think that at least to begin with, they should be given the benefit of the doubt,” Dan told them.

  There was a knock on the exam room door. No one came in, but Dan obviously knew who was on the other side.

  “Listen, if you still have any questions for me and want to talk, why don’t you drop by after hours when the clinic is closed? But right now, I’ve got a waiting room full of patients to see, so I’m going to have to cut this discussion short. Keep me posted,” he told them, his glance sweeping over both people. “And let me know if you find their mother—or father.”

  Dan closed the door behind him.

  The moment he did, Cole looked at the infants, who were now back in the wicker basket, nestled against each other.

  “Now what?” Stacy asked.

  “Well, pretty soon I’d say we’re going to need a bigger basket for these two. But for now, I guess we’ll do what Dr. Dan suggested and go talk to Sheriff Santiago.”

  “Yo
u think he’s going to recognize them?” she asked dubiously.

  Cole frowned slightly. “I take it by the skepticism in your voice, you don’t think he will.”

  “Highly doubtful,” Stacy responded. “Unless someone reported them kidnapped—at which point I think Dr. Dan probably would have known about them.”

  He supposed that she had a point. But Forever was growing and communication wasn’t what it used to be, so there was a chance that the sheriff might be able to help.

  “Still, I think the sheriff should know that they were abandoned,” he told Stacy, smiling down at Mike. As he spoke, he gently slid his finger against Mike’s cheek. Reaching up, the infant wrapped his tiny fingers around it. And around Cole’s heart, as well.

  Stacy took that a step further. “So he can arrest the mother if he finds her? Is that really the way you want to go with this?”

  Cole had been all set to pick up the basket and walk out of the exam room with the babies, but Stacy’s comment stopped him. He hadn’t even considered that possibility occurring.

  “When did you get so pessimistic about things?” he demanded.

  Stacy made no answer, she merely fixed a laser-like glare on him. He decided it was best not to pursue the matter, at least for now.

  Instead, after first opening the door, he picked up the basket and made his way back to the reception area. Stacy was right behind him.

  Any thoughts of a fast getaway were quickly aborted. The moment they walked out to the front of the clinic, they were engulfed in questions.

  “Did Dr. Dan recognize them?”

  “If he didn’t, maybe Dr. Alisha knows who they are.”

  “Did the babies check out okay?”

  “What are you going to do with them now?”

  Because Cole looked as if he was a little overwhelmed with the barrage of questions, Stacy decided to run interference for both of them.

  “No, Dr. Dan didn’t recognize the twins,” she told one woman. “Dr. Alisha didn’t come in to consult, but I’m sure he would have called her in if he thought she might have recognized them. And both of the babies are the picture of health,” she told the people in the waiting room with an air of finality. She’d really thought that would be sufficient enough to get them out of the clinic, or at least to the door.

  But then Lyle Henderson, a big, burly rancher, spoke up, repeating the last question. “So what are you going to do with them now?”

  “We’re taking them to the sheriff,” Cole answered.

  “A little young to be behind bars, aren’t they?” Duke Crenshaw asked with a booming laugh that temporarily blocked out everything else.

  It also managed to wake up the babies.

  Duke’s wife, who had driven her husband over to the clinic, hit his shoulder with the back of her hand. Given that she was somewhat bigger than her husband, the blow stung and Duke yelped.

  “Serves you right. See what you’ve done? You woke them up,” Mrs. Crenshaw berated him.

  “No harm done,” Cole tossed over his shoulder as he quickly left the clinic with the twins before any further questions threatened to keep them there longer.

  “I guess nothing has changed,” Stacy said as they walked over to his truck.

  Her comment seemed to have come out of nowhere. “How so?”

  She nodded toward the clinic. “It seems like everybody in Forever is still minding everybody else’s business.”

  “They’re just concerned,” Cole told her.

  “They’re just nosy.”

  “Speaking of being nosy...” Cole began, setting the basket down next to him on the ground in order to open the rear passenger door. “How are you doing?”

  Stacy climbed into the back seat and waited for him to hand her the basket, or at least secure it on the floor beside her feet, the way he had earlier.

  “What do you mean?” she asked guardedly. She had the uneasy feeling he was trying to make a point, but he kept skirting the issue.

  “I mean how are you doing?” Cole repeated.

  It didn’t sound like such a hard question to answer, he thought. When Stacy continued to look at him blankly, Cole elaborated. He tried to do it carefully because he didn’t want to accidentally make things worse by saying the wrong thing or by phrasing things so that they opened fresh wounds.

  In the end, Cole wound up being blunt because, no matter how much he aspired to it, finesse wasn’t exactly his forte.

  “Your aunt died while the two of you were traveling together. That had to have been a great shock for you to deal with.”

  Stacy squared her shoulders, frowning. “We already covered this.”

  “No, we didn’t,” he contradicted. “Not in the way you mean. I told you I was sorry to hear about your aunt and asked what happened. You said she died and that you managed. That’s not talking about it,” Cole said, closing her door for her.

  Rounding the back of the truck, Cole came around to his side of the vehicle. He got into the driver’s seat and closed his door.

  “Yes it is,” Stacy insisted, struggling not to raise her voice and agitate the twins. “It’s just not talking it to death.”

  He wasn’t ready to put the subject to rest. “You were traveling in a foreign country. You must have felt awful when it happened.”

  “Well, I wasn’t about to dance a jig. Aunt Kate was my only remaining family and she’d always been there for me. She was the one I always turned to for guidance. And suddenly she wasn’t there to guide me anymore.” Stacy stopped, realizing that she had said too much and that she was on the verge of tears.

  She wasn’t about to cry in front of anyone, least of all Cole.

  This was what she got for coming back, she thought, upbraiding herself.

  “That’s what I mean. It must have been really awful for you,” he said sympathetically, wishing he could have been there for her. “I just want you to know that I’m here if you want to talk about it.”

  Stacy frowned, looking down at the babies rather than at him. “I just did.”

  “That wasn’t really talking, Stacy.”

  She blew out a breath, annoyed. “There were no hand puppets involved. Lips were moving. Words were said. As far as I’m concerned, that’s considered talking,” she informed him with finality. “Let’s concentrate on finding these babies’ parents and not on anything that happened in the past, all right? There’s the sheriff’s office.” Stacy pointed out the window toward the building on the right.

  “I know,” he answered. “I’m familiar with it. That’s where I was headed.”

  “Well, congratulations,” she told him with a touch of sarcasm. “You’ve reached it.”

  Okay, he’d been patient enough, he thought. “Why are you mad at me?” he asked. “I’m the one who should be mad at you.”

  Stunned, she felt her mouth drop open before she could get control over herself.

  “In what universe?” Stacy demanded.

  “In this one,” he retorted.

  Her temper flashed and it took everything she had to rein it in.

  “You know what,” she said between clenched teeth, “let’s just table this and bring the babies in to the sheriff before I forget I’m a lady and really say something ugly.”

  With that, she didn’t wait for Cole to come around to open her door. She opened the opposite passenger door and got out, then quickly hurried to the other side to get the babies out before Cole could reach them.

  He arrived at the same time she did. Seeing what she was up to, he glared at her. “Now you’re being pigheaded,” he told her.

  “You always did have a silver tongue,” she said sweetly.

  Cole shook his head. “And to think I actually thought I missed you.”

  “Yeah,” she retorted, “I was
just thinking the same thing.”

  He blew out a breath, telling himself that it wouldn’t do either one of them—or more importantly, the twins—any good to blow up like this right here in front of the sheriff’s office. It was just that he had forgotten just how easily Stacy could set him off, and half the time—like now—she did it without warning. It was like being caught in a blitzkrieg.

  She was obviously angry at him and he had no clue as to why or what was going on in her head. But then, that was nothing new, either.

  “Stacy,” he said, growing stern, “let me take the basket in. It’s heavy.”

  Stacy stubbornly stood her ground and kept her fingers around the edges of the basket, refusing to release it. “I can manage.”

  He’d gotten some insight over the years about how to approach at least a few subjects when it came to Stacy. “Nobody’s disputing that, but I think it would be better for the babies if I carried the basket.”

  “It’s not heavy,” she argued. Except that it really was. And the babies were moving. With a sigh, she relented. “It’s awkward.”

  “All the more reason for me to take it in,” Cole told her. The woman, he thought, was as stubborn as she was beautiful. That hadn’t changed.

  For a few brief seconds, she debated continuing to argue the point with him. There was just something about Cole; he pressed all her buttons. He always had. No matter what she tried to tell herself, that much hadn’t changed.

  But her arms were beginning to really ache. So, in the end, she said, “Fine, you can carry them in—but only because I’m thinking of the babies.”

  Tempted to smile, he refrained. Instead, he said, “I understand.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Cole.”

  There went his temper again, snapping like an old-fashioned slingshot. “Damn it, woman, you can get my blood boiling the way nobody else ever could.”

  Ignoring the gist of what Cole had just said, she focused on the words he’d used. “Don’t swear in front of the babies.”

  “They won’t remember,” he stressed. All he wanted to do was go inside the sheriff’s office and make these twins someone else’s problem.