The Texas Valentine Twins

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Wyatt squinted, as the movers stripped her linens and dissembled her bed. “Sure you want to do that?”

  They had made love again and slept together the night before, but that didn’t mean they would want to do so every night hereafter. Since he didn’t have a guest bed, she would bring her own.

  “They aren’t going to open up the walls on both floors until the addition is actually framed out. When they do, though, I was advised to cover everything in the vicinity with protective cloths, even though heavy plastic sheeting will be hung in the entryways to keep out the construction dust. Not having my bed there will mean one less thing to cover.”

  Wyatt wasn’t fooled.

  He knew she was still keeping one foot out the door and clearly wasn’t happy about the idea. However, he might feel differently the first time sharing space got on their nerves. As she was sure it would eventually.

  Luckily, they had no more time to discuss it.

  The truck was loaded. “We’re going to Wind River Ranch, not the Circle H,” Adelaide told the crew.

  Wyatt gave the address and directions.

  And off they went. Adelaide could only hope they were doing the right thing.

  * * *

  HALF AN HOUR LATER, they reached Wind River, the horse ranch Wyatt ran. She’d heard it had been pretty run-down when he inherited it, but it looked to be in good shape now. With a long inviting drive, plentiful tree-lined pastures, outdoor and covered training arenas, and well-maintained outbuildings.

  Wondering why Wyatt had parked beside them and directed her and the moving truck to do the same, Adelaide got out of her SUV. “Where’s the ranch house?”

  Wyatt blinked as if she had asked him the obvious. He pointed to the freshly painted slate-gray barn in front of them.

  “You’re kidding.”

  He wasn’t kidding.

  Upon closer inspection, she saw there were windows on both floors, and the double doors in the center had dark black pulls on them, and a doorbell to one side. “You live here?”

  Wyatt rubbed the flat of his hand beneath his jaw. “Surprised you hadn’t heard.”

  Actually, she had heard some jokes from his brothers about him acting like he lived in a barn sometimes, but she thought they had just been razzing him.

  Wyatt opened the rear passenger door of her SUV, while she opened the other. “Let’s get the twins inside.”

  She plucked one infant carrier from its base, he undid the other. Together, with the sleeping twins still cozily ensconced in their travel seats, they headed up the walk.

  Wyatt opened the door, using the numbered security pad, and held the door for her.

  The interior was large and sweeping, sporting a beautiful wide-planked oak floor, creamy white walls, heavy masculine furniture, and dark beams overhead. A living area stood at one end, a kitchen, dining and laundry took up the other. A center staircase—also made of gleaming oak—led to the second floor.

  As below, there were abundant windows along the sides and back. At one end of the mostly open space was a king-size bed; the other end held what appeared to be a sparsely appointed home office. A peek into the only walled-off area showed a large steam shower with glass walls, a private commode and a single vanity-sink.

  “There’s a half bath downstairs, tucked beneath the stairs,” he said.

  “Very nice,” Adelaide murmured, panic beginning to sink in. She looked around. “But where are the twins and I going to be?” Where was her privacy? Her own space? Apart from him, and the desire he aroused in her?

  Wyatt shrugged. “Anywhere you want. We can put you where my office is, if you like. Or in the center of the upstairs loft, close to the stairs, if that would be easier. There’s plenty of open floor space.”

  But no walls.

  And sometimes, good walls—with doors that shut firmly—made good housemates. No wonder his mother had such reservations about Adelaide and the twins moving in here!

  Wyatt stared at her. “You seriously had no idea I lived in a converted barn?”

  Adelaide shook her head.

  She had tried to learn as little as possible about Wyatt and his life to avoid dwelling on mistakes made and lost opportunities. “Everyone in your family knew better than to try to discuss you with me, or vice versa. It was too upsetting to both of us.”

  “True.”

  Adelaide bit her lip. Too late, she realized she should have asked pertinent questions about his home before agreeing to move out here. Since they hadn’t begun unloading the truck yet...

  She swung back to him, her heart racing. “Sure you don’t want to take advantage of your mother’s offer and just move into the Circle H bunkhouse, with its six bedrooms and six en suite baths, in the interim?” Her bed could go into storage. Or better yet, back to her home. The twins could each have their own bedroom. Ditto her and Wyatt.

  He scoffed, a mutinous look crossing his handsome face. “And have my mother pressuring us daily to make this a real marriage?”

  His grim prediction brought her up short. “You’re right. It’s not what we want,” she retorted, just as firmly.

  She would go along to get along, just the way she always had.

  However, she would not make the same mistake she had ten years ago and allow herself to get pressured into a lifelong romantic commitment that she was not ready to make.

  Especially when they both knew that a real marriage was the only thing that would satisfy the very traditional-minded Lucille Lockhart.

  She and Wyatt could craft a businesslike temporary schedule that included lovemaking—when they both were in the mood—and plenty of time apart, in their own beds, when they weren’t so inclined. They could split up care of the kids. That alone would keep them plenty busy.

  “We’re just doing this for the babies,” she said out loud.

  His expression unreadable, he nodded. “Because it’s the right thing to do for everyone.” Wyatt glanced out the windows. “The movers are getting restless. What do you want me to tell them?”

  Adelaide carried the still sleeping Jenny to the master bed and set the carrier in the center of it. She motioned for Wyatt to do the same with Jake. “Have them bring everything that was on my second floor up here. We’ll just have them set it up in the center for now. My bed on the office side, and the twins’ nursery on yours.”

  Then they would go from there.

  * * *

  “YOU’RE SURE YOU need the bottle warmers?” Wyatt asked later that afternoon, aware how cozy and domestic this all was. And even more surprising how much he already liked it. He paced back and forth, a sleeping Jenny in his arms, watching while Adelaide laid a sound asleep Jake in the Pack ’N Play they had set up.

  “If it were just that...” Adelaide reached for Jenny and placed her in the identical bed next to her brother’s. Keeping her voice low, she walked back to Wyatt, continuing, “I would wait until tomorrow. But I also forgot the baby first-aid kit and my laptop and work files for my clients, which really shouldn’t be left in an unattended home. Plus half a dozen other things we might need, so it’s best I go now.”

  She picked up on his unease. “The twins were awake most of the afternoon, watching the movers and getting acquainted with their new surroundings, so they should sleep most of the next two hours. I can probably be back in a little over an hour. But if you would be more comfortable, I could call your mom. She’s just down the road... If Lucille’s home, she could be here to help out in five minutes.”

  The thought of another lecture on why he and Adelaide should just bite the bullet and stay married—for real—instead of trying to figure out how to untangle their lives and successfully co-parent, brought a frown to Wyatt’s face. “I’ve got it,” he told her firmly. After all, what could happen in an hour that hadn’t already?

 
Plenty, as it turned out. Jenny woke practically the moment Adelaide’s SUV disappeared from view.

  No worries.

  Adelaide had showed him how to offer a pacifier.

  Only problem? Jenny wouldn’t take it.

  His precious little girl didn’t like the fact he was offering it to her, either. She looked around, tears glistening on her lashes, appearing to search for her mommy. And found only him. A poor substitute, in her view. She screwed up her little mouth into a deep frown, glared at him, then let out a howl of outrage.

  Ignoring Adelaide’s instructions, which had been to offer a pacifier and see if she went back to sleep first, he hastily picked Jenny up.

  Too late.

  Jake was already awake, as well.

  And when he looked around and did not see his mommy, either, he became just as furious as his twin sister. Then proceeded to open his mouth and squall until tears ran down his cheeks.

  Meanwhile, Jenny was ignoring all attempts to soothe her and kept on crying as if her little heart would break.

  Wyatt had options.

  The question was, which should he take?

  * * *

  HER COTTAGE WAS oddly quiet when Adelaide let herself in. Starting the following day, as the foundation for the addition was dug out, framed and poured, it would be pure chaos. But for now with the late-afternoon shadows slanting through the windows and a chill filling the interior, it was almost eerie.

  Adelaide shook off her unease and went straight to her laptop. Gloomy atmosphere or not, she needed to check her work email before any more time elapsed. See if there were any crises with clients that would need handling right away.

  She booted it up. Waited for her usual screensaver—a photo of the twins in the hospital nursery, taken just hours after they were born—to come up.

  Instead, to her amazement, another photo of a child appeared. Adelaide blinked at the image of herself, at age six, with both her parents, and then another, when she graduated from SMU, in cap and gown, standing with her very proud dad.

  “What in the world...?” Adelaide gasped, as the pictures she was looking at disappeared right before her eyes, and the picture of the twins that should have been there all along popped up behind the usual icons.

  Adelaide continued staring at the screen.

  Had she really seen what she thought she had? she wondered in alarm. If so, how was that possible? Or was whoever had been messing around on her social media pages, posting then removing messages as soon as she’d read them, playing even more tricks on her?

  There was only one way to find out. With shaking hands, she reached into her purse and pulled out a card that a local law-enforcement officer had given her when she’d moved to the area. Dialed.

  Short minutes later, Kyle McCabe, deputy detective in the Laramie County Sheriff Department, arrived at the house. He’d been off duty when she called but had headed right over.

  While the head of their cyber crimes unit set down his messenger bag and shrugged out of his jacket, Adelaide briefly explained what had happened. “It was just there for a second. I almost think I imagined it.” But she knew she hadn’t.

  Kyle examined the programs running on her laptop. “Did you put a remote log-on on your computer?”

  “No!”

  “Well, someone has. And it looks like the IP address is from Venezuela.”

  Her pulse began to pound. “How long has it been on there?”

  He pointed to the installation date on the screen.

  “That was when I was in the hospital, giving birth to the twins.”

  He studied her. “You’re not surprised.”

  Adelaide told him about the messages she’d received on her social media pages that had also disappeared as soon as she had read them.

  “When did they start?”

  “Shortly after I got home from the hospital. I had posted Jake and Jenny’s photo on my Facebook page and Instagram accounts, and I got a reply that said, ‘Twins! I am so proud!’”

  “And the post simply disappeared?”

  “As soon as I read it. Then I got another a few weeks later that said, ‘It was never my intention to leave you behind.’ That one just came out of thin air one night when I was getting ready to upload some new pictures on my Instagram page, and again disappeared as soon as I read it. I was so sleep deprived at the time, so torn up over my lack of any real extended family I thought maybe I had dreamed it.”

  Kyle attached a device to her computer and began making a high-speed copy of all the data. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  Adelaide shivered and began to pace. “I was hoping that if it really had happened, and again, I wasn’t entirely sure it had, that it was just one of the crackpots that harassed me after the scandal with the Lockhart Foundation first broke.”

  She paused, regretfully reflecting on the many hateful comments that had initially caused her to shut down all her social media until after the birth of the twins. When she had hoped enough time would have elapsed for it to be safe from harassment again.

  “Were there any others?”

  Reluctantly, Adelaide stopped and turned. “I received the last one two weeks ago.” Well before her life had imploded with the news she and Wyatt were not only still married but shared twins. “It said, ‘We can be part of each other’s futures.’”

  “You think it was him?”

  Adelaide shrugged. “It certainly wasn’t Wyatt.” She massaged her forehead. “Sorry.” She didn’t know why she had just blurted that out.

  Kyle smiled sympathetically. “Congratulations, by the way.”

  Adelaide flushed. She still found it embarrassing to have everyone know that she and Wyatt had slept together. “Thanks.”

  “Does Wyatt know about any of this?”

  Her personal misery increasing tenfold, Adelaide shook her head. “He was so angry before. I didn’t want to mention it.”

  “And you shouldn’t,” Kyle said firmly. “If these messages are from your father, we don’t want anyone outside the cyber crimes unit here having a clue.”

  The low warning in his voice got to her. “You don’t think my dad would mean me and the twins any harm?”

  “Not from the sound of it, but he could still inadvertently put you in legal jeopardy for aiding and abetting.”

  “I’ve already told you,” Adelaide choked on another wave of bitterness. “If I ever see him again, I’m turning him in.”

  Kyle nodded appreciatively. “In the meantime, the sheriff’s department needs to keep the GPS tracker on your phone and SUV, and I’d like to put a keystroke recording device on your laptop, too. That way, if there are any other remote log-in attempts on it, we’ll get an immediate alert down at the station, and we’ll be able to record and track the activity on our surveillance system in real time.”

  Adelaide swallowed, as her next thought hit. “You don’t think my father...he wouldn’t be back in the country, would he? Not without being detected?”

  “The Texas-Mexico border is porous. With fake ID, a change in his looks, yeah, he could do it.”

  “But why?”

  “Maybe he just wants to see you and meet his grandkids. You are all the family he has, you know.”

  “He has Mirabelle Fanning,” Adelaide reminded him bitterly.

  “If they’re still together. Once a crime is committed, the co-conspirators often split up.”

  Adelaide thought about that, and knew it wouldn’t make any difference to her if they had. She was never going to be able to forgive her father for what he had done. “Or maybe he wants me to steal for him. Or he wants to steal from me.” Angry tears blurred her eyes.

  “Check your bank accounts and credit cards.”

  Adelaide sat and quickly pulled everything up. She breat
hed a sigh of relief. “My accounts are all fine.”

  “Clients?”

  She relaxed even more as she realized none of those files, which had elaborate security protecting each and every one, had been breached. “Also fine.”

  He opened his leather messenger bag. “I’d like to sweep the house and then put some listening and recording devices in.”

  Adelaide envisioned a team of law-enforcement personnel storming her house, much as they had in Dallas after the initial scandal broke. The fact she had requested their presence to see if they could find anything there had not made it any easier to bear. “Won’t that cause a lot of talk?” Talk that would be sure to get back to Wyatt and the rest of the Lockharts?

  “If I do it while you’re still here, no one will be any wiser.”

  Adelaide watched as Kyle put tiny devices behind pictures, under lamps. Another minuscule camera was trained at the front door. “People could wonder why you’re staying so long.”

  Early evening, Kyle had already been there an hour. While Wyatt was back at the ranch with the twins. Who, most likely, were still sleeping.

  Casually, Kyle provided their cover story. “If anyone asks, you’re doing my taxes for me.”

  Made sense. She was a CPA who often met with clients at her home.

  Kyle cast her a brotherly look. “It’ll be okay, Adelaide.”

  “Good, because I really can’t afford to be at the epicenter of another scandal right now. Nor can the Lockharts. And if this turns into a mess...”

  Kyle guessed where she was going with this. “You could easily find yourself in the middle of a custody battle.”

  Adelaide nodded miserably.

  Kyle walked into the attached garage and put a device just above the back door. “Wyatt’s a good guy.”

  Adelaide knew that.

  But like her, he wasn’t without his faults. “Just not the most forgiving type. Which is,” she said, squaring her shoulders and drawing a deep breath, “another reason why I don’t want Wyatt to know. We’re trying to become a family right now...”

  “Nothing will be leaked from the department,” Kyle promised.