“Should I call the police?”
“Call and tell them we heard a shot and Papa’s missing. He could be out in the barn, and the shot could be hunters, but...”
“I’ll do it. And my phone’s on.” She gave him a fierce, fast hug, but she didn’t offer to go along. She needed to stay with the babies and he needed to move. Fast.
He saw lights in the barn and walked toward it on the path worn through the snow, now icy. When he glanced back, he saw Erica framed in the doorway of the house, waving to let him know they were safely inside.
His breath froze in his nose and his mouth. Was Papa out here somewhere, in the cold, freezing? Why had he left Papa alone?
Of course Papa didn’t want protection or babysitting, but maybe he needed it.
His phone pinged and he glanced at it. Brian from Philly. He turned it off.
When he got to the barn, the door stood open and the lights were on. “Papa? Hey, Papa.”
There was no answer, and disappointment pushed in. He checked out the whole place, though. Maybe Papa had fallen or even fainted.
But the barn was empty.
Back outside, he noticed there were tracks leading away from the barn. Human and animal. Why would Papa have gone that way? Unless...it was the direction of the cabin, but why...
Another shot rang out, close this time.
He gripped his own weapon tighter and sent up a prayer. If You let Papa be all right, I’ll stay here with him. I’ll take care of him. You weren’t supposed to bargain with God, Jason knew that, but he was desperate.
He moved forward. Heard a faint sound. Then barking that sounded like...Mistletoe?
He ran toward the sound, and a moment later an excited snow-covered dog leaped up at him, bounced off and turned toward the woods, looking back over his shoulder, his tongue lolling out.
“Where’s Papa, Mistletoe?”
Mistletoe gave one short bark and trotted toward a small stand of bushes. Jason followed.
There was a rustle and a grunt. Then: “About time you got here.”
Jason had never been so glad to hear Papa’s crotchety voice in his life. He rushed forward, nearly slipping on icy ground, and sank to his knees beside his grandfather. “What happened? Did you break a bone? Where does it hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt, but I’m cold. I can’t seem to get myself up.”
Mistletoe romped in a circle around them, kicking up snow and barking.
“Hit an icy patch and my legs went out from under me.” Papa propped himself on an elbow and grimaced. “Every time I try to stand up I fall back down. And that’s not good at my age, so I figured I’d call for help this way.” He patted his rifle. “Might scare out the squatters in the cabin, too.”
“You came out here alone because you thought there were squatters in the cabin? You could’ve been killed!”
“You’re not going to be in town forever. I have to be independent.” Papa was breathing heavily as he got himself into a sitting position. “Except that crazy dog wouldn’t leave me alone. Curled up right beside me. Kept me warm for close to an hour.” He rubbed Mistletoe’s head. “Didn’t like me shooting off the gun, though.”
Jason ran a hand over the dog. “Steak bones for you tonight, buddy.” Then he braced himself and lifted Papa’s not-insubstantial weight, getting a shoulder under him, almost falling himself. “We’ll talk more once you’re inside and warm.” He clicked on Erica’s name and dictated a text. “Papa’s fine but cold. Turn up heat.”
And then, as he and Papa made their way toward the house, he sent up a prayer to God. Thank You. I’ll keep my promise.
* * *
Erica couldn’t stop looking at Papa’s dear, tired face. She fussed over him, bandaged a scrape on his hand and brought stacks of blankets downstairs. The front room was toasty, and they soon had Papa ensconced by the fire.
“Tell us what happened.” Erica sat down at Papa’s feet.
“All of it,” Jason added.
Papa pulled up the blanket Erica had put over his legs, settled back in his chair and smiled from Erica to Jason, almost as if he were enjoying the attention. “I missed you two and those babies,” he said. “Aside from Ruth Delacroix calling to check on me, I didn’t speak to a soul while you were gone. Got to feeling blue, and the cure for that is work, so I went out to do some extra chores in the barn.”
“Papa!” Jason sounded exasperated. “You could’ve let it go until I got home.”
“I told you, son, I was feeling blue. So I was out there mending that broken board on the front stall, and I thought I heard noises. When I went outside, I saw a light bobbing up and down out toward the cabin.”
Erica glanced at Jason, who was studying his grandfather, and wondered if they were both thinking the same thing. Had he really seen something, or was his mind wandering? Papa seemed sharper than she was, most days, but he was definitely old.
“A light like...a lantern? Headlights?” She adjusted Papa’s blankets again.
“I couldn’t tell. So,” he said righteously, “I got my shotgun and headed down there.”
Jason let his head sink into his hand. “Papa. What were you going to do if you found a crowd of drug squatters out there?”
“Why do you think I brought the shotgun? And the dog?”
Jason shook his head. “You should have just called the police.”
“I’m a farmer. Independent. We don’t call the police unless we really need ’em.” He looked suddenly concerned. “Did you call them when you didn’t find me here?”
“Of course I did,” Erica said.
Papa made a disgusted sound.
“We were worried! Anyway, I didn’t tell them to come right out. I just wanted to have them on alert. I called them back as soon as Jason let me know you were okay.”
Papa sat up. “I’ll never live this down. They’ll be busting my chops at the diner for weeks.”
“Those guys!” Jason snorted. “If anything, they’ll be impressed.”
“Wait, so you headed toward the cabin,” Erica said. “Then what happened? You didn’t see anybody suspicious, did you?”
Papa gestured toward his leg. “What happened next is that my bad knee went out. I fell and I couldn’t get up.”
The image of Papa struggling alone in the dark and cold twisted Erica’s heart. “You could have frozen to death! Papa Andy, promise me you won’t go out without one of us anymore.”
Papa Andy looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I’m not making a promise like that, young lady. I’m fine ninety-five percent of the time. It’s just, that path to the cabin turned into an ice rink, what with the thawing and freezing. I couldn’t get a grip on anything.”
Jason shook his head and added another log to the fire.
“I didn’t want to break a bone,” Papa said matter-of-factly, “so I shot off my gun. Figured somebody would hear me.”
“That was smart...I guess,” Erica said. “Where I grew up, shooting off a gun was an invitation for someone else to open fire on you, but you country folks are different.”
“It would have been smarter to call someone on your cell phone. You took a couple years off my life!” Jason actually still looked shaken.
Papa looked at the phone on the end table with obvious irritation. “That cell phone is a nuisance. Keeps going off, and by the time I find it and answer, there’s no one there.”
“I don’t care if you don’t like it.” Jason glared at his grandfather. “I don’t want you anywhere without a phone in your pocket from now on.”
“One little mishap,” Papa grumbled, “and every young person thinks they can tell you what to do. I have more knowledge in my little finger than you—”
“Would you like some more tea?” Erica said to interrupt their argu
ment.
“Tell you what I’d like,” Papa said, “is to take a look at those babies, and then get in bed. I know it’s early, but lying out there in the cold took a lot out of me. I’m just going to listen to the radio and stay warm.”
And that way, he wouldn’t get into more of an argument with Jason. Men. When they felt emotional, they fought.
After they’d taken Papa upstairs to peek at the babies, they got him settled in his bed, propped up with pillows, TV remote in hand.
“One more thing,” he said as Jason and Erica were leaving. “I want you to check the cabin.”
“Papa...”
“I saw lights,” he insisted. “I’d check it out myself, but I’ve had enough for one night.”
“I don’t think it’s anything,” Jason said. “Just moonlight or an animal.”
“If that’s the case,” Papa said, “then why was that path worn to an icy gully instead of just snowed over?”
Erica and Jason looked at each other. “Good point,” Erica said, suddenly uneasy.
Jason’s phone went off for the second time that evening. He looked at the lock screen and shoved it back in his pocket. “You stay with the twins,” he told Erica, “and I’ll go look over the cabin.”
“I’ll keep an eye on the twins,” Papa said, sounding irritable. “I’m good for something at least. She should go with you. Not to confront anyone, mind you, but to call for help if needed.”
Erica looked at Jason. “He’s right.” And she wanted to help. Wanted to build a closer bond with Jason before she told him the difficult truth about the twins.
Jason turned to Papa. “I’ll only consider you staying here if you have that cell phone out and on. If anything goes wrong, with you or the twins, you call me and then the police.”
Mistletoe jumped onto Papa’s bed, seeming to smirk at Jason and Erica.
“You’re not supposed to be there, boy, but we’ll let it slide tonight,” Jason said, thumping the dog’s side.
“You and Papa watch out for each other, okay, Mistletoe?” Erica massaged the dog’s large head and then punched her own number into Papa’s phone. Quickly, she enlarged the text, just as she’d used to do for the seniors where she’d worked. “See? One click. I made myself and Jason your favorites.”
“You are my favorites,” Papa said gruffly. “Thank you for getting an old man out of a tight spot.”
Erica felt tears rising to her eyes. She was growing so fond of Papa, almost like he was her own grandfather.
Out in the hall, Jason turned to her. “You’ve done nursing work, right? Do you think he’s really okay?”
“He’s fine. Probably needs a little time to himself to regroup.” She turned toward the twins’ room. “I just want to check on them once more, and then we can go out together.”
“As long as you agree to stay well back, out of any trouble we might find.”
She held up her hands. “I’m not aiming to be a hero.”
In the twins’ room, she listened to their even breathing. Then she leaned over the crib railing and touched a kiss to each beloved forehead. “We’re going to get you the help you need, little ones,” she whispered. “I promise I’ll take care of you.”
Outside, the sky had cleared, leaving a mass of bright stars. Heaven seemed close enough to touch.
She followed Jason, and when he got to the icy section where Papa had fallen, he broke new trail so they wouldn’t have to walk on the same precarious path Papa had.
The aroma of wood smoke grew stronger. “Do you smell that?” she asked. “Is it coming from the main house or the cabin?”
“I think maybe Papa was right,” he said. “Look.”
Sure enough, in the direction of the cabin she saw lights. Jason turned slightly and held out a hand. “Stay back.”
“Okay.” Her heart pounded, hard and rapid as a drumbeat.
He crept forward, his body naturally graceful, practiced in the moves of surveillance and detection. He approached the window cautiously and peeked in.
Then he stepped back, rubbed the window with the sleeve of his jacket and cupped his hands to his face as if making sure of what he saw. Why wasn’t he being more careful to avoid getting caught?
Then he turned in her direction. “We need an ambulance!” he yelled. “Somebody just had a baby!”
* * *
Jason experienced the next ten minutes as a crazy blur. Erica, staggering through the deep snow toward him as she shouted into the phone. Himself, giving the dispatcher exact directions, and then pounding on the cabin door. A pale-faced young husband answering, acting protective—and then, when he realized Jason and Erica wanted to help, looking relieved.
Inside the cabin, on a sleeping bag with a blanket over her, was an exhausted-looking, smiling woman and a squalling newborn.
Jason was afraid to even approach the damp, fragile little being. He’d gotten confident with babies of the twins’ sturdy size, but not this tiny thing. Erica, though, waded right in. “Is she...he...okay?” She knelt beside the blanket-covered woman, who was propped on one elbow, wrapping the baby in a towel that at least looked clean. “Here, let me help you. Oh, he’s precious!”
“We didn’t cut the cord yet.” The man stood beside Jason, sounding shaky and worried. “I was afraid...none of this is sanitary.” He waved an arm around the cabin.
“How’d you even know what to do?” Jason nodded at the mother and child. “I mean...the baby looks fine.”
“Truth?” the young man said. “YouTube videos. My phone’s running out of juice and it’s super old, but I got enough to know how to help her, and what to do right after the baby was born.”
Jason was impressed to see, now, that the area in front of the fireplace had been scrubbed clean. An old cast-iron pot sat beside the blazing fire, and a bucket of snow was nearby. “You melted snow for water.”
“We found some dishes here. I didn’t expect the baby to be born so soon. We don’t even have a name yet.” He rubbed his hand through his hair. “This is our hometown, and I thought we’d find someone to take us in, but everyone’s busy at Christmas.”
Erica glanced up from her position beside the mother and child. “We want to help, right, Jason? Although I think a hospital is the first place for you. All three of you.”
“Absolutely.” The young man sat down on a large cut log as if it were a stool. “Man, look at this. I’m shaking.” He held out his hands to illustrate.
“You did a good job,” Jason told him.
“He did,” the young woman said.
“And so did you.” Erica smoothed the young woman’s hair back and found a backpack to tuck under her head as a pillow. “You made an amazing baby.” Her voice was soft.
Jason’s phone buzzed. Brian, again. When would his friend get the message that Jason was way too busy for a chat?
“Come down here?” The woman was looking at her husband, and he immediately got down on the floor beside her, slipping an arm underneath her neck and touching the baby’s hand. “I love you, babe. And I love him, too.”
Erica found another sleeping bag in their stack of gear and put it over the two of them, leaving the baby free. Then she scooted back, stood and looked at Jason. “Can the ambulance even get back here?”
“It’s four-wheel drive. They’ll be fine.”
“Then let’s give them privacy.” She walked over to the cabin’s kitchen area and leaned against the counter, and Jason came to lean beside her.
“Is it okay that they didn’t cut the cord, do you think?” Jason was still processing the fact that a kid under twenty had just helped his equally young girlfriend have a baby.
“Smart, I would guess. The paramedics will know what to do.”
“Where’d you have the twins?”
“W
hat?” She looked at him blankly.
“The twins. Did you have them at a regular hospital, or at a birthing center or something?”
She hesitated. “They were born in a regular hospital.”
There was something odd, off, about the way she said it. “Does this bring back memories?”
She shook her head. “These guys seem loving and happy, even though they’re basically homeless. It’s so sweet.”
Their disagreement of earlier that day, the fact that she’d kept him out of the doctor’s office, seemed trivial in the face of what this young couple had just experienced and of the scare about Papa Andy. He put an arm around Erica’s shoulders, and after a moment, she cuddled in, slipping her own arm around his waist.
It wasn’t romantic, not this time. It was comfort, a desire for human closeness, and she seemed to feel it to the exact same degree that he did. As the couple lay together, bonding with their baby, so he and Erica, two people alone in the world, bonded, as well. It was a Christmas moment.
Soon enough, though, the ambulance pulled up, right to the cabin’s back door, and all the tranquility was lost. The paramedics asked questions of the mother and father, did tests on the baby and loaded them all into an ambulance in a matter of minutes. Jason and Erica gave their names and numbers, and the ambulance pulled out.
And then they were gone, and it was just Erica and Jason at the cabin. They made short work of putting out the fire and locking up.
“You know,” she said, “you were right about something.”
“You’re kidding,” he joked.
She swatted his arm. “I can admit when I’m wrong. And I was wrong to think I could have lived here with the twins. It would never have worked. It’s too primitive.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Just ask me anytime you need advice.”
“You’re impossible,” she said, and then yawned hugely. “We’d better get back to Papa Andy and the twins. I’m beat.”
Jason felt the same, only with a bit of an edge of adrenaline still hanging on. He wanted to hold her in the worst way, but he also knew they had differences to resolve. And they were both exhausted. “Let’s head back.”
Secret Christmas Twins Page 14
