Carolina Grace (Southern Breeze Series Book 3)

by Regina Rudd Merrick

  The baby, handed over to the nurse, began to cry lustily. Why didn’t they give the baby to Lucy? Was something wrong? Wait. Lucy was still having contractions.

  The doctor resumed his position and began praying again. “Bless you, baby number two. Bless you, baby.”

  Charly lifted her hands to her face in awe. She went to stand next to her mother sitting in a chair out of the fray. “Did you know they were having twins this time?”

  Mary Ann Livingston’s sightless eyes were filled with tears, a smile on her face. “No, sweetheart, I didn’t know either. What a blessing.”

  Baby number two was born, a niece this time. Dr. Price handed the baby to Dr. Butler who took the screaming young lady to be weighed, measured, and have her APGAR score checked while the nurses helped Lucy.

  “A boy and a girl.” Lucy pulled her hand from Tom’s and touched his face with a tired smile. “We did it.”

  He leaned over to kiss her. “You did it. I can’t believe it happened so fast.”

  “Second births generally go faster.” The doctor came to them, carrying both babies. He looked down at each little face. “I’ve prayed over deliveries for over thirty years.” He looked up at Tom and Lucy. “It never gets old.” He handed them both to Lucy, Tom helping to support her in the bed. “Little master weighs six pounds, three ounces, eighteen and a half inches long, and little miss weighs in at five pounds, nine ounces, and eighteen inches long. APGAR scores are excellent for thirty-six weeks. I don’t think you would have made it much longer if your water hadn’t broken.”

  “I can assure you they had outgrown their space.” Lucy beamed down at them. “I can’t wait for Hayes to see them.” She looked over at her sister-in-law and mother-in-law. “Charly, bring Mom over.

  Charly took Mary Ann’s hand and guided her to the bedside, where Tom took each hand and put them on a baby. “Two more grandbabies for you to love, Mom.”

  Tears fell from her eyes. “I wish I could see them. I know they are blessed babies. When did you find out they were twins?”

  Tom laughed down at his wife and children and then looked up at Charly and his mom. “At about three months. They thought they could hear a second heartbeat, but we weren’t sure until the ultrasound.”

  The nurse came and took one of the babies from Lucy. “I need to check your blood pressure. Mr. Livingston, would you like to hold your son?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” He took his infant son, shaking his head in wonder. “When can Jared and Sarah come in?”

  The nurse looked at her watch, calculating Lucy’s blood pressure readings. “I’ll go get them now. I think we can overlook the age restriction for little Beau this time.” She wrote down her readings and winked. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Have you picked names? I think I’m still in shock. I can’t believe you didn’t tell anyone.” Charly paused. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Wait. Is that why you said you didn’t know if it was a boy or girl, so you’d get a little bit of both at your shower?”

  “Busted. And why we have a gender-neutral nursery this time.” Lucy reached out for Charly’s hand. “You have no idea how hard it was not to talk about it.”

  “We kept the second baby bed hidden in the closet of our room. I’ll have to put it together when we get home, and they can sleep in the same bed for a few weeks.” Tom couldn’t take his eyes off his babies.

  Sarah walked in, her jaw hanging in shock. “How did this happen?” She stopped, her face infused with red, when laughter erupted in the room. “Okay, not how did this happen, but how could you not tell me you were having twins?”

  Lucy handed her baby girl to Tom, who stood holding both babies with pride. Then she reached out for a hug from Sarah. “It was murder not telling you; especially since we were pregnant at the same time.”

  “I thought you were bigger because you were shorter, but my goodness! These babies are as big as Beau.”

  Charly couldn’t stand it anymore. “All right. We’ve waited long enough. What are their names? We can’t go on calling them ‘baby boy’ and ‘baby girl,’ now can we? If I don’t text Lydia the info soon, she’ll be down here beating down the door.”

  Tom and Lucy looked at one another and nodded in unison. Tom gazed upon his new babies. “This young man is Evan Atwood Livingston, and this young lady is MariAnne Dixon Livingston.”

  Mary Ann put her hand to her mouth. “Oh. Bless you, are you sure?”

  Lucy smiled. “Mama, we’re sure. We wanted to name them after my daddy and our mama. You’ve been the best mother a girl could ask for, and you’ve helped me so much, since my mama isn’t here.”

  “You’re an answer to prayer. How could I not mother you along with my own chicks?” Mary Ann leaned in to hug Lucy. “Three grandbabies in five years. I am blessed beyond measure.”

  At forty, Emma couldn’t believe how much older she felt than her partner, Lucy, and yet here Lucy was, at thirty-five, giving birth, and she was the mom of a teenager.

  When she got to the hospital, the excitement was just beginning. The waiting room was empty, and the nurse at the desk beamed. “Hi, Emmaline. You’re in time to join the party. We’re pretty empty right now, so if you want to go on back, you can.”

  She entered and waved to a room full of people, but her focus went straight to the babies. Sarah had her baby in the carrier. This baby, she knew. Then she looked at Lucy and Tom. They were each holding a baby. Wait. Each?

  “Twins?” The question squeaked out of her. “This explains so much!”

  A tired Lucy laughed. “Didn’t we do a great job keeping these guys a secret?”

  “Too good. Girl, I would have made you sit down and take it a lot easier had I known.”

  Lucy waved her hand. “I was fine. How did the rehearsal go?” Lucy wrinkled her nose. “Sorry to bail on you.”

  “Only one mother-of-the-bride meltdown this time, and I took care of it. I can’t believe I’m now working with parents who went to high school with me.”

  “Huh, by the time my kids get married, my classmates will be grandparents, so don’t even.”

  Emma tucked her auburn hair behind her ear and looked at the babies, remembering a tiny, squirming infant named Sophie. Fifteen years. Where had the time gone? What would it be like to be in charge of a tiny person now, after all this time?

  “Meet Evan and MariAnne.”

  “They’re perfect.” Emma couldn’t take her eyes off them. They surely were. “Sophie will be over the moon.”

  Charly walked over and put her arm through Emma’s. “She’ll have to fight me for baby-sitting dates.”

  Emma hugged her arm to her. “With double the pleasure, you may have to tag-team it sometimes.”

  “Especially when you throw Hayes into the mix.” Charly chuckled.

  Sarah walked over to them, baby Beau in her arms. “These guys will be the best of friends, I know.”

  Lucy laughed. “They won’t have a choice, because they’ll be together all the time.”

  Chapter Three

  Rance took a deep breath. He let it out. A successful birth. He was glad he wasn’t specializing in obstetrics, but it was satisfying to be in on a twin birth without complications.

  It was also good to know there were families out there that hung together. Something he’d never known. It was a lonely way to grow up, without siblings, aunts and uncles.

  When he reached his apartment for a long-overdue sleep, he stretched his taut muscles and eyed the weights in the corner of his bedroom. He’d neglected his weight-lifting. He needed the endorphins to relax him and help him sleep. Right now, he was too tired, and rest was the only thing on his agenda. If he could sleep.

  Sleep eluded him. When he did fall asleep, he slept like the dead. But getting there? There were only so many sheep you could count, and only so many poems you could recite. He was beginning to hate the thought of wearing wool or eating lamb chops ever again. Maybe if he started counting items he didn’t li
ke?

  After a soothing shower and fresh shorts and tee, he lay on his bed and started thinking, as usual. He reviewed the day. It started out easy enough. He made rounds with Dr. Price on the obstetrics floor; he helped send home a new mother and instructed another on how to use the fiber-optic phototherapy blanket at home for her slightly jaundiced newborn. When an accident occurred on the bridge over the Waccamaw River, three patients were brought into the Emergency Room, so he stepped in to help out. One was admitted with a fractured ankle and the other two, treated and released.

  When night fell, he thought he’d get a break. That was when the last patient came in, in active labor, after her water broke at home. It was also when he saw the blonde. He assumed she was the mother of the baby in the waiting room, wife of the well-dressed man. But she wasn’t.

  He felt his face relax into a smile. Eyes wide open, he stared up at the ceiling and thought about her in the birthing room. She was the aunt. Young and no ring on her finger. He didn’t think he would forget her soon.

  With that thought, his eyes began to close, and the only thing he saw as he fell asleep was a curtain of long, blonde, silky hair.

  During the drive home from the hospital with her mother, Charly was quiet and couldn’t quite put her finger on why. The miracle of birth still overwhelmed her, she supposed.

  “Sweetheart, are you all right?”

  She missed her mother scrutinizing her when she knew something was wrong. Maybe that was the reason it had gotten easier to deny there was ever anything amiss in her life. She kept it to herself and thought out her problems on her own.

  “I’m fine, Mama.”

  They were heading across the bridges of the Waccamaw and Pee Dee Rivers, the two rivers separating the city of Georgetown from the Pawley’s Island zip code.

  “Mama?”

  “Yes, Charlotte?”

  Charly grinned. Her mother refused to corrupt her name by calling her anything other than “Charlotte,” and she didn’t mind. “Have you ever felt as if you were in a rut?”

  Her mother laughed out loud. “You’re talking to the number-one rut-maker, here. I can put myself in a rut quicker than anybody I know.”

  “Oh, Mama, you’re a tough lady.”

  “I’ve had to be, but it doesn’t mean I am inside. I give up now and then, like after your daddy died and when my eyesight started going. I wanted to sit down and die.” She was quiet for a minute. “Sometimes I still get melancholy, but I try to let it go when I realize what’s happening. What’s troubling you?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Everything all right at school? You haven’t said much about it lately.”

  “Yes, school is great.” As they entered the lighted boulevard through Litchfield Beach, she saw the Food Lion sign. “Do we need anything from the store?”

  “I can’t think of anything. Still got plenty of eggs and milk?”

  “Yes.” To be honest, Charly would know better what they needed than her mother. Another thing that made her sad.

  “How’s Lydia? I haven’t seen her in a while. I miss that girl.”

  Charly chuckled. “She’s fine, just super-busy. Besides working at the shop and supplying all their handmade souvenirs, she’s taken a job as a barista at the coffee shop in the hospital.”

  Mary Ann chuckled. “She doesn’t have time to be in a rut, does she?”

  “No.” She sighed before she thought.

  “Charlotte, have you ever thought about moving out and getting your own place?”

  Charly felt her eyes go wide at her mother’s question. Where had this come from? It came from being a discerning mother.

  “Not really. I mean, you need me at home. Don’t you?”

  Her mother laughed. “Oh, darlin’, I need you always, but I can make it living by myself in the smaller house. Have you noticed I’ve picked up more of the cleaning lately?”

  “I wondered why I couldn’t see where I’d been vacuuming.” She laughed along with her mother. “Are you trying to push me out of the nest?”

  “No, sweetheart. You never say anything, but I think you may have missed out, not living away at college like Tom was able to do.”

  “It was my idea, if you will recall. Besides, Lydia needed to commute, too, so we decided it would be more practical to live at home and save the money.”

  “Yes, and that was five years ago, and none of us had come to terms with my blindness. Lydia aside, we have now, and I think it would be good for both of us to be a little more independent. Don’t you?”

  “Tom would flip his lid.”

  “You leave Tom to me. You wouldn’t be far, and he’s not far either. I have lots of people I can call on. After all, you’re gone all day and I’m fine.”

  “I’m afraid you’ll be lonely.” And could she live by herself? It was a foreign concept, although one that had niggled in the back of her mind for a while. Maybe if she had a roommate.

  “Maybe I will. And then again, maybe I won’t.”

  They had pulled into the garage of the little ranch house that had belonged to Tom in his bachelor days. It had been a blessing when he decided he wanted to raise his family in the old homestead. Their mother needed a smaller, simpler house, and little did he know a big, rambling farmhouse was the house he would need within the next five years.

  “I’ll think about it. It wasn’t something I was considering for a while.”

  “Maybe finding your own place would help you with the rut you’re talking about?”

  “Maybe.”

  “And maybe if you didn’t have me to take care of, you’d spend more time finding Mr. Right.” Mary Ann Livingston smiled at her daughter. “I’m not trying to rush you.”

  Charly laughed as she put the car into gear and started gathering her things. “I know. You want more grandchildren, don’t you? Well, I’m doing my best. Apparently Mr. Right hasn’t shown up yet.”

  “You never know. He might be right under your nose and you never even saw him.”

  Chapter Four

  When Charly got to the hospital the next morning with Hayes, her four-year-old nephew, she couldn’t help looking for a pair of intense blue eyes. It was a passing thought, in between keeping Hayes from touching everything between the door and his mother’s room.

  When they reached the door, Dr. Price was coming out. “I know this young man. How are you, Master Hayes?”

  The tow-headed youngster frowned. “I’m not a master.”

  “No, you are a big brother, aren’t you?”

  “Yep. I come to play with my brother.”

  Hayes was squirming, Charly trying her best to hold on to his hand.

  She knelt down and looked into his face. “Hayes, we talked about this. He’s too little to play yet. You know how Beau mainly sleeps?”

  Hayes nodded and looked at her with wide, solemn eyes. “And poops.”

  Dr. Price laughed. “Yes, they poop a lot.”

  Charly laughed and shook her head. “For a while, it will be like it is with Beau. In a few months, you’ll have lots of fun.”

  The doctor patted the young boy on the back. “Now remember, we have a strict ‘no returns’ policy.” He winked at Charly and went on his way.

  She opened the door to see the sun streaming into the room, and both babies in their mother’s arms. Lucy’s eyes lit up when she saw her firstborn son.

  “Hey, buddy!”

  “Hi, Mama.” He hesitated.

  Tom came across the room and hoisted Hayes up in his arms. “We have a surprise for you. I know you were expecting one baby, and guess what?”

  He eyed the two blankets. “What?”

  “We got two.”

  “Like two Beaus?”

  Lucy giggled from her bed. “Not exactly.” She beckoned him to her.

  Tom brought him over to sit on the bed next to his mother. “See? We’ve got a baby brother and a baby sister. This is Evan, and this is MariAnne.”

  Hayes’s brown eyes grew lar
ge with wonder. “You had two babies in your tummy?”

  “I did.”

  Charly watched with bated breath as he stared at each baby. She thought she had been surprised, but this little boy was in awe.

  Lucy kissed the top of his head. “You can touch their little hands. They like to grab hold of things.”

  He stroked MariAnne’s hand and looked wide-eyed up at his mother when she grabbed his finger and squeezed. “She’s got me, Mama.”

  Tom looked at Charly and grinned, then turned back to his son. “It’s the way it is with little sisters, bud. Once they get hold of you, you’re hooked for life.”

  A mist of tears filled her eyes as she beheld the happy family. “I’m going to leave you five alone. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  She turned to go, stopping when Lucy called out. “Thank you, Charly. You’re a good little sister.”

  She grinned. “You’re a good big sister, Lucy.”

  It was close to lunchtime. Nurses and aides were bustling around with carts laden with lunch trays, and the smell, contrary to common supposition about hospital food, was amazing. She wandered down to the gift shop and browsed for baby items, then saw the coffee shop next door, wondering if Lydia was on duty.

  Coffee. That was what she needed. Her Saturday had started differently than the usual Saturday during the school year. She was up early to make sure she was ready to take Hayes to visit the hospital, so the benefits of her first cup of coffee were long gone.

  Café Mocha. Yum. Waiting in a rather long line, she looked at the mostly filled café tables in Café George. She strained around the people in front of her, looking for her best friend. Lydia had proven herself adept at yet another task, making the perfect café mocha. She caught a glimpse of the purple streak in her hair.

  The man in front of her wore scrubs with a lab coat over them. A hospital employee.