“No time,” she said, as two nurses held Shirley’s legs, the doctor told her to push, and another OB walked into the room with a serious expression.
“Is something wrong?” Justin tried to ask someone, but no one was listening to him, and the nurses and both doctors were telling Shirley to push. It was nothing like when Milagra was born, which had seemed under control at all times. This didn’t. They were shouting at her and she was screaming, and the doctors were looking at each other over their masks. He could see worry in their eyes, as his own heart beat faster. He glanced at Richard, who looked scared too. And they had both noticed that one of the heartbeats kept slowing down.
The doctor used forceps to help her then and the anesthesiologist walked in, way too late for an epidural, but he stayed in case they needed him for a C-section. And just as Justin started to panic, Shirley made a Herculean effort and then slowly, slowly Justin could see the first baby’s head appear. They delivered her shoulders, and then the rest of her, and one of the OBs took her and checked her, and suctioned her nose and mouth and she started to cry. She was beautiful, but Shirley’s doctor was working hard on the next one, as the heartbeat continued to dip with each contraction. Shirley had stopped screaming and smiled when she saw the first baby girl. And then the pains intensified again. And there was still too much going on in the room for Justin and Richard to hold the baby. The doctor was trying to change the position of the second baby, which was miserable for Shirley, and it felt like a lifetime before the second twin appeared. She was even bigger than the first one, and looked at them with surprise, as though she didn’t expect them to be there. And for an instant, she didn’t cry. She looked almost blue to Justin and Richard. They had slipped the cord off her neck when they delivered her. The cord had tightened as she moved down the birth canal, which explained the dip in her heartbeat during the contractions. The doctor gave her a tap on the back as a resident suctioned her, and a nurse put an oxygen mask on Shirley, who was exhausted. Then, like a miracle, there was a powerful cry in the room, and the doctors looked visibly relieved, and Justin burst into tears of joy when the baby started crying.
“Is she okay?” both men asked in unison with a frantic look, and both doctors smiled at them.
“She’s perfect. Her heart rate was starting to dip before she came out. She had the cord around her neck, and we slipped it off before we got her out.” It had been a masterful move, and might have ended differently if they had been less adept. Justin turned to Shirley with love in his eyes.
“You did a great job, Shirley. I’m sorry it was so rough.”
“It’s okay,” she said under the oxygen mask. The delivery had been challenging, but she had done well.
The cords had been cut and the placentas delivered. There were two placentas since they were fraternal twins, not identical. Both babies were whisked off to the nursery to be checked, and Shirley’s doctor suggested that Justin and Richard go to the nursery to see them while they tended to Shirley. They gave her a shot for the pain, which made her woozy, and she drifted off to sleep. The delivery had been scary, and as they left the room, Justin and Richard were more grateful to her than ever.
When they got to the nursery to see their babies, Richard and Justin hugged each other and admitted how terrified they had been for a minute when the second twin looked blue and didn’t cry. But both babies looked perfect now and the pediatrician said they were fine. Justin and Richard each held one of their daughters, and smiled at each other. They had shared another miracle that day.
“Your mothering skills have improved,” Justin teased him, and Richard laughed. The babies were gorgeous, and they held them for a long time and then went back to see Shirley. She still had the oxygen mask on, and she was sound asleep with a nurse watching her and massaging her abdomen to reduce the bleeding. Jack had arrived by then, and was sitting with her. He congratulated both men in a whisper, with a smile. He was happy it was over for Shirley, and they could lead a normal life again.
Justin and Richard called everyone after that. Camilla and Charlotte had arrived. Justin and Richard had three children now. It was hard even for them to believe, as they looked at their brand-new daughters swaddled in pink blankets, with little pink hats to keep their heads warm. Charlotte had weighed just over eight pounds, and Camilla nine. They were astounding weights for twins. And they were perfect. Whatever challenges lay ahead for them, both men felt equal to the task. More so than ever. And love would carry them along.
“We’re definitely a family now,” Richard whispered, looking awestruck again at the miracle of it.
“Welcome home,” Justin whispered to Richard as they held their sleeping daughters.
Chapter 24
Shirley and the twins stayed at the hospital for three days to make sure everyone was fine, and after that, she was grateful to go home to her own children. Justin and Richard took Charlotte and Camilla home. They had the babysitter there to help them with Milagra, and the feeding schedule was overwhelming for a while, but together they were managing it. And Justin ran it like a well-oiled machine. He and Richard took turns feeding them, and for the first few weeks that was all they did, but after a month they had the system down, and things were running smoothly.
Justin’s agent called then to tell him he wanted to represent his book and thought he might already have a publisher for it. He thought the book was masterful. It was great news, and Richard was happy for him. And it was going to help provide what they needed for the children.
A week later, Richard was reading the paper for the first time in a week, and he looked horrified when he handed it to Justin. Peter White, Julie’s soon-to-be ex-husband, was on the front page. He had been dating a woman in California and was accused of killing her. He had beaten her to death with a brick after torturing her for several days. She had died of head injuries, numerous puncture wounds, and strangulation. Justin felt sick as he read it. That could have been his sister if she hadn’t run away and called him for a ticket to freedom. Justin called his mother immediately, and she had seen the article too. They all had and so had Julie. She felt terrible for the woman Peter had tortured and killed, but she knew how close she had come to the same fate. She told Justin the police had contacted her that morning and wanted to meet with her about her experience with him.
She had started using her maiden name again as soon as she came back from California, and the murder he was accused of made her want the divorce to be final as soon as possible. She had already seen the lawyer and filed the papers. The story in the newspaper about him sobered them all.
Kate had been right. He was too good to be true. They all hoped he would be sent to prison forever. And reading about him brought back all the memories of his reign of terror.
“Are you sure you want us for Thanksgiving?” Justin asked his mother when he called her. “We’re kind of a zoo at the moment,” he said, as he watched Richard put one baby down in her Moses basket and pick up the other. And Justin had Milagra on his hip while he talked to Kate on the phone.
“Of course I want you.” She had gone up to see them for two days with Grandma Lou and fallen in love with the twins, and had given Justin some helpful hints to manage them.
“You’re a brave woman,” he said and his mother laughed. She couldn’t wait to see them again on Thanksgiving.
—
The scene at Kate’s apartment on Thanksgiving was predictably chaotic, but no worse than she had expected. Liam was there, looking dazed, but she had urged him to come, since the girls didn’t come home for Thanksgiving and his father-in-law didn’t want to acknowledge the holiday this year. Richard and Justin brought all three babies and handed them around to anyone who wanted to hold them. Izzie was there with Tommy, who was eight months old and a happy baby who loved everyone and especially his aunt Julie. Willie came, and Grandma Lou was talking about her next trip, in the spring, to Bangkok.
And Willie stunned them all at the end of dinner, by telling them that he
was dating someone. He decided to take the bull by the horns and tell them the whole story at once. She was older, divorced, and had two kids. She was a psychologist for a large corporation. He said their relationship was serious, and they had been dating for six months. There was silence in the room for a minute, and Julie suspected it was the woman she had seen him with one night a month or so ago.
“How much older?” Kate asked, trying to sound relaxed about it, which she wasn’t, and Willie knew it too. He was expecting a tsunami of comments from all of them, but he didn’t want to hide it anymore because they already had for months. And he said he’d like to bring her and her children to Christmas Eve dinner this year, or he couldn’t come, because he didn’t like leaving her for a major holiday, which shocked them even more. “She’s thirty-eight,” he answered his mother’s question, twelve years older than he was. “And her kids are six and ten. They’re really sweet. And I think you’ll like her,” he said hopefully.
“Here we go again,” Kate said softly to Liam while the others were playing with Milagra, Tommy, and the twins, and passing them around. “They all think they can beat the odds of impossible situations, with difficult people. Can’t any of them do something simple and easy for a change?” Liam smiled at what she said.
“Why would they? You didn’t,” he reminded her. “Their story isn’t written yet. Zach is gone, and Izzie would have left him eventually. Julie escaped Peter. The boys are back together. They all have cute kids. You don’t know yet what the rest of the story will look like. They’ll make easier choices next time. And we all face our challenges and terrify our parents, while they try to keep us safe from our mistakes. It may look different but it’s the same with every generation. Parents trying to protect their kids, and the kids taking chances and putting themselves at risk to some degree.”
“But why do mine have to make it so hard for themselves on the first try? And now we’re starting all over again with Willie. How do you think that’s going to turn out, a divorced woman with two children, that much older than he is? The handwriting is on the wall before they even start. Do we have to do this again and again?”
“Young people are complicated. I’m sure mine will do the same thing in some form or other. They marry the people they shouldn’t now, or they have babies and don’t marry. It’s all upside down. But sometimes it works. That’s what they’re counting on. Beating the odds. They think they can, even though we know better and try to warn them. They don’t listen.” He had summed it up succinctly.
“They can’t win at these situations,” she complained, and he patted her hand. “Doesn’t anyone just marry normal people anymore? Do they all have to be crazy or criminals, or be the wrong ones? The ones who shouldn’t get married do, and the ones who should don’t.”
“They play the long shots, or don’t want to play by our rules. You didn’t make it so easy for yourself either. You dropped out of college to marry a law student, worked your tail off to support everyone, and had four kids. Your mother must have worried too,” he reminded her again.
“She did,” Kate admitted, thinking about it. There was truth to what he said.
“You can’t predict how their relationships will turn out. Sometimes you can win against all the odds, although not often.”
“I just wish they made it easier for themselves, and for us,” she said, and smiled at him ruefully.
“Give them time. Maybe they will one day,” he said to encourage her. And then they went to sit with the others and play with the babies, while Grandma Lou talked about Bangkok. Kate looked over at Liam hopefully. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would all turn out right in the end. And now she had to meet Willie’s woman, and see what that was all about. She could hardly wait. But she wasn’t optimistic about it. Her kids seemed to be determined to scare her every time. They had done a good job of it so far. Justin and the surrogate and having three children, and now Willie with an older, divorced woman with two kids. How could they expect any of that to go smoothly?
Shortly before Christmas, Willie called his mother to confirm that he could bring his friend Zoe and her two children to dinner on Christmas Eve. He had mentioned it on Thanksgiving, but she hadn’t heard anything about it since, and Kate didn’t want to push it and hoped he had changed his mind. He hadn’t.
“Are you that serious about her?” she asked him.
“Yes, I am. We’re not getting married, if that’s what you’re worried about, but we’re happy together. I know the age difference sounds crazy, but it works. And I really like her kids.”
“Then you can bring her, if it really matters to you,” Kate said quietly, wishing he wouldn’t.
“I don’t want to leave her alone on Christmas Eve.” All of her children were kind, but also foolish about the risks they took. But they were good people at heart.
There were going to be a lot of people for Christmas this year, so Kate thought it wouldn’t matter so much who they brought. With Willie’s additions, there would be twelve adults and six children. Four of them were babies, and she’d have to set up a small card table for Willie’s girlfriend’s two children, since there was no room for them with the adults. Liam was coming with his two daughters, Willie and his group, Justin and Richard, Izzie had asked to bring her lawyer friend and Kate had said yes to that too, she was so pleased that she was dating someone civilized, and Julie and Grandma Lou were coming alone.
And when the night arrived, the apartment looked beautiful. The Christmas tree had been decorated, and Kate was wearing red velvet slacks, a white satin blouse, and gold mules, all of it Chanel from her store. And everyone stopped talking when Willie and his woman walked in. She was wearing a black Chanel suit and high heels, and looked more like one of Kate’s friends than his, but she had dressed appropriately for the evening. Her ten-year-old daughter, Lily, was wearing a black velvet dress and black patent leather shoes with white tights, and her six-year-old son, Louis, was adorable in gray slacks and a navy velvet blazer and remarkably polite. Zoe thanked Kate for allowing her to come and bring her children, and she was hard to resist. She was stunning, she was smart, she had a great job, she had gone to Vassar undergrad and Harvard for her graduate degree, but she looked as though she should have been out with a forty-year-old man, and instead she was dating a kid. But Willie seemed very grown up when he was with her. It was a side of him none of them had ever seen. And she had a very interesting conversation with Liam about corporate HR policies. It was hard to find fault with her, and she loved Grandma Lou. She was cautious and respectful with Kate, who watched her all night. And Zoe was lovely with her children and loved all the babies. She was a warm, intelligent person and obviously crazy about Willie. She completely understood Kate’s objections and sympathized with them, but she loved him and Willie was equally in love with her.
Justin told everyone at dinner that his novel had been sold to a major publishing house, which brought a round of applause and he took a bow. And he and Richard stole the show when they announced that they were getting married.
“I thought you didn’t approve of gay marriage,” Willie teased them.
“We didn’t. Why should we pay alimony too?” Richard quipped.
“When?” Izzie wanted to know. And where, and how. But she had no objections to the marriage. And she loved Richard.
“We’ve decided to be corny about it,” Justin said, looking embarrassed. It had been Richard’s idea, but Justin went along with it to make him happy. “If we’re going to do it, we’re going all the way. We’re getting married on Valentine’s Day, if Mom will let us do it here.” That had been Justin’s only condition.
“Of course,” she agreed, and smiled at them both.
“It’s about time,” Grandma Lou said heartily, and they all laughed. But it made sense to Kate. They’d been together for a long time, had faced their challenges, and had come back together again, with a better understanding than before. And they had three little girls to bring up, so they should at least t
ry to stay together, if that was what their commitment meant. But she no longer felt qualified to say who should get married and who shouldn’t. None of it made sense anymore. It was all a wild guess as to what would work.
Julie said that every family needed a maiden aunt who didn’t marry or have kids, and that’s what she wanted to be when she grew up, which her grandmother didn’t believe for a minute. She was still severely marked by her terrifying experience with Peter, and was battling her way through the divorce. The idea of being with anyone horrified her, and the role of solitary woman felt safer to her, which was understandable, for now anyway. And at thirty-two, anything she decided now could change later, although she seemed definite about staying alone, and meant it. She had been badly burned by a man who could have killed her.
Izzie added that she’d like to have more children, but would never marry again. They all liked her lawyer friend who seemed perfect for her and the kind of man she should have dated in the first place, instead of going offtrack with Zach, who was so obviously wrong for her.
Willie made no comment, but smiled at Zoe from across the table. She had been a good addition to the group, and had managed five minutes to speak quietly to Kate, and said that she was sure everyone was shocked by their age difference, and she was too, but Willie was a fine man with good values and she respected him. It was hard to find fault with that. And then everyone went home, and came back for lunch on Christmas Day, as they always did. And they talked about Justin’s book and his wedding in detail.
They wanted a private wedding ceremony only for family, performed by a judge, and a cocktail party at Kate’s apartment, nothing formal or too much trouble. It sounded reasonable to Kate and in good taste. And they would spend a weekend in Miami for their honeymoon, leaving the girls with a babysitter, which Kate applauded too. They needed time with each other, away from their children, if it was going to work. Kate offered to pay for the wedding and honeymoon as a wedding gift, but Justin wanted to pay for them from the proceeds of his book, and not be a burden on his mother. He assured her that they would take care of everything. The publisher had paid him well.
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