"No! Not yet," Grace said. "I'm still wearing a pad and my stomach's stretched, and I don't want you to see me. In a few months I'll have my figure back and it'll be different."
"Honey, you just had my son, of course your stomach's stretched, and I don't care about the pad. I want us to be flesh-to-flesh when we talk about whatever's bothering you. Now raise your arms and let's get this thing off."
After they were nestled in bed, Jack on his back with his arm around Grace, she snuggled up against his side with her hand on his belly, and after they'd talked about the boys, and even broached the subject of Susan with Marc the previous night, Grace became quiet, not knowing how to tell Jack what was really bothering her.
Sensing her reticence, Jack said, "Okay, tell me what the problem is. Somehow I don't think we've hit on it yet."
"Alright then, it's Lauren," Grace said. "I hate to keep bringing her up, but I can't put out of my mind the way you looked at her the night she showed up on your doorstep. I can't forget the expression on your face. It's fixed in my mind and won't go away."
"Grace," Jack said. "Come here."
"Where?"
Jack patted his chest. "Up here. On top of me." He tugged her over until she lay on top of him, then took her face in his hands and kissed her long and hard, the kind of kiss she'd dreamed about, one that was deep and intense and filled with love. But when it was over, the expression she'd seen on Jack's face when he saw Lauren was still in her mind.
"Honey, I don't know what look you're talking about when Lauren arrived, but what was going on in my head was I was shocked that I felt nothing. I admit, I'd wondered if I'd feel something if I ever saw her again, but everything changed the day I looked across the waiting room of the fertility clinic and saw you. And then you became part of my life, and I started falling in love with you, and when Lauren showed up, I felt nothing. I also realized then that I never loved her. I thought I had before she killed Jackie, but now I know what true, deep love is. It's what I feel for you. You're the woman I want to look at every day of my life."
"But Lauren is so beautiful."
"Honey, I'll take pretty over beautiful any day. But you're the only woman who takes my breath away, and you might have noticed, while you're laying on top of me, you're doing other things as well."
"Three more weeks and we can fix that the right way."
Jack moaned.
"Alright. Two then."
"Mrs. Hansen, we have the rest of our lives to fix things the right way. For now, I have no problem with you doing it the wrong way. Any milk left?"
Grace giggled. "You'll have to find out for yourself."
***
Justine, who was leaning against a post on the front porch of the house, said to Grace, who was sitting on the front steps, "So where is this new husband of yours?"
Grace looked off in the distance and saw Jack riding toward them, coming at a fast clip. "He should be here any minute," she said, then stood so Jack could see her.
As Jack drew near, Justine saw him coming, and said in an eager voice, "Man, you can have your nerds, Gracie. Where has this guy been hiding?"
"He lives here in the hills," Grace said, attempting to suppress the smile tugging at her lips. "He's quite good with horses."
"I suspect he's good with a lot of things," Justine mused. "You said you married a twin. Is this one of them?"
Jack was almost on top of them by now.
"Yes, the bigger of the two." Grace barely had time to say that when Jack pulled his horse to a skidding halt, swung out of the saddle, rushed up to her and swept her up in his arms and held her with his hands clasped below her butt, and hers around his neck. "Wait till you see the little mare I just got you, honey," he said in an excited voice, while looking at her. "She's old and settled and you'll have no trouble with her and—"
"Sweetheart," Grace cut in, realizing Jack hadn't noticed Justine standing on the porch. "My sister, Justine. She's here. You might want to put me down."
Jack peered around Grace, then set her down, and keeping his arm around Grace's waist, said to Justine, "Nice to have you here—" then to Grace "—she's chestnut with four white stockings and a little diamond on her forehead, and—"
"Jack! Justine just drove two hundred miles."
Jack glanced at Justine again, and nodded. "Oh, sure. You hungry?"
"I'm fine," Justine said. "You go right on with what you were saying."
"Oh, yeah, and honey?" Jack stopped then and looked at Grace.
The world around Grace seemed to vanish as she caught the expression on Jack's face as he looked down at her. Love. She saw it now. Pure love. And he was trying to tell her something... "Yes, sweetheart? You were saying?"
He crooked a finger under her chin and raised it, and gave her a short sweet kiss that said more to her, as he smiled down at her with those dark, love-filled eyes, than the kind of kisses he gave her in bed during the heat of his passion, and said, "You look so pretty right now, honey. And happy. You must be glad to see your sister."
Grace glanced at Justine standing on the porch. "Well yes, I'm glad to see her too," she said. "Now, put your horse away, honey, and come show off your sons."
"Right." Jack kissed her again, this time a little sounder, then launched himself onto his horse and loped off to the stable.
Justine pursed her lips, but her eyes were bright with amusement. "Umm, you didn't quite describe him correctly, did you, Gracie?" she said, with irony.
"Actually, I didn't describe him at all if you remember," Grace replied. "You were the one who concluded he looked like a nerd with horn-rimmed glasses and a book under his arm." She laced her arm into Justine's elbow and led her into the house. "So, what do you think of him?" she asked, as they stepped inside.
Justine looked around, and smiled. "I see signs of Gracie all over this place," she said. "You've got the poor man hook, line and sinker."
"Just don't try to take him away," Grace warned.
"Honey, I may be a lot of things," Justine said, "but a husband stealer is not one of them. Especially not your husband. Besides, I couldn't take that man away from you if I tried. He's totally hung up on you. But then, guys always were once they met you. I'm the kind of girl who gets asked first to the prom. You're the kind they take home to Mama."
Grace saw the envy and the sadness on Justine's face, and for the first time in her life, she realized Justine might not have it all. At thirty, she still wasn't married. She'd been a cheerleader all through high school, and prom queen, and knew how to stop men dead in their tracks, and had always been the life of any party. But Justine was right. Men didn't take women like her home to Mama. But maybe one day Justine's prince would come along, a man who'd see beyond her beauty, and her flippant wit, and her superficial demeanor.
He'd also have to be a man stronger than her, who wasn't intimidated by her success and her high-powered career. Not an easy pair of male shoes to fill.
***
Six weeks later
While knitting a little wool hat for Marc, to match Adam's—same pattern in contrasting colors—Grace glanced at Jack, who was sitting beside her on the couch, his feet encased in red-wool socks. She knew the socks couldn't be comfortable—the heels were shaped like balloons, and the gusset was so long the socks wrinkled in the middle—but he wanted to please her.
"What time are they supposed to call," she asked.
"Around nine," Jack replied. "Sam said to put the phone on speaker since they want to talk to both of us." He put his arm around her and pulled her against him. "I love you, Grace," he said, "and whatever they've decided, Marc will still be here on the ranch."
"Why do you think it's about Marc? Why not Ricky?" Grace asked.
"Because Sam gave me an update yesterday, and there's not much more to add," Jack replied. "Last thing he said was the transplant was engrafting faster than expected and they'd be coming home next week. But you need to prepare for Susan wanting to take Marc back."
"I can't,
" Grace said. "Just having him on the ranch isn't enough. I want to be able to tuck both boys in bed at night, and when they're older, I want to see you reading stories to them before they go to bed, and taking them both on pony rides. We're a family now, a real family, and I can't imagine us without both our babies. Can you?"
Jack looked at her, long and thoughtfully, and said, "No. I can't. He's my little half pint. My little bright-eyed buddy. And Adam would miss him too."
"Except when he gets possessive when he's nursing and swats at his brother."
Jack laughed. "At least when my turn comes, I don't have to fight for a spigot. I get two of them all to myself, though there's not much left by then. But it's all good."
"Yes, very," Grace agreed, and felt her nipples pucker at the thought of Jack having his turn. "You said your Uncle Greg called, but then you told me Sam and Susan would be calling right after, so I forgot to ask what Greg said. So, what's the latest?"
"That the clinic's ready to settle for a half million for each of us, and take care of all the medical bills for Ricky's cord blood transplant," Jack replied. "Sounds like a lot of money, but we don't know if Ricky will continue to improve, though it looks like he's on his way to a complete recovery."
"It's a miracle," Grace mused, "but if it hadn't been for a couple of mislabeled vials, Susan would have had Adam, and he wouldn't have been a match, and Ricky would be back on the bone marrow list. But most of all, I have you and Adam." Her eyes filled with tears, "but I'll feel like I lost a part of my heart if we can't keep Marc. But if we are able to adopt him, I want to raise the boys as fraternal twins. Marc isn't a blood kin to either of us and I don't want him to grow up thinking he isn't loved as much as Adam is, just because he's not our biological son."
"Then you're saying we shouldn't tell the boys, ever?"
"Savior babies have a lot of psychological problems," Grace said. "I read all about it. One child lives because another was created only for that reason. Adam would have been that child if not for the sperm switch, but Adam got lucky and came to us. But it's a double blow for Marc because Susan got pregnant only to save Ricky, and even though Marc turned out to be a match against tremendous odds, Susan still doesn't want him so in Marc's mind he'd be a worthless human being from the start, which is why I would want to raise the boys as fraternal twins so Marc would never know."
"So we'd be raising our sons under false pretenses," Jack said in a plodding voice.
"No, we'd be raising them as fraternal twins to protect them from the truth," Grace replied. "It's only through luck that Adam ended up with both of his biological parents. Susan wouldn't have wanted him either if she'd had him instead of Marc, once she learned he wasn't a match, so withholding the truth would be for the welfare and peace of mind of both our sons."
The hard line of Jack's mouth slacked off some. "What about Ricky? He'd be raised as an only child, never knowing he had a brother."
"A brother his mother didn't want," Grace said. "Besides, how could Ricky respect his mother, knowing she gave away his brother?" Which she realized was the wrong approach as soon as she said the words.
"This isn't about Ricky respecting his mother," Jack said. "This is about Marc."
Grace's eyes filled with tears. "Yes, it is about Marc," she said, in a wavering voice. "His real father's dead, his real mother doesn't want him, and I don't want him growing up thinking he isn't a true member of our family and that he isn't loved every bit as much as Adam. Ricky will never know if we all agree to say nothing—" Grace's sentence was cut off when the phone rang.
Jack picked it up and punched the conference button so they could all talk. "Hey, how's it going?" he asked, knowing Sam was on the line.
"Fine. Ricky's getting stronger every day," Sam replied. "The doctors are amazed. He'll still need a lot of care and close observation and testing for the next few years, but they think he's on his way to a complete recovery. But that's not why we called. Oh, and Susan's here too."
"Hi you two," Susan said. "How are the babies?"
Grace didn't like the sound of Susan's voice. It was way too happy. Like a mother anxious to get home to her baby. "They're fine," she replied.
Sam came on again. "This is kind of difficult," he started in.
Grace could not find her voice to speak, too choked with tears. Jack put his arm around her and pulled her to him. "It's okay, honey," he said in a hushed voice. "We'll get through this."
But Grace knew there was no way of getting through it if they planned to take Marc back. He was also Jack's little half-pint. And Adam's little nursing sparring partner.
"It's about the baby," Sam said. "It's just that... we've taken the apartment for another two months since the hospital here's better equipped to watch Ricky, and even after we're back home Susan will have her hands full with him, and after that he'll have to be watched for several years, and we know how much Grace wants her husband's baby, who would have been hers if not for the sperm mix-up, and we just thought maybe the two of you would consider—"
"Yes," Grace cut him off short, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. "We will."
"Adopt him?" Sam said. "That's what I was trying to say."
"Sam," Jack interjected, "we already consider Marc ours. So then, this is a go? Grace and I can adopt him?"
"We can't think of two better parents."
After they hung up, Grace said to Jack in a voice filled with resolve, "Please honey, let's raise them as fraternal twins. We can talk to Sam and Susan and make sure they'll go along with it, which I'm sure Susan will do since she wouldn't want Marc or Ricky to know she gave Marc up because he was an inconvenience, which is pretty much what it is." She briefly considered Jack's concern that Ricky would be denied knowing he had a brother, and she could never tell little Marc about his biological father, but Marc was in her past now, and Jack would be a wonderful father to both boys, and as fraternal twins, they'd feel equally loved. And Ricky, who had always been the focus of his parents’ life, would continue to be their focus.
When Jack said nothing, just continued eying her soberly, she put her arms around his neck, looked up at him, and said, "Sweetheart, I know this is the right thing to do."
The look on Jack's face softened, and instead of arguing, he kissed her long and hard, and said, "Alright, honey. Fraternal twins they are."
Grace kissed him again, a series of kisses that started on his lips and made their way down his neck, and said, "Now that we have two sons, can we start on the rest of our family?"
"You want another baby... now?" Jack asked.
"I didn't say that. I said I want to start... as in proving the survey wrong again."
Jack's mouth curved in a wry smile. "Yeah, I'm ready to prove it wrong again."
As they were heading for the bedroom, Grace said, "And no, I haven't been faking the multiples. That survey was waaaay waaaay wrong! Just keep doing it the way you've been and I'll have a smile on my face forever. Multiple smiles."
Jack patted Grace on the fanny. "Gotta keep those smiles coming."
###
PANDORA'S BOX
BOOK 2: DANCING MOON RANCH SERIES
CHAPTER 1
Dancing Moon Ranch; Sheridan, Oregon
The snow was relentless. It had been falling steadily over the three days since Justine arrived at the ranch, and as she watched it building she felt trapped. A year ago she'd been trapped at work on a similar night. Not exactly trapped—she could have ventured out onto the traffic-mired roads twenty stories below—but she made the mistake of accepting Sean Elliot's offer to have a drink in his suite and wait till the roads cleared. Sean came up behind her and looked over her shoulder at the traffic stalled in the streets below, and said, "You've been waiting for this night as much as I have."
"Yes," she'd replied. She gave Sean Elliot everything he wanted that night, and he gave her the keys to his Jaguar and the promise of shattering the glass ceiling. But she'd known long before then that she'd eventually have to sleep
with Sean if she were to get ahead at Elliot, Stratton and Tarlow. It was the story of her life...
"Justine?" her sister, Grace, said from behind. "You doing okay?"
Justine glanced back. "Sort of. It's the snow. It's depressing."
"Not if you get out in it," Grace said. "Go on the sleigh ride with the ranch guests. Jack has it rigged up and the horses are wearing bells. It's so pretty when the horses are jogging along the road with the headlights shining on the snow. Jack's taking everyone to the neighbor’s ranch to sing Christmas carols and have eggnog and hot buttered rum. It's always fun."
"Not exactly my idea of fun," Justine replied. How easy it was for Grace. She loved the simple life—home, hearth, kids, Jack. Sitting on a cold wooden bench in a sleigh that smelled like wet blankets and bouncing over a snowy road. But as much as Justine wished she could be more like Grace, she couldn't cut that kind of life. Three days with nothing but snow-covered hills and she was about to go crazy with wanting to be back in the city.
"You can't just hang out here and mope," Grace said, more like a parent than a little sister. "The guy was a total prick. You deserve better. Look at the mess he made of your life. Go on the sleigh ride. It'll take your mind off things."
"Maybe tomorrow," Justine said. For tonight, she wanted to mope. She needed to mope. She needed to get a handle on her life, which hadn't been too good up to this point, at least not on a personal level. Career-wise, she'd made it to the top. Almost. There was still that glass ceiling. She hit it hard, the week before. Sean Elliot had never been one to mince words.
"I need the keys to the condo," he'd said in a husky voice that came from the direction of the pillow beside hers.
Her body had still been entangled in his, when she asked, "Why?"
"We're history, babe," Sean said. "It's been good. You know it's been good, and you can keep the Jag." Two days later he accepted her resignation, the Jaguar her severance pay; his generous offer, he'd called the package deal which, he'd informed her, was better than being fired because of allegations about a conflict of interests.
Living With Lies Trilogy (Books 1, 2, and 3 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) Page 19