The Baby Came C.O.D.

by Marie Ferrarella

  "C'mon," he beckoned. "I left her waiting in the den. Knowing her, we have about half a minute left to surprise her."

  His hand on Claire's shoulder, Devin ushered her into the house. It was actually more of a mansion, he thought, and it belonged to Blair's aunt Beth. It was where the fam¬ily, their numbers now large, congregated for holidays and celebrations. Behind them, he heard Evan telling Libby to remain with him. They all knew that this moment belonged to the two sisters who had been separated for twenty-two years.

  "You'll be with her in a few minutes, I promise," Evan said, his voice patient.

  Libby pouted, but did as she was told. She had come to trust Evan almost as much as she trusted her own mother. Mama had told her that they were all getting married and Evan was going to be her daddy. Mama was right, she thought with glee. Dreams did come true if you hoped hard enough.

  Claire walked in uncertainly, anticipation making each breath she drew shallow. There were people in the house, people smiling at her. Some of the younger ones were star¬ing unabashedly, awed by the resemblance between her and Blair, someone who had always been in their lives.

  Blair's family. Blair had a family, Claire thought. That had to be such a wonderful feeling. Devin had filled her in on Blair's life as much as he could on the way down from San Francisco. Her twin had grown up believing she was an only child, just the way Claire had. But unlike hers, Blair's adoptive mother had a myriad of brothers and sis¬ters. There had always been a house full of cousins for Blair to share her life with.

  Claire felt envious, but happy that at least one of them had had a full, rich life.

  No one was saying a word as they watched her pass. It was almost eerie.

  And then she saw her.

  Saw the woman who looked just like her. Her other half. Blair was staring at her, disbelief in her eyes.

  And suddenly, Claire remembered a fragment that had haunted her younger years. She remembered there being a little girl who had looked just like her sitting beside her on the floor. She'd thought she'd dreamed it, imagined it, got¬ten a mirror mixed in with reality. Things like that happen when you're very young.

  But it hadn't been a dream or a mirror. There had ac¬tually been someone else. Someone with her face, her eyes, her hair.

  The other half of her.

  And then suddenly, they were together again, two halves of a whole, sobbing and talking as they fell into each other's arms.

  "I didn't think you were real," Claire cried, framing Blair's face between her hands. Her vision blurred. She blinked away the tears. "I thought I made you up."

  "I had the same thought," Blair said excitedly. "But you're here, you're really here." How would she ever be able to thank Devin for finding her sister? There didn't seem to be a way. "Did he tell you?" Blair asked suddenly. "Devin? Did Devin tell you about our mother?"

  Emotions choking her, Claire couldn't speak, only nod.

  Blair wanted to be sure that Claire knew everything, that she wasn't tormented by feeling that she had been abandoned, the way she had believed herself to be. "That she didn't just give us away because we were inconvenient? That she loved us?"

  It had meant so much to Blair to find that out, to know that she had been loved from the very beginning. She wanted Claire to know that, too, to have the same secure feeling that had finally come into her grasp.

  "Yes, he told me everything." Claire's voice was hoarse as she tried to clear away the tears scratching along her throat:

  Libby finally broke away from Evan and dashed to her mother, then stopped short as she looked from one woman to the other.

  "Mama?" she said uncertainly. At least, it looked like Mama. She had on the same clothes and she smiled at her the same way, but what if she was wrong?

  Claire knelt down beside her daughter and hugged her. That was when Libby knew it was all right.

  Rising again, Claire placed her hands on Libby's shoul¬ders and ushered the girl before her. "Libby, I'd like you to meet your aunt Blair."

  Blair bent down to be closer to Libby's level. "Hello, Libby. How are you?"

  Libby couldn't help staring. "You have Mama's face." She wasn't sure she understood all this. Was this magic? Or were they all on TV? "And he has Evan's." She looked at Devin, her eyes growing huge again. "Are you outer- space people?"

  Laughing, Evan came forward. He shifted Rachel to his other shoulder. "I think that might be my fault. I let her watch an old 'Star Trek' episode with me the other night. I was exposing her to science," he explained, answering the question in Claire's eyes. "The captain split in half during a malfunction in the transporter room. I think Libby thinks we might have visited a transporter room."

  Tickled, Blair laughed as she ruffled her new niece's hair. "No, honey, we're not from outer space—we're from Newport Beach. And we're your family." Blair slipped her arm around Claire's shoulder. "From here on in."

  Devin could only shake his head as he looked around him at his brother, the two women in their lives and the two children.

  "Wait until Ma sees all of us." Devin chucked Rachel under the chin, and she gurgled, drooling down Evan's shoulder. "This is going to be one heck of a Merry Christ-mas for her."

  Claire looked at her sister as both their eyes filled with tears again.

  "For all of us," she amended.

  And then the ranks closed in around them. Blair's ex¬tended family had decided, as one, that they had given the new arrivals enough time together. Now it was their turn to get acquainted.

  Converging, they assimilated all six into their midst.

  Epilogue

  Blair eased herself into the tiny vestibule just off to the side of the church entrance where, only a short month ago, she had been the one dressed in the long, lacy wedding gown. Now her sister was wearing it for her wedding. They had decided to use the same one for luck, beginning a tra¬dition.

  Their very first, but not, Blair knew, their last.

  It had been less than two months since they had first hugged and cried after a twenty-two-year separation, and they were already deeply entrenched in each other's lives. They spoke on the phone every day, sometimes two or three times. Devin claimed they were making the long-distance phone company rich, but Claire and Blair both knew how pleased he was that he had been instrumental in bringing them together.

  Claire looked absolutely gorgeous. Had she looked that radiant when she had worn the gown? Blair wondered with affection.

  "We've got a packed house," Blair told her sister. She fussed a little with the veil. "Are you ready?"

  Claire let out a deep breath, then smiled at her twin. Sometimes, even after all these weeks, she still woke up in the morning and thought it was all just a wonderful dream. But it wasn't. It was real. All of it. Evan, Rachel. Blair. All real.

  "I think I've been ready for this all my life." Happiness and affection outlined her face. "Thanks for lending me your uncle."

  Blair shrugged it off. No words of thanks were necessary between them. "You needed something borrowed." The gown was technically now something old; she'd given Claire a blue garter to wear, and as for something new, Evan had given her a stunning necklace in the shape of a heart, encrusted with diamonds. Claire was all set. "Be¬sides, he's not my uncle, he's our uncle." Blair gave her sister a light squeeze. "What's mine is yours—you know that."

  There was a light rap on the door. When Blair opened it, Uncle John peered in. Blair grinned. "Speak of the devil."

  Uncle John raised gray tufted brows in mock affront. "Is that any way to talk about your old uncle? Although your aunt does say I still have a little devil in my eye." He chuckled wickedly. And then he looked at Claire and sighed. She was the picture of happiness, just as Blair had been in her place. "You know, with you ladies using the same dress, this feels like déjà vu for me. Especially since the guy waiting at the altar looks the same." He shook his head. He'd never seen two men look more alike. "Beats me how you're going be able to tell them apart." He glanced at Blair,
a smile quirking his mouth: "You might consider tagging their right ear, like they do with animals in the wild."

  Claire laughed. She could just picture that, although a single small gold hoop dangling from his ear might be sexy on Evan at that.

  "We can tell them apart, Uncle John," Blair assured him with a grin. "Devin's smile is lopsided."

  "And Evan's the one with baby drool on his shoulder," Claire added. And she couldn't think of anything more en¬dearing to her than that. It attested to just how much he cared for his daughter. How much he would care for a child of their own when the time came.

  "How're you going to tell them apart once Rachel's older?" Uncle John asked.

  "I'll think of something," Claire promised, her eyes shining.

  Blair held up her hand, stopping any further exchange, as she cocked her head, listening. The organist had begun playing the song they had agreed upon to precede "The Wedding March." This was it.

  She looked at Claire. "I think they're playing our song."

  Uncle John puffed up his chest. "Well, ladies, shall we?" He offered his arm to Claire. "You know, I'm really going to miss this. Know anyone we can marry off next month?"

  "We'll look into it," Blair told him. Moving past her uncle, Blair brushed her sister's cheek with her lips for luck, then lowered the veil over Claire's face. She stood back and, surveying her handiwork, nodded. "Perfect."

  This time, she thought as she opened the door, she would get to be the observer and, in a way, see what her wedding had been like. Last month, her stomach in a tight knot, she had gone through the entire ceremony in a complete blur.

  Outside the room, Blair gathered with the other brides¬maids and ushers. It was a mix of her family, Evan's and Claire's friends. Six couples in all. Devin was waiting for her at the altar, standing beside Evan, just as Evan had stood beside him last month.

  She was still more nervous, she thought, than Claire, even though this was her sister's wedding, not hers. Those same butterflies, slightly smaller in size, were back in her stomach.

  They grew a little as the organist began "The Wedding March" with gusto, filling the already packed church with music. Blair watched the others move down the aisle two by two. And then it was her turn. She looked over her shoulder and winked at Claire. Her sister looked absolutely radiant. Not a trace of nerves anywhere. She supposed that was her job.

  "Meet you up front," she whispered to Claire. Taking a deep breath, she began the slow, rhythmic walk down the aisle.

  "Nervous?" Uncle John asked.

  Claire shook her head ever so slightly, careful not to dislodge her headpiece. "No, excited."

  It felt like fireworks were going off in her veins. Won¬derful fireworks. Claire saw the trail of flower petals strewed all down the aisle. There were handfuls clumped here and there. Libby's handiwork. She and one of Blair's youngest nieces were her flower girls. Claire's mouth curved as she remembered Libby bragging that she was getting really good at throwing flowers. Libby was eager for the next wedding. With a family this large, there was bound to be another one soon.

  Claire's smile widened as she walked beside Uncle John. Toward Evan. He looked so handsome, standing there, she thought. Her heart swelled, knowing she had finally found everything she had ever been looking for.

  And to think, unbeknownst to her, it had all started out with a search for Blair. For in Blair's search to find her, Claire knew her sister had found herself, as well. And they had found one another and enough happiness in between to more than fill two lives.

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