Like a man with a mission, he detoured into the
florist’s. He honestly couldn’t recall the last time he’d brought flowers home for Val. At some time before the world that he’d thought was perfect had spun out of control, when loving and being in love had accompanied him through each day.
He drove home and entered a quiet house. He assumed she’d gone to the store with the twins. After opening and closing several cabinets, he found a vase but, not knowing where to put the flowers, he set them
on the kitchen table to surprise her.
Before noon, Val zipped into the driveway with a
decision to take the stroller the next time she felt like going to the store. She switched off the ignition, then unfastened her seat belt. In the back seat, the twins hummed a song from their favorite Disney movie as Val pushed the front seat forward to get them out of
their car seats.
Cradling a grocery bag in each arm, she called to
Traci as she darted for the front door. “Traci, we’ll go
in the back door this time.”
As she madly raced across the grass toward the back
door, Val looked back at Brooke dawdling behind her.
She tried to recall Carrie out with them and how she’d handled their tendency to go in different directions. If she remembered correctly, Carrie had never gone to the store alone with the twins. Joe had always been with her. There seemed like so much to learn about raising twins. One thing Val knew already-she’d have no dull moments anymore in her life:
At some moment Brooke had dashed by her. With
Traci at the door, the two were battling for possession of the doorknob. Val didn’t hurry. No one was going anywhere until she unlocked the door.
A step inside, she froze. A beautiful bouquet of yellow daisies and white mums and her favoritesyellow tulips-were arranged in a vase on the table.
“Pretty.” Traci reached up to touch a petal on one of the tulips.
“Yes, pretty,” Val responded, the sight of the flowers weakening her more than Luke would ever guess.
Repeatedly through the next few hours, after intervening on more than the usual amount of squabbles, she glanced at the flowers to lighten her mood.
Val assumed it was just one of those afternoons. She hoped naps would help the twins’ dispositions. By two o’clock, when she was ready to leave for her volunteer work at the hospital, Irene arrived to baby-sit and assured her not to worry. Val wondered if her motherin-law would say the same later. While she adored the twins, she’d yet to be with them on a day when they were truly grouchy.
With half an hour to spare, Val had time to make one stop before she drove to the hospital. Clutching a spray of baby’s breath, she knelt in front of a grave marker in the cemetery. For a long moment she stared at the small bouquet of carnations that Luke had placed in the vase.
In no hurry, she spread her wispy-looking flowers in an arrangement around the carnations. Then, as she’d done every time, she lightly stroked the etched name on the marker. The coldness of the stone always surprised her.
Months ago, day after day, she had stopped at the cemetery after work. Back then she’d thought that Luke had never gone. She’d seen the flowers, and had believed Irene had brought them. The assumption had seemed logical at the time. She’d never run into Luke at the grave. And though he’d offered hugs of comfort, what she’d needed most back then he’d kept from her-someone to cry with.
Around her, the landscaped grounds darkened as heavy pewter clouds veiled the sun. A breeze carried the smell of rain. A long time had passed since she’d questioned why she and Luke hadn’t helped each other through their painful loss. Like then, she still had no answer.
Before Val reached the hospital, she suppressed the sadness that had threatened to slip over her again. At the elevator she said goodbye to an elderly patient heading for home, then stepped out of the elevator to push a magazine cart in and out of patients’ rooms. Briefly she stopped to talk to one new patient. With his request for a fishing magazine, she searched different waiting rooms for fifteen minutes to find one. The hunt had been worth it, she decided, receiving a huge grin from him. She signed the cast on his leg, then hurried to the first floor to sit in the gift shop.
People strolled in and out-some buying, others simply browsing. Smiling, Val watched one new father torn with indecision between purchasing flowers or a balloon. Eventually he ambled out of the gift shop with both.
Passing him in the doorway, another volunteer came rushing in. “I’m here, Valerie.” She glanced back at the man, then smiled as she rounded the counter to take Val’s place. “New daddies always look so bewildered,” she said on a laugh.
Val nodded agreeably before reaching under the counter for a huge plastic bag. “See you next week,” she told the woman before leaving.
As she always did on these days, she lugged the bag upstairs to pediatrics. At the nurses’ station, she dropped off several stuffed animals for patients. They were garage sale finds that she cleaned up so they looked like new.
“This one is really cute,” one of the R.N.’s cooed about a floppy-eared dog.
“All he needed was a new eye,” Val said, smiling at the beaglelike pooch.
“I know just the little girl to give him to. A patient of your husband’s. It should cheer up her day.”
“A new admittance?” Val asked.
“Last night.”
“Is she all right?”
The nurse smiled and looked past Val. “Fine. But if you want to know more, why don’t you ask her doctor?”
Dressed in a tan sports coat and jeans, Luke was heading for the elevator. As thrilled as she’d been with the flowers from him, they underlined a minor problem. For the arrangement to stay stress-free between her and Luke, they had to keep complications at bay. “Want company?” Val asked as she approached him.
He nodded. Because she’d sought him out, he expected some heavy-duty conversation about that last kiss.
“Are you done for the day?”
“Yes.” Luke punched at the button on the elevator panel. He wondered at what point she’d end the inconsequential chitchit.
As the doors opened, Val stepped ahead of him into the elevator. “You stayed at the hospital?”
“I caught a couple hours of sleep in my office.”
She thought he looked dead-tired. “You have a new patient, a little girl. Is she all right?”
With only three floors to go, he’d had enough. “Why don’t you say what’s really on your mind?” He started to jam his hands into his jeans’ pockets, but she was too close to resist.
Val knew she needed to object, but she already sensed he was in charge, not her, as he ran his thumb along her jawline. “About yesterday.” She stepped back until she felt the steadying firmness of the elevator wall. “I never know what to expect,” she said honestly, sharing her confusion, “but too much tension between us wouldn’t be good for the girls.”
He stood practically on top of her. As he placed a palm on each side of her, she was trapped by more than his body. Thoughts of the last kiss, of nights that seemed an eternity ago, held her still. “You know what I’m talking about,” she said on a rushed breath. “We need some rules.”
An urge to smile jabbed at him. “No flowers?”
The softness in his voice swept pleasure through her. Val wondered at what point she lost the ability to stay annoyed with him. “Don’t be cruel,” she murmured, unable to deny the pleasure they gave her. “The flowers are beautiful.”
“What then?” He watched her eyes darkening, turning almost black as tauntingly he brushed his thumb over her lips.
He’d moved even closer, and she hadn’t noticed, Val realized. So much seemed so natural between them, even the feel of his touch on her face. She pressed her hands to his chest. To stop him or to slide her fingers up to his neck? She wasn’t sure. For someone who’d always been so certain of her own feelings, she was bewildered. �
�It would simplify everything if we stop letting this happen,” she managed to say as he continued that tantalizing stroke. “You know this is impossible.”
“Yes, it is.” He wanted her back. He wanted everything they’d lost. Everything. “We were lovers.”
He spoke quietly. “We still want to be.”
Val released a soft sigh. He had no idea how hard it was to resist. No idea. “Oh, Luke.” With her back against the elevator wall and her heart thudding hard in her chest, she considered the change in him. He was the one who relied on logic, but what he was saying to her had everything to do with emotion, and nothing to do with what made sense.
Luke couldn’t pull away, not yet. Slowly he slid a hand up from her waist. Beneath his palm, her heart hammered a wild message to him. “You want it, too.”
Old sensations weaved with new ones within her as he pressed a kiss as soft as a caress along the curve of her jaw. Why was she resisting what she suddenly wanted so desperately? Emotions too strong to counter pulled at her. She thought they had called it quits, and here she was with the man who’d shared the wonders of loving with her, the man she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with.
“Do you really want me to stop?”
God, no, she didn’t. And that scared her. They could hurt each other all over again. Val scrambled for control, but she was as weak around him as she’d been years ago when they met. “This could only complicate everything.”
He raised a hand, curling his fingertips under her chin and forcing her face up to him. “A nice complication,” he said as the elevator doors swooshed open.
They had no chance to say anything else to each other. The elevator filled with people, and twice Luke was stopped by colleagues in the parking lot.
Within seconds after they pulled their cars into the driveway, the twins dashed out the door to greet them. A step behind them, Luke’s mother appeared in the doorway, looking anxious. Now what? he wondered, sliding out from behind the steering wheel.
Captured by little arms wrapped around her legs, Val lovingly ran a hand over each blond head. She realized that she might never completely understand why she’d withdrawn from Luke at first, or why he’d never shared his feelings with her during the worst weeks of their lives. But they were being blessed again. “What have you two been doing?”
“Playing store,” Traci volunteered.
Even before she entered the kitchen, Val visualized her cupboard emptied of canned goods.
Standing at the counter, Irene folded a dishtoweltwice-and attempted a smile that the concern in her eyes belied. “You had a phone call.”
Luke heard the unmistakable anxiety edging her voice.
“That woman from the county who’s doing the home study is going to call back.”
Looking down at Brooke hanging onto his leg, he scooped her up into his arms. “We’ve been expecting to hear from her.”
But why so soon? Val wondered, wishing for more time. She sensed she and Luke stood at a crossroads. What if the woman sensed that, too? She opened the cupboard where she stored canned goods. As she’d anticipated, it was practically bare.
“I’ll have them bring the cans back,” Irene said behind her.
Val shook her head. “No, leave them play.” Though it meant more work for her, the girls were having fun. From Luke’s den, she could hear their chatter.
“Forty-eleven cents,” Brooke announced, obviously manning the toy cash register.
Smiling, Val closed the cupboard. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Luke visually followed her until she disappeared from view. That her mood was good meant she wasn’t too upset at what had happened in the elevator.
“You look awful,” his mother said, grabbing his attention.
He couldn’t help smiling. “Thanks, Mom.” Whipping a chair around, he straddled it and rested his forearms on the back of it. “Long night.”
A look that used to proceed a motherly lecture of concern settled on Irene’s face. She poured him a cup of coffee, then set it in his hand. “Everything is going better for you two now, isn’t it?”
Caught off guard by her question, Luke had to remind himself that she knew nothing of his estrangement with Val. “Was something wrong?”
She leveled a stare at him. “Lucas, a man and woman who have been through the kind of tragedy you and Valerie faced are bound to have some trouble. I thought-” She hesitated, then dropped to a chair close to him, leaning forward. “I thought that might be why Valerie had wanted to leave New Hope,” she said, indicating she’d been giving a lot of thought to their previous conversation about the move. “It would be logical for her to want to get away from so many difficult memories, to forget. Another place might make that easier.”
Somehow he maintained a blank expression to reveal nothing, but his mother’s words seeped in. So did questions. Was that the reason Val had wanted to move? Not because of him, but because of the memories? Every time she walked down a street, was she remembering a day when she’d been pregnant? When she saw the hospital, did she think about that day when she’d gone into labor? Marriages hit the skids for a lot of reasons. For them, it was the disagreement about moving away, about her dissatisfaction with her life in New Hope, that had been the catalyst for ending theirs.
“Am I interrupting something?” Val asked because Luke appeared so lost in thought.
Irene lifted her head. “Nothing,” she answered, checking the clock on the wall. She took a sip of her coffee to finish her cup, then rose. “I have to go.”
“Already?” Val asked. Lately, except when baby-sitting, her mother-in-law seemed inclined to whisk in and out of their house. “Wouldn’t you like a slice of pound cake or-”
“No, no.” Irene raised a protesting hand. “I’m watching my weight. Mrs. Osgood and I are walking every day to shed pounds.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not too successfully, I might add,” she said while offering a breezy goodbye wave.
Luke continued to mentally kick himself. Damn, but he was an idiot sometimes. Why hadn’t he looked beyond the obvious when Val had told him she wanted to move? There was no easy answer to that question. At least, not one he felt comfortable facing.
Viewing the contents in the refrigerator, Val frowned. Since the elevator ride with Luke, she’d felt unsettled by the truth in his words. You want it, too. Over and over, his words echoed in her mind. How could she deny it when she felt so much whenever he was near her?
She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck to ease tension. For the moment, she needed to think like a mother, not a woman. Dinner had to be made. She didn’t mind cooking, she simply hated having to be creative and think of something different every night. She also wasn’t too keen about cleanup.
“Got a problem?” Luke asked as her brows knit.
“Dinner.”
This was a problem he could handle. “What if I pick up something?”
“More fast food?” Val shook her head. “My conscience wouldn’t let me say yes. Tell me what you’d like, and I’ll cook.”
“Got a better idea.”
Since the twins would be pestering soon, she was open to all suggestions.
“I’ll drive into town and pick up some fried chicken and potato salad, and we’ll have a picnic on the floor in front of the television set.”
In need of time to clear her head, she saw two advantages to his suggestion. No cooking, and moments alone to think. She smiled slowly. “Fried chicken isn’t considered fast food, is it?”
Luke thought she looked adorable with that hopeful look on her face. “Nope, it’s not really fast food.”
She let the refrigerator door swing shut. “It’s a wonderful idea.”
“You won’t have any pangs of ‘I’m neglecting them because I’m not giving them all their food groups,’ will you?”
She grasped at his tease to keep everything light between them. “Buy coleslaw, and I’ll be content.”
He soaked up the moment as her lips sprang
into a quick smile. “I’ll go one better.”
A chance to relax was too tempting. Val sank onto a chair, stretching her legs to rest her feet on an adjacent chair. “I doubt it. You’re doing the cooking and the dishes. I’m blissful.”
In passing, he brushed a knuckle across her cheek. “I’ll take the girls with me to the store and get them out of your hair. You relax for a while. We’ll give you at least an hour.”
Excited as usual about going anywhere, with Luke’s announcement the twins scampered into the kitchen to Val. Brooke smacked a kiss on Val’s cheek. Swinging her doll, Traci hopped the last foot to her and gave her a hug.
While envisioning a leisurely bath, Val strolled with Luke to the door. “I forgot to ask.” Without conscious thought, she closed her hand over his forearm below the rolled-up sleeve. “Do you have a badge?”
He studied her eyes for a long moment as if trying to see inside her, trying to see what she seemed intent on avoiding since they’d arrived home. “A badge?”
“Watch them,” Val warned. “They have sticky fingers in the store.” He thought she was kidding, she realized, hearing his chuckle as he stepped out the door.
He’d learn differently soon.
From a window, Val watched them leave. For the twins’ sake, it was important that she and Luke get along well, make them feel secure and loved.
Oh, stop, she berated herself. Quit playing games with yourself.
Repeatedly she’d postponed appointments with Harry or any lawyer to discuss divorce. Deep in her heart, she’d hoped everything might change between her and Luke. When she’d married him, she’d assumed they’d be together forever. After watching her mother marry and divorce on a whim, she didn’t believe in broken vows. Long ago, she’d decided that promises made were meant to be kept. And weren’t the biggest of them all the ones exchanged during a wedding ceremony?
Luke honestly thought he could handle two toddlers. With them in the stroller, he seemed to have everything under control. He learned differently. For only a minute, he looked back at his car to check if he locked the door. In that time, Traci had climbed out of the stroller, waddled away and was bending to pick up a wad of gum stuck to the cement.
Married...With Twins! Page 9