Nick of Time [Davis Hollow, Davis Ranch 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by JQ Jones

  Her exaggerated look of surprise at seeing Manny let everybody in the room know that she knew Manny was there. She presented elaborate gifts to all of the family including the children and apologize over and over for not knowing that David’s “little friend” was there. She stayed for tea and talked to Hortense about friends they shared. After tea, David walked her to the car.

  “Not going to back down this time?” she said. She stood in the growing darkness looking over the grounds.

  “I’ve been saying it wouldn’t work for years but never with any conviction. When I met Manny in Houston, even that tiny little voice that kept telling me to just marry you went quiet. She’s all there can be for me,” he said.

  “I wish I could say I loved you and will miss you but all I can think of is all that lovely, lovely land. See you in the City. Don’t expect me to be nice when I cross the little guttersnipe’s path.”

  He watched her drive toward the gate. “Like you could ever be nice.”

  Manny had second thoughts after they returned to London. There were moments, brief moments, when she thought that maybe she had been right to leave. She came from an old family in Mexico, was connected to some of the richest people in Oklahoma but David’s history made them seem so far away from each other. Their lives were so very different that it seemed as if they would be doomed to failure if they tried to connect the two.

  She allowed January to slip into February before she even thought of the disparities again.

  * * * *

  February was freaking cold in London. A mixture of wet snow and sleet fell overnight in the city right before Valentine’s Day. It stopped the City with its volume and size. Nothing moved in, out or around for three days. Since Christmas, Manny had reached a plateau of her growth. Her stomach was stretched beyond what she had imagined skin could stretch. The last growth spurt had caused it to harden and drop. The Beans were much more active and as the snow-sleet fell they began to quiet down.

  David’s play was canceled because of weather and Manny had not been to work since before Christmas. They spent the day with the Browns. The older couple had overcome their reluctance to sit with the owners of the house to the point that they could sit together and enjoy nightly hot chocolate from Manny’s recipe and buttered scones from Mrs. Brown’s. Manny had consumed at least four of delicacies before she realized that she was having major gas pains. As David and the Browns talked she quietly slipped away from the room and into the downstairs bathroom. She wanted to take something for the gas but she knew that over-the-counter medicine this late in her pregnancy would be unwise. She went to the kitchen and searched until she found mint tea.

  “Why you in the kitchen alone, Miss Manny? I could have made this for you,” Mrs. Brown said. Manny was patiently waiting for water to boil so that she could pour it into the waiting teapot. As she poured the warm water over the loose tea leaves she breathed the smell of the mint as it mixed with hot water.

  “Dear, I think we’re going to have to take you to the hospital,” Ms. Brown said.

  “It’s just gas, Mrs. Brown. After I drink this tea I’ll be fine.”

  “No, I wasn’t speaking of that. It’s the fact that your water just broke and there’s a puddle at your feet,” Mrs. Brown said.

  “Crap, I didn’t expect that to happen today. Mrs. Brown, could you go upstairs and get my bag that I have packed and the new pair of wool stockings? I’ll tell David as soon as I change clothes. Okay?” Manny said. She stood over the large puddle with legs agape. Her knitted wool stockings, of which she had several sets, kept her warm throughout the house and were now sodden.

  When Mrs. Brown disappeared out of the kitchen, Manny poured half a cup of mint tea and took a few sips of it before she pulled paper towels down to wipe up her mess. She was just standing up when Mrs. Brown came back with the things she requested.

  “You really should not be doing this right now,” the older woman said.

  “I know but I don’t feel like I’m in labor. If I take another couple sips of tea my gas will go away. But I do want to go to the hospital and check to see why my water has broken,” Manny said. She gathered the stockings, boots, and coat from Mrs. Brown and disappeared into the kitchen’s half bathroom. She sat on the toilet carefully removing the damp cold stockings and wiping her legs down with a towel. When she started to push from her sitting position she knew she had wasted a little bit too much time.

  She allowed Mrs. Brown to help her into the small library where David and Mr. Brown still sat talking and eating dessert. Mrs. Brown helped her to a small leather couch that was placed at the entrance of the room.

  “Mr. Davis? I think. If it’s not too much trouble I think you should get the car out and take Missus to hospital.”

  Manny could not resist the laughter that bubbled up and escaped before she got a handle on it at David’s expression. Shock chased surprise across his face before he went over to the small couch where she sat and looked into her eyes before he stood up and took control.

  He ordered Mr. Brown to go to their garage, three blocks over, to get the car. Mrs. Brown helps Manny into her winter coat and added a woolen hat and a blanket just to be on the safe side. Mr. Brown arrived in less than fifteen minutes. He explained to David that the roads were not yet treated and extremely slippery.

  Once David had helped Manny into the car, she turned to wave at the Browns who stood watching them drive away from the sidewalk. Manny had quite a bit of trouble trying to click her seat belt. “I think this is discriminatory when carmakers don’t take into consideration that people might be more girthy then they assume,” she said.

  “Before we start to talk about seat belts, could you explain to me why you didn’t tell me as soon as you felt something?” he said.

  “I thought that I had gas,” she said. Just as she said that another pain radiated from her pubic bone to the small of her back. “Maybe it’s not gas.”

  David turned his attention to driving as quickly and safely as he could on the ice-covered streets. Once they arrived they were met by Mr. Harlow, who was all smiles and not at all worried because the Beans were arriving early.

  “Usually we have to do a cesarean for twins but these little guys seem like they are ready to come out right now,” the doctor said. “You are my third mother who has gone into labor today. Seems as if the weather is contributing to everybody getting into the mood to deliver.” The doctor, normally not the jovial man, seemed positively giddy today.

  Manny was checked into the hospital and assigned a private room where David puttered around the room and looked as if he was uncomfortable with the entire process. The nurses were efficient and helpful and provided David with a gown and cap. The doctor’s exam, swift and no-nonsense, showed that she was dilating naturally and the babies should be there in what he called “good time.”

  Manny only had twinges of pain that were now coming about five minutes apart. She spent the time in between the labor pains making calls first to the ranch in Oklahoma. Adriana and Ernesto were over the moon. She then talked to all of her cousins who were at home. Everyone asked for and received the same information and each one said the same thing. Be healthy, be safe and send lots of pictures. The call to Monterey and Abuela went easier because the old woman was expecting the call. She already had tickets for a flight out the next day and would be there soon. Manny didn’t try to figure out how the old woman had known when the babies were born, when she asked all she got was, “I dreamed about fish last night.”

  David spent his time pacing the floor and feeding her ice chips. He felt helpless and superfluous.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you? I feel like a bump on the pickle. I guess that’s why they used to have the fathers sit outside the in the delivery room waiting. All I’m really doing is taking up oxygen.”

  “You’re not useless. All I’m doing is dilating. Think about it, my body’s doing a lot of work that I have no control over. It does make you feel small. So I think
we’re in the same boat. Mine just comes with major cramps and the wish that I never ever ever have sex again,” Manny said.

  “Let’s make a pact, let’s agree never to have sex again. Because we see where that leads to.”

  “I don’t plan on giving up sex. I have decided to have a tubal ligation while I’m here. I don’t think I want to have any more children.”

  “Does that mean you don’t want any more children or you don’t want to be pregnant anymore?”

  “Hadn’t really thought of it that way. Depending on my future I might want to have more children in the family, but I definitely don’t want to be pregnant anymore.” Manny paused as another contraction hit. The hold she had on David’s hand tightened until his knuckles scrunched together. He wanted to moan along with her.

  As if the contraction had not happened she continued with the rest of her conversation. “I’ve always wanted to have children, and the Beans cover all that. Now that they are almost here I would love to have more siblings for them. And with my own family experience, when Ernesto and Adriano adopted Willie Mae it was so natural. They had this little tiny bundle of energy that just spread her love and received their love so that you could tell it was meant to be. I would love to be able to give another human being the opportunity to become a part of our family. But that’s my opinion on what I want to do. What do you think?”

  “I think we’ll discuss this again after we have the Beans for a few years,” David said. This time he covered his moan of pain with a more manly cough.

  The nurses came in and suggested that the baby should be here any moment. Mr. Harlow came in and assumed his position between Manny’s outstretched legs.

  “Okay, mom and dad, your children are on the way,” the doctor said.

  It seemed so quick to David. One minute he was holding Manny’s hand and helping her breathe and the next, the doctor was calling him closer to cut the umbilical cord. Between these two surreal moments two tiny blood-covered entities were delivered, wiped off, wrapped up, weighed and placed on their mother’s chest.

  As they lay on her breast, Manny was overwhelmed with gratitude. Bean One looked at her with solemn brown eyes. His pale olive skin with a tinge of pink was wrinkled and covered with a thin coating of white gunk. Bean Two, an exact copy of his brother, squirmed with increasing urgency on her body. His eyes, the same size and shape of his two-minute-older brother, were hazel as he looked around the room until his eyes fell on his father’s face.

  David stood a little to the side as the doctor and nurse finished the Beans’ first official wiping off and weighing. He stroked a finger down the side of Bean One’s arm, while he cupped the back of Bean Two’s head. The babies moved with ease against their mother’s chest. David leaned over to kiss Manny’s sweat-soaked brow before he slid down her face to capture her lips in a kiss that conveyed both gratitude and support.

  The rest of the time in the delivery room was a blur as the process of having a baby took over. Before either David or Manny could catch a breath, they had been established in a hospital suite and the babies taken to be poked and prodded. David and Manny had been tagged as the proper parents and established in the room. Twenty minutes later the Beans were rolled into the room for feeding.

  Manny positioned herself firmly against the back of the rising hospital bed. Her tired face, and she was dog tired, had a huge grin. A young Thai nurse lifted first Bean One and placed him in Manny’s waiting left arm, which meant that Bean Two went lay in the crux of her right. David stood on the other side of the bed.

  “Which one do you want? I’d like them to get used to the sound of your heart. They know mine pretty well after nine months,” she said. Her laugh bounced around the room. David was lurking from right to left trying to decide which one to pick up.

  “Come, Pa, sit in this chair and get used to your sons. You’re family has been doubly blessed with two strong boys,” the nurse said. She had shooed David over to a padded rocking chair and gently lay Bean Two into his arms after she arranged his arm to her satisfaction, handed him a small bottle then headed for the door after handing Manny a duplicate.

  “Get to know each other, Mum and Pa,” the tiny woman said as she headed out the door.

  “I’m overwhelmed,” David said.

  “I’m right there with you, partner. Let’s take it one step at a time. Come on, Bean One, let’s eat,” Manny said.

  A weak snowy light came in through the window while two wall sconces lit the darkest corners of the room. Manny looked down on the baby with big eyes staring back at her. She glanced up to meet David’s eyes as he sat in the rocker swaying back and forth. Her smile widened into a grin matching the tooth-baring grin that David flashed back at her.

  “This is going to be fun,” he said.

  “I agree,” she said.

  “He’s looking for you anyway,” she said.

  The rest of the day was taken up by immunizations, bottle feeding and a sleepless night. The Beans slept through the night from sheer exhaustion and their parents joined them.

  Chapter Thirteen:

  Single Touch of Grace

  Two days later David and Manny made the return trip home with no ice and snow on the road but going slow. David kept glancing back at the two backward-facing car seats, while Manny sat in the middle with her head back and eyes closed but a hand on each Bean.

  Manny watched as a beaming Mr. and Mrs. Brown stood in almost the same positions as when she left for the hospital. David pulled up to the front of the house and extracted Bean One from his seat while Mr. Brown struggled to release Bean Two. He was replaced by his wife who deftly unsnapped the many belts and lifted the baby out so that Manny could get out.

  “How are you, Miss Manuela?” The formality was back in the older woman’s voice. David’s grandfather stood at the top of the steps. The Colonel made no move to come down the steps but her cousin Miguel bounded down to enfold Manny in a hug that encompassed most of her head.

  “Good work, prima. Let’s get this little fellow in the house,” he said. He offered an arm to his cousin and delicately lifted up the baby. “Abuela is inside. She and the Colonel are already frenemies. Don’t know why but I say lay low until you get the reason.”

  “Like she’s going to let me alone.”

  “Play the just-had-the-great-grandsons bit. She’s over the moon. Pop made me fly her from Monterey, she already had a ticket on British Airways but Pop is worried that she’s too old. Not that he told her that, she’d cut him a new one, verbally speaking,” Miguel said. He steered Manny into the sitting room where the cousins’ tiny ninety-year-old grandmother waited sitting next to the fire, a cup of tea and scones within easy reach.

  After the Beans were released and passed from adult to adult they were placed in a single bassinet close but not too close to the warmth of the fire and Abuela. The Colonel, standing a foot away them, stole glances at the sleeping babies.

  Manny sat on one of the facing settees and finally noticed a tall, beautiful woman standing slightly to the left to the Colonel. Miguel sat next to her so she used the cover of reaching for her tea cup to ask him who she was.

  “Is she your new fling?”

  “Nope, that’s your nanny.”

  “I didn’t hire a nanny. David and I were in the process of interviewing when I went into labor.”

  “That’s who she says she is, cuz.”

  “Shit.”

  The young woman, in her middle twenties, very tall, very blonde and very, very pretty stood with a slight frown on her face.

  “Babies must now go to room,” she said. Her accent was Eastern European with a patina of the East End. She moved in to swoop up Bean One in one arm and Bean Two in the other. Manny was impressed with her skill but uncomfortable with her command of the situation.

  “I agree but since I don’t know who you are, it’d be best if you sat the Beans back down,” Manny said. The general conversation that had been quiet and stilted stopped altogether.
<
br />   “I’m Nikolina, Mrs. Symthe-Davis hired me as the nanny.” The younger woman made no move to follow Manny’s request.

  “Since Mrs. Symthe-Davis’s children are both grown I think you should rethink what you’re doing right now,” Manny said.

  “I’ll put the babies down before and get you my qualifications. I left them in my bedroom.”

  “See that’s where we’re having an issue, you don’t have a room in this house. I don’t know you but from this little exchange I’ve decided that I don’t want to know you. Put down my sons, pack, and leave.” The room was silent as the fire crackled and the Beans made slight stirring noises.

  Manny stood up, walked over to Nikolina and took the Beans. She continued out of the room and upstairs. The room remained quiet until David spoke.

  “I’ll see that you get your month’s salary but my partner is correct, we have very specific qualifications for a nanny and you don’t meet them. My mother overstepped her authority, so I apologize for any inconvenience and I’ll see that you receive compensation for your time and the misunderstanding,” David said. His grandfather and Abuela looked at him with only hidden amusement.

  Miguel didn’t try to hide his laughter. “I’ll help you pack, Nikolina,” he said.

  * * * *

  Manny lay in the middle of their bed outlining the facial contours of the sleeping Beans. David climbed in on the other side doing the same thing just behind her.

  “Mother meant well,” he said.

  “No, she didn’t but I understand what you’re saying. We both have overbearing families so we have to establish what it is that we want early. If Abuela had thought about it she would have brought a nanny from Mexico. It’s always going to be something,” Manny said.

  “It’s already something. The Colonel and your grandmother are politely arguing about where to christen the Beans,” David said. He included Manny in his caresses without realizing it.