Contentment drifted over them. “I can see why this would build strength,” Wyatt said softly.
A connection, too.
Adelaide rested her head on her upraised hand and met his eyes. “This is how infants eventually learn to roll over. Get up off their tummies, onto all four limbs, then rock back and forth and crawl.”
Wyatt tried to imagine that. Found he preferred just staying in the here and now. Things were so damn good. Surprisingly good...
Adelaide seemed to want to savor the moment, too. She watched the twins a few more minutes, her face suffused with pride. Then noted with amazement, “They’re just perfect, aren’t they?”
So far as we know. Wyatt tensed. Unable to help himself, he asked the question that had been nagging at him from the beginning. “But what if they’re not?”
* * *
ADELAIDE BLINKED, not sure she followed. “What?”
“Perfect,” Wyatt repeated soberly.
Adelaide rose to a sitting position. “But they are.” How could he look at their children, with their gorgeous expressive faces and sturdy, healthy little bodies, their intent interest in the world around them, and think otherwise?
“They might not be.” He gave her a hard look. “What if Jake turns out to have a learning disability? What if they both do?”
Okay, she could handle this. “Where is this coming from?” Adelaide asked calmly.
“I have the three Ds—dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia.”
She shook her head. “That’s not possible.”
He just looked at her.
Adelaide’s heart began to pound. “Wyatt, I went to school with you at Worthington Academy from second grade on. I think I would know if you’d had learning disabilities.”
He exhaled roughly. “You would have if my parents hadn’t employed expensive private tutors to teach me to read and if my parents hadn’t convinced everyone that there was no need to put it on my records because it could be held against me in future endeavors. My grades were bad enough.”
Adelaide defended him hotly, much as she had back then. “You were a C student because you didn’t care, Wyatt. You didn’t even finish the tests we took at school.”
“Not because I didn’t want to, but because I ran out of time. After a while,” he said, puting his hand in front of little Jenny, and watching her latch on to his pinkie, “I adapted a who-gives-a-flying-squirrel attitude because it was easier. It made my lousy academic standing a badge of honor instead of a mark of shame.”
Adelaide stretched out again and imitated Wyatt’s move. “Did your siblings know?”
Little Jake latched on to her pinkie.
“Nope.” Wyatt replaced his hand with a soft cloth rattle. “My parents knew my self-esteem was bad enough without adding fuel to the fire.”
“Your sibs would have teased you?”
“We were kids. And growing up, as you probably recall, the four of us boys were rowdy as hell.” His lips quirked. “Of course they would have teased me! And then suffered the consequences. But by then it wouldn’t have mattered because the damage would have been done. So my parents never said anything to them, and I was grateful for it. ’Cause—” he jerked in a ragged breath and sat up “—I didn’t want anyone to know, either.”
Adelaide studied his stricken expression. Seeing the babies were beginning to tire, she turned them onto their backs and got the swaddling cloths. “You should have told me.”
Wyatt scoffed. “Miss A-Plus Student? If you recall, you were always telling me to hit the books a little harder.”
Her turn to feel stinging shame, Adelaide swallowed. “I’m sorry. I—”
“Don’t be.” He swaddled Jenny as well as she swaddled Jake. “As you can see, I succeeded despite everything.” He leveled her with a glance. “I just want to know that if it does turn out that our kids have any similar deficit...” he said huskily.
“I—we—will find a way to help them overcome it, just as your parents did for you,” Adelaide promised vehemently. She reached across the bed to clasp his hand. “But we won’t keep it a secret. We’ll make it a badge of honor, a symbol of raw courage and grace, from the get-go.”
He squeezed her hand back, hard. Briefly they stood and embraced. Yet it still felt like so much was left unsaid, so Adelaide came back to him after they had put the sleepy twins to bed. His look said he knew she wanted to ask him something. Just wasn’t sure how to do so.
“Yes...?” he prodded gently.
Adelaide got two beers out of the fridge. “Were the ‘three Ds’ the reason your mom has sort of always hovered over you a little more than your sibs?”
He added a hunk of sharp cheddar and a package of crackers. They carried their treat to the living room and settled on the sofa. With a fire burning cozily in the grate, the house quiet, it was the perfect time to talk. “In retrospect, I can see they were trying to protect me. To keep me from making the wrong decision and/or failing and being hurt, but it was their lack of faith in me that really stung.”
Adelaide tipped her bottle to his. “Is this why you rely so heavily on your gut?”
“Yep.” He savored the first taste of the golden brew. “I can’t allow myself to overthink anything. Otherwise, I become paralyzed with the fear I’ll let everyone close to me down.”
She wished she could make every past hurt fade away. “I believe in you.”
He returned her quiet glance with a wry smile. “One of the things I’ve always loved best about you.”
Loved, Adelaide mused, as another silence fell. How she wished that were true, more desperately than she had realized. But she knew better than anyone that loving something about someone or even loving the way they could make you feel was not the same as being in love with him or her.
Yes, they got on well. Shared twins now. Made spectacular love. But would that be enough? she worried. It was for now. But always...?
He misunderstood her silence. “It’s okay, Adelaide,” he said gruffly, setting aside their beverages and taking both her hands in his. “I never meant for this to be that big a deal with us. I just wanted you to know because of the pediatrician appointment coming up... I plan to ask the doctor about it. See at what point testing can be done.”
“Except it’s not okay, Wyatt.” She leaned toward him. “It’s still going on, isn’t it? With your mom? It’s the reason she sent you all those articles on being a good parent and husband straight off the bat.”
“That—and she was matchmaking.”
Adelaide shook her head. Wondering if Lucille knew how much her continued lack of faith was quietly devastating her son. “Because she didn’t want you to blow it.”
His brow lifted. An inscrutable expression crossed his face. “Am I?”
“No.” She shifted over onto his lap, so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders. She buried her face in the comforting crook of his neck and hugged him tightly. “Not at all,” she whispered in his ear.
“Good.” He grinned. “Because that’s the last thing I want.”
His mouth came down on hers. Powerful. Evocative. She knew he needed to make love as much as she did. Needed the intense intimate connection that only the physical could bring.
Had they been in love again...
But they weren’t.
Might never be.
She wasn’t sure it was necessary, though, not when they had so much else going for them. The least of which was the children they adored.
Needing him naked, she unsnapped his shirt, tugged it off, then the T-shirt beneath. He paused to grin indulgently at her. “Taking the lead tonight, darlin’?”
“Appears so.” She went to work on his jeans. Tugged those off, too. Found a condom, rolled it on. “I need you inside me.”
His eyes heated. “In
side you is good. Very good. And to that end...”
He drew her to her feet, stripped her bare, then sank on the sofa, pulling her back onto his lap. The insides of her thighs rubbed against the outside of his. The hardness of his erection teased the feminine heart of her. As he moved to push all the way inside, the burden she’d been carrying for what seemed forever began to fade. Guilt and regret replaced by raw, aching need. Something that went deeper than lust and was far more satisfying than simply sex.
Making love with him pulled at her heart and stirred all her senses. The clean musky scent of him, the smooth warm satin of his skin. The hardness of his muscles. The pulsing heat and force of his erection.
All combined with the tempting quest of his lips, the erotic sweep of his tongue, the all-encompassing way he could kiss her, until she was awash in pleasure.
Wyatt knew she’d reached out to him out of empathy and a need to comfort him. A better man would have rejected that. Not him. Not when he wanted her the way he did. In his house, with his kids, and with him. In bed and out, she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. And he wanted her to know it as he ran his hands over her supple curves and kissed her with an intensity that took their breath away. Whether or not she realized it, Adelaide had been his destiny, and she his, the first moment they’d met. He saw it in the way she’d always looked at him, like the sun rose and set in his eyes. He’d enjoyed it every time he made her laugh or smile. And felt it in every touch, every lingering caress.
Satisfaction unfurled within him as he turned her so they were stretched out, facing each other, her leg thrown across his hip. His own body quaking with the effort it took to suppress his own needs, he slid home once again. Gliding a hand between them, he caressed her gently, kissing her all the while, dragging his chest across her creamy breasts and rosy nipples, until her skin was so hot it burned and her hips rose instinctively to meet his, her open thighs rubbing with delicious friction against his. With a soft moan of delight, she kissed him with deep, urgent kisses that washed away all the heartache of the past and rocked his soul.
His own need spiraling, he shifted positions so she was beneath him. As he entered her again, she shuddered with pleasure and whimpered low in her throat, surrendering to him, to the two of them, as never before. He pinned her arms above her head, going slow and deep, until her body took up the same timeless rhythm as his, trembling and clenching around him. And then all was lost in the heat and tenderness that surrounded them.
* * *
THE NEXT DAY, while getting ready for the pediatrician appointment, Adelaide brought the conversation back to a topic he had hoped was closed. At least for now.
Adelaide packed the diaper bag. “I think you should tell your siblings. Not just because LDs can run in families...”
As he looked at his wife, Wyatt was almost sorry he let the information out. The empathy and compassion of the night before felt like pity this morning. Which was the hell of learning disabilities. He never knew if he was being oversensitive, or suddenly just aware of how others saw him. Somehow deficient. Less than... In need of...
He forced himself to sound casual. “Been reading up on it?”
They eased the twins into their matching white fleece outerwear.
Adelaide’s cheeks turned pink. “A little.” She handed him the diaper bag, looped her shoulder bag over her arm. They scooped up the twins and carried them out to her SUV. The day was crisp and cold, but sunny. “I plan to do a lot more.”
He liked the way she protected him. It felt right somehow. Always had. “You’re a great wi—” He stopped at the frozen expression on her face. “Ah, friend,” he corrected. “Anyone ever told you that?” He bent to make sure Jake was securely strapped in.
She did the same on the other side of the vehicle, for Jenny.
“Not the ‘wife’ part. But friend, yeah.”
They straightened and climbed in. He returned her wry grin. “Sorry. I didn’t want to offend you.”
She watched him fit the key into the ignition. “You won’t.”
He liked the fact she let him drive. “I don’t know.” He gave her the slow, sexy once-over. “Some of those articles my mom sent me said some new moms can be pretty sensitive.”
She snorted at his teasing. “I wouldn’t worry about riling me up. But we do need to be concerned about being late to our appointment if we don’t get a move on...”
Wyatt had planned to ask Adelaide what to expect as they drove into town. Unfortunately, she had a call from Molly and Chance regarding her renovation. There were several issues that needed discussion and resolution, and Adelaide spent the entire time working those out.
They arrived at the medical arts building and because they were the first appointment after lunch, were immediately ushered into an exam room by the nurse.
“So who have we here?” the nurse asked, looking at Wyatt.
“This is Jenny and Jake’s daddy, Wyatt Lockhart.”
“Right. I think I heard something about the two of you being married.” Her glance went to their bare left hands. “Or, ah,” she stammered, embarrassed to have possibly spoken out of turn.
“No. We are, actually,” Adelaide said.
“And have been for the last ten years,” Wyatt added.
The nurse shot him a look. “It’s a long story,” he said.
She looked torn between bemusement and concern. “I imagine so. Well, get the babies undressed down to their diapers. I’ll be back in to weigh and measure them and then Dr. McCabe will be in.”
“You said they have to get shots today?” Wyatt took his last chance to ask the questions he hadn’t been able to voice earlier.
“Yes,” Adelaide whispered back. “And let’s not talk about it. I get nervous just thinking about it. And I don’t want Jake and Jenny to feel my anxiety.”
The odd thing was, Wyatt was beginning to feel a little worried about it, too. Which was weird, since he’d given plenty of shots to his horses. And never had a problem watching anyone else get an immunization, either.
Lacey McCabe breezed in. The mother of six grown daughters, the veteran pediatrician was known for her warmth and understanding. Which was why, Adelaide had explained to Wyatt the previous day, she had chosen Lacey as their babies’ primary physician.
“So how is it going?” Lacey asked, checking the soft spots on Jake’s head. She looked into his ears and eyes. “Get them on a schedule yet?”
“Sort of,” Adelaide said.
Lacey examined the inside of Jake’s mouth, then his skin. She paused to put a stethoscope in her ears, then bent to listen to Jake’s heart and lungs. The little guy was so patient and cooperative, Wyatt couldn’t help but be proud of him.
Lacey palpitated Jake’s’s abdomen, gently tested the movement of his hips and legs. Then undid the diaper and checked out that area, too. Finished, she handed Jake back to Wyatt and motioned for Adelaide to step forward and lay Jenny on the examining table, which she did. While the nurse took notes, Lacey began the same exam, all over again. “How long are they sleeping at night?” Lacey asked over her shoulder.
Adelaide smiled as Jenny cooed happily up at Lacey. “Four and a half hours straight if we’re lucky. After that, they could wake up again anywhere from two to three hours.”
Lacey grinned back at her small patient as she checked out her navel. “And how long are they awake then?”
Adelaide looked at Wyatt for confirmation. “Usually at least an hour. Sometimes two,” he said. Liking the fact that Adelaide was giving him a chance to participate, too.
Lacey lifted Jenny off the table and gave her back to Adelaide. “Congratulations, Mom, Dad. Everything looks great on both of them. Now, what questions can I answer for you?”
While the nurse prepared the immunizations, Wyatt explained about his learning disabilities. L
acey listened intently. “LDs do run in families, but that doesn’t mean your children will have them. We’ll put notes in their charts, though, to be on the lookout. And if we find any deficiencies we’ll get them the help they need immediately.”
“Thanks,” Wyatt said, feeling immensely relieved to have this out there.
“We appreciate that,” Adelaide said.
“Anything else?” Lacey asked.
Adelaide and Wyatt exchanged glances and shook their heads.
Lacey went into efficiency mode. “Okay, we’re going to get this next part over with as quickly as possible.”
Thank heaven for that, Wyatt thought. He wasn’t looking forward to the shots any more than Adelaide was.
“So what I’m going to do is have Daddy step outside with little Jake while we do Jenny’s immunizations. And then we’ll switch places, and have Mommy step outside with Jenny while Daddy comes back in with Jake.”
The nurse opened the door. Just that quickly, Wyatt found himself out in the hall facing a collage of patient photos, all pinned to the middle of sunflowers. On the other side of the exam room door, he heard Lacey talking and Adelaide murmuring soothingly, followed by an indignant scream and hysterical crying.
Wyatt bit down on an oath. He couldn’t even see anything and already empathetic tears were welling in his eyes. He was supposed to be the man here. His little guy was depending on him; they all were. Working to get it together, Wyatt blinked furiously as little Jake—who had no idea what was coming next—snuggled happily against his chest.
On the other side of the door, another indignant scream pierced the air, followed by more heartrending sobbing. Wyatt paced. Finally, for what seemed an eternity but in reality took only twenty seconds, the crying lessened and stopped.
The exam room door opened. Her eyes swimming with tears, Adelaide stepped out, comforting their little girl. Happy the traumatic episode was over, for Jenny anyway, Wyatt flashed Adelaide a reassuring look, then followed Lacey into the exam room.
“Let’s put Jake here.” She pointed to one end of the cushioned table. “We don’t want Jake to be able to push the syringe away, so you’re going to have to gently hold his hands above his head. Yes, that’s it. The first vaccination is oral, so we’re going to slip it in and let Jake swallow it.”
The Texas Valentine Twins Page 14