by Mary Stone
She didn’t smile back. Yawning, she dragged herself out of the car. “Hi,” she said, sounding tired to her core. “Sorry I’m so late.”
“Tough meetings?”
Linc watched as she trudged up the stairs, not even bothering to pet the dogs as they swarmed her, wanting attention. She muttered something under her breath that he couldn’t make out.
He followed her inside, and she would’ve let the screen door slam in his face if he hadn’t lunged forward to catch it and head in after her. “I made beef short ribs. Your favorite. I didn’t eat because I wanted to wait for you. It’s in the microwave, but I can just heat it up.”
She stood there, about five steps inside the entry of the farmhouse, like a Kylie statue. After a minute, she startled and seemed surprised to see him standing there. “Hmm?”
“You hungry?” he tried again.
She wrinkled her nose. “No.” Yawned again. “Tired. I need to sit down.”
She went to the couch and didn’t just sit. She collapsed, sprawling out on it. Since Vader had torn up the old sofa, they’d replaced it with this gigantic one. It was big enough that the two of them could usually lie together on it while watching a movie. But the way she was lying there, occupying most of it, it was clear she didn’t want company. Actually, she looked like she was preparing for her final rest, lying on her back, her hands clasped over her stomach. She closed her eyes.
He sat on the coffee table across from her. “Did you make any breakthroughs in your case?”
A worry-crease appeared on her forehead, so he took it as a “no” even before she shook her head. “Wild goose chase. I feel like I’ve been hit by an eighteen-wheeler.”
“Well, just rest. Maybe you’ve been pushing it too hard or picked up whatever bug I had. You should probably just stick around here and get some paperwork done tomorrow,” he suggested.
She opened one eye and focused on him. “Can’t. Have an appointment tomorrow.”
“You want me to go with you?”
“No,” she said, almost before he got the question out.
All right, then.
“How about I get you a glass of wine and some dinner? You need to eat something.”
“No wine,” she said quickly. Too quickly. She cleared her throat and smiled. “I’ll never wake up. Water, please, and…” she cracked open one eye, “maybe some of your short ribs. I really do love them.”
He went to the microwave and heated up the ribs, then poured her a glass of sparkling water. As he was doing that, he called to her, “Jacob stopped by.”
“Oh?” The word ended on a yawn. “I’m sorry I missed him. How is he doing?”
“Great,” he called as he took the steaming plate of ribs out of the microwave and set it on a tray. “He and Faith are getting married, believe it or not.”
He lifted the tray and took it into the living room, setting it down on the coffee table.
“And he asked—”
He stopped.
Kylie was fast asleep, breathing heavily. Just short of a snore.
So much for a quiet dinner together.
He pulled the old afghan that had survived Vader’s rampage from the back of the sofa over her, tucking her in. Then he took the tray back to the kitchen and covered her ribs up for leftovers. He sat down in the kitchen, eating the gourmet meal he’d made for two, all alone.
12
Kylie woke up with a start, after a dream that had doctors with probes reaching into her stomach and yanking her baby away from her. In it, the doctors had their faces covered with masks, and a bright light was shining down, practically blinding her. She’d managed to shove them away and rip off one of the masks, only to recognize the face as Linc’s.
When she’d woken up, her heart was pounding in her chest.
She found herself down in the living room, covered with a blanket with six dog faces staring at her. She remembered leaving Southern Hills Child Welfare and getting into her car, going home, talking to Linc briefly, then…
Then…nothing. She must’ve fallen asleep.
Rubbing her head, she sat up, smelling fresh-brewed coffee and toast. It smelled kind of odd, almost rancid, but she’d noticed everything smelled differently now. As bad as it smelled, she still wanted coffee. She stood up, realizing she was still wearing yesterday’s clothes, and as she straightened, felt a screaming pain rocket up the side of her back. Grabbing it, she massaged the muscles, but as she stood, she realized she couldn’t fully straighten.
Was this that round ligament pain she’d read about on the Babycenter website? And if so, why was it coming so early? She thought it was supposed to happen later.
She walked like an old, hunched lady to the kitchen. “I pulled a muscle,” she muttered to Linc, who was chewing on a piece of toast and paging through his phone.
“Yeah? I probably shouldn’t have let you sleep on the couch,” he said, studying her as she tried to stretch, wincing as she straightened a millimeter at a time. “I tried to get you to come up, but you were dead to the world.”
Still rubbing her back, she poured herself a cup of coffee. Lifting it to her lips and blowing, she squinted to see the time on the microwave. Slowly, the blurred numbers came into focus. It was ten o’clock.
“Holy shit! Is that the time?”
Linc nodded.
She set her mug on the counter without ever having taken a sip. “Shit! My appointment is at eleven!”
Somehow the panic wound up overshadowing the pain in her back, because she flew up the stairs, took a quick shower, shaving her legs the best she could, and threw on a dress and sandals. She tied her wet hair up in a bun and ran for the door.
“Wait. Where are you—” Linc was saying as the screen door slammed behind her. She didn’t wait around, because she knew anything she said to him would be a lie, and she’d much rather just avoid the question.
But Linc was on her tail. It was only when she got to the Jeep door that she realized she’d left her keys in the house. He followed her, holding them up.
“Is this for Elise’s case?” he asked as she snatched them away.
She shook her head.
“Everything okay?”
Kylie nodded and blurted. “Of course. I’m just going to go and…have lunch with my mom. You know how crazy she gets when I’m late. She’ll probably think I’m in a ditch somewhere.” She felt herself blush at the lie.
“Oh. All right.”
Like a good husband, he opened the door for her and kissed her cheek as she sat in the driver’s seat. Then he slammed the door when she was settled and waved goodbye, wishing she had come up with a better lie. She went to lunch with her mom often, so it made sense, but he could easily call Rhonda and find out she wasn’t where she said she’d be.
Miraculously, she managed to get to her OB-GYN’s office in downtown Asheville five minutes before the scheduled appointment time. She walked into the busy waiting room, a little out of breath—she felt like she was always out of breath these days—and gave the receptionist her name. After finding an empty chair, she rubbed her sore back muscles as she settled in.
Finally having the chance to relax, she thought about yesterday. She’d only meant to devote a bit of time each day to her “hobby” case, and yet she could effectively say that yesterday, she’d socked every second of her time into finding Elise Kirby’s baby.
That was bad. Work was probably piling up at home. She checked her work email and realized she had over two-hundred unanswered emails, most of them follow-up on worker’s comp surveillance cases for Impact Insurance. Those were the cases Greg used to handle, but since she’d taken over the business, she’d come to dread them. She needed to attend to those, since they were the major source of the company’s profits.
But god, they were dull. She yawned, just thinking of them.
She’d have to suck it up. She needed to ensure that Coulter Confidential was in the black this month. By any means necessary. Even if it bored her to death.
She silently made a pledge that, after her appointment, she’d go back home and get the paperwork and billing out of the way. That would help. Maybe she wouldn’t feel that knot tightening in her chest so much after that.
Her eyes trailed across the waiting room, to a visibly pregnant woman, her hands cradled around her belly. A man sat next to her, his arm around her exhausted looking shoulders, nervously paging through his phone.
As she watched them, she wished with every fiber of her being that Linc was at her side. Maybe she should have told him.
No. Not yet.
She’d already determined that, while she was still trying to make a go of everything in the business, she couldn’t. She needed to see to Elise’s case first too. The second he knew that she was pregnant, he’d start insisting she cut down on the stress. Elise’s case would probably be the first to go.
Not that she’d made much progress with it.
She thought of Leda Butler and the way she had smelled. Recalling the heavy scent, her empty stomach flip-flopped, and she nearly gagged.
Great. She hadn’t had a thing to eat. And Babycenter said that was why morning sickness happened. Empty stomach.
Before she could lose what little was in her stomach, a woman next to her leaned over and handed her a small package of saltines.
Kylie took them, surprised. The woman was her age, maybe a bit older, and had a kind smile. She didn’t look very pregnant at all, and was dressed fashionably, unlike Kylie, who’d just thrown on any old thing.
“Been there,” she said to Kylie, patting her own belly. “This is my third.”
Her third? Oh, Lord Jesus.
“How did you know?”
The woman laughed. “Your first, right? You look scared to death. I was the same my first time.”
Did she look terrified? Probably. Blushing, Kylie ripped open the package and nibbled on a cracker, noticing the woman’s husband on the other side of her.
In fact, as she looked around, she noticed that most of the pregnant women had their significant others with them. And here she was, alone. Why had she decided to do this alone, again?
“Kylie?”
Startled, Kylie looked up to see a woman in scrubs standing in an open doorway. “Come on back.”
Thanking the kind woman again, she pushed to her feet, her heart galloping in her ears. The nurse led her to a small room where they weighed her—god, where had those extra pounds come from?—and took her blood pressure. Then she was herded to an examination room, where she was told to go into a bathroom and pee in a cup.
She was so nervous this time, she had no trouble peeing, almost overflowing the small container. She placed the cup in a little pass-through so that it could be tested as directed. Then, feeling like a cow being led to slaughter, she went into the exam room and changed into the hospital gown she was handed.
Dressed in the paper-thin moo-moo of a gown, she sat on the exam table and answered the approximately three thousand questions the nurse asked before enduring the blood pressure cuff attempting to squeeze her arm off.
“Everything looks good,” the nurse said. “Dr. Ling will be with you shortly.”
“Shortly” was a relative term when it came to doctor’s offices, and Kylie had finished her saltines, flipped through a couple magazines, and was attempting to make an origami stork from the paper she was sitting on when a knock sounded on the door and Dr. Ling appeared.
“Hi, Kylie. We haven’t seen you here in a while. I hear you have good news.”
Was it?
Tears burned in her eyes as doubt and fear and joy and hope collided together into a soup of emotion she couldn’t name.
“Well, I hope it is…” she said dumbly, then made a sound that was supposed to be a laugh. “It’s a surprise, so…”
She didn’t know how to finish, so she just closed her mouth before she burst into tears.
Dr. Ling tapped on the tablet in her hand. “Well, we checked your urine sample and there’s a definite sign of increased pregnancy hormones, so let’s do an examination, then we’ll get an ultrasound and take a peek at your surprise.”
Kylie stiffened. “So soon? I didn’t know you’d…is everything all right?”
The doctor nodded. “Oh yes. It’s perfectly normal in our practice. I like to do an ultrasound early in the pregnancy to ensure everything’s as it should be and to get an accurate gestational age.” She placed a stethoscope to Kylie’s chest. “Take a deep breath.”
Kylie inhaled the first deep breath she’d taken in what felt like days. It made her a little lightheaded, but it also cleared her mind.
She really, really wished that Linc was here.
Five minutes later, the exam was over, and Dr. Ling smiled. “Everything looks good so far. Hold tight and an ultrasound tech will come get you.”
Approximately a thousand years later, the tech knocked on her door. She led Kylie to a darkened room and asked her to lie down on a table. Dr. Ling appeared at the tech’s side just as Kylie was about to ask why she had to put her feet in stirrups.
“We’ll be doing a transvaginal ultrasound, Kylie, to confirm several important details, most notably the location of the baby in your uterus and a more definitive due date.”
Kylie didn’t know what that was until she saw the long, white wand that looked like a dildo. The ultrasound tech rolled a condom over the wand then slathered it with what looked like K-Y Jelly.
Now, she was very glad that Linc wasn’t here.
The tech smiled. “I’m just going to insert this. It shouldn’t hurt.”
She took a deep breath as the foreign object slid inside, and she bit her lip, focusing on the screen to her left.
Dr. Ling stepped closer to the screen as the tech moved the wand about a bit, and then pressed a button on the keyboard as she studied the screen. Suddenly, the room was filled with a loud, squishy sound. It sounded vaguely alien.
“What is that?”
“It’s your baby’s heartbeat.”
Kylie swallowed. It sounded so strong. So good. So amazing. There was a tiny living being inside her, growing and thriving. She held back tears as she listened to the sound of its life fill the air. It sounded sweeter than any sound she’d ever heard.
And she wished that Linc was there.
“I’d say you’re six weeks along. And…ah, just as I thought,” the doctor said as the tech pressed more buttons on the keyboard. “You had very high hormone levels, so I suspected that—”
Kylie met the doctor’s grim face with alarm. “Suspected what? Is everything okay?”
“Oh, it’s fine. But see these two shapes here? It means you’re having twins.”
The doctor brought up another picture, which looked like an empty, slightly bean-shaped bowl. At the very bottom of it, there were two very tiny round tadpoles.
Her babies.
“Oh,” was all she could say. Two babies.
Twelve dogs. Two babies. One Kylie. One Linc. A failing business. And a partridge in a pear tree, in the smallest little madhouse on a hill.
And now Kylie really couldn’t help it. She lifted her hand to her face and started to sob.
Kylie spent the next few hours in a daze.
Twins.
Twins. Twins. Twins. Twins.
She repeated it to herself so much, the word started sounding funny and lost its meaning.
How had this happened? Didn’t twins run in families? Linc didn’t have twins in his family, did he? She didn’t think her family had ever had any either. Double babies. How was her womb doing this to her?
One baby was frightening enough. But two? How could they manage all that? Her mother, Rhonda, had told her how difficult it’d been, just raising Kylie. And Kylie, of course, had been the sweetest little baby that’d ever existed. Yes, Kylie would have Linc, but she’d also have a number of other worries on her hands, including the business. How could she possibly handle all of it? She could barely handle herself.
And a husband.
And a farm.
And a multitude of dogs.
And a business. A dying business.
Heart still pounding in her chest, she found herself walking the downtown shops of Asheville, ending up at the Emporium, where crafters sold their wares. She knew she should probably be looking for practical things like baby booties and nightlights and nursery fixtures and things like that, but instead, she focused on a butterfly suncatcher. She purchased it as a split-second decision, then felt even worse for spending money she hadn’t made herself.
She straightened her shoulders. She needed to stop feeling sorry for herself and actually do something practical before she landed herself and Linc in the poorhouse.
She needed to be positive. She needed to believe in herself and her abilities. She needed to believe that she and Linc were the perfect team who could make this all work.
It would be great, living on the farm with twins. And all the dogs.
Maybe they should put the puppies up for adoption. Let Linc train them as he’d planned, then let them go do good in the world.
She needed to stop thinking so crazy and use her head instead of her heart, at least some of the time.
By the time she got home, it was after three. She pulled up to the front of the house to find Linc working in the backyard, repairing the kennels, wearing gloves and shorts and hiking boots, swinging his hammer expertly at a nail.
He stopped for a minute to wave at her. She waved back, love filling her insides as he started swinging the hammer again.
He did work hard, what with all of his training seminars, rescues, and keeping up the farm. Yesterday was one of the first days in a long while that he’d had time to go to lunch with her and relax. How could she possibly ask him to work any harder?
She went to the fence and draped her arms over it, watching him. His bare chest was tan from all his work in the sun, and he had a baseball cap on that made him look like a teenager. Funny, he was looking better and younger every day, as if marriage really agreed with him. She hated the thought of what she might look like in another few months. Like an old enormous hag, most likely.