The Twin Test

by Rula Sinara

  “Nanny Number Three insisted we were little devils,” Ivy said.

  Pippa couldn’t help but laugh when Dax grinned.

  “Maybe she was seeing angels in disguise.” Pippa gave them a conspiratorial wink.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m a firm believer that education is never wasted,” Dax said.

  Pippa fought the urge to hug him. She had always considered the years she’d spent studying for her degree as wasted because she associated them with her broken relationship with Haki. She’d followed him to Nairobi and picked the first major that occurred to her. All that mattered at the time was being near him. But Dax was right. It hadn’t been wasted. It hadn’t been all about Haki. She’d earned a degree. An education. She swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “Thank you for saying that,” She said.

  “He always tells us that. Especially when we complain about math,” Fern said, setting a rock down and picking up another.

  “Yeah,” Ivy said.

  “It’s true. Even for math,” Dax said, giving their braids a playful tug. It was good to see him—them—like this. For all his rules, Dax’s heart was in the right place.

  “We’ll never use math in real life, though,” Ivy said.

  “I use it all the time. Tons of it. I’m going to bet you will, too, at some point,” he said.

  “We’re not going to study earthquakes or do surveys like you do,” Fern argued.

  “Shh! You’re going to ruin everything, big mouth,” Ivy muttered, slapping a hand over her eyes.

  Pippa stilled. Land business?

  Something dark and distant seemed to wash over Dax’s face.

  “You’re a seismologist?” Why didn’t he just say so from the start? Why lie about it?

  “Hard to believe?” The corner of his mouth twisted.

  “No? Maybe? I’m just surprised. You’d said you were here on business and I was given the impression you didn’t want to say more. Then the girls mentioned land business and, no, I wasn’t digging. A lot of business types come out here intent on setting up the next-best lodge, or capitalizing on the demand for safaris and such. I just assumed it was something like that. Maybe an investor or even an architect, maybe. I tend not to ask parents of my tour kids what they’re here for. It’s prying, you know? I took what you told me at face value.”

  I trusted you.

  “Well, now you know. And you, Fern and Ivy, don’t have to follow in my footsteps unless you want to. You can grow up and chase whatever makes you happy,” he said, turning the attention on them.

  Pippa caught herself staring at him. Her lips parted, but nothing came out. He was encouraging his daughters the way she did with the Maasai girls. She appreciated that, but at the same time, he seemed anxious to change the subject. Why?

  “Are you doing some type of research out here?” she pressed. “Are we in for a big one?” She recalled the strange ripple she’d felt when Adia was reading. Maybe it hadn’t been her imagination or the heat.

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “It’s just that, for a seismologist, you don’t have much equipment. Only your laptop and that duffel bag.”

  “I have a team. They camp at the research site in trailers. None of them has kids.”

  “Then why didn’t you say so?” Business...land...seismologist... It hit her out of nowhere. “Oh my god. You work for the petroleum industry. You didn’t want to tell me because I made my family’s stance on environmental issues clear. But you needed my cooperation.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t know what to say or think.” She pressed her hands to her eyes.

  “Girls, why don’t you two go wash up for dinner.” He closed the sample box they’d been looking through. The twins glanced at each other. “Now.”

  Pippa waited for the twins to disappear into their room. No doubt they’d be listening in, but they knew more than she did anyway.

  “Which one? Which oil company?”

  “Erebus Oil.” Dax sat at the edge of his bed and had the decency to look upset with himself.

  “Erebus. Darkness and shadows. Born from chaos. How appropriate.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner,” he said.

  “Why in the world would you become an earthquake expert only to go work for a company whose actions increase tectonic activity? It makes no sense.”

  “Why would you get a degree in geology and not use it?”

  “Maybe money doesn’t motivate me.”

  “Maybe you don’t have the same responsibilities that I do. Besides, I remember your finding my money very convincing when I approached you about watching the twins.”

  “I save every penny I make so that I can build schools in Maasai enkangs to give the children an education. Particularly the girls. Many of them come from such traditional families that they can’t leave their tribe to pursue an education. They often don’t have the rights or the skills to determine their own futures. I want to change that. The time I spend teaching in rural villages is meaningful. I consider those children—girls who would otherwise be married as soon as they hit puberty...girls not much older than yours—my responsibility.”

  Dax bore his eyes right through her.

  “So you follow the moral path and I don’t.”

  “I think you can make that call yourself,” she said. Blood was pounding in her ears.

  Why was she taking whom he worked for so personally? Because she cared about the environment? Because she cared about how the twins were being raised? Or was it because the Dax she’d been building up in her head, the one she’d been falling for, had suddenly vanished and the real one was standing in front of her? She glanced back toward the room. She heard a shuffle and whisper. “We shouldn’t be discussing this now.”

  She didn’t have the energy to argue. She felt drained and disappointed in everyone and everything.

  Dax worked for Erebus. Her entire family had joined forces with local and international environmental groups in a failed attempt to keep Erebus from acquiring the rights to drill in the area years ago.

  And it was obvious Dax had instructed the twins not to say anything. Everyone had kept the truth from her, just like Haki and Maddie had tried to keep their feelings for one another from her.

  She had been utterly humiliated back then. She’d been such a fool. So maybe it was a good thing she’d found out now who Dax truly was. She didn’t think she could survive losing her dignity again. This was the reminder she needed.

  Her heart was off-limits, and she planned to keep it that way.

  “I have to go now. It’s getting late.”

  She rushed out and closed the front door behind her, then leaned against it and let out a breath.

  He’d lied to her. Lying by omission was just as bad to her. She covered her face. Had she imagined the pull between them? Was she still just as inept at reading men as she’d been when she thought Haki wanted to marry her? He’d lied to her by omission, too, only it had been about his feelings. She had zero tolerance for lying. If she had one requirement in a guy, it was honesty. She needed to extinguish even the tiniest bit of curiosity she’d had about him. From now on, she wouldn’t so much as put her hand on his arm.

  She started toward the lodge’s foyer and the exit. She had a long drive ahead of her.

  And she needed it to purge her head of Dax.

  DAX SLUMPED DOWN on the edge of his bed. He’d really screwed up this time. The look of shock and disappointment in Pippa’s eyes just about killed him. Ivy walked out of her room and sat in the desk chair across from him.

  “I thought you told us never to lie.”

  “I did. I still do.”

  “Then why did you ask us not to say anything about the company you work for? Which for the record, Fern almost did mention it to Pippa. She can’t help herse
lf.”

  “I can so help myself,” Fern said, coming out to join them. “I didn’t say where he worked. Just what he does for work. There’s a difference,” Fern said, joining them.

  “I’m not lying, girls. Sometimes you don’t have to divulge private information. That’s not the same as lying. It’s simply not anyone’s business.”

  “But she’s not a stranger anymore. And now she might not come back,” Fern said. Her chin quivered.

  “I know she’s not a stranger. I had every intention of explaining everything after I saw what a good person she was. A friend. I guess I held back because I didn’t want to disappoint her. She comes from a long line of environmental and animal advocates. They tend to frown on the oil industry. Honestly, girls, I don’t know if she’ll quit or not.”

  “You really think she’d leave us? Even after the time we’ve spent with her?” Ivy pulled her heels up on the edge of the chair and hugged her knees.

  “Think about it, Ivy,” said Fern. “Mud in her hair, the batteries, the—”

  Ivy made big eyes at Fern.

  “What batteries?” Dax asked.

  “Nothing,” they both said. Too quickly.

  He narrowed his eyes at them. Had they been up to their usual pranks again?

  If they had been, it said a lot that Pippa hadn’t bailed on them yet. She hadn’t mentioned any misbehavior. The henna. She’d handled things herself with the henna. He rubbed his palms against his jeans. What if she didn’t return? Ivy and Fern would never forgive him. They’d never connected with anyone else the way they had with Pippa. Then again, she wouldn’t be in their lives forever. The twins knew they’d be heading back to the United States when Dax’s contract finished. Still, he hoped Pippa wouldn’t quit. The last thing the twins needed was to feel unworthy or that anyone they liked...or loved...would disappear on them the way they always had in his own life. It was enough they’d lost their mom.

  “I’m sure she really likes you two. What she’s upset about has nothing to do with you. If she quits, it’s my fault, not yours.” The girls sat there quietly with sullen faces.

  “Hey, you two. How about we go get dinner and not worry so much? She didn’t say she was quitting when she left. She has tomorrow off. I bet she’ll miss you too much to quit.”

  They looked at him with a glimmer of hope.

  “Okay then. Let’s go,” he said. He got up, and ruffled the tops of their heads. “Front door or back and around outside?”

  “Outside for sure,” Fern said.

  “Hang on. Can we take the two stones with all the mica?” Ivy asked.

  “I guess. So long as you don’t throw them at anyone—or anything.” The girls had a tendency to pocket the samples he brought them as good-luck charms. It made him happy that they actually got excited about his bringing them rocks. It had become a tradition over the years. Odd gift, but it somehow mattered.

  Ivy whispered something in Fern’s ear, then they grabbed their samples from the box and pushed past him into the garden.

  “You two aren’t up to no good, are you?”

  “Us? Come on, Dad. You heard Miss Pippa. We’re angels.” Fern sent him the sweetest smile. He was going to have gray hair before they turned thirteen. Thirteen. Heaven help him. How was he ever going to survive the teen years?

  The aroma of cumin, cardamom and something mouthwatering he couldn’t quite identify wafted through the air and enveloped him. He was starving. The girls had to be, too. They’d stuck to this vegetarian thing of theirs, but were still being picky about eating. He was tempted to use bribery just to get them to try something spicy and new.

  They grabbed a table in the outdoor seating area, and Dax stretched his aching legs out and crossed his ankles. The sun was hanging low, and the first streaks of red cut across the sky like threads of saffron spice.

  “There he is,” Ivy told Fern. She motioned toward Alim, who was standing beside a young fig tree, still bushy in size. The waiter was plucking ripe figs and putting them in a bowl that he carried in the crux of his arm. He seemed to sense the presence of the twins and looked over his shoulder apprehensively. He winced, and Dax bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. The girls, seemingly oblivious to Alim’s lack of enthusiasm for their presence, waved madly at him. He trudged over.

  “I’m actually not on duty, but I’ll have a waiter come to your table right away.”

  “Wait, we have something for you. Hold out your hand.”

  The poor guy looked at them like they were nuts.

  “I don’t trust you. I value my hands.”

  Dax chuckled.

  “Think of it as a test of courage,” Dax said. “I doubt they’d do anything too atrocious right under my nose. Right, girls?” He gave them a pointed look.

  “We’re not playing a trick,” Fern said.

  “Come on. We have a present for you,” Ivy said.

  Alim unfolded his free hand slowly and held it out palm up. The girls plopped their mica rocks in his palm. He stared down at his hand.

  “These are rocks. You’re giving me rocks?”

  “Not any rocks. They sparkle. We’ve decided that you’ve got sparkle, too. You just don’t like showing it, so you pretend that you’re a dull rock,” Ivy said.

  “But you’re not, really, and you can’t stop us from being your friend,” Fern added.

  Alim cleared his throat and raised a brow.

  “Is this because I know where the desserts are kept?” The girls shook their heads in disbelief. Dax shook his head at the girls’ smooth skills. Man, it was easier to catch on when one wasn’t their target. To his surprise, Alim’s face softened for a fleeting moment and he pocketed the stones. “Thank you.”

  “Are you picking those for the kitchen?” Dax asked, eyeing the bright green figs.

  “Not just for the kitchen. We are preparing for the arrival of Djimon Barongo.”

  Dax had no idea who that was, and apparently, Alim could tell.

  “He’s a well-known official. He likes to bring his wife here on holiday once in a while. But we have plenty of figs to go around. Help yourself.” Alim held out the bowl, and Dax took a fig.

  “You girls should really try these,” he said. “They’re sweet. It’s just fruit.”

  “You haven’t had figs?” Alim asked the girls.

  Dax peeled back the soft skin and split his open, revealing the bright red flesh glistening with dew-like drops of honey. Its fresh, sweet scent made his mouth water.

  “Try them,” he said, holding out the halves. The twins declined. Alim smirked at them.

  “And here I thought you two were courageous. You act so daring, yet you won’t taste a piece of fruit. You’re like lionesses who roar but don’t know how to hunt,” Alim said.

  “What’s the big deal? Maybe I’m just not hungry,” Ivy said.

  “The insides remind me of monkey brains.” Fern made a face, and a small vervet monkey cackled at her from a nearby mango tree as if he understood.

  Dax finished off his fig.

  “So good.”

  “One bite and I’ll ask the chef to fry potatoes for you,” Alim dared the girls. “Plain, like your American french fries,” he said.

  That got their attention. Ivy went first with a small bite, then Fern.

  “They’re actually good.”

  Alim gave Dax a nod.

  “If you’d like the usual, I’ll go let them know in the kitchen.”

  “Yes, thank you. And please have the chef put extra eggs and beans on their salads for the protein.”

  Alim walked off, fiddling with the stones in his pocket. Ivy and Fern grinned.

  “He likes us...and we’re getting fries.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A PART OF Pippa was relieved that she had a day to herself, but another part of her mis
sed Ivy and Fern...and Dax. She hated that she missed him.

  Maybe she was falling into her old pattern of one-way relationships and codependence. Like with Haki, who had been more in love with her cousin Maddie than he’d been with her.

  But at least she’d been in a relationship with Haki. Everyone had known they were a couple.

  She didn’t have a relationship with Dax beyond their business deal. So why was she letting her mind wander in that direction? Why did she feel let down and more disappointed than she had a right to be? She pulled her jeep to a stop near Adia’s homestead and yanked fistfuls of her hair as if the tug at her scalp would wake her up and make her more sensible.

  He’s just not that into you. And you’re not into him. He’s not right for you.

  Right.

  Good thing they wouldn’t be around each other today. He could spend time with his daughters and she could get back to prioritizing the children in the area.

  She tucked her keys in the pocket of her khakis, walked over to Adia and gave her a hug.

  “How have you been?”

  “I’m good. And you?”

  She kept her arm around Adia’s slim shoulders, as they walked toward the teen’s mother and the other women who were grinding corn. It struck her how vibrant life here always seemed to be. There was a zest in everything the villagers did, from the rhythm of their work, to their traditional jumping at weddings and celebrations to their colorful clothing and jewelry. It was such a stark contrast to Dax’s life with the twins, or at least Dax’s part in it. The twins’ escapades were essentially repressed zest.

  She caught sight of the single book that Adia was holding onto the way one would hold something precious. A reminder that maybe the girls here were repressed in a different way. Maybe life here buzzed on the surface but underneath it all there were issues. Marrying young. Female excision, though it was illegal. Lack of educational opportunities. Two different worlds, yet, she wasn’t so sure getting through to Adia’s father would be any easier than getting through to Dax.