The Trouble with Twins

by Nancy Warren

  Maybe it was the smarmy, lying e-mail that had made her see so clearly the difference between him and Seth. Maybe she was simply over him. But that morning she’d gone and bought herself a wedding dress.

  “Why? Why is yellow a happy color?” Alice wanted to know.

  “Well, it’s the color of sunshine, and butter, and what else?”

  “Bananas?”

  “Good one. What else?”

  “Your hair?”

  She chuckled, tweaking a lock of Alice’s bright hair. “And yours.”

  While they played an impromptu color game, she sliced the shortbread squares that the kids all loved. Dinner was in the oven. They hadn’t discussed it in the rushed phone call, but she assumed Seth would stay for dinner when he came home tonight.

  In a little more than a week’s time, they’d be married and then he’d be coming home for dinner every night. Excitement and a little skitter of nerves filled her at the thought. Please let this work out.

  They had tickets booked, a hotel on the beach, and now she had found a dress. A simple, long, sleeveless dress in primrose. Such a happy color.

  She was pulled out of her reverie by the doorbell.

  She wiped her hands and walked down the hall and opened the front door. There was a woman on her doorstep and a boat-sized silver Cadillac in her driveway. The woman had on absurdly high heels. For some reason, that was the first thing that Melissa noticed. She wore a stylish, pale gray suit, bleached blond hair in a back combed, upswept style and jewelry glinting off her hands and wrists as she beamed a toothy smile at Melissa and handed her a business card.

  “Mrs. Theisen? I hope I’m not too early. I’m Cindi Thornton.” The woman had a southern accent with a touch of eastern European.

  Melissa stared at her blankly.

  “The Realtor? Seth set up the appointment. I don’t see his car so I guess I am early.” The woman extended a thin hand with cinnamon-colored nails, and Melissa was so stunned she took it. She felt like she was going to have her home sold out from under her by Zsa Zsa Gabor.

  “Seth made an appointment with a Realtor? Seth O’Reilly?”

  “Sure he did. Did he forget to tell you about it? Honestly. Men.” She smiled, displaying big preternaturally white teeth. The woman could be a walking ad for Crest White Strips. “Congratulations, by the way. I can tell you that there will be a lot of very disappointed women when they find out he’s getting married.”

  “Thank you. But why are you here?” A headache was starting behind her eyes.

  “To put your house on the market, honey. Seth says it’s in excellent shape. In this area and this market?” She flapped one hand back and forth like a middle-aged blond rapper. “It’ll sell in no time.”

  “I think there’s been a mistake, Ms. Thornton,” she said as firmly as she could.

  “Why, that’s just plain Cindi. Cindi with an I. I like to say that’s ’cause I have an ‘eye’ for real estate.” She tittered as though she’d just thought such a lame one up. “And you have a real nice home here.”

  “Thank you. I plan to keep it. I mean, we plan to keep it. It’s Seth’s home that will be going on the market.”

  A sigh, so sincere sounding it could have been genuine, wafted from between thin, cinnamon-colored lips that matched the nails. “I’m getting the feeling you two never discussed this.”

  “Well, of course we—” She stopped in midsentence, then slowly shook her head. “I assumed—”

  “I’m guessing he did the same thing.”

  A curtain fluttered in the Carmody home across the street.

  “Would you like to come in?” She couldn’t stand there explaining this hideous mix-up in front of every nosy neighbor on the block.

  “I’d love to. I’ve always wanted to see inside this house. Real estate’s not only my job. It’s my addiction.”

  She stepped into the hall and Melissa shut the door behind her. “Oh,” she said, putting a hand to her heart. “You baked. You do that every time we have a prospective buyer and the house will sell like that.” She snapped her fingers.

  “Make yourself comfortable in the living room. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to call Seth.”

  “Sure, honey. Don’t worry about me. I’ll just poke around.”

  That’s what Melissa was afraid of. She bolted into the kitchen, took Alice to the den and flipped on the TV, then grabbed her phone. She called Seth’s cell but it was turned off. Called his private line at the bank and got his recording. However, she could press 1 to speak to his assistant, so she did.

  “Stella Hornby, how may I help you?”

  “Oh, hi, Stella, this is Melissa Theisen. I’m trying to reach Seth.”

  “Mr. O’Reilly is out of the office. May I take a message?” the frigid voice asked her.

  “I know he’s out of the office. His cell phone’s turned off. I’m trying to—”

  “If you’d like to book an appointment, he has space Thursday.”

  “An appointment, but—no, let me speak to—” Who? Who did Seth talk about at work? Who might actually treat his fiancée like a human being? “Mitzi Youngall. Is she in?”

  “I’ll transfer you,” the arctic voice said.

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” Melissa said sweetly, but her sarcasm was lost since she’d already been transferred. Fortunately, Mitzi answered her phone.

  “Hello. I’m sorry to bother you, but this is Melissa Theisen. I’m trying to reach Seth.”

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Theisen, Seth’s not in the office until tomorrow.”

  Her eyebrows drew together. “I know he’s not. I’m trying to reach him on a personal matter.”

  “Personal?” Curiosity zapped like an electric current across the line.

  “Yes. I’m his…girlfriend.” Stupid term at thirty-five. Why hadn’t she said fiancée? What was the matter with everybody today? What was the matter with her?

  Mitzi squealed. “What? Seth has a girlfriend?” Then she gasped. “Oh, I’m so sorry. That was tactless. I’m…ah, kind of surprised that’s all.”

  “I—uh, I didn’t realize no one knew.”

  “Yeah. Um. Did you try his cell?”

  “Yes. It’s off.”

  “He checked in earlier, right before he got on the plane. He should be back sometime this afternoon.”

  “Okay. If you hear from him, can you tell him I’m looking for him?”

  “Sure will. It was nice talking to you. I hope I get to meet you soon.”

  “Yes. So do I.” When she hung up, she stared sightlessly out of the kitchen window. No one knew about her. No one. It wasn’t only his friends, but the people he worked with every single day. He hadn’t mentioned her or their upcoming wedding to anyone at all. Except the Realtor. What did that say about her importance in his life? Maybe if she weren’t already so wretchedly insecure she could tell herself he was only keeping his private affairs to himself, but after being dumped by one husband, she really didn’t want to be hidden away like a guilty secret by a second.

  She walked slowly back toward the living room and found the Realtor in the dining room along the way. “Lovely wainscoting,” she said, then looked at Melissa and her smile dimmed. Concern took its place. “Please don’t look so worried. This will all work out. Misunderstandings happen all the time between couples. You know, communication is the toughest skill to master in a marriage.”

  “Yes. I know.” And right now the communication she was receiving from Seth was unnerving her.

  “We’ll sort this thing— Ah, looks like we can sort it out now,” Cindi said, and going to the front door, flung it open.

  Sure enough, a maroon Volvo had pulled up and a very tired Seth emerged.

  He took a step, paused, squinted at the Realtor and then at Melissa. He shook Cindi-with-an-I’s hand, gave Melissa a peck on the cheek and said, “I think I forgot to tell you about Cindi coming.”

  “That’s not the only thing you forgot to tell me,” she said as pleasant
ly as she could, considering she wanted to smack him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE CRESCENT WAS EXPERIENCING its after-school rush hour. Kids shuffled, skateboarded and cycled past on their way home. Moms and nannies walked to the school to pick up younger children. With horror, Melissa noticed that Cindi used her boat-sized Cadillac as a rolling billboard for her services. Any minute now, she’d be hailed by some nosy parent or neighbor. She gestured into the house, “Why don’t we talk about this—”

  “Dadd-ee!” came a twin chorus and there were the girls, with Matthew hot on their heels, sprinting toward Seth.

  She steeled herself for the inevitable inquisition about the realty sign on the Cadillac, but they were too wrapped up in greeting their father, in the twins’ case, and his hero, in Matthew’s.

  “Guess what? We’re putting on a play at school and I’m going to try out,” Laura panted.

  “I’m going on the track team,” Matthew reported.

  “Did you see our new room?” Jessie piped up. “Me and Laura and Melissa decorated it ourselves.”

  He’d been grinning and hugging the jumping, wriggling bodies, until Jessie spoke. Then he glanced up with mixed horror and embarrassment.

  “Come and see.” The girls each took one of his hands and dragged him toward the open door where Alice stood, a big smile on her face and her arms upstretched.

  She thought he paused, as though no longer sure of his place, then dragged Alice up high the way she liked. She squealed her approval.

  That left Melissa and the Realtor staring at each other. “Why don’t I let you two talk about things? You can give me a call when you’re ready. I do have the nicest family that would love to locate into this area.”

  “We’ll call you,” Melissa said firmly. Then felt like a bitch. The woman was only trying to do her job, and she’d been pretty decent under the circumstances. “Thank you for understanding.”

  “Honey, I’ve been married for twenty-eight years.” She paused, her car keys glittering in her hand. “Do you want some advice?”

  No. But she nodded to be polite.

  “Go in and let him have it. Have that fight I can see you working up to.”

  “Don’t worry, I intend to.”

  “But don’t let your pride and your hurt blind you to a good thing.”

  “I won’t. Thanks.”

  She followed the gang up the stairs to the room she and the twins had been working on every night he’d been away. She could hear their excitement from here.

  “Isn’t it great, Dad?”

  “Do you like the color?”

  “Melissa let us put the Bravo Boys on our dresser. She said we could bring our clothes over, too. After we come home from Hawaii, this’ll be our new room.”

  “I…uh…” His hand crept to his belly and he rubbed it absently. She could see he was in pain. Well, so was she. “I need to talk to Melissa for a while.”

  “About Hawaii?”

  “In private. Laura, Jessie, take the other kids down and put on a DVD or something.”

  “Melissa always makes us do our homework first.”

  With a distracted air, he waved them away, and Melissa thought she’d never seen him treat them so dismissively before.

  The twins gaped.

  She finally found her voice. Or maybe it was somebody else’s. It sure didn’t sound like hers, with that flat, hopeless tone. “Go watch a movie. It’s okay.”

  “Cool.” They thundered down the stairs whispering and giggling. Melissa was pretty sure she heard the dreaded initials MTV, but today the Bravo Boys seemed like saints compared to the man she was suddenly alone with in the bright apple-green-and-white striped room.

  He walked to the doorway, listened for a moment and then shut the door, closing them in together in the ridiculously girlish room.

  “I don’t know what to say. I assumed you and Matthew and Alice would move in with me. I’ve got plenty of room.”

  “But I’m closer to the school. Everyone’s used to being here.” And she didn’t even mention that the state of her house and garden were a lot more desirable than his.

  It turned out she didn’t need to. “I know my place needs some updating. I thought we’d get a decorator in.”

  “But that’s always going to be Claire’s house.” She thought about the way he’d first taken her to the guest room. “I’d feel like an intruder.”

  His face darkened. “How do you think this place would feel to me?”

  “I never thought about it.”

  “Yeah. It was another one of those conversations we should have had. Forget it.” He flicked a glance at the bright walls. “Your place is fine.”

  But the vise around her heart didn’t ease. “How come when I phoned the bank no one knew who I was?”

  “What?” His surprise seemed genuine.

  “Your secretary offered me an appointment for next week when I introduced myself, and then I got transferred to Mitzi Youngall. You talk about her a lot, so I figured she’d know who I was. She pretty much fell off her chair when I identified myself as your girlfriend.”

  His eyelids jerked as though she’d come at him with a pitchfork. “I don’t talk about my private affairs at work.”

  “You were planning to get married in a week, and you didn’t bother to tell your co-workers? Must have forgotten to pencil it into your Day-Timer.” As she finished speaking she noticed she’d spoken of their marriage in the past tense. Her hands felt cold. She glanced down and noticed they were clenched into fists.

  “Of course I was going to tell them. I’ve been busy.”

  She was working up to mad now. Maybe if she hadn’t been married to Stephen Theisen she wouldn’t be so angry about her fiancé making sure not to mention her to the people in his life. But she had been married to Stephen, and no one was ever going to treat her so lightly again. “In all the time you spend with these people, you never found a minute to say, ‘by the way, I’m getting married in two weeks?’”

  He shifted, looking uncomfortable and sad and confused. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. Frankly, I want to get the whole thing over with.”

  The silence was so heavy she found it hard to breathe. “Getting married is a big deal. It’s a big deal to me.”

  “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. Damn it, Melissa. You know I didn’t.”

  “I know only one thing. I’ll never, ever marry a man who doesn’t love me. Me! Not the babysitter or the corporate wife or the cook and cleaner. Me, Melissa. For who I am.” Her throat was aching and her nose tickled, but she was determined not to cry. Not today.

  “Don’t dramatize a misunderstanding. You know I love you.”

  “Would you want to marry me if you didn’t need a mother for your daughters?”

  His lips clamped together in his anger-darkened face. She could almost hear him mentally counting before he answered. “We wouldn’t have got to know each other if it weren’t for the girls.”

  “No. It was the twins who brought us together, wasn’t it?”

  “So what? Was I supposed to fall in love with you just because you were beautiful and gazed at me with big helpless eyes? I’m trying to do what’s best here for everyone.”

  “What’s convenient you mean. I won’t be anyone’s convenience. Never, ever again. I can make it without your help, thank you very much.”

  “And what about the kids? Are you going to deny them a family because you don’t feel special?” He sneered the last word. She knew he was hurting, but right now she needed reassurance big-time. Sure, he was scared, too. But she’d been planning a wedding, telling anyone she felt like telling that she was getting married again. The only person Seth seemed to have told was the Realtor.

  She sank to the single bed that awaited its green quilt. She felt so cold, she wished the quilt were there so she could wrap herself in its cheerful warmth. “I know this is hard for you. I do understand.” She shook her head, cursing herself for a fool.
“I even knew you weren’t ready. Not for marriage.” She swallowed. “It’s too soon.”

  He sat down on the opposite bed. Finally, they were talking about the real issue. She knew the trouble between them wasn’t about which house they were going to live in.

  “I put Claire’s pictures away. All but one. I have moved on.”

  She smiled a little. She managed that. “I know you have. You’ve come a long way. But we rushed into marriage so we could sleep together without embarrassing our kids. That’s not a good enough reason.”

  “It’s not true, either. We love each other.”

  She met his eyes. “Do we?”

  He shifted, and dropped his gaze.

  “I found Stephen.”

  Seth stood with a jerk, turned away and strode to the window. Stood, looking out. “Where is he?” His voice sounded like it came from a long way away.

  “He’s in the Czech Republic.”

  “You were right, then.”

  “Yes. I found him on the Internet. Can you believe the arrogance of the guy? He didn’t even change his name. He’s got a new business, a new life.” She hesitated. “A new woman. I e-mailed him.”

  “Did he reply?”

  “Yes.”

  Seth still wouldn’t turn around. “Is he coming home?”

  She stared at the line of his spine, so straight, painfully straight. “Could you possibly believe that I would want that man back?”

  “Melissa, I can’t figure out what you want.”

  “I guess maybe I want closure. I want him to…” She petered out. The truth was she wasn’t entirely certain what she wanted from Stephen. Or what was best for the kids. “I want him to take his responsibilities seriously. To pay what he owes us and…” And what?

  “What did his e-mail say?” Seth turned back to look at her, at least, but he still had that remote expression on his face. She knew him well enough to understand he’d locked his feelings away behind that facade.

  “He said he was sorry, that he’d been meaning to get in touch and threw in a bunch of excuses. He’s going to figure something out, he says. He promised he’d take care of us.”

  For a second she glimpsed the swirl of anger and pain in Seth’s eyes and then he clamped his emotions down once more. “And that’s what you want?”