Amanda's Touch [D.A.R.E.ing Women] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by LeeAnn Masters

  She’d suffered from nightmares each night from the trauma but wouldn’t speak of those either. Zack had spent every night of her stay at the hospital with her in the most uncomfortable reclining chair in the world. He didn’t care. He wanted to be there to ease the fear of her dreams and to keep her asleep at night as much as he could. He’d lost count of the number of times she roused during the course of a night. She didn’t wake screaming or crying as she used to from the accident nightmares. Now she woke gasping and trembling in terror, her hands on her belly as though to ensure the babies were okay and then reaching out to make sure that Zack, too, was all right. Her overwhelming concern for his safety amazed him. She was still trying to protect him, even in her dreams.

  Thanks to Diane’s steady presence at Amanda’s side during those first horrific days Zack now knew that Amanda would be able to keep the babies. Multiple blood tests verified that her pregnancy hormones were right where they should be, even slightly elevated, due to her carrying twins. Zack was bound and determined to get her back on track, happy, and healthy. He wanted to see her glow.

  “Are you ready to get out of here?” he asked gently, pulling her to her feet. Wrapping his arms around her waist he dropped a kiss on her upraised lips.

  “Absolutely, all I want to do is go home. I want to sleep in a real bed, eat real food, and relax. God, I can’t believe how worn out I still feel.” She laid her head against his chest, closed her eyes, and then snapped them open again. Hmm… “Zack, do you have something to tell me?”

  “You must be feeling at least a little better, you haven’t been able to read me for days,” he murmured. “Okay, so here’s the thing, I should have known I’d never get it past you, but I’d hoped to at least get you to the car before we had this argument.” Zack sighed and prepared himself for battle.

  “I’ve taken the liberty of packing your clothes and moving your personal items to my home. Please don’t get all up in arms, Amanda. I know you can take care of yourself. I know how you like your independence. I know I should have discussed it with you before I did it. But seriously, it’s going to be a pain in the ass trying to do everything with only one arm. Will you please not fight me on this and just come back to my house with me? Just let me win this one round, okay? I’ll feel so much more relieved if I know you’re being looked after, at least short term. So, no arguments, please?” he begged.

  “Who’s arguing?” Amanda asked, smiling slightly. “Do you hear me arguing?”

  Zack’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “No. I don’t. That was way too easy. What’s up?”

  “My house sold. The realtor called this morning and I’ve accepted the offer,” she said simply. “So, I’m going to need a lot more help moving stuff in the next couple of weeks. The couple who bought it wants to close on the sale in two or three weeks.”

  “And just where are you moving to, Mandy?” His voice was nearly a pained whisper as he rested his forehead against hers. Where was she going, he wondered? Why hadn’t she told him? “Are you still thinking of moving to Florida?”

  “Well…” She stopped to tease him some.

  “Where are you going?” he demanded. As Zack’s eyes filled with pain she realized that the games were over. She simply couldn’t believe the man still felt so insecure about their relationship.

  Reaching up to brush a long lock of hair from his brow she answered “I’m going home with you, Zack. Remember you said, ‘Mandy, I want you to consider this your home too.’ Does that offer still stand?”

  As a rush of pure pleasure and relief swept through him he took her hand and brushing her knuckles with his lips he replied fervently, “Forever.”

  * * * *

  The immediate weeks following the traumatic hostage taking and shooting had been difficult ones for both Amanda and Diane. About a week after Amanda’s release from the hospital Zack had decided that she might be healthy enough to deal with it and had finally gathered together enough courage to hand her the documents given him by Rachel. Amanda hadn’t even had to open them. As he placed them in her hands he saw her eyes become distant and unfocused and she’d sat unmoving for nearly twenty minutes as her talented mind scanned and analyzed what she’d “read.” Zack hadn’t left her side during the reading, he’d only held her hand waiting for a sign from her that she wanted or needed his help.

  He’d been most concerned about her anger at his having pursued her biological parents despite her warning not to, but she hadn’t been angry. She hadn’t even seemed overly distraught by the news. She’d only nodded once to herself as though what she’d already guessed had been confirmed to her. Then she’d quietly told him she had to make a call and left the room. Beside himself with worry, he’d waited impatiently for her to return as she’d obviously wanted some privacy.

  Forty-five minutes later she’d returned telling him that Diane was on her way over and his initial response was to be glad that she’d have her friend there for support. She’d also brought with her that same Baby’s 1st Year album she’d rummaged through her closet for that one day. Apparently, she’d remembered some remarks her mother had written in the album and Amanda’s and his conversation about the Lombardi twins’ kidnapping while on the mountaintop had triggered her own investigative and intuitive tendencies.

  “According to my mother I was adopted at six months of age, in June. She used this as a diary of sorts and wrote more than the normal dates, kind of stuff,” she’d informed him. “She mentions, several times, in this album how early I did things.”

  She pointed. “Here at my adoption she says, It’s amazing, holding her little body close to mine how much she already feels like my own daughter. One staggering thing is the number of teeth she already has, but I’ve been assured some children get them early.”

  Turning another page, “And here…Crawling already? Wow! My little girl is already a go-getter and only six and a half months old!”

  Paging through Amanda pointed again. “Another note…She’s running and speaking many words…I’m truly fearful. Amanda is only ten months old! Right? I’m beginning to wonder and plan to contact the adoption agency. I have some concerns that their data is incorrect, but perhaps I’m just being paranoid. What happens if I question too closely?”

  “And look here…” Amanda turned to the end of the album. “My Mom wrote, I’ve tried to contact the agency from whom I adopted Amanda. They’ve closed up shop. No forwarding contact information is available. I wonder but have no way to verify anything. I’ll just enjoy her and leave well enough alone.”

  “All of this would account for the age discrepancy. I just had to take a closer look at what she’d written. I’d never fully read through it before. If I am one of the Lombardi twins then I would have actually been nine months old, not six months, when Lana adopted me. I only wonder where I was for the six months between the kidnapping and the adoption.”

  “My God! Amanda, what are you going to do?” Zack reached out and pulled her into his lap. “Babe, what do you want me to do?” He stroked the waving silky mass that fell down her back and absently trailed his fingers through it.

  When she replied, “I don’t know yet, Zack, I need to talk to my sister first,” he was floored.

  “Diane?” he ventured tentatively not sure how he knew but again, feeling he almost “read” the thought directly from Amanda.

  She nodded, her face grave. “Diane…”

  Through those next few bittersweet weeks the DNA tests had proven Amanda and Diane to be the Lombardi twins. Their given names had been Melissa and Lauren respectively. The officials had discovered years previously that the Lombardi’s nanny had been part of a black-market adoption ring. The nanny had never been caught and many of the children had never been located.

  It didn’t seem as though either Amanda’s mother or Diane’s parents had knowingly been involved, all the paperwork had looked official. Lana, of course, was already dead and so couldn’t supply any answers as to her suspicions.

  Di
ane’s parents had gone above and beyond the call of duty to supply all the information they possibly could to help in the twenty-eight-year-old investigation. They’d been horrified and hurt by the knowledge that Diane had been stolen from her rightful parents and they’d been horrified and hurt that they might lose their only child, and their upcoming grandchildren.

  In looking at her own Baby’s 1st Year album they had notated the same discrepancies as Amanda’s mother had. The first year ending with a similar note that they’d tried to contact the adoption agency only to find it closed.

  The Lombardis had been overjoyed to finally find their long-lost twins. Because Amanda was orphaned and already so close to the family it had seemed very natural to her to absorb them into her life officially. She continued to call them Derek and Jillian, out of habit, and Zack hoped that might change with time. He wanted her to have a mother and a father. She remained closer to Derek than to Jillian but Zack wasn’t sure if that was because she’d spent more time with Derek due to the accident or because she still felt a loyalty to Lana.

  Zack could now understand the man’s compulsion to help Amanda after the accident and to continue to build a relationship with her and Diane thereafter. Some part of him must have known they were his daughters.

  Diane was having a harder time dealing with it all. Even though she, too, was fairly close to the Lombardis she couldn’t accept them as Mom and Dad, especially when the ones who had raised her were alive and well. She was working on it though and that was all any of them could do.

  Between Amanda and Diane’s hodgepodge of feelings about the kidnapping and the Lombardis’ desire to get to closer to their daughters there was a lot of psychopathology there that would probably take years to straighten out, if it ever was. Regardless, Derek and Jillian left their arms open for both daughters and tried not to push either of them.

  Adam had been ecstatic. He, Amanda, and Diane, spent a great deal of time together getting to know each other, and bonding as siblings, and Zack was jubilant that Amanda finally had “family.” It was very strange to see the interaction of the three who should have grown up squabbling and scrapping with each other. Though Adam was two years older than Amanda and Diane, and Amanda was five minutes older than Di, there was no birth-order characterization. Each had been raised as an only child and each carried those characteristics. Each was stubborn, independent, strong-minded, and opinionated. Not a one of them would back down in their good-natured arguments.

  Zack and Adam got along very well and Amanda frequently found them in the backyard putting golf balls, or grilling and drinking beer around the pool. That was a good thing because Adam and Becca were fast becoming a couple and Amanda saw some good things in store for them.

  Jillian had gotten together with Diane’s adoptive mom Renee, and along with Claire, Cara, and Becca planned a double baby shower for Amanda and Diane. Derek and Jillian couldn’t believe their good fortune. They’d found their girls and their girls were happy, healthy, prosperous, and pregnant. That was more than they’d hoped for all those years ago when they’d been taken. If they couldn’t have their daughters, at least their daughters had been loved. Zack thought that was a pretty good way to look at it. Nothing would ever bring back the years that had been lost to all of them but looking forward would allow them to enjoy what they did have, each other and the future.

  It had been Jillian who had helped cross Joshua and his army buddy Andrew over. Amanda hadn’t had the strength to handle it after the shooting and Zack wouldn’t allow his family to approach her to harass her about it. Jillian had been happy to help out and since she’d had so much experience dealing with the stress and strain involved she’d also been able to advise and guide Amanda in handling her own evolving gift in that area. Derek, too, had pitched in to help Amanda with her growing telepathy and Diane with her healing talents. Adam also had been happy to help his sisters get a firmer grasp on their abilities.

  In mid-August Zachary officially proposed to Amanda during a barbeque at their home. Surrounded by both families, who’d been in on the secret, he’d gone down on one knee, ring in hand, and asked Amanda to be his wife. She’d cried tears of joy, gotten down on her own knees and held out her hand.

  “Together,” she whispered. He slipped the two carat princess cut diamond set in platinum onto her finger and then grabbed her in a bear hug and kissed her breathless.

  * * * *

  September 20

  They stood on the beach at sunset, in Boca Raton, surrounded by their close friends and family. Amanda’s grandparents, Frank and Margaret, were in attendance as were Zack’s parents, sisters, and nieces, who had acted as flower girls for the ceremony. Accompanying Cara was Jared McGinty, who hung on Cara’s every word and movement. He was already growing close to Emma and Lissie and they both adored him. Accompanying Becca was Amanda’s brother, Adam, who was as equally entranced by Becca as Jared seemed to be with Cara. Amanda’s father had given her away and her twin sister had acted as matron of honor, for the second time. Eric had stood as best man for Zack.

  Zack’s hands tightly gripped her own, as if to say he would never let go, as the pastor pronounced them man and wife.

  “You may kiss the bride!”

  Amanda tipped her smiling face up to accept her husband’s kiss and promptly forgot about their gawking guests as that kiss deepened to near indecency and he pulled her tightly against his muscled frame. Giggles, titters, and throat clearings finally separated the duo long moments later.

  Zack whispered for her alone to hear, “I love you so much there aren’t words to describe it, and, by the way, happy birthday, babe.”

  “My White knight,” she declared, gently caressing his face. “I love you more than you’ll ever know,” she whispered in kind. Her eyes sparkled with that love and with the depth of her happiness, she literally seemed to glow.

  Epilogue

  March 16: Eighteen months later

  “Di, would you mind giving that chili a stir while I change Jill and David and lay them down for their nap?” Amanda rushed down the hall with one squirming toddler tucked under each arm, as Di promised she would stir the pot.

  “But when you get back it’s my turn. Melissa and Lauren are soaked and crabby too!” Diane called after her. She looked over her shoulder at her girls, who had decided to paint themselves with their SpaghettiOs, and opened up a box of wipes to clean them up. They were long overdue for a nap and all four of the one-year-olds were exhausted.

  Each woman had four cribs and four highchairs set up at their respective homes, for ease of visitation, and she’d be laying her girls down in one of the upstairs bedrooms upon Amanda’s return. Diane couldn’t wait to put them down for their naps. She and Amanda were exhausted from cooking all day and from chasing all four toddlers. Why did they all have to learn to walk so damned early? She wondered with great fatigue. And, why the hell was she so frigging tired all the time lately?

  Both Melissa and Lauren had walked at ten months old, and Jill and David had seemed to have taken that as a challenge because within a few weeks they had both begun walking at nine months old. The two-month age difference between the sets of twins hadn’t seemed to hamper them. Each of the four was teaching the others bad habits, and they almost seemed like siblings instead of cousins. She had to have Amanda read the babies to determine exactly who did it when there was no obvious culprit to a mishap. God help them, they were really going to have their work cut out for them when they all became teenagers!

  Amanda set David Zachary down in his crib and then wrangled Jillian Hannah into a new diaper. Swapping out the babies, she then changed David who was kicking up quite a ruckus at having his wet bottom and private parts exposed to the cool air.

  “David, really…” she fussed at him. “It’s better this way than to sit in it and get diaper rash!” Finally, she managed to get the boy buttoned back into his sleeper. Giving him a tender kiss on top of his thick thatch of black hair she laid him down and plugged a
pacifier in his mouth and stroked his soft cheek. He wouldn’t sleep without the pacifier, she knew. Not that the boy slept much! She smiled down at him. “Get some rest, little man.”

  “Jillian, come here, baby girl,” she picked her up and kissed her as well “You’re a smart girl! You know that a clean bum is better than a rash right?”

  Jill smiled at her and said, “Yesh!” and clapped.

  “Well, yes of course!” Amanda agreed with her daughter, and grinning told her, “You are so right!” Running her hand over the baby-fine red curly hair she said, “And you, young lady. You need some rest as well.” She handed the baby her pink silky blanket that she required in order to sleep.

  Caressing the girl’s cheek one last time she smiled down on her. She’d known the moment the nurse had handed Jilli to her that she contained the soul of the first daughter she’d lost. Hannah’s spirit had been born into Jillian, and named for Amanda’s biological mother. Somehow it seemed fitting that the spirit of her and David’s daughter be housed in the body of her and Zack’s child.

  Strangely, it had been Zack who had suggested that their son be named after Amanda’s first husband. Zachary had hemmed and hawed over his reasoning but then firmly stated that it was David, after all, who’d brought them together. Naming the boy after him seemed the least they could do. Amanda, only slightly tearful and more than grateful to David, had softly agreed, and so her baby boy had been christened David Zachary. One man had redeemed her soul when at her lowest point she’d tried to cast off her life. The other had redeemed her heart and made that life worth living again.

  Amanda quietly closed the door behind her and prayed the pair would drift off. Nap times tended to be a challenge these days. She hurried back to the kitchen to relieve Di of cooking duty. The whole crew was coming over tonight for Jill and David’s birthday dinner, all the sibs on both sides and the parents too. She smiled thinking of her mom and dad, who couldn’t wait to play with both sets of twins.