Secret Christmas Twins

by Lee Tobin McClain

  He noticed the fine sheen of sweat on her upper lip as she emerged from the back seat with Teddy, and he extended a hand to help her down. Teddy dropped a toy, and when she bent to get it, the diaper bag on her shoulder spilled out half its contents.

  “Oh, man,” she said, “I’m a walking disaster today.”

  “Slow down.” He squatted to pick up a diaper, a container of wipes and a plastic key chain toy and handed them to her. “I’m sure this parking lot is cleaner than some people’s tabletops.”

  The day was cloudy, but the temperature was above freezing and the piles of snow were starting to melt, making the streets sloppy. Here, though, the parking lot was clear and dry.

  “You know,” she said as they carried the boys inside, “I’m still not sure this is such a good idea. I won’t be able to come back here to get them any treatment.”

  “Dr. Chen does consultations for people from all over,” he reminded her, wondering why she still seemed resistant. “She can refer you to local practitioners and therapists.”

  “And I don’t have any of their medical records.”

  He held the door for her. “Why not?”

  She hesitated. “They’re back in Arizona.” She didn’t look at him, intent on studying the wall listing of offices. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to move. I have some stuff in storage. Oh, there’s Dr. Chen. I guess we go to office 140.”

  “Did something happen in Arizona that made you decide to move?” She never talked about the twins’ father, except to mention that he was in prison and had no claim on the twins. But a breakup would explain why her decision to move had been sudden, and also why she was so skittish with men. At least, with him.

  Although her skittishness seemed to be fading, which was very, very nice.

  Still, his detective instincts were aroused, just a little, by the way she avoided answering his questions. But then Mikey dropped his pacifier and started to cry, and Teddy let out a few sympathy wails, and it didn’t seem to be the moment to probe.

  Inside, the waiting room was plush and quiet. Despite the small box of toys and the shelf of children’s books, it didn’t look much like a pediatrician’s office. One other couple was waiting, and a mother had a sleeping baby in a carrier. Diplomas and awards lined the walls.

  When they approached the receptionist, she greeted them cordially and smiled at the twins. “You must be Erica Lindholm. With Mikey and Teddy?”

  “That’s right,” Erica said.

  “I’ll just need your insurance card.”

  Erica bit her lip. “We’re paying privately. Do I need to prepay?” She fumbled in her purse.

  “It’ll be taken care of.” Jason slid the woman a credit card. “I’ll handle whatever needs to be paid for today, and you can send the bill to the address I’m going to write down for you, if you have a piece of paper.”

  The receptionist lifted an eyebrow as she handed him a notepad and pen. “Here you go.”

  “Jason!” Erica hissed. “What are you doing?”

  He finished writing down the address, handed the woman his credit card and turned to her. “Don’t worry about it. The officers in my precinct always pick a Christmas charity for children, and this year...”

  “We’re your Christmas charity?” she interrupted. “Are you serious?”

  She walked over to a seating area near the toys and sat, putting Teddy down to crawl.

  Jason finished his transaction and brought Mikey over. “I thought you might be happy. Did I do something wrong?” Even as he said it, he knew where she was coming from; independent as she was, she wouldn’t necessarily be thrilled at accepting the gift.

  “I don’t feel right about accepting charity. I mean, I’m going to own half that farm. I won’t need that kind of help, and it should go to someone who does.”

  “You need it now, and the guys were looking for an opportunity.” He touched her hand. “Accept it in the spirit it’s given. It’ll help the babies.”

  She looked down at Mikey, then Teddy, and then she nodded. “You’re right. Thank you.”

  “Mrs. Lindholm?” a nurse called at the door.

  Erica stood, hoisted Mikey and the diaper bag, and squared her shoulders. When she didn’t turn to get Teddy, Jason took it as an invitation to join the appointment. He picked up Teddy and followed her in.

  “Let’s weigh and measure them right here.” The nurse was a broad-faced, no-nonsense-looking person in scrubs. “They’re fifteen months? Were they preemies?”

  “Only by three weeks.”

  The nurse made a notation and then passed a tape measure around Teddy’s head, then measured him from heel to the top of his head. “Just a few questions before you see the doctor. Let’s talk food. Breastfed, bottle fed?” She looked inquiringly at Erica.

  “Ummmm...breast?”

  Odd that her answer sounded like a question.

  “How long?”

  “Just a couple of months.”

  “Okay. And when did they start on solids?”

  Erica opened her mouth and then closed it again.

  The nurse turned from the computer to face her. “I asked about solid food. Is there a problem?”

  Erica closed her eyes for just a moment. Then she opened them. “Look,” she said, “there’s a whole period of their lives that I don’t know much about.”

  Jason tilted his head, wondering if he’d heard that right.

  The nurse’s lips flattened. “And why’s that?”

  Erica sat up straight and gave the nurse a level stare. “I’d rather hold the rest of my discussion for the doctor.”

  “But our protocol is for me to—”

  “Can the doctor see me even if I don’t answer all of your questions?”

  “Ye-es...”

  Jason felt like his world was spinning off somewhere he didn’t understand. He’d never seen gentle Erica act quite like this.

  Well, actually, he had. When she was defending her kids.

  “Then I’d rather save the rest of the interview for the doctor herself.” Erica didn’t look his way.

  Something was definitely going on here.

  The nurse looked at him as if to say, can’t you control your wife? But he didn’t rise to the bait. If he admitted he wasn’t any relation to Erica and the kids, he’d probably be sent out into the waiting room. And despite her huffy attitude, he had the feeling Erica needed support.

  “Fine.” The nurse stood. “Follow me.” She stormed down the hall and flung open the door of an exam room. “The doctor will be in shortly.” She slammed Erica’s folder into the plastic holder beside the door and stomped off.

  Erica went into the exam room and he followed behind, Teddy in his arms. “So what was that about, how there’s a period you don’t know about? Did you just not like her attitude, or...” He didn’t want to contemplate the other alternative. That she didn’t remember because she’d been in some way out of it, in trouble personally or with the law.

  He’d known people with big blackouts in their pasts, but drugs or alcohol were usually involved.

  She’d set Mikey down on the carpeted floor, and now she lifted Teddy from his arms. “Jason.”

  There was a funny tone to her voice. “Yeah?”

  “I’d like to speak to the doctor alone.”

  “Of course, I can leave after—”

  “No, I mean now.” She lifted her chin. “I don’t want you here.”

  The words shocked him. He’d thought they were getting closer, thought that she liked and needed him. He wanted to hear what the doctor said about Mikey and Teddy.

  And why would she—

  “So could you leave?”

  She was standing there with her shoulders squared, facing him, but she wasn’t meeting
his eyes.

  “You want me to leave.”

  “Yes, please.” She glanced up then, and he saw that her eyes were a little shiny. “If you don’t want to wait around for me, it’s okay. I can call for a ride. A taxi or something.”

  “Car seats?” He shook his head, backing out of the room. “No. I’ll be outside.” He turned and spun out of the room.

  He walked right through the waiting room and outside. Goodbye, softhearted nice guy. Welcome back, Detective Stephanidis.

  In the windy parking lot, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. “Hey, Brian,” he said a moment later. “Could you do a little bit of investigating for me?”

  * * *

  An hour later, Erica sat in the examining room with the two babies cuddled on her lap. “I realize that you might have to report me,” she said to the white-coat-clad doctor in front of her, “but I hope you won’t.”

  Dr. Chen tapped a pencil on the table. “There’s such a thing as doctor-patient confidentiality, and I believe in it. On the other hand, I’m required to report any situation where a child is at risk.”

  Erica nodded, dismayed. She was making one move at a time here. She’d only thought of kicking Jason out of the pediatrician’s office this morning. If he wasn’t there, she’d realized, she would be able to be completely honest with the pediatrician.

  And she had been. She’d spilled the entire story: what she knew of Kimmie’s pregnancy, of the early months with the twins, of their father and of Kimmie’s relapse.

  And she’d explained all the things she didn’t know.

  Dr. Chen had listened and watched the twins on the floor. She’d asked questions, held out toys for them to grasp, listened to their babble. Her forehead wrinkled with focus, her questions for Erica pointed. Erica didn’t find her awkward at all, as Carla had said; she was just very, very intense.

  Finally, after about twenty minutes of observation, Dr. Chen had nodded briskly. “Teddy’s just about to crawl, and that mobility will help his mind develop,” she’d said. “But he’ll come along faster with some physical therapy. Speech, too. Mikey...” She’d studied Mikey’s feet again, bent his legs at the knees, rotated his ankles. “He may just go directly to walking. His muscle tone is pretty good.”

  “I’m so relieved that you think they’ll be okay,” Erica said. “Look, I know there are probably a million ways I could have done better with the twins. Maybe I should have stayed with Kimmie, let them be taken into foster care. I just...” She shook her head. “I’ve been in foster care, and I know how wrong it can go. I know how siblings can be separated. And Kimmie didn’t want that for them. So...I did what she told me to. I brought them here.”

  “Do you think she was trying to get them back together with her family?”

  Erica shook her head. “For whatever reason, she didn’t want her brother to find out. She thought he was hostile, judgmental. And...I realize now, she was ashamed of having them out of wedlock, and she didn’t want him to know. He idealized her, you see.”

  “Why did you bring the twins here,” Dr. Chen asked, “knowing you might be reported?”

  Erica shrugged, her arms still around the boys. “Once they were able to get me the appointment and I thought about it and prayed about it, I knew I had to do what was right for the twins.” She met the woman’s steady brown eyes. “I know you’re the best, and I want the best for them. They need to get started on early intervention, like you said. If I didn’t tell a specialist—tell you—everything I knew about their past, they could suffer for it.”

  The doctor held her gaze, then nodded. “From what I see at this moment, the twins are loved and well cared for.”

  Erica’s breath went out in a sigh of relief.

  Dr. Chen held up a hand. “However, if you decide not to get them the help they need, now that you know more about it, I would consider that to be neglect.” She leaned forward. “You’re going to have to come clean about all of this, you know. Their need for medical attention will be ongoing. Nothing in medicine is inexpensive.” She glanced at the chart. “Even without seeing test results and writing it up, I know they’ll need therapy. Speech and physical, at a minimum. That’s not cheap.”

  Erica nodded. “I know, and I mean to go through their mother’s things and contact the hospital where they were born, do a little digging. I need to... I need to let their other relatives know about them.”

  “Is the man who accompanied you one of those other relatives? Or is he just a boyfriend?”

  “He’s a relative.”

  “The courts might leave them with you, even once your lack of formal guardianship comes out. Unless there’s another relative claiming them. Just keep doing what you’re doing and after the holidays, when you can get all the testing done and I can analyze it, we’ll figure out a program of treatment.”

  * * *

  As they exited the turnpike and headed toward Holly Creek Farm, Erica breathed a sigh of relief that this hard day was almost over.

  It had been an uncomfortable ride home. Jason had rushed them back to the house after the doctor’s appointment with literally not a word, his face set and angry. Then he’d headed off to testify while she got the twins ready to go home.

  He hadn’t spoken except for short, efficient communications since they’d gotten in the car.

  He’d taken off his overcoat but was still in his dark suit, white shirt and thin tie, and he looked so handsome he took her breath away.

  And she’d ruined any chance of being with him.

  The moon made a path on the snowy fields and stars sparkled above. A clear, cold night. As they rounded a corner on the country road, she couldn’t help drawing in a breath. “This is where I went off the road, right?”

  “Yep.” He didn’t volunteer more.

  But emotions flooded Erica. She’d been desperate then, worried about Kimmie, not knowing where she’d land with the twins, not knowing if she could manage them.

  Now she was half owner of a farm and she’d started to become part of a community. Sad, because she’d lost Kimmie, but stable.

  A big part of why was Jason.

  They were almost home. There wasn’t time for a full discussion and she recognized her own cowardliness in that. But she had to say something. “Look, Jason, I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t speak, didn’t look over. Just steered the truck.

  She looked back and saw that the twins were still sound asleep. “I’m sorry about shutting you out. You’ve been nothing but kind to us and...I’m sorry I had to do that.”

  He was silent a moment more, and then he glanced over. “I’m trying to be an adult about this, but I don’t understand.”

  “I just... There are some things about the twins’ early months that are private.”

  “You said you didn’t remember. Was that true?”

  She thought. Should she just tell him now? But no, they were only a few minutes away from home and Papa would be there, and the twins would wake up...

  “Is it their father? You’ve never really talked about him and I’ve respected your privacy, but did he do something to you or them? Because that can be prosecuted. He should have to pay. Let alone pay child support, but to cause a blank out of months or to cause delays...”

  “No, it’s not that.”

  He fell silent. A waiting silence.

  She couldn’t form the words.

  “I thought we were building something together!” He hit the steering wheel and stepped down on the gas.

  She cringed. “Be careful! The twins!”

  Immediately, he let up on the gas. “Sorry. I’m angry and upset, but that’s no way to act.”

  He was going to be really angry when he found out the truth. “I’ll talk to you about it tonight,” she said. “There is something y
ou need to know about their background, and I...I promise, I’ll tell you.”

  She was promising herself, too.

  Jason pulled into the parking place at the rail fence in front of the farm.

  The house was dark.

  Jason frowned. “Wonder if Papa had something to do. He didn’t mention it.”

  He turned off the truck, opened the door. She opened hers, too.

  And looked at him. “Wouldn’t the dog...”

  “I have a bad feeling. Let me go in first,” he said.

  Protective to the core, and why should that surprise her?

  He went inside, and from the way his hand moved under his suit jacket, she knew he carried a gun. But she also knew he was safe. She trusted him with that gun. She watched as he disappeared inside. He flipped on lights, and she saw him moving from room to room.

  Papa must have gone somewhere. They were being overcautious. Surely that was all it was.

  Still, she felt lonely and vulnerable, just her and the twins in the cold truck. She slipped out and into the back seat between their car seats. Cramped, but she wanted to be there when they woke up.

  Father God, she prayed, help me to tell Jason the truth. And then she prayed what she hadn’t dared to this morning. And if it be Your will, let me be with him, Lord. I love him. Keep him safe.

  He wasn’t coming back out. Her prayers got more fervent. Keep him safe.

  The twins were stirring.

  She loved them so much.

  Jason didn’t emerge. Should she go to him?

  She opened the door, torn as to what to do.

  Then, suddenly, she heard an explosive sound, not from the house but from somewhere off beyond the barn.

  A gunshot.

  Chapter Eleven

  The sound of the gunshot crashed into Jason’s consciousness. He ran out of the house, and Erica met him beside the truck.

  Papa. If Papa were hurt...

  “It came from the barn area, maybe beyond,” he told her. “I’m going out. Take the twins inside and lock the doors.”