His Twin Baby Surprise

by Patricia Forsythe

  From conversations she’d had with Lisa, she knew her daughter had been involved with much of the town’s improvements. Although Maureen didn’t quite understand why Lisa had stayed in Reston—and was now acting mayor—when she could have made a success of herself anywhere, she was proud of her girl’s accomplishments.

  There were a couple of fast-food restaurants and Margie’s Kitchen, which Maureen remembered as delicious but often a surefire route to heartburn. A chain drugstore had been built on the corner of Main and Holmes. Maureen pulled into the parking lot and went inside.

  She tugged a shopping cart from the lineup and began perusing the shelves, looking for her favorite brands. It was time to color her hair again as inch-long graying roots were showing. As she picked up a box of hair color to read the label, someone spoke from behind her.

  “You’ve got a lot of nerve,” a woman said.

  Maureen glanced around, though she was sure the woman wasn’t speaking to her. A short, dumpy woman about her own age stood, hands on hips, glaring at her. There was something about the look in those fierce eyes that Maureen recognized. But she couldn’t place her.

  “You heard me, Maureen Thomas,” she said, stalking closer. “You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

  Alarmed, Maureen stepped back. “Do I know you?”

  “Yeah,” she said, jerking a thumb toward her own massive chest. “Dorcas Poole.”

  Maureen couldn’t help the way her jaw dropped or stop her stunned gaze from traveling the morbidly obese figure from head to toe. “No,” she said. “It can’t be.”

  Dorcas’s lips hardened and her eyes turned into piglike slits. That was an expression Maureen recalled all too well.

  Dorcas had been the beauty queen of Reston High School and also its biggest bully and meanest Mean Girl. Maureen Thomas, who’d lived in a junk heap with her strange parents, had often been the target of her bullying. It was obvious things hadn’t changed.

  She tried to ignore Dorcas as she turned away, dropping the box of hair color into her cart and grabbing a bottle of shampoo as she rushed past, heading toward the toothpaste aisle.

  Dorcas stalked along right behind her, her girth causing the shelved products to vibrate as if caught in an earthquake. “Don’t try to ditch me. You’ve got a lot to answer for—leaving your baby like that, running away.”

  With a gasp, Maureen swung around. “That’s none of your business.”

  “It’s everybody’s business when scum like you gets knocked up and then sneaks off, leaving her baby for her parents to raise.”

  “You didn’t care anything about my parents. You didn’t even know them. And I doubt you know Lisa, either.”

  “I know she’s done good for herself, no thanks to you.” Dorcas planted her hands on her enormous hips, completely blocking the aisle. Behind her, another woman started to walk their way but, spotting Dorcas’s aggressive stance, whipped her cart around.

  Maureen was so stunned, it took her a few seconds to form words. When she did, they burst out as if from a volcano. “And I’m sure Lisa’s success is no thanks to you, either, Dorcas. I have no doubt you were as mean, spiteful and judgmental toward her as you’ve always been to me—and everyone else, for that matter.”

  “I tell people what they need to hear.”

  “No, you bully people to feel better about yourself. You always have.”

  Dorcas’s face turned purple with rage. She started toward Maureen, who turned her cart to block the aisle, and fled. As she hurried from the store, tears started into her eyes. She should have stayed out of sight. Dorcas wasn’t the only one in town who would hate and judge her for what she’d done. No matter that so many years had passed, so many lives had changed. She would always be the stupid girl who’d gotten pregnant and then abandoned her baby. The worst part? That was how Maureen saw herself.

  * * *

  “LONG, SLOW GRAZING, Ben, that’s what they need,” Zach Littletrees said as he and Ben moved among the herd. A few of the horses gave them curious looks, but mostly ignored them. “You might want to experiment, plant different varieties to see what’s best for ’em. ’Course, they’re used to being wild, eating and running, so they’re not going to be expecting much attention from you.”

  “That’s good,” Ben answered. “I didn’t intend to be a farmer.”

  “You want them to thrive, don’t you?”

  “Well, of course. But I’ve always planned to get a good manager to keep an eye on things, since I’ll be gone a lot.”

  Zach shrugged. “Yeah, Jason told me that and I gotta say good luck. You might find someone responsible enough to take good care of your place while you’re gone, but you’ll have to pay for it. The best managers already have jobs and the ranch owners who need one are usually happy to pay for them.”

  Ben nodded and rubbed his chin. It was turning out that there was a lot more to this business of raising wild mustangs than he’d thought. He’d had some vague idea that if they were wild, they wouldn’t require much care. However, when a person was trying to help preserve a strain of horses, attention had to focus on health and bloodlines.

  Zach changed the subject. “Occasionally you’ll come across a horse that’s smarter than you are,” he said, moving his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. “In that case, you have to learn from them rather than the other way around.”

  “Oh? How so?” Ben frowned.

  He usually took notes when Zach spoke, but this time he hadn’t been planning on a lesson. Yet one little question was all he’d needed to ask and Zach was off and running, talking about horses he’d trained all over the Western and Midwestern states, and waxing poetic about the ones he’d loved the most.

  “Now, Little Lupita was the smartest mare I ever saw. She was a mimic. She would watch me and try anything I did. Caught her trying to climb over the corral fence one time because she saw me do it.”

  Ben got a kick out of listening. Zach’s stories were fascinating. Zach was proud of his Choctaw heritage and had plenty to say about it, but he had two favorite subjects—horses and women.

  Since he’d been at Riverbend Ranch, Zach had checked every horse in Ben’s small herd, done some doctoring and begun to make notes on which ones would make the best cow ponies and which mares should be bred. He got an amazing amount of work accomplished, considering he was out late every night and had a whirlwind social life. He never seemed to suffer any ill effects from it, though, and was always ready to go in the morning.

  “That sweet girl right there—” Zach pointed to Tailspin, mother of Prince’s Folly “—reminds me of Little Lupita. Got the same type of markings but she’s a darker brown.”

  Zach had brought Ben out to begin showing him how to care for the herd. A few good rains and warm days meant spring grass was coming up and the horses were happily grazing the hillsides. It hadn’t taken Zach long to realize Ben knew almost nothing about raising the animals he’d bought. Although they’d always had horses when he was growing up, and he’d learned to ride when he was young, they had been his father’s hobby. Ben had always been more interested in sports than in horsemanship. Besides, the big quarter horses and thoroughbreds his father had owned weren’t like the Choctaw Mustangs. These horses were compact but strong.

  “Well, boss,” Zach said, turning to walk back to the new four-wheeled vehicle Ben had purchased for ranch use, “I’m ready to quit for the day. Got a new lady friend in town who’s promised to make me some dinner. I’m hoping she cooks as good as she looks.” He winked and clicked his tongue.

  Ben slid in behind the wheel and started the engine. “Zach, you’ve got more girlfriends in more places than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  “Well, thank you, Ben. I admit that I like the ladies.”

  “You never saw the need to settle down?”

  “Sure did. Go
t married three times and it was a mistake every time. I’m not skippin’ down the aisle again in this life. As long as I’ve got me a job and a home—” he jerked his thumb toward the neat little Airstream “—and I’ve got good friends who like to have fun, I’m happy. And that’s what life’s about, right? Being happy?”

  Ben gave him a quick, sidelong look. Well, maybe there was more to it than that.

  “Do you have any kids, Zach?”

  “One daughter. She lives in Atoka. She grew up there, raised by her mother, my first wife. I see her a couple of times a year. She’s married. Got one—no, two little boys.”

  Ben frowned. Of course, Zach had been working in the north end of Arkansas for many months, so maybe he hadn’t had time to go see his family. Still, Atoka was less than an hour away.

  Ben planned to be gone a lot and he didn’t want to interfere with how Lisa raised their child, but he hoped he saw the kid more than twice a year.

  “Anytime you want to take a couple of days off and go see her, Zach, feel free to do that. I mean, family is important.”

  Zach gave him a look that didn’t encourage any further comment on the subject.

  Ben tried to think of a change of topic. “Did you like working in Arkansas?” He knew there were some things Zach had liked since three of them had followed him to the Riverbend to make sure he arrived safely.

  “Yes. Yes, I did. Nice people. ’Course I did have a slight disagreement with one gentleman.”

  “Oh, about what?”

  “His wife. Apparently she didn’t take her marriage vows as seriously as he did and she’d neglected to inform me he might take exception to her dating another man.” Zach shook his head. “Mind you, that’s the kind of thing you usually find out before the first date.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, she and I were in her living room and things were gettin’ interesting when he came in the front door swinging an Arkansas toothpick.”

  Ben was familiar with the deadly knife. “What did you do?”

  “I told the lady good-night and went out the back door.” Zach scratched his ear. “’Course, I’d left my boots behind, but the husband was nice enough to return them to me. Found ’em on my doorstep, cut to ribbons.”

  Ben stared at him. “You left her with her husband swinging a knife?”

  “Did I mention she was a professional wrestler? She’d already taken the knife away from him by the time I made it outside, but I guess she gave it back so he could take care of my boots. She called me, said they were going to marriage counseling.”

  “I should hope so.” Ben didn’t like this new glimpse into the other man’s life. “You lead an interesting life, Zach.”

  “Yup, and that’s the way I like it. Always something to do. New places to go and new people to meet.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Ben said, then thought, Sounds like me.

  When they reached the house, Zach hopped out to get ready for his date, but he turned back.

  “Say, you probably know the lady who’s cooking me dinner tonight. Name’s Millie Hardy.”

  “The secretary at the high school?”

  “Yeah. She’s not married, is she?”

  Ben thought about the much-married Millie and shook his head. “Not this year.”

  Zach grinned, showing the gap in his teeth. “Good to hear.” With a wave, he hurried home.

  Still mulling over Zach’s eventful life, Ben parked the four-wheeler, closed the barn and went inside. He had promised his mom he would come over for dinner, and she wouldn’t like it if he was late, although she would just chalk it up to him getting involved in something and forgetting to call her. However, she’d promised to use the last of the peaches she’d canned last summer to make him a cobbler and he knew he might have to arm wrestle his dad for it.

  Later, as he drove into town, Ben’s thoughts turned to Lisa. He hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, but he’d heard that Harley was doing well at the cardiac center. If he was feeling better, that meant he wasn’t fretting over what was happening in Reston, which Ben took to mean Lisa was doing a good job. He’d like to know how the budget meeting had gone, but she had made it clear that she didn’t want him meddling in what he considered to be a crazy-making exercise in futility. It was true that he hadn’t been in town much, but what he knew about the members of the city council told him Lisa’s dealings with them would be far from easy.

  On the other hand, she was right that it wasn’t his business. She was an adult, a savvy businesswoman who successfully managed everything in her life, from what he could tell.

  Still, when he reached Reston, he didn’t go straight through town to get to his parents’ place, but turned onto the side street where the city hall and county courthouse stood, along with the jail. He slowed his truck to a crawl as he rode by and frowned when he saw that the only vehicle still parked in front of the building was Lisa’s sedan. The only light shining in the building was on the second floor right—the mayor’s office.

  She was deadly serious about this job she had taken on. If she decided she liked it, would she want to run for mayor, serve a full term? It was entirely possible because, as he’d already noticed, she was devoted to this town.

  Ben pulled into the space beside Lisa’s car and sat with his motor idling, his wrists perched on top of the steering wheel. He didn’t like the idea that she was all alone in the building.

  Although he knew she wouldn’t thank him for it, he decided to at least do a quick check of the front door, make sure it was securely locked in case some nutcase staged a jail break. He grinned, remembering how she’d broken him out of jail all those years ago.

  Ben turned off the engine and stepped out of the truck. Everything was quiet on the street, which saw little activity except when there was a meeting at city hall or a hearing at the county courthouse—or if a bunch of rowdies needed to be locked up.

  He climbed the twenty steps to the front door, smiling at the memory of Coach Allen making the football team run through town, up and down every set of stairs he could find, including these.

  Ben grabbed both door handles and pulled. Finding them locked, he muttered, “Good,” then leaned forward and cupped his hands around his eyes to see into the foyer. A staircase rose to the second floor, where city offices were.

  All appeared to be quiet until he saw movement at the top of the stairs. Suddenly he could see Lisa, running back and forth and waving her arms in the air.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “LISA! LISA, OPEN the door!” Ben pounded on the glass doors, waved his hands in sweeping arcs and shouted, but she continued to dash to and fro, flailing her arms. He could also hear her yelling, although he couldn’t make out the words.

  Determined to help her, he turned and looked around. The windows were too high off the ground for him to try to climb in, so he dashed down the stairs and ran around back. If he couldn’t find a way in, he’d go to the sheriff’s office for help.

  At the rear entrance he saw that the window in the top half of the door was glass. Hoping it wasn’t thick safety glass, he pried a brick from the flower bed border and smashed in the window. That immediately set off an alarm, but he ignored it, knowing it would bring help but fearing they might be too late for Lisa. He used the brick to break out the remainder of the glass and reached in to unlock the dead bolt and open the door.

  Crunching over broken glass, he darted through the dimly lit downstairs hallway to the back stairs. Taking them two at a time, he ignored the twist of pain in his knee and arrived at the top just as Lisa made another run across the landing.

  Since her arms were in the air, and her head was down, she didn’t see him until he reached out to snag her around the waist and pull her to safety.

  Lisa shrieked and ducked away, but Ben, who had spent many years
taking down running men and catching flying objects, had a firm grip around her waist. At that moment his thigh muscles clenched in sharp spasm and the two of them tumbled to the floor. A sickening thump told him he hadn’t managed to catch Lisa’s full weight.

  The alarm suddenly fell silent, the lights came on and thunderous steps pounded up the front staircase.

  “Okay, buddy,” Junior Fedder said from the top of the staircase. “Move away from the lady and let me see your hands.”

  “Junior, ih-hih...it’s...muh-hee,” Ben wheezed, trying to catch his breath while gutting out the pain shooting from his leg and gingerly move Lisa, who was a dead weight. She also seemed to be struggling for breath.

  “Ben?” Junior rushed over to them, followed by another deputy. “What are you doing?”

  Before he could answer, Lisa groaned and reached up to grab her elbow, then touched her head. “Oh, what happened?”

  When she removed her hand, blood streaked across her palm.

  “Lisa, are you all right?” Ben asked.

  “Ben, what did you do to her?”

  “I was trying to save her! Call the paramedics. She’s got a head injury.”

  Another deputy, followed by Sheriff Held, pounded up the steps to join them.

  “What’s going on?” the sheriff asked.

  “I’m still trying to determine that, sir, but Mayor Thomas is injured.” Junior unhooked his radio.

  But before he could make the call, Lisa reached out to stop him. “Mayor Thomas is just fine, thank you very much, considering she just got tackled by a two-hundred-pound linebacker,” she said, sitting up all the way. “I don’t have a head injury. I’ve got an elbow injury. See?” She held up her arm where a bright rug burn oozed blood.

  Sheriff Held drew his breath in with a sympathetic hiss of pain as he reached down and gingerly helped her to her feet. “You okay other than that?”