by Marie Force
“My Caro knows me too well.”
“And I have to live with him until you tell us more, so if you can put us both out of our misery…”
Dan laughed. “Got it. Well, he could ask for visitation, and you’d have the right to say no to that as their legal guardians. If he doesn’t like that answer, he could file for custody, but that’s a remote possibility. Keep in mind, he hasn’t been around at all. Lisa never even mentioned him all the times we met about custody and guardianship until I asked about him. She said he wasn’t a factor. There was no request for me to notify him of her death or anything else having to do with the kids. To me, that says everything we need to know about who and what he’s been to them. I honestly don’t think you have anything to worry about. Lisa was very thorough. Maybe she knew it might be necessary at some point.”
“That does make me feel better,” Seamus said, “but tell me this. What kind of standing would he have in court if he were to pursue custody?”
“Much less than you’d have as the legal guardian chosen by their custodial parent.”
Seamus took a breath and released it slowly. “Okay, so…”
“So you need to try to relax and have faith that Lisa took care of things before she died, and her sons are where she wants them to be. That would matter to the court, too, if it came to that.”
“Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t come to that,” Seamus said.
“I’ll do whatever I can to make sure it doesn’t.”
“Thank you so much for interrupting your day for us, Dan,” Carolina said.
“Not a problem. Do you mind if I take this with me?” he asked of the letter.
“No, please do,” Carolina said. “You’ll let us know when you have more info?”
“The minute I hear anything, you will, too.”
Seamus stood to shake his hand and show him out. “I don’t have to tell you what those boys have come to mean to us,” he said when he walked Dan to his car.
“No, you don’t. We can all see how well they’re doing, and that’s thanks to you and Carolina stepping up for them the way you did.”
“We love them.”
“And they love you, too. It’s going to be fine.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
Seamus waved as Dan drove away, and was still outside, breathing the heavy humid air, when Hope’s car pulled into the driveway, bringing his boys home. His heart did a happy jig at the sight of the boys in the backseat with Hope’s son, Ethan, who was their best friend. The doors flew open, and boys exploded out of the car like they’d been shot from a cannon. Right behind his boys was their dog, Burpy, who went just about everywhere they did.
They were all talking at once, but he picked up bits and pieces about pizza, swimming, the dog finding something dead in the field at Ethan’s house and a treehouse that Ethan’s stepfather, Paul, was building for him, and could he build them one at their house, and how many more days of vacation did they have before school started.
That covered the first two minutes they were home.
“Whoa,” Seamus said. “Everyone slow down. One question at a time.”
“How many more days of summer vacation?” Kyle asked, his missing front teeth giving him an adorable lisp. He had a scab on the end of his nose from when he’d face-planted last week while playing football in the yard.
“About twenty or so,” Seamus said.
Kyle groaned. “That’s too soon. Why can’t every day be summer vacation?”
Jackson and Ethan pumped their fists in support of Kyle’s idea, the three of them running off with the dog in hot pursuit.
“Holy moly,” Seamus said to Hope, who returned his smile. “To have that much energy.”
“I know! If only we could bottle it.”
“Thank you for having them.”
“Always a pleasure. Ethan adores them.”
“Likewise. Our place next time, aye?”
“Aye,” she said with a grin. “Hot enough for you?”
“It’s unbearable.”
“What’re you hearing about the power?” she asked.
“Not much, just that it seems to be something in the central line from the mainland.”
“That’s what Paul’s hearing, too.” Her husband was a Gansett Island town councilman. “The power company has multiple teams working on it, but they said to expect it to be a couple more days.”
“Ugh, great. We brought a ton of ice over on the last boat. Make sure you get some.”
“Paul’s there now.”
Carolina came out to say hello to Hope, who left with Ethan a few minutes later to get home in time for baby Scarlett’s next feeding.
He and Carolina supervised the boys playing in the yard for another hour before Carolina told them it was time to come in for baths. As they rounded them up, pissing and moaning the whole time because they hated bath time, Seamus tried to remember what he used to do with himself before these two tiny men took over his life and his heart.
That seemed like another lifetime to him now that the boys and Caro were front and center in his life.
The boys were filthy after a hard day of playing outside in the heat, so Seamus went to supervise the bath, using flashlights and candles to light the room.
“You’re like a couple of nasty tea bags,” he said, as he did every night, making them laugh. He’d had to demonstrate what a tea bag was and how it made tea before they got his joke, and now they thought it was hilarious. They thought everything he said and did was funny or interesting, which only made him love them that much more than he already did. It was a tremendous responsibility, this job of shaping boys into men, and one he relished with everything he had. Raising them to be decent men was the most important thing he’d ever do, and he intended to give it his all.
“Dirt tea,” they said together, echoing a term he used to describe the kind of tea they made.
He helped them wash behind their ears, which was another thing they found endlessly hysterical. Who got dirty behind their ears? they asked every night. Boys who roll around in the dirt all day, he said.
Tears stung his eyes at the thought of anyone taking them away from him. He’d fight for them until his dying breath, if that’s what it came to.
But God, he hoped it didn’t come to that.
Chapter 19
Abby was stretched out on the bed with the windows open when Adam came to find her, carrying Liam, who was fresh from his afternoon nap. They’d been waiting for him to wake up to leave for the party at Charlie and Sarah’s.
“Someone is full of beans,” Adam said. “The poor guy was so overheated. I gave him a cool bath to make him feel better.”
“Poor baby,” Abby said. “Next trip to the mainland, we need a generator.”
“I want one of those whole-home generators like my parents got last year. I should’ve had one put in here at the same time. I wish now that I had.”
“Maddie texted to say Mac brought home a generator. They’re telling anyone who needs cooler air to come over and bring air mattresses.”
“You want to do that?”
“Maybe. Of course we had to lose power when it’s hotter than the sun.”
“I think that’s why we lost power. Too much demand for AC taxed the system, which was fragile to begin with.”
“It scares me to think we’re so vulnerable to something like this. That we can lose power for days on end, and there’s nothing anyone can do.” Her anxiety had been through the roof since the news they received yesterday about the quadruplets. Coming home to a power outage hadn’t helped anything.
“Having the generator will help. I’ll get on that right away. Try not to worry.”
“Right. What’ve I got to worry about?”
“Not one thing.”
“Are you in denial by any chance?”
“Nope.”
“Five kids, Adam. Four infants all at once. Five kids under the age of two.”
“Yes, I got
that memo.”
“And you’re totally fine with it?”
“I am, except for the part about you being stressed or uncomfortable, which you probably will be toward the end.”
“Do ya think?”
He smiled and moved Liam to his left side so he could reach for her hand. “We’ve got this, Abs. You and me? There’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together.”
“I feel ridiculous about being so shocked and stressed over this when I prayed for so long to get pregnant.”
“Of course you’re shocked and stressed after hearing there’re four babies in there, Abs. Do you feel like going to Sarah and Charlie’s?”
“Yes, I want to go.”
“We’re ready when you are.” Adam helped her up and entertained Liam while she got changed into the lightest-weight dress she owned, not bothering to bring the usual sweater she’d need most evenings on Gansett.
They drove the short distance to Charlie and Sarah’s with the air conditioning blasting in Adam’s BMW SUV.
“God, that air feels so good. The things we take for granted until we don’t have them.”
“I know. I’ll never take AC or electricity for granted again.”
“Yes, you will.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I usually am.”
Adam laughed as he glanced over at her. “Nice to have you joking again. You had me worried for a while there.”
“The shock might be wearing off a bit. Be careful what you wish for, right?”
“For sure,” he said, chuckling. “The way I see it is we’re incredibly blessed. Not only did we get a miracle that you conceived in the first place, but that miracle is multiplied by four. And we can be one and done with having babies.”
“That is for sure. Snip, snip, mister.”
Adam grimaced. “I’ll go with Mac and get the family discount.”
“Make that happen ASAP.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When they arrived at Sarah and Charlie’s, they parked in the street so they could escape if Liam had a meltdown. It was funny to Abby how Adam did that so naturally now. Parenthood changed everything, which caused another thought to occur to her. “How will we take five babies out? We’ll need two cars and fifteen people to do it.”
“Breathe,” he said calmly. “We’ll get a bigger car and figure it out. Are you breathing?”
Abby made a dramatic show out of taking a deep breath and blowing it out.
“Do it again. Keep doing it any time you think we can’t handle this. We’ll have tons of help from grandparents, siblings and friends.”
“Several of our friends and many of our family members are having their own babies.” Gansett—and the McCarthy family, in particular—was about to experience a baby boom of epic proportions.
“Doesn’t matter. They’ll all be there for us. You know they will.”
“Yes, they will,” she said with a sigh. “You’re sure we can handle this with two businesses to run, too?”
“I’m positive.”
“How am I going to run the Attic with five babies to care for?”
“You hire a manager for a few years, and once we have things under control, you can get back to handling it yourself.”
“It’ll take us fifteen years to get things under control.”
Adam cracked up laughing. “You may be right about that. But let’s take it one crisis at a time.”
Though she hated to leave the air-conditioned car, she was eager to see Sarah and Charlie’s beautiful new home.
Adam retrieved Liam from his car seat, and they walked down the winding driveway that led to the huge contemporary-style house, which wasn’t visible from the road. “This place is amazing. I never even knew this was back here.”
The house was all windows, gray shingles and cool angles that gave it a cottage-like feel, despite its size. They followed the sound of voices coming from the backyard, which was full of tables, chairs and people.
Victoria Stevens saw them come in and ran over to hug Abby. “Oh. My. God! I got the report from the mainland this morning and almost fell off my chair. Abby!”
“I know.”
Vic pulled back from her, but kept her hands on Abby’s arms. “I’m so, so, so happy for you guys. I was bawling my head off at the clinic. Ask David!”
“Thank you,” Abby said, touched by the reaction of the nurse practitioner-midwife who’d been such a source of support to her since the PCOS diagnosis.
“You must be losing your shit,” Vic said.
“Just a little. Trying to wrap my head around five kids and four newborns. We both are.”
“Congrats, Dad. Very well done.”
“I did do some good work,” Adam said with a smug grin.
“Shut it, Adam,” Abby said, even though she loved how excited he was.
“Have you told anyone yet?” Vic asked.
“Nope,” Abby said. “We gave ourselves a day to wrap our own heads around it.”
“How’s that going?” Vic asked, grinning.
“Still not there yet.”
“It’s going to be fine.” Vic put her hand on Abby’s arm and gave it a squeeze. “We’ll watch you like a hawk and get you out of here well ahead of the delivery. Don’t worry about anything.”
“Thank you. I’ll try not to.”
“Come see me Monday, and we’ll make a plan.”
David Lawrence joined them, shaking hands with Adam. “Congratulations, guys. You had Vic weeping like a baby earlier.”
“So we heard,” Abby said.
“It’s just so exciting,” Victoria said. “I don’t get to monitor quadruplets every day, that’s for sure.”
Abby glanced at Adam. “I guess we’d better tell our families the big news. We also found out that I’m further along than I thought, which was a surprise. I went from knowing every detail of my cycle and ovulation to not noticing I’d missed a period.”
“Once we had Liam,” Adam said, “the pressure was off.”
“If you knew how many times I’ve seen that happen,” Vic said. “I’ve never seen it happen with quads, but I do hear of a lot of adoptive parents suddenly finding themselves pregnant after years of trying.”
“Glad it’s not just us,” Abby said. “Well, except for the quads part of the equation.”
“We’ll watch you very closely, so we can quickly address any concerns.”
“What kind of concerns?” Abby asked, immediately on guard against bad news.
“Nope. We’re not going there unless or until we need to. For the moment, everything is fine, and it’s going to stay that way.” Vic looped her arm through Abby’s. “Come on, let’s get you off your feet, Mom.”
Victoria escorted Abby to a circle of chairs where most of Adam’s family had gathered, including her sisters-in-law Janey and Stephanie, who were among Abby’s closest friends. Also in their group was Adam’s cousin Laura, his cousin Shane’s wife, Katie, and Maddie, on the lounge chair that went with her everywhere while she was on bed rest.
It occurred to Abby right in that moment that she’d probably be on bed rest before her pregnancy was over, too. Ugh.
“Abby!” Stephanie jumped up—or what passed for jumping in her pregnant state—and hugged her. “We’ve been so worried! Not a word from you guys after the appointment.”
Seeing that they’d arrived, Adam’s brothers, parents, cousins and brother-in-law, Joe, came over to see them along with their friend Slim Jackson and his wife, Erin.
“Tell us.” Linda McCarthy kissed them and Liam. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything is a little too all right,” Adam said, smiling at Abby and giving her the floor to share their news with his family.
“One of you had better start talking,” Linda said, “before I expire from needing to know!”
“You’re okay, aren’t you, sweetheart?” Big Mac asked.
“I’m okay. In fact, it seems I’m expecting quadruplets.”<
br />
After a second of complete, shocked silence, the group erupted into laughter and congratulations and more than a few tears as they hugged Abby and Adam.
“Wait!” Maddie said. “I couldn’t hear her! What did she say?”
The group parted to allow Adam and Abby to move closer to Maddie. Abby tried not to notice how huge Maddie’s belly was with “only” two babies in there. What would she look like with four?
“We’re having quads,” Abby said to Maddie.
“Oh my God! Shut up! That’s incredible! Congratulations.”
“Thank you. We’re still in shock, needless to say.”
Mac put an arm around Adam. “We McCarthy boys know how to properly knock up our wives, don’t we?”
“Shut up, Mac,” Maddie said.
“I’d just like to point out that my boys have twice the power of your boys,” Adam said.
“Shut up, Adam,” Abby said.
Mac and Adam lost it laughing, delighted with themselves and their boys.
“Sorry about them.” Linda shoved her sons aside so she could hug Abby. “I’m so, so happy for you, honey. What an amazing outcome after what you’ve been through.”
“Thank you.” Abby blinked back tears from the emotional overload of making their news official by telling the family. “I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
“Big Mac and I will move in for the first month or two. Whatever you need.”
“Could you move in for eighteen or so years?” Abby asked, making everyone else laugh.
“We’ll be there for you,” Linda said. “Don’t worry about a thing.”
Linda McCarthy had made her feel like part of their family from the first time Grant brought her home as his new girlfriend, and that had never changed, even during the hard times with Grant and after their breakup. They’d never missed a beat when she and Adam got together, and she considered herself lucky to be a McCarthy, in no small part because of her awesome in-laws. “That means so much to me, Linda. Thank you.”
Word about the quadruplets rippled through the gathering, and everyone came over to congratulate them.
“We’re so happy for you guys,” Erin said when she hugged Abby. “Way to be an overachiever.”