That worked for about five seconds, and then Ava spotted her and clapped her hands, slopping morning mush all over herself, Jace and the high-chair tray. “Bah!” She reached her arms right out toward Melonie. “Abba abba bah!” And despite Jace’s best efforts to keep feeding her, Ava was insistent. She wanted Melonie and that left Melonie no choice. She wet a clean washcloth from the stack Cookie kept on the nearby counter and crossed to the extended table. “You’re a mess, schnookums.”
Ava grinned and slapped her gooey hand against the tray, splattering all of them again. “Nee Nee!”
“A new word has been added to our extensive vocabulary.” Jace swiped goo from his arm and cheek, then kept feeding Annie, who didn’t seem nearly as excited to see Melonie.
“I think she’s saying your name,” Corrie remarked as she helped wipe down a whole list of things that bore the splatter of Ava’s enthusiasm. “Melonie. Nee Nee.”
“Bah! Nee Nee!” Ava grinned at Melonie, so precious and funny and sweet. Corrie had set the spoon on the tray.
Ava picked it up, stuck it in her mouth, then grinned like a little clown.
“Oh, you are going to be a handful, darling girl.” Melonie took Corrie’s spot, a seat that brought her right next to Jace, the very man she’d tried to avoid for forty-eight hours—only when you’re working a major project with a person, necessity brought proximity, so how on earth was she going to table this attraction?
“Jace?”
They both looked up as Lizzie approached. She held a printout in her right hand. “I’ve got information on Valencia. Where she is right now, at least.”
His jaw tightened, but he nodded. “Thank you. One way or another we’ve got to make things legal. It would be great if she would sign rights over without issue, but either way we can’t leave these babies in limbo. That leaves them with no legal protection if she comes back, and the sheriff said she could be arrested for abandonment if she returns.” He took the paper from Lizzie while she made coffee. “I don’t want to make a bad situation worse than it already is, but we’ve got to put the girls’ safety first.”
He scanned the paper quickly.
Melonie wanted to ask what it said.
She didn’t have to.
He held it out to her. “She’s in Oregon right now. Near Bend. Should I ask you how you got this information?” He posed the question to Lizzie once she brewed her coffee.
“Probably not.”
“I’ve got the girls’ doctor’s appointments this morning, then Justine’s due to arrive this evening.” He drew his eyebrows down. “Who’d have ever thought I’d have to ignore one sister to help the other?”
“Well, Justine’s making the effort to be here. To spend time with you and meet her nieces.” Melonie stayed practical. “If Lizzie tracked Valencia down once, she’ll do it again.”
“And who knows? She may stay put there for a while. There are a bunch of hotels there looking for housekeeping help. She’s experienced and has a decent track record with her former employer,” Lizzie noted.
“The amount of information that comes to your fingertips is mind-boggling and possibly frightening.” Melonie handed Ava her sippy cup.
Disenchanted with the option, the baby tossed it to the floor and burst out laughing.
Melonie retrieved it and handed it back.
Ava grinned...and tossed it down again. She was having her own personal game of fetch and Melonie was the pup-in-training.
“You’re done.” Melonie slipped off the tray, handed it to Corrie and lifted the baby out of the seat. “We don’t throw things,” she scolded as she re-swabbed Ava’s face with a clean, wet cloth. “That’s naughty.”
Ava’s eyes went round.
Her lower lip thrust out and she stared up at Melonie in disbelief, as if her beloved Nee Nee had just delivered a crushing blow.
Then she started crying. Big, breath-shaking tears, about as cute and over-the-top as she could get.
“I made her cry.” Melonie looked from Jace to Corrie and back, distressed because this was the last thing she expected. “What do I do? I just made an itty-bitty girl start crying. I didn’t mean to,” she went on.
“She’ll be fine in two minutes,” counseled Lizzie. “Show her a shiny object. It will help. I promise.”
“Better they cry now than you cry later,” added Corrie. “Being naughty might be cute at this age. It is not amusing when babies grow. There is no time like the present to begin that lesson.”
“Lessons? They’re not even a year old.” Jace looked as surprised as Melonie felt.
“Lessons begin the moment they start reaching for the stove. Or a sharp object. Or a doorknob. We begin teaching to keep them safe. We keep teaching so they learn to love knowledge.”
“That settles it.” Jace grinned at Annie as she blew raspberries through her last bite of Corrie’s mush. “I’m taking Corrie home with me. I need her counsel and wisdom to get me through this. At least the first year,” he added. “Corrie, what do I have to do to tempt you away from all this?”
“Marry one of my girls,” she shot back, and never even looked over her shoulder. “I am an officially retired nanny,” she went on as she rinsed baby dishes in the sink. “But I will never retire from being their mama or a grandma. That’s the only way to get my services these days, I’m afraid.” The older woman aimed a knowing look at Jace. “But I appreciate the compliment.”
“It could be worth it,” Lizzie teased. “Like a two-for-one sale at the grocery.”
“We’ll have to see if Charlotte’s available when she arrives.” Melonie shot her sister a stern look as she grabbed a handful of tissues. Ava’s sobs lessened to whimpers against her shoulder. “I’m taking little Miss Ava to get changed.”
Jace’s phone rang as she went to the living room. They’d set up a changing station there. Diapers, wipes, onesies and rompers. Jace came into the room as she finished dressing Ava. She stepped away from the changing table and set Ava on the floor. “Your turn.”
The first day it had taken him a long time to change the wriggling babies. Not anymore. He got Annie cleaned and dressed in record time, then set her near her sister. “Gilda wants to come to the doctor’s office with me.”
“It’s kind of nice that she wants to be involved, isn’t it?” she asked. Then she read his face. “How is that bad?”
He made a face. “Not bad. Awkward. I don’t know what to say to her. What not to say. And I still feel like lashing out irrationally when she harps on the past.”
“Perhaps for her it’s not harping, but asking forgiveness. And understanding.”
“What if I can’t understand why they did what they did?”
“That’s a self-directed question if ever there was one.”
He frowned as the rumble of Gilda’s tires crunched across the barnyard gravel. “Why does everything have to get talked to death? Maybe that’s a better question. Listen.” He put his hand over hers. “I know you’ve got work to do, but if I absolutely leave you alone to work this afternoon, will you come with us? To the doctor’s appointment? Not just because of my grandmother, I’m pretty sure I can handle her, but I could really use your help.”
“You don’t need me there, Jace.” She knew it, and she was pretty sure he knew it, too. Including her in family things like this would only make things harder and, frankly, they were hard enough already.
She stood to go.
Ava grabbed her ankle. And her heart. “Nee?” She grabbed hold of Melonie’s other leg and stared up, imploring. “Nee?”
“She is saying your name.” Jace looked at Ava with such a look of pride that Melonie’s heart went soft all over again. “How cute is that?”
“Nee.” Ava patted Melonie’s leg, then raised her arms up.
“We both want you to come, Melonie.”
How could
she resist that? Maybe she was foolish to tie all her dreams to a what-if life down South. What if she dared to transfer her hopes and dreams to the forest-rimmed valley of western Idaho?
Ava leaned her head against Melonie’s leg, as if hugging her. She lifted the baby and kissed her soft cheek. “If you promise to give me work time this afternoon...”
Jace smiled. “My word of honor.”
What a delight that she could actually trust his word. She lifted the diaper bag he’d packed earlier.
He had Annie in one arm.
She held Ava.
And when he reached over to take the bag from her shoulder, a new thought blossomed. Of raising these two girls together. Here, in the mountain-rimmed valley.
Are you crazy?
She felt a little crazy when she looked up at Jace and matched his smile. And when his deepened, her heart quickened, a ridiculous and absolutely marvelous reaction.
“Best get going.” Gilda was at the base of the porch stairs, impatient. “We don’t want to keep the doctor waiting.”
“You’re right,” said Jace. “We don’t want to be rude.”
“Are they warm enough?” Gilda’s voice lost a grain of harshness when she talked about the babies.
Melonie answered as she wrestled Ava into her seat. “If not, she will be,” she muttered. “The struggle is real.”
“And little Annie goes right in.” Gilda seemed surprised, and Melonie couldn’t blame her.
“The same but different, right?”
“I guess.” Gilda seemed flustered. She eyed the vehicle, then her car.
“You ride with Jace. I’ll follow along.”
“You don’t mind? I don’t go driving into the city much.”
“Happy to do it.”
She opened the door for Gilda. The old woman climbed in and pulled her seat belt into place.
She didn’t dare look at Jace.
She could have had Gilda ride with her, but learning to be family around these girls was part of the point, wasn’t it?
Her phone rang as she followed them out of the driveway. She hit the Bluetooth connection when she recognized the name of her former coworker. “Ezra, hey. How are things going? Have you found a job yet?” Ezra Jones had been her photographer and site director for the magazine. He’d staged the looks, taken the shots and organized the production of her Shoestring Southern Charm pilot videos six months ago. When the magazine folded, so did his job.
“Possibly. I might have found us a job.”
She’d pulled out of the driveway but paused. “Us?”
“I’ll give you the details. I’m heading your way.”
“You’re coming here?”
“Kentucky is blazing hot and I wanted to go over a few things with you. Get your opinion. You don’t mind, do you?”
Ezra had been her friend for years. “Of course not. Come on up and bring your cameras. There is a wild and rustic beauty up here. Not low-key, sweet-tea serenity like we have in the South. But beautiful.”
“I’ll let you know when I get close.”
“You’re going to leave me hanging?” she asked as she navigated the next turn.
“Temporarily. I’m working out details. Car phone connections are amazing things.”
“Talk to you soon.” She disconnected the call, but there wasn’t a lot of time to ponder his meaning. Ezra thought outside the box, 24/7. He was a concept guy, who looked beyond the everyday, and he’d end up somewhere, doing great things. She knew that because he had the talent and the drive to see it through. They’d made a great team.
A job for us...
And yet he knew she had to be here for a year.
She reviewed her options for Gilda’s house. Her palms itched as she considered the magnitude of this project. She’d have Ezra grab pictures of the “before.” She’d sent him a few when she and Jace made the agreement with Gilda, and he’d sent back a one-word answer. Wow.
Wow was right, but as she’d gotten to know Gilda, and sensed the longing to make things right, the house design became more than a massive makeover.
It became a mission.
Chapter Thirteen
Annie didn’t need help.
Ava did.
“I’m going to send you to a specialist near Boise,” the pediatrician told them midmorning. “My guess is they’ll recommend putting tubes in Ava’s ears.”
“Tubes for what?” Gilda drew her eyebrows tight, and when she did that, the word formidable came to Jace’s mind. “What do tubes do and why does she need them?”
The doctor didn’t take offense. Jace guessed she’d worked with frightened grandparents before. She pulled out a chart while the twins batted small plastic balls around the carpeted floor of a small meeting room. “She’s got fluid buildup in her right ear. I looked at the clinic records and saw she’d been treated for three ear infections in five months.”
“Her caregiver told us that she’s had recurring colds and light fevers.”
“So it’s even possible that she’s had a couple of undiagnosed issues. For some kids, it’s no big deal. For others, like Ava, the chronic ear infections leave a fluid buildup and dull hearing. It is usually reversible with the tubes and maturation, but I’ll let the ENT doctor go into that detail. We’ll set up the appointment for next week, and they’ll take it from here.”
“Should we do both?” asked Gilda. Melonie stayed quiet. She’d taken a seat on the floor and let the girls crawl all over her, keeping them happy while Jace, Gilda and the physician talked.
“It’s always curious when identical twins show differences like this, isn’t it?”
Gilda nodded.
“Annie’s not showing any signs of problems, and her newborn screening and this hearing screening are both normal. I’d chalk this up to normal variances. When you’re talking babies and narrow passageways, growth is often our best friend. A more open passage allows the body to get rid of bacteria and viruses faster. Faster healing, fewer problems.”
“They don’t have insurance,” Gilda spouted. “But I’ll pay for what needs doing.”
“Wonderful.” The doctor smiled at her, and Gilda seemed to physically relax. “You’re the great-grandmother, correct?”
She nodded.
“And you’re the uncle seeking guardianship?”
“I am.”
The doctor leaned forward. “Something for you to consider. If the specialist’s office questions guardianship, they probably have to refuse treatment.”
Jace wasn’t just surprised by that. He was shocked. In the local towns, no one refused Gilda Hardaway anything. It simply wasn’t done. “What?”
The doctor explained her meaning in a matter-of-fact manner. “They’ll need parental signatures to proceed. Or, if the girls become wards of the state, then they’ll need the Human Services office to okay the surgical procedure.”
“I have the means to pay,” Gilda insisted. “And my great-granddaughters aren’t wards of anything. They’re family!”
The doctor sent her a sympathetic look. “And they’re blessed to have so many people invested in their outcome, but the specialist will need to have a legal guardian approve treatment.”
“What if we had an emergency and needed treatment?” Jace asked. He’d never considered they might refuse to help the girls.
“In an emergency situation, the need to treat outweighs everything. But it’s still a sticking point that should be rectified ASAP. Will your guardianship be approved soon?”
Jace scrubbed his hand against the nape of his neck. “That’s uncertain.”
“Well, my advice is to get that done quickly,” she said, standing. “They’ll ask, and you don’t want to be falsifying records. It’s not about who’s caring for the kids,” she assured Jace in a kind voice. “It’s about legal recourse, a
nd hospitals are pretty picky about it. You might want to get the legal ends tied up quickly.”
There was no quick way to fix this unless Valencia signed off. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Good.” She shook his hand and referred them to the front desk, where an efficient office manager took care of setting up the appointment for the specialist in two weeks. Which meant he needed to get to Bend with legal papers and get Valencia to sign off before then.
What if she didn’t?
He didn’t dare think that way, because when Annie clutched his neck and blew raspberry kisses along his cheek, her laughter clinched the deal. How could he not take a chance on them? And did his sister care?
There was only one way to find out.
They tucked the girls into the car seats and he placed a call to Mack Grayson. Mack was a cowboy by birth and a lawyer by education, the perfect guy to help local ranchers and business owners. He left Mack a voice mail, then headed back toward Shepherd’s Crossing.
A few weeks ago he’d been lamenting too much time on his hands. That wasn’t the problem any longer. Now he’d have to figure out getting to Bend, finishing his house, working with the demolition crew on Gilda’s place, caring for two children and having time with Justine over the next couple of days.
“Do you want me to go to Oregon? I can take the train over.”
Gilda’s raspy voice interrupted his running thoughts.
“To see Valencia?” That might be the worst idea ever. Or the best. How would he know? But Gilda wasn’t in great health, so he nixed the idea. He spoke gently because he didn’t want to hurt the old woman’s feelings. “I appreciate the offer, but I’d prefer to go myself. What I’d really like, if you have the time—” he angled a quick glance her way “—is if you’d help with the babies while I’m gone. It’s a lot for Rosie to handle and I’d feel better knowing they’re having some Gee Gee time. I want them to know their family, as silly as that might sound at their age.”
“Not silly at all.” She didn’t sound so raspy right now. “You knew your mom and me real well, Jason. By this age you’d figured out how to wrap me right around your finger with those big brown eyes and that beautiful smile.” Eyes down, she fiddled with her purse strap as she spoke. Her voice had gone soft, talking about him. Now it hiked up once more, as if she was excited about the girls. “Getting to know these two will be an absolute pleasure.”
A Cowboy in Shepherd's Crossing Page 14