The Baby Twins by Altom Laura Marie

Author:Altom, Laura Marie [Altom, Laura Marie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780373753093
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-12-23T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

"Mmm…" Stephanie said early that afternoon, tilting her face back to drink in the sun. The morning's gray skies had been short-lived, and with no wind and temperatures in the midsixties, it had turned out to be a gorgeous day. "This is a treat."

With Brady in town, she'd skipped church, opting instead for a picnic in nearby Roaring Falls National Forest. The girls giggled and shrieked in the infant swings. Brady pushed Michaela while Stephanie pushed Melanie. The fact that Brady got along so well with her girls made her all the sadder for his declaration of being a failure at love.

At this time of year, the park was nearly empty aside from an RV and an orange camper van. What few leaves were still in the trees rustled in the warm breeze.

"This is nice," Brady said. "Just what I needed."

"Glad we could oblige." She winked before giving Melanie another light push. "How long are you staying?"

"Just today. I'm on call Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but then I'm off for two days. I thought I'd take Lola up to the mountains. There was an early snow and it's about time she learned to ski."

"Sounds fun," she said, oddly disappointed.

Michaela began to fuss.

"Is that a diaper cry?" Brady asked. "Or her I'm-tired-of-swinging cry?"

"Maybe both," Stephanie said, glad for the distraction.

Sure enough, her firstborn smelled suspicious, so while Steph changed her, Brady took Melanie from her swing to the old quilt they'd spread on a grassy slope.

"Hungry?" After dousing herself in hand sanitizer, Stephanie grabbed the paper sack she'd loaded with ham-and-cheese sandwiches, pretzels and day-old sugar cookies she'd brought home from the shop.

"Always," he said, breaking into a plastic baggie.

"Sorry I couldn't scrounge up anything fancier."

He shrugged. "No sweat. I'm a simple guy. Not really the wine and brie type."

With the babies contentedly gnawing on teething biscuits, Stephanie served herself. "I've never had brie. Is it good?"

Seesawing his hand, he said, "Kind of bland. You haven't missed much."

"I've missed everything." She hadn't meant for the words to slip out, but now that they had, she dove in with a confession. "Michael and I had such plans. After his tour in Iraq, he was going to retire from the military and focus on his work as a commercial pilot. We talked about using his flight privileges to travel the world." With the sleeves of her red sweatshirt, she daubed her stinging eyes.

"Not to sound like an insensitive jerk," he said in a soft, kind tone, "but why can't you still experience your life to the fullest? You're too young to give up."

"I've hardly given up," she snapped, fighting a fresh swell of tears. "Take a look at my reality. In the girls, I've got a 24/7 job. My hours at the shop aren't much better. I steal maybe an hour or two each night for my self, and that's usually spent doing laundry."

Drawing her into a hug, the sun and the strength of his arms drenching her in hope, she almost dared believe life wouldn't always be so hard.

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