Marin Thomas - Twins Under the Christmas Tree

“You can call me Conway.”

“Mr. Conway,” Isi said.

“I told them I stayed last night, because you weren’t feeling well and I needed to be here in case of an emergency.”

“We don’t need his help, do we, Javi?” Miguel said.

Javier wouldn’t look at Conway.

“It was nice of Mr. Conway to stay, but I’m fine now.” Isi sent him a time-to-leave look.

Conway stood up and the Cheerios that had gotten caught in the wrinkles of his shirt spilled to the floor. He stepped over the Os to avoid smashing them into the carpet. “Your sitter left this for you last night.” He handed her the piece of paper Miguel had pushed aside on the table. “She wanted you to read it first thing in the morning.”

While Isi read the note, Conway said, “I’d really like to make it up to you for what happened last night. Is there anything I can—”

Isi glanced up from the note a stunned expression on her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nicole quit.”

“What?”

“She’s moving to Tucson to live with her father.”

“When?” Conway asked.

“Today.” Isi sighed. “If I don’t find a sitter by Monday, I’ll have to skip class and I have an exam that day.”

“Maybe your mother could help out with the boys.”

She frowned. “My mother’s dead.”

That’s right. She’d told him her mother had passed away right before she’d immigrated to the U.S. He inched closer to the door. “Maybe a relative—”

“Conway—”

Hand on the doorknob he froze. “What?”

“I told you a long time ago that I don’t have any family. It’s just me and the boys.”

Really? He couldn’t recall Isi talking about her family. He was always wrapped up in his dating dilemmas and the information had probably gone in one ear and out the other. He swallowed hard. That Isi was all alone in the world didn’t seem right. He might have had a mother who cared more about chasing after men, and a father who hadn’t wanted the responsibility of raising him, but he’d had siblings and grandparents who cared about him.

“You offered to help,” she said. “Would you watch the boys until I find a replacement sitter?”

Babysit? Him? “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It would be for two or three days at the most.”

“I don’t know anything about kids.”

She ignored his protests. “I’d need you to drop them off at preschool and bring them back here afterward.”

“I’m sure—” he winked at the boys “—they’d rather have anyone but me watch them.”

“Never mind.” Her shoulders sagged.

Did she have to act so dejected?

“I’ll take the boys to school with me and hope the professors allow them into the classroom.”

“I don’t want to go to your school, Mom,” Miguel said.

It’s because of me that Isi’s nose is broken.

Oh, hell. How hard could it be to watch a couple of four-year-olds? For two years Isi had listened to him bellyache about women. He couldn’t turn his back on her when she needed him most.

“Okay, I’ll watch the boys,” he said.

She flashed him a bright smile. “You’ll need to be here by noon on Monday.”

“See you then.” Right now, Conway couldn’t escape fast enough.

Chapter Two

“I don’t want a babysitter.”

Isi ignored Javier, who sat under the kitchen table playing with his toy cars, and focused on memorizing the Visual Basic code for her exam later in the day.

“How come Conway Twitty Cash has to watch us?” Miguel asked.

Ever since her son had learned Conway’s full name, he insisted on using it. For the tenth time, she explained, “Nicole moved to Tucson to live with her father and Mr. Conway is helping us out until I find a new sitter.”

Her child-care search had stalled over the weekend. The manager at the preschool had offered Isi the names of three women but none of them had been available to watch the boys at night while she worked at the bar. She worried she’d have to resort to the want ads in the newspaper.

“Mr. Conway’s not a girl,” Javier said.

“He certainly is not.” Conway was all male. Not only did he have a movie-star face, but the way he filled out a pair of jeans turned female heads when he strolled into the bar. Add a boyish grin to his cowboy appeal and every woman on this side of the border was in love with the man.

Too bad he wasn’t interested in being a father, because she still experienced an occasional romantic dream about Conway. The day he’d come into the bar and hit on her had been the stuff of fairy tales. Then when he’d learned she was a single mother, he’d cooled toward her. She’d wanted to stay mad at him forever, but he’d continued to visit the bar and joke around with her and in a matter of weeks they’d settled into a cozy friendship. He’d been and always would be her favorite cowboy.

Javier drove a Lego car over the top of her shoe. “Only girls babysit.”

“Boys can be sitters, too,” she said.

“Conway Twitty Cash, Conway Twitty Cash, Conway Twitty Cash, Con—”

“Enough, Miguel!” Isi shut the textbook. “Names are special and you shouldn’t make fun of someone’s name.”

“Our names are special,” Javier said.

She’d named her sons after their twin uncles Javier and Miguel whom they’d never met and never would. Surprisingly, the boys favored their namesakes. Isi’s brother Javier had been shy and her brother Miguel had been outgoing—neither had lived long enough to meet their nephews. Isi wished there was a man in her life to help raise the twins, but she’d rather go it alone as a single mom than trust the well-being of her sons to a here-one-day-gone-the-next boyfriend or their biological father, who refused to claim them.

One of the reasons her friendship with Conway had grown was because she enjoyed listening to him talk about his family. When she heard stories about him and his brothers’ antics she felt like one of his siblings.

“He’s too big for our house,” Javier said.

Isi poked her head beneath the table, wincing at the stab of pain in her nose. “Mr. Conway seems tall because we’re all short.”

“Do we have to do what Conway Twitty Cash says?” Miguel asked.

“Yes.” Isi opened the refrigerator door. “You two wash up while I make lunch.” Miguel raced to the bathroom but Javier remained beneath the table. Isi peered at him. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t want you to go to school.”

“I have an important test this afternoon,” she said.

“Are you gonna go to school forever?”

“I hope not.” This was her final semester and as long as she passed all her classes, she’d earn an associate degree in business before Christmas. She pulled on her son’s shirt until he crawled into the open then she sat him on her lap. “Tell me what’s really bothering you, mi corazón?” Javier laid his head against her chest. “Mr. Conway’s a very nice man,” she said. “Did you know he has five brothers and a sister?”

Javier shook his head.

“Maybe when he gets here, you can ask him what it’s like to have to share toys with all those brothers.” She checked the wall clock. Conway would arrive shortly to drive the boys to preschool—three hours during which she wouldn’t have to worry about her sons. It was what went on after Conway picked them up from school that concerned her.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” She set Javier on his feet and gave him a gentle push in the direction of the bathroom. “Wash your hands.”

A half hour later, the boys had eaten their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had fetched their backpacks from the bedroom when the doorbell rang.

“It’s Conway Twitty Cash!” Miguel raced to the door.