Laura Altom - The SEAL's Christmas Twins

“Everything all right?” Lyle asked.

“As well as can be expected.”

While her parents and Benton made polite conversation, Hattie hung back with Mason. He made the formerly smallish space feel cramped. She needed to get away from him. And take time to process what losing her sister really meant.

“Ladies first.” He gestured for her to lead the way, which was the last thing she wanted. She felt most comfortable in jeans and a roomy sweatshirt. Her black slacks and plum sweater clung in all the wrong places and she’d never wished more for a ponytail holder to hold her long hair from her face.

The graying lawyer greeted them at the door, shaking their hands. “Damn sorry about all this. Melissa and Alec were good people.”

Really? The weight of what her sister and Mason’s former best friend had done hung heavy in the room.

Her parents had already been seated.

Mason cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to be rude, but can we get on with this?”

Hattie sympathized with what he must be going through. Just as she had guilt, he must harbor anger. Granted, Mason had left Conifer years ago and his absence no doubt tempered the initial sting of finding his wife in bed with his best friend, but there wasn’t a statute of limitations on that sort of thing. Hattie couldn’t imagine how Mason now felt regarding the lovebirds’ sudden deaths.

Benton’s office could’ve been featured on a special episode of Hoarders. Stacks upon stacks of files leaned precariously on every available surface.

Behind his desk, Benton shuffled through three more leaning piles. He tugged one out, only to have the whole pile follow in a paper-work avalanche. “Oops.” He flashed them all a reassuring smile. “Happens all the time. Give me a sec, and we’ll be back on course. Hattie, Mason, please, have a seat.”

Mason knelt to assist with the cleanup.

Normally, Hattie would’ve helped, too, but at the moment, she lacked the strength.

“There we go,” Benton finally said, reassembling the file he’d previously held. “Thanks, Mason.”

“No problem.”

“All right, then, let’s skip formalities and get right to the meat of the matter.”

“Perfect.” Lyle took Akna’s hand.

Hattie wished for someone to comfort her.

Two additional padded folding chairs faced Benton’s desk. Mason sat in the one nearest the window.

Hattie took the other.

To Hattie, Benton said, “Having Vivian and Vanessa changed your sister—softened her to a degree I’m not sure she allowed most people to see.”

Resting his elbows on his knees, Mason grunted.

Hattie commenced with squirming, carefully avoiding brushing against Mason in the too-close space.

“She was highly superstitious about Alec’s flying. After their marriage, he had me write up a will, stating her his sole beneficiary.”

Sighing, Mason asked, “What does any of that have to do with me?”

Hattie pressed her lips tight to keep from saying something she might regret. Mason had a right to be angry with Melissa, but he didn’t have to be rude. Even though Hattie had her own issues with her sister, when it came down to it, she’d loved her as much as everyone else had in their small town. Melissa’s beauty and spirit had been irresistible. Their parents hadn’t been upset with their eldest for having an affair. Instead, they’d believed Mason—formerly a commercial fisherman—in the wrong for being gone so many days at sea, especially at a time when she’d needed him more than ever.

The lawyer closed the file and sighed. “I’m afraid this has everything to do with you, Mason—quite literally. Alec left the entirety of his estate to Melissa....”

Akna held a tissue to her nose. “Please, hurry.”

“Of course.” Benton consulted the file. “Bottom line, Melissa bequeathed everything to Hattie and Mason in the event both she and Alec passed at the same time.”

“What?” Lyle released Akna to stand. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Surely, not everything—not...the girls?” Tears streamed down Akna’s weathered cheeks.

Benton nodded. “Afraid so.”

“Why?” Hattie asked.

“This might explain.” He handed a letter to Mason, but Mason held up his hands. “You read it. I don’t want anything to do with any of this.”

Akna shot him a dark look.

“Very well...” Benton took the sealed letter, opened it, then began to read.

“Mason—

If you’re reading this, my dreams were indeed the premonition I’d feared. I know you never held much faith in my Inuit heritage, but we place great significance on dreams, and as I have had the same dream of Alec and me passing on three different occasions, I feel compelled to make arrangements should the worst indeed happen.

First, I owe you an apology. Our losing the baby was a horrible accident, nothing either of us could’ve prevented. I’m sorry I not only blamed the miscarriage on you, but was too cowardly to admit I’d outgrown our relationship.”

Mason stood, hand over his mouth, eyes shining with unshed tears.

Benton asked, “Would you like to read the rest in private?”

“Get it over with.” Hands clenching into fists, Mason stared out the window on the far side of the room.

“You’re a monster,” Akna said. “How dare you disrespect my daughter’s last words.”

“Honey...” Lyle slipped his arms about her shoulders.

Hattie wished for an escape hatch to open beneath her chair.

Benton cleared his throat, then continued to read from the letter.

“I’m ashamed to admit, my whole life was spent in the pursuit of pleasure. Now that I’m a parent, I understand how much more to life there is. Honor and self-sacrifice. The kinds of traits I now recognize not only in my sister and parents, but you.

I doubt you’re aware of this, but Hattie has harbored quite the crush on you for as long as she could walk well enough to follow you around. If my dreams are true, and I am soon to die, I want to do something well and truly good.

The best thing I can think of is to play matchmaker. If you and Hattie end up together, not only will my gorgeous twins end up with a great set of parents, but my beautiful, kindhearted sister will live happily ever after with the good guy she’s always deserved.

“That’s it.” Benton folded the note, returning it to the envelope. “Lyle, Akna, I hope that answers your questions as to why your daughter chose to leave her twins to Hattie and Mason.”

“We’ll contest it.” Akna held a white-knuckled grip on her purse. “My grandbabies need to be with me. Family.”

“Wh-what am I?” Hattie managed past the wall of tears blocking her throat.

“Your mother didn’t mean it like that,” Lyle assured her.

“Lord almighty...” While the wind howled outside the trailer’s paper-thin walls and windows, Mason shook his head. “I feel like we’ve been here ten days. This is nuts. No one gives away kids based on a few stupid dreams.”

Akna fired off a round of Inuit curses at Mason.

Hattie’s chest had tightened. As much as she adored her baby nieces, in no way, shape or form was she ready to become a mom. Melissa had tossed around formally naming Hattie as the twins’ godmother a few times, but that’d been just talk. Hattie had always dreamed of being a mom, but considering her lackluster social life, she’d resigned herself to the fact that unless Prince Charming breezed in on a white snowmobile, her only destiny was to become an old maid. She couldn’t even process the fact that her sister had just outed her feelings for Mason.

“No.” Mason paced the cramped, sterile office. “I want no part of this. Clearly, Melissa wasn’t in her right mind, and I sure as hell don’t believe Inuit dream voodoo.”