Cathy Thacker - The Texas Valentine Twins

The pressure of that kind of public hoopla made Adelaide reel. “Not going to happen, Mom,” Wyatt said. A little too quickly for Adelaide’s taste.

Was the thought of doing what was best for the twins in the conventional sense really so distasteful to him? Did he hate her that much?

On the other hand, she knew he was certainly being practical in wanting to go into the arrangement with their eyes wide open.

“We should at least have a party to officially welcome Adelaide and the twins into the family,” Lucille insisted.

“Once the dust settles on the news, that is probably a good idea,” Hope concurred, her considerable expertise as a crisis manager and public relations expert coming into play.

“How do we get the word out?” Sage asked.

Hope smiled. “The usual way—via announcement.”

The women promptly went to work. Fifteen minutes later, they had a rough draft of the whimsical announcement. There was a border of hearts, with a stork across the top, carrying two babies, one in pink, one in blue. Followed by the words:

And just when you think you’ve heard it all...

Nearly ten years ago, on Valentine’s Day, at the tender age of eighteen, Adelaide Smythe and Wyatt Lockhart eloped.

They soon got cold feet. And had it annulled. Until fate intervened, and they met up again on another starry romantic night.

Twin babies and a surprisingly still legal marriage were the result!

Please join us on the Circle H Ranch, on Saturday March 1, at 4:00 p.m., to welcome Adelaide and the twins, Jake and Jenny, into the Lockhart family, and celebrate the unconventional events that brought them all together. And brought all of us such happiness and love.

“It can be a combination belated wedding reception slash baby shower,” Lucille decreed.

Wyatt and Adelaide exchanged worried looks. Adelaide was willing to go along to get along, to a point. Not add more deception to the mix. “I think we might want to add something about our plans to eventually amicably divorce,” she said. “Otherwise, we will just face even more scandal down the road.”

“Nonsense,” Lucille huffed. “If you two want to consciously uncouple, that is your business and can be done privately until such time as you are actually ready to divorce. Right now, the emphasis has to be on the twins. They deserve the kind of fairy-tale entry all children merit as they enter this world. When they look back on these events, as they certainly will someday, I want them to see an unconventional beginning brimming with love and joy.”

As much as Adelaide wanted to, she could not argue that.

Chapter Four

“Why are they crying?” Wyatt asked in alarm several hours later. He and Adelaide carried both twins in the front door and set the carriers on the sofa.

Adelaide eased Jake out of the straps and hooded jacket and blanket confining him, and handed him to Wyatt to hold. “A lot of reasons.” Tossing her own coat aside, she bent to retrieve Jenny from her carrier, too. “They saw a lot of new faces tonight.”

No kidding, Wyatt thought. After the news had set in, everyone in the family had wanted to congratulate them and cuddle the twins. His mom had persuaded them to stay for an impromptu family dinner. He’d agreed as readily as Adelaide. Mostly because he hadn’t figured out how to be alone with her yet, under the startling new circumstances.

He wished he had one-thousandth of Adelaide’s ease as a parent.

Horses, he knew. Kids, not so much. He’d never had the golden touch with them. Well, except for his nephews Max and Braden. Those little tykes had taken right to him. Maybe because he bore a resemblance to their own daddies...

“Do you think they’re still hungry?” He and Jake edged closer to Adelaide and Jenny. His daughter hadn’t lessened her wailing, either. “Because they were fed and burped right before we left the ranch.” Less than thirty minutes ago. “Their diapers changed, too.”

Adelaide inclined her head, indicating he should follow suit. She carried Jenny up the stairs. “I think they’re just wound up and overtired.” They moved into the nursery. “Nothing a little walking the floor with them won’t cure. Unless...” Adelaide squinted at him thoughtfully. The crying was so loud now she had to practically shout to be heard. “You’d like to go on home now?”

Wyatt shook his head. He had responsibilities now. “I’ll stay until they are asleep,” he vowed firmly.

She pressed a kiss onto the top of Jenny’s head. He did the same with Jake.

“Your horses...?” she asked.

“Troy and Flint, my hired hands, have already taken care of them.”

Briefly, Adelaide looked disappointed. As if she’d been counting on his work to take him away from them. Heaven knew it wasn’t the first time she’d used an excuse to put distance between them. It stung, just the same.

He told himself her reaction was understandable. Had it not been for the babies they now shared, he would have been out the door hours ago, new dissolution papers filed.

Instead, he was here with the three of them, trying to make sense of what had happened. Figure out how the heck they were going to proceed on a practical level.

It was one thing to promise to care for the kids together.

Another to actually make the situation work.

Luckily, right now, all they had to concentrate on was easing the persistent crying of their children.

He watched as Adelaide shifted Jenny’s head onto her shoulder and tried somewhat awkwardly to do the same. While Jenny cuddled sweetly against Adelaide’s soft breast, her head resting against the slender slope of her mommy’s neck, Jake resisted doing the same. Recalcitrant, he arched his little spine, tilting the back of his neck against Wyatt’s gently supporting palm.

Wyatt was tempted to give up, hand his son over. But given the fact that Adelaide had her own hands full, and Jenny was finally starting to settle down, just a little...

Adelaide mouthed the words, “Move him up a little higher. So his head is...”

Wyatt tried. Little Jake arched again. Opened his mouth wider and the largest belch Wyatt had ever heard came out. Followed swiftly by a flood of curdled, really foul smelling sour milk. Like an erupting volcano, the messy goo went all over Wyatt’s shoulder, the front of his shirt, inside the collar, onto his neck. Trying not to get it on Jake, too—who was remarkably unscathed by the flood—Wyatt lifted his son slightly away from him, still holding him gently with both hands, and that’s when two things happened. Jenny finally fell sound asleep. And Jake spit up again, this time all over the rest of Jake’s shirt and pants.

Gently, Adelaide eased Jenny into her crib. The little darling slumbered on.

Wyatt expected Adelaide to reach for Jake, who, now that he’d emptied the contents of his tummy, was looking incredibly sleepy, too. Instead, she disappeared into the hall bath and came back, a damp washcloth in hand.

By then, Jake had put his head on the only other spit-up free zone of his daddy, Wyatt’s other shoulder. His eyes were drifting closed.

Adelaide wiped the curdled milk from her son’s face. “Want me to take him?” Adelaide murmured softly.

Wyatt shook his head, feeling incredibly proud and relieved he had done what just a few minutes ago had seemed impossible—nearly put his wildly upset son to sleep. “I’ve got this,” he said.

And to his surprise, he did.

* * *

ADELAIDE HAD SEEN new dads cuddling babies. But nothing had ever affected her the way the sight of Wyatt, so tenderly cradling their son, did.

Aware she was near tears that if started would not stop, she turned away. She went into the bathroom, grabbed the lone towel off the rack and returned just as Wyatt was easing Jake into his crib. Her son slept on, looking incredibly peaceful and unscathed.