Mending Hearts (23 page)

“
Yes, mommy, but there isn’t
anything in my room,” Raelynn says, confused, as she looks at the
completely empty room. “Is everything in the
closet?” 

“
I know there isn’t anything
in your room right now and no it’s not in your closet. The people
are bringing your bedroom suite this week. I have a picture of it,
if you want to see it,” Molly says sweetly.

Molly goes online and shows Raelynn what her
bedroom suite looks like and then shows her some bedding for her to
choose from.

“
Molly and Adam, may we have
a word with you, please?” Alec asks.

“
Yes, of course,” Molly
says. “Raelynn, keep looking, and James, will you make sure she
picks out something nice?”

“
Yes, ma’am.”

I follow Molly, Adam, and Alec out on the
lanai that overlooks a cluster of lighted palm trees. 

Molly says, “Alec, do you have a problem
with the apartment? I tried to get one that was kid
friendly.” 

“
No, it’s very nice. Please,
believe me when I tell you I’m happy for you,” Alec
says.

I look around the lanai and Alec says, “In
your absence, I was the sole provider and caregiver for Raelynn. I
guess my question is… what are your plans concerning Raelynn
now?” 

 
I watch him as he
cracks his knuckles and the twitch returns in his jaw. He looks
inside the glass door and watches Raelynn and James on the
computer.

“
Are you wanting custody of
her? Because, Molly, I can’t…” 

“
And I don’t expect you to.
No, Alec, I messed up, I know that. I’m just hoping….” She looks
over at Adam and says, “We are hoping maybe someday down the road
she’ll be able to visit me and possibly spend the night.” Adam
holds her hand and gives her a sad smile. “I know I don’t deserve
custody of her, and that’s my fault. I just want to be able to see
her and when she’s here I want her to feel like this is her home,
too.” 

“
Alec and Emma, I hope you
don’t mind me saying, but we didn’t mean for this to look like
anything other than Molly is trying to provide a safe environment
for Raelynn and I hope you can see that she has. Molly’s only
intention is to be a good mother to Raelynn. She made a mistake and
I hope that you give her a chance to make it right.” Adam stands
tall and confidently as he speaks clearly.

“
Alec, I haven’t even
considered custody of Raelynn. I just want to be able to keep her
sometime,” Molly says.

“
You don’t want custody of
Raelynn?” 

“
No, I don’t. I know that
she belongs with you. I messed up and that’s my
fault.” 

“
Molly, I’m sorry. I just
had to be clear on what your intentions are. This place is very
nice, and it will make a nice second home for Raelynn.”

My heart swells with pride with what Alec
has said. My man loves his daughter and there is nothing sexier
than that.

“
Really?” Molly
cries.

“
Yes, I mean that. It looks
like she’s already at home here.” He nods in the direction of the
kitchen. I turn around and look through the glass door and see
Raelynn and James in the kitchen pantry. They both have juice boxes
sitting on the table as they search for a snack in the
pantry. 

Molly cries and Adam holds her. “We went to
the store the other day, and I didn’t know what to get her. I had
no idea what kinds of foods she liked.” 

I smile and say, “Well it looks like you
guessed very well. I think they are having a difficult time
deciding.” 

We go inside and the kids are now sitting at
the table for four, with their juice boxes and fruit snacks. They
are laughing and talking about the new bedding Raelynn and James
picked out. “What bedding did you decide on?” Molly asks.

“
I want the purple and pink
flowers, and Bubby wants the ninjas.” 

“
Um, James, the bedding is
for…” I begin to say.

Molly says, “That is a great idea. I didn’t
know you liked ninjas, James.” I look over at Molly and she smiles
at me. “It’s all right,” she mouths.

We sit and visit while the kids play in
Raelynn’s empty room. Alec stands and asks, “Are you ready? We need
to get groceries before we get home.” 

I stand with him and say, “Would you mind
keeping the kids? They hate grocery shopping.” 

Molly looks at me, Alec, Adam, and then me
again. “Really?” 

“
We’ll just be an hour or
so,” I say like it’s no big deal. I know this is unexpected, but we
have to start trusting her sometime. One hour at a time seems like
a good place to start. 

“
Yes, we would love to,”
Molly says. She smiles and asks the kids to come and kiss us
goodbye. Alec hasn’t said anything, and I think he may be stunned
into silence.

We kiss and hug the kids and walk out the
door. “I hope you know what you are doing.” It’s all he says before
walking to the car.

“
I do, we’re taking baby
steps. One hour at a time.” 

Later that night at home, James doesn’t want
to take a bath. He says he had one yesterday and he doesn’t need
one today.

“
You mean that bath that you
took yesterday is good for today?” I ask. 

“
Yep, and tomorrow, too,” he
says, seriously.

“
One bath is good for three
days. I had no idea. That is a very interesting fact, James,” I
say, looking at Alec in disgust.

“
You know, James. There was
a little boy in my office today and his brother didn’t want to take
baths either.” 

“
See, momma, only girls have
to take baths every day.” 

“
They are such cute little
kids. Do you want to see a picture of them? I think I have one
right here on my phone,” Alec says. “Just give me one minute,” he
says, as he scrolls through his phone. “Here it is and they are
identical twins, too. “This is Timmy,” he shows James a picture
before showing it to me. “And this is his brother, Tommy,” he shows
James another picture before showing it to me. I try to hide my
smile.

“
Huh, that’s a mushroom.
That’s not a boy,” James says in confusion. 

“
He was a boy until he
stopped taking baths, then he turned into a dirty little
mushroom.”

I watch as James walks out the door.

“
Where ya going?” Alec
asks.

“
I’m taking a bath — I don’t
want to be no dirty mushroom.” 

Mason

The babies finally got to come home, and I
can’t stop grinning. This is my life and my family and I feel like
the king of the mountain. Trying to get Angel to take it easy has
proven difficult, if not impossible.

“
Beauty, please let me get
that for you.” 

“
Mason, I can get
it.” 

“
The doctors told you to
take it easy.” 

“
That was almost six weeks
ago.” 

I still can’t believe the twins are almost
six weeks old. They haven’t been home but only a few days and I
can’t get enough of them. I swear their looks are changing daily.
As I wanted, our children look like Angel. Ana, our daughter, has a
head of thick black hair and long dark eyelashes, as does our son,
Alex. I hold Ana and admire her. I was afraid that when our babies
were born, they would look like they had been born just in time for
their 80th birthdays. Some babies look like little old men.

 “
She’s beautiful,
isn’t she?”

I look over and Angel is watching me. “She
is beautiful like her mother. Which baby do you want to bathe
tonight?” 

“
I bathed Ana last night, so
it’s my night for Alex,” she says.

Angel and I take turns bathing the twins.
One is easier to bathe than the other. Angel and I undress the
babies in our room and carry them to the kitchen sink. We bathe the
twins side by side in separate sides of the sink. Alex cries; he
hates his bath. I laugh as I try to watch him and Ana at the same
time. Ana loves her bath and goes limp in my hands while she soaks
in the lukewarm water. I swear my heart melts for my daughter. She
is only just over five weeks and is already reminding me so much of
Angel.

Angel laughs out loud and
brings me from my
reverie. Alex is kicking
and screaming and damned if it’s not hilarious. He’s small, skinny,
and feisty. I wash Ana’s hair and Angel turns Alex over to wash his
back. He calms and she says, “This is definitely your son.” When
she stops he cries again. I wash Ana and wonder where all the crud
in her neck rolls comes from.

Once we are finished, we
wrap the towels around the babies and Angel yells, “Mason, he did
it again.” She unwraps Alex and places him back in the bath water.
I look at her although I already know he has peed all over
her.
That’s my boy.
I am almost done dressing Ana when Angel comes in with our
crying son. He sucks on his hands indicating he is starving. Angel
is breastfeeding and I’m not at all shocked that is where he wants
to be.

I feed Ana with a bottle of breast milk as
Angel nurses Alex. Both babies fall asleep during their
feeding.

We rock the kids in their rooms before
placing them in their bassinets in our room. In the beginning we
tried to let the twins sleep in their own room but that meant Angel
would also sleep in their room with them. I’m a pretty smart man
and realized if I wanted my wife in my bed with me, I would need to
move the bassinets in there first.

While pregnant, Angel
followed a charming superstition that stated that you can influence
your babies even before they are born by reading books about heroes
and heroines. The superstition is that if a pregnant woman reads
about brave people and kind people, her kid or kids will be brave
and kind. She read the novel
Ben Hur: A
Tale of the Christ
by Lew Wallace and
several biographies about such people as Mother Teresa. In a way,
the superstition can be correct. Reading such books during
pregnancy can make the pregnant woman a better person, thereby
giving her babies a better mother.

Angel frequently reads the twins a story
despite how young they are. Angel’s cousin, Nimia, from Puerto
Rico, started sending the twins books every month before they were
even born. The books are in Spanish, and I soon realize I should
have already been seriously learning Spanish.

“
Beauty, come to bed,” I say
as she leans over the side-by-side bassinets and admires the
babies.

“
I just can’t believe
they’re ours.” 

I know exactly what she means. I can’t
believe it either. 

She sings softly in Spanish
and I get on-line and e-mail Nimia and ask her if she can teach me
Spanish on-line. It would be nice to surprise Angel one day when I
answer her in Spanish.
I recognize some
words of the song, but not many. I don’t want to be left out of any
parts of their life and if Angel continues to speak Spanish to
them, I’m certain to miss out on some things. I need to be fluent
or near fluent in my Spanish to have the same bond she does. When
I’m done with my e-mail to Nimia, I say, “Beauty, come to
bed.”

She lies down and cuddles into me and I
swear I am the happiest man on this earth. I also soon realize that
protecting Angel was one thing, but now I have three people to
protect. I may need to hire a bodyguard for them. Nothing is more
important to me in this world than my family.

Chapter Seven: To Have and to Hold for Ever
and Ever

Alec

Today is Emma’s bridal shower, and it’s
fishing day for me and the boys. My dad rented a huge fishing
charter boat for all of us. If your wife or girlfriend is at the
shower, then you are with us fishing. We considered golfing, but
there were too many guys to golf. 

Emma was right about “baby steps, one hour
at a time.” Molly and Adam are keeping Raelynn and James today.
Although Adam doesn’t live with Molly, he’s there a lot and has
proven to be good for her and the kids. When Molly keeps Raelynn,
she also keeps James. James and Raelynn are truly brother and
sister, maybe not by blood but by love. When Emma and I dropped off
the kids today, James was excited to show us his and Raelynn’s
bedroom. I was just as shocked as Emma was to see ninja bedding on
the bottom bunk of the beds. Molly has accepted James into her
heart and into her home.

Emma and I get married next weekend; she is
a little anxious. Emma is usually calm and collected, but I can
tell the wedding is stressing her out. She wants everything to be
perfect. I could marry her at the Justice of the Peace and it would
be perfect, but I don’t tell her that. 

“
There’ll be no daydreaming
and no girl talk today,” my dad yells from the bow of the boat.
Everyone laughs and I wonder if he was talking to me. Mason,
Donovan, and Vincent came, as did Mason’s dad, my dad, and Emma’s,
Max’s and even Molly’s dad; my brothers and brother-in-law are also
here. My brothers aren’t fishing, but they are drinking and
enjoying time away from their wives and kids. 

I feel fortunate that Molly’s parents and I
remain on good terms. It makes it easier on Raelynn, and even James
is benefiting from it. They love him as if he were their own
grandson.

“
Are you nervous about next
week?”

I look up; my dad is taking the seat next to
me. 

“
No, not at all,” I say
quickly and honestly.