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“That’s rotten luck.”
“And this morning Zack was standing up in his crib when I went in—and the way his face crumpled when he realized that it was me again and not his mother almost broke my heart.”
“Better you than a baby-sitter he doesn’t know at all.”
Nikki twisted around to look at him. “Don’t you have any sympathy for the poor kid?”
“Of course I do. I’m just realistic about it instead of sentimental. It’s good for them to get used to different people.”
“Well, good luck convincing them.” She added a few chunks of chicken to Anna’s tray and handed the baby her cup of milk. “And while you’re at it, try persuading Laura. Though she still hasn’t called back.” Nikki frowned. “Now that I think about it, it’s a little strange that I haven’t heard from her.”
“There hasn’t been a word?”
Nikki shook her head. “Aren’t phone calls from a cruise ship pretty pricy? Maybe Stephen put his foot down.”
“He could try, but I don’t think that would stop her any more than it would keep a mother bear from charging to defend her cubs. Are you in the mood for a bet?”
“Tell me what it is first.”
“Whether Laura calls the minute they land at the airport, or she rushes straight home to her darlings.”
“She’ll call,” Nikki said promptly.
“I don’t think so. If she calls, she’ll be five minutes later getting here.”
“It won’t hold her up a bit, because she’ll send Stephen after the car while she’s on the phone. That’s not a bet, Seth, it’s a certainty—so the only question left is how much money you want to give me. Anna, smashed peas are not a good conditioner for your hair. Come on, sweetheart, let’s go wash it out.” She lifted Anna from her high chair. “Do you mind if I leave Zack here for a minute, Seth? It’s much easier to wash them one at a time.”
Seth waved a hand instead of answering.
When she came back, he’d turned the radio on and taken the baby out of his high chair. Zack had pulled himself up beside a dining room chair and was hanging on tight, swaying his bottom in an approximate rhythm with the music. Seth was on the floor, both hands out of sight underneath the dishwasher.
“Hold that bag down here for a minute so I can sort through it, would you, Nikki?”
She knelt, holding the bag out of the babies’ reach. “How are you doing?”
“So far I’ve managed to break another valve and increase Zack’s vocabulary by at least two words that Laura doesn’t want him to know.”
The music stopped and a newscast began, but Zack danced on, too fascinated by his own movement to notice. Anna watched him as if she was studying each step. Seth sorted through pieces. And Nikki, half-listening to the newscast over the rattle of metal parts and the babbling of two babies, caught a few words that sent chills up her spine.
“Cruise ship…Caribbean…virus…quarantine…”
She scrambled to her feet and made a dash for the living room.
“Hey,” Seth called, “where are you going with my bag of parts?”
Nikki didn’t bother to answer. She dropped the bag in the nearest chair and dived for the television remote control.
The story was on the second news channel she checked. A mysterious virus had struck a cruise ship in the Caribbean, and public health officials were taking no chances. The ship and the two thousand people on board would be quarantined off the Florida coast until the bug was identified and the passengers were confirmed not to be contagious.
Nikki didn’t have to hear the name of the ship; the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was the one Laura and Stephen were on. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “All those poor people, shut up on a ship together with stomach cramps and headaches and fevers—”
Seth stood in the doorway, listening intently. “At least it doesn’t seem as though the symptoms are life-threatening. Just miserable.”
“Somehow I don’t think it would be a lot of comfort to know you’re not going to die,” Nikki mused, “if you feel bad enough to want to. What a way to spend a vacation!”
“I wonder if Steve’s boss will charge this up against his sick leave.” Seth’s voice was flippant, but there was a shadow in his eyes and a furrow between his brows.
“No wonder she hasn’t called. There must be two thousand people waiting in line to use a phone, if they can even get out of bed long enough to dial.”
“So we both lost the bet,” Seth added, “because she won’t be calling from the airport, and she won’t be coming straight home, either. At least not tonight.” He looked down at Nikki and raised one eyebrow. “Congratulations, Ms. Marshall—you have just hit the jackpot. You are the lucky winner of twins.”
CHAPTER TWO
NIKKI stared at him, certain she couldn’t be hearing correctly. “What do you mean I won them?” she croaked finally.
Seth shrugged. “I could have said you lost the lottery, but I thought it would make you feel better if I put a positive spin on it. What it comes down to is, you get to keep the twins a while longer.”
Nikki’s head was spinning. “Oh, no.”
“You’re the one who volunteered for this responsibility,” Seth pointed out.
“I said I’d take care of the babies for three days. Count ’em—Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I’m—”
“Or until till Laura gets home.”
And Laura didn’t expect to be hit by a virus, any more than I would expect to get struck by lightning… But what was she going to do about it? “I wasn’t counting on this.” Her voice felt feeble. “They could be delayed for a couple of days.”
“At least.” Seth was looking at the television set.
Nikki followed his gaze. Someone from public health was showing off a chart of infection rates. The angle of the line tracing the increasing number of infected people aboard the ship looked like a rocket’s path to the heavens. If her sales figures were to climb at that rate, Nikki thought, she’d be thrilled.
She said, trying to sound cheerful, “The good news is that at this rate the virus will have gotten to everybody on the ship by about tomorrow. Once that happens, things can only get better, right?”
“That’s what you call the good news?”
Nikki had to admit it didn’t sound very encouraging. “Look, I’m not trying to make light of the situation. I’m as worried about Laura and Stephen as you are. But it looks as if they’ve got the entire public health organization working on it…” Her words sounded hollow. That sort of no-holds-barred action wasn’t directed at every garden-variety virus. This stuff was different.
Poor Laura had been afraid that she might get seasick on the cruise. Now there’s irony for you, Nikki thought. Compared to the bug that was running wild on the ship, it sounded as if seasickness would be positively pleasant.
“No point in worrying. There’s nothing we can do about Laura and Steve right now.” Seth picked up the bag of parts and went back to the kitchen.
Nikki trailed him hopefully.
Zack had flopped down on the kitchen floor and was chewing on the handle of a screwdriver. Seth took it away from him and put it back in the toolbox atop the counter. The baby howled, and absently Nikki picked him up, handed him a plastic measuring cup from the cabinet and watched in disbelief as Seth snapped the toolbox closed.
“You’re not leaving.” It was half-question, half-plea. “Seth, I can’t stay here till that ship’s out of quarantine. I was supposed to go home tonight. I have a life, and I’ve already put it on hold for three days to do this.”
“What are you planning to do with the twins, then?”
Nikki opened her mouth to answer, and shut it again. What on earth was she going to do with the twins? Much as she hated to face the fact, Seth was right—she had assumed the responsibility, and now it was up to her to make sure the babies were safe and taken care of, until their mother could take over once more. If she couldn’t actually look after them herself, then she’d need to find someone who could. She looked speculatively at Seth.
“The way I see it,” Seth said, “you can look in the want ads under baby-sitters—”
“Hire a stranger? Laura wouldn’t like that.”
He didn’t seem to have heard her. “Or you can call child protective services and report that the babies are being neglected, and have them put in foster care. Or you can drop them off on a stranger’s doorstep, ring the bell, and run.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Seth shrugged. “That’s about all the options I can think of.”
“There’s one more. I can hand them over to you. You’re their godfather.”
“Being a godparent has nothing to do with baby-sitting. It’s purely a spiritual duty.”
“Don’t go getting sanctimonious on me now, Seth.”
“I wouldn’t dream of trying. You’re the one who said it. As I recall, you told Laura on the twins’ christening day that I was a bad choice for the position because I wouldn’t recognize a spiritual experience if it bit me in the—”
“Seth Baxter, do you ever do anything when you’re in church besides eavesdrop?”
“So you admit telling her that.”
“I may have,” Nikki admitted. “I don’t actually recall. But that’s beside the point.”
“In any case, you’re their godmother, so the same argument applies to you.”
“All right then, we’ll leave godparenting out of it altogether. You’re their uncle. With their parents out of the country—”
“Don’t forget indisposed,” Seth added.
“That makes you their closest kin at the moment. I’m only a friend of the family, with no legal standing at all. So the bottom line is that you’re the one who has to make the decisions.”
Seth’s eyebrows raised slightly. “If it’s my choice, then I choose to let you keep them. You’ve been doing a fine job so far.”
Nikki couldn’t decide whether to scream or kick the nearest piece of furniture. “I have a house sale closing tomorrow, and I can’t even change the time because too many people are involved. I can’t find a sitter by tomorrow morning because I haven’t the faintest idea where to start looking. Seth, I’m begging. You have to help me out here.”
“Why me? You signed up for this duty. I didn’t.”
“Because I can’t take a set of year-old twins to a mortgage closing, that’s why!”
“Well, I can’t just hang them from my tool belt while I rebuild Mrs. Cooper’s closets, either.”
Nikki bit her lip. “I don’t suppose you can. But surely you can put Mrs. Cooper’s closets on hold for a day or two. At least till we find out what’s going on on that ship.”
“Obviously you’ve never met Mrs. Cooper, or you wouldn’t say that.” He lowered himself to the floor and began to put the panels on the dishwasher once more.
As soon as he finishes, he’ll leave. You have to do something, Nikki—and fast.
She put Zack down on the floor. “How about that cup of coffee you were wanting earlier?”
“I expected better from you in the bribery department than that, Nikki.”
“All right,” she conceded. “I won’t waste your time by making coffee.”
“The truth is, there are so many dishes in the sink you couldn’t get to the faucet for water anyway.”
Nikki ignored him. “Let’s talk about this like adults. I can’t miss that closing. If you’ll just keep the twins tomorrow morning—”
Seth was shaking his head.
“You won’t even do that much? Just till noon.” Nikki knew she sounded desperate. She didn’t care.
“I can’t. I’ve got a supplier delivering a load of materials at eight o’clock in the morning.”
Nikki chewed her lip. “Eight? My closing isn’t till half past nine. Maybe we can work this out after all. Surely that gives you enough time.”
“Depends on how fast the crew unloads. It’s a big order.”
“Well, the closing is downtown. If I get the babies up in the morning while you go sign the receipt for your supplies, then I can swoop by and drop them off with you in Rockhurst—it’s almost on my way—and go straight to the closing. You can bring them back here and—”
His eyebrows raised. “How do you know I’m working in Rockhurst?”
“Laura, of course.” Nikki surrendered the last of her pride. “Seth, if you’ll just bail me out for a couple of hours in the morning, I swear I’ll come straight back after the closing.”
“What about your new client? The fancy executive at the auto plant?”
She’d forgotten. For a moment there, she’d actually forgotten a client, something which had never happened before. So it’s not just an old wives’ tale. Spending countless hours with babies really can turn your brain to mush.
“I wonder whether he likes kids,” Seth mused.
Nikki gritted her teeth.
“If he’s divorced, maybe he has children of his own. He might even enjoy having the twins around. It’s such a cozy little domestic image—you, him, the babies, looking at houses…”
Nikki had no trouble at all creating that picture in her mind. She sighed. “I guess someone else will have to show him around tomorrow.”
“Hey, kids,” Seth announced. “She’s giving up the tycoon for you. Bet you’re tickled to hear that.”
Anna clapped her hands as if in delight. More likely, Nikki thought, the baby was pleased that she’d managed to pile all her plastic blocks into an unsteady tower. Now she was eyeing her brother’s supply.
“Nobody else in the office could possibly be less prepared than I am,” Nikki said almost to herself. “I haven’t even glanced at the multiple listings all weekend. All right, that covers tomorrow.” She rushed on before he could argue the point. “Now about tonight—”
“What about it?” Seth sounded wary.
“I don’t have any real clothes here, just jeans and stuff. I’m going to have to go home and get something to wear to the closing.”
“Do it in the morning.”
