There was no need to complicate his life with a superficial woman!
Chapter 9
Five years later…
“Come on you two!” Stevie called up the stairs. “We’re going to be late for school! Don’t forget your family tree projects.”
A moment later, Stevie heard a small stampede of feet thundering down the hallway above her. Halley and Harrison along with Herbie, the great Dane-collie-retriever mutt, raced down the stairs.
“We’re ready!” Halley called out, jumping from the second to last step with a loud thud.
Stevie beamed at her beautiful children. Twins. Years ago, she’d cried at the enormity of the responsibility when the doctor had heard two heartbeats. Thankfully, her mother had left Stevie a small inheritance, as well as the house, which was fully paid off. After feeling sorry for herself for about a month, Stevie had picked herself up and forced herself to deal with reality. She’d moved out of Seattle and into her mother’s house because there were so many memories in this house. Good memories. Stevie hadn’t been able to put the house on the market, so she’d moved in. Then she’d gotten a job as a teacher here in the Snohomish county school system.
It was still a small house, but it was larger than her old apartment, plus it had a big backyard and was in a wonderful neighborhood. It was perfect for raising a pair of rambunctious twins and their dog that was big enough to be mistaken for a pony.
There had been so many challenges over the years, but right now, things were pretty good. School had started back last month. Halley and Harrison were in the prekindergarten program at the day care facility right next to her school. So, Stevie was close by in case of an emergency. They were happy and healthy and, for the moment, generally obeyed her when she asked them to do something. Stevie knew that was going to change, but for right now, life was good.
If she occasionally wondered about their father, who had callously vanished from her life all those years ago, well, she simply pushed Janus out of her mind. And out of her dreams. He was no longer a part of her world, she reminded herself. In fact, men in general weren’t really a part of her life. Raising twins as a single mother was…time consuming, to say the least!
“Got everything?” she asked, plunking a hat on Halley’s head, then Harrison’s.
“Yeah,” Harrison replied, looking into his book bag by stuffing his entire head inside, as if he could inventory the bag’s contents that way. “I think so.”
Stevie laughed, and handed him a lunch bag. “Don’t smoosh it this time,” she warned her son.
Harrison’s only response was to put his football into his book bag first, then his lunch.
“He’s going to smoosh it, Momma,” Halley warned. But she grabbed her soccer ball and did the same thing.
Stevie sighed. She’d grown up taking ballet lessons and piano lessons. She’d been the most uncoordinated person on any sports team. One year, her father had convinced Stevie to play soccer. She’d scored five times. For the other team. On a different field. Another time, he’d tried to teach her to play tennis. But Stevie kept smacking the ball outside of the tennis area. There had been a few other attempts at sports before her father accepted that Stevie just wasn’t athletically inclined.
So Stevie knew that their affinity for playing games that included balls hadn’t come from her side of the family. That had obviously come from their father.
Even after all these years, Stevie still felt a pang of loss over Janus. He hadn’t returned her phone calls when she’d tried to tell him about her pregnancy. And all of the letters she’d sent after the twins’ birth had been returned unopened.
Such was life, she thought as she grabbed her keys. “Stay!” she ordered Herbie. The enormous dog sat down on his butt, but looked as if she’d just slapped him. “Don’t even try it, you big goof,” Stevie warned, bending down to kiss his giant head and scratch behind his ears. “We took you out for a long walk just fifteen minutes ago.”
Herbie sighed soulfully. But Herbie didn’t want another walk. Stevie knew that the big lug would lumber into the family room and jump up onto the couch for his morning nap as soon as she closed the door. Herbie was an enormous dog, not quite as big as a Great Dane, but pretty darn close. And he loved breaking the rules…as long as he wasn’t caught.
Stevie did a visual inventory of boy, girl, and dog, then nodded with satisfaction. Being a single mother of twins meant being organized to the nth degree. Every moment of her day was planned out. Otherwise, chaos reigned supreme.
“Okay, let’s hit the road or we’re going to be late.”
Halley and Harrison trudged out the door, their book bags full and family tree projects held carefully. Each had made a poster, tracing their ancestry as far back as Stevie could remember. She’d even done a DNA test on her babies, wanting to give them a bit of background on where they were from further back. Since they had no other relatives, besides their absent father, Stevie had wanted to give them a better sense of who they were.
Now was the day of The Big Reveal! Halley and Harrison were excited to show off their projects to the class. The DNA test had discovered that her family had come from Ireland. So, Stevie had helped her twins research Irish history…well, as much Irish history as four year olds could absorb. Which meant that they’d stopped at the “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” legend, devouring stories of leprechauns.
Stevie pulled the front door open and…froze. A copper haired
