The Cowboy's Twins. Deb Kastner
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pulled out his phone and from the expression on his face, she could tell that he’d dialed Susie once again, but of course the senseless woman wasn’t answering. Not that Faith expected her to. What woman in her right mind would drop her babies on someone’s front step, even if that someone was the unsuspecting father? She was clearly immature and running away from her responsibilities. It was highly unlikely she’d offer Jax any kind of assistance now.
Faith coughed to let Jax know she was standing there, but he didn’t acknowledge her. He didn’t even look up. He was entirely focused on the baby in his arms.
He seemed to notice her only when she entered the living room and sat down on the couch across from his easy chair. She handed him a bottle and smiled encouragingly. With more actions than words, she showed him how to hold and angle the bottle for the precious little one in his arms. The baby took right to it, although Jax appeared a little self-conscious.
She leaned back into the middle cushion of the plush chocolate-colored couch and encouraged her baby—or rather, not her baby, but the infant she was holding—to root for the bottle. She was as hungry as her sister, and in moments the room was silent except for the sound of contented gurgling.
“I’ve got so many problems I don’t know where to start. For one thing, I can’t tell them apart,” Jax admitted, his lips tightening into a thin, straight line. “And even if I could, Susie didn’t leave a note to tell me what to call them. She could have at least pinned a name on them or something.”
Faith looked from one baby to the other. Jax was right. The children looked exactly the same, from their scrunched-up expressions as they held the bottles to their chocolate-brown eyes. They were even dressed alike.
“You’re right,” she agreed. “That’s a complication, but we’ll figure it out. We don’t know if they are identical or fraternal twins, but at this point in the game they are unquestionably going to be hard to tell one from the other. We need to look for some kind of defining features, something that sets the two apart.”
He frowned and studied the infant in his arms, who was noisily enjoying her late lunch. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Let’s compare. They both have the same thick tufts of brown hair.”
Just like their daddy.
“Your baby’s hair seems slightly curlier, but that could change after they’ve had a bath.”
Jax’s face paled and he made a choking sound. “A bath?”
She chuckled at his insecurity. He seemed like a take-charge kind of man, and yet a baby—two babies—left him helpless. It would be kind of cute, were it not so serious.
“With water,” she teased. “Don’t worry, we’ll get there. I’m sure somebody can show you how it’s done. Your mom has probably given babies a bath or two in her time.”
“No doubt,” he said, the corner of his mouth stretching up. “And I imagine my brothers and I were more trouble than these little girls are going to be.”
Faith chuckled, imagining three rough-and-tumble boys in the bathtub. Jax’s mother must have had a stern hand to have kept them in line.
“Maybe one of them has a birthmark,” he suggested, bringing Faith’s mind back to the present.
“How about dimples?” She’d known identical twins in high school, and that was how she’d been able to tell them apart, especially at first.
“Great idea. My baby has them. Both cheeks and a big one on her little chin.”
“There you go, then.” She nodded toward the baby in her arms. “This little sweetheart doesn’t.”
“One problem solved.” Jax groaned. “But being able to tell them apart isn’t going to help me if I don’t know their names. I can’t believe Susie did this to them.”
Faith’s heart swelled into her throat, and she could barely breathe around it. He wasn’t thinking of the inconvenience to himself as much as the well-being of his babies. As for Faith, she couldn’t believe Jax’s ex-wife could do that to him. Maybe it was a good thing this Susie character had decided to leave the sweet little babies with Jax. At least he was mature and responsible. He’d take care of them. A woman who’d just leave her helpless babies on a doorstep in the Texas heat didn’t even deserve to be called a mother.
“Thing One and Thing Two?” She spoke blithely, hoping somehow to lighten his very heavy load.
The other corner of his lips rose like the first, but his expression still looked strained, especially around his scar. “That would be one solution.”
“I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t be making so light of it,” Faith continued. “It’s pretty heavy stuff. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around Susie’s actions. I can’t believe a mother would up and abandon the babies the way she did. You have so little to go on, and it’s not just baby supplies that you’re lacking. You don’t have a clue about what names might be on their birth certificates.”
Jax scowled. “I don’t even know if I’m listed on the birth certificates.”
Probably not.
Given the circumstances, Faith doubted the woman would have officially acknowledged Jax’s paternity until it suited her purposes, but she didn’t tell him so. “You’ll have to investigate that. I’m sure there are legal ways you can establish your paternity, whether your name is listed on the birth certificate or not. But in the meantime, I suggest you come up with nicknames for your daughters. You have to call them something.”
The crease between his eyes deepened. “Like what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You could use family names. Maybe your grandmothers’?”
His jaw worked as he thought it over. “I like the idea of naming them after Granny Jane and Grandma Victoria, and if I’d had any say in it—on what went on their birth certificates—I might have suggested just those names. But if I name them Jane and Victoria, don’t you think that might confuse them later when they realize the names on their birth certificates don’t match what I’ve always called them?”
That was true enough. She nodded.
“I can probably explain a nickname as just a pet name I came up with, though that’s not a conversation I ever want to have to have. I can’t believe this. It’s imperative that I speak to Susie again, and the sooner, the better. I’m sure that’s why she’s not picking up her phone. She’s going to avoid me for as long as possible.”
He growled in frustration. The baby he was holding squeaked and flapped her arms in distress, and Jax softened his tone. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Daddy’s here.”
Faith’s heart welled again. Everything Jax did with the babies seemed to have that effect on her.
He cringed and sent her a pleading glance. “Help me out here, Faith. I want to think of something soft and feminine but I’m at a complete loss. Sweetheart and Little Darlin’ just aren’t going to cut it, and I’m just not good at stuff like this.”
This was new territory for Faith as well, but she didn’t say so.
“Flowers?” Faith suggested tentatively. “Or colors?”
“How do you mean?”
“Marigold and you could call her Mary?”
His brow creased. Given the angle of his scar, she couldn’t tell if he was amused or cringing.
“Daffodil and we could call her Daffy?”
A chuckle rumbled through his chest.
It was amusement, then. He was a hard man to read. She’d have to remember what his smile looked like.
She admired someone who could laugh in the face of adversity, and Jax was taking this remarkably well. She suspected