Home to Sparrow Lake (Harlequin Heartwarming) (15 page)

“Taylor!” yelled Kristen, in fast pursuit. They circled the living room several times before she finally caught the child. “Hold on, honey.” She swabbed at Taylor’s eyes.

“No, no!”

“Taylor, please!” With subliminal awareness, she heard a thudding sound.

“Hurts!”

The thudding sound got louder and Kristen suddenly realized that someone was pounding on the front door of the cottage.

“Police! Open up!”

Police? What on earth?

* * *

O
UTSIDE
THE
COTTAGE
,
nothing had seemed to be wrong when Alex drove up and parked. He knew the place belonged to Heather Clarke. He had checked when the County Emergency Operator told him where the 911 call originated. Inside, he heard more high-pitched shrieking.

“Open up! Police!” he shouted again, pounding on the thick wood.

This time the door gaped inward and, to his surprise, a bedraggled Kristen stood there with a screaming child bundled in a towel. Kristen’s hair was plastered around her face, her eye makeup smeared, her clothing soaked, and her expression desperate. She didn’t say a word.

Instinct told Alex not to laugh. Besides, he still didn’t know if anyone was hurt. “What’s going on?”

“Soap,” croaked Kristen, nodding at the shrieking Taylor. Or Addison. Alex couldn’t be sure. “In her eyes.”

“Soap in the eyes, huh?” Alex quickly gathered up the twin, pulling the towel tight around her. He strode inside, heading for the kitchen. “Come on.”

Holding the child between them, Alex turned on the sink and put the little head beneath the stream of water. He rinsed her hair and her face thoroughly. The shrieks turned into sobs. She merely whimpered when they set her down and dried her hair and face with a kitchen towel.

“Better?”

Her eyes were red but he didn’t know if that was from soap or crying. “It hurts.”

“But not so bad, right, sweetheart? It’ll get better. A little soap won’t kill you.” He rubbed her back soothingly and glanced at Kristen. “Is this Taylor or Addison?”

“Taylor.” She explained, “I was trying to wash her hair and I picked up the wrong shampoo.” She leaned over to check Taylor’s eyes. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.”

“Mkay,” murmured Taylor.

“We’ll put some soothing drops in your eyes.” Then she glanced around, searching. “Addison? Are you still in the bathroom?

“Auntie Kristen!” came a little sing-song cry from down the hall. “Washing the dolls! Washing the horsies!”

Kristen sighed, obviously relieved. “Thank goodness she’s not drowned. That would be about par for the course tonight.”

“Bathing twins can definitely be a two person job.” He added, “Though you didn’t really need to call 911 for help. We take that seriously.”

“Nine-one-one?”

He smiled. “Next time just call the station and ask for me personally.”

* * *

K
RISTEN
RECOGNIZED
THAT
snarky expression Alex didn’t even try to hide. “This isn’t funny.” And she couldn’t believe he thought so.

The smile disappeared. “Dialing 911 isn’t funny. I agree.”

“I did
not
dial 911.” And she was outraged that he would think she did so just to get his attention.

“Well, somebody called. From this location.”

“I wouldn’t call 911 for a nonemergency.”

“How about one of the twins?”

Kristen looked at Taylor.

The little girl shook her head. “Not me.”

“Addison?” called Kristen, heading toward the bathroom. Her niece was happily playing with bubbles, dolls, still singing. The floor was wet, the rug soaked, and damp towels lay about. “Addison, honey, did you dial 911?”

Addison quieted, looking up. “It was a ’mergency. Taylor was hurt.” Her eyes grew big as she looked at Alex. “You said to call 911 if someone needs help.”

Kristen remembered the conversation at the ice cream shop. “You did.”

“I did,” Alex admitted somberly. “I guess I didn’t explain well enough what an emergency entails. Is this your cell?” He picked up the phone from the floor. “It’s a little wet, too.”

“Covered with little fingerprints, I’m sure.” But the phone wasn’t ruined, Kristen noted, glancing at its screen. She turned back to Addison. “You used Aunt Kristen’s cell phone.”

Addison looked upset. “Don’t be mad!”

“We’re not mad,” Alex told the little girl. “We just wanted to know how this happened.”

“Finish your bath,” Kristen told Addison calmly, though she felt thoroughly embarrassed. “I had no idea,” she muttered while walking with Alex back to the living room.

He explained, “Out here, 911 calls go to a county operator. That person notifies the local law. At county they heard a lot of shrieking and couldn’t understand much except the word
help
. They called me.”

“Unbelievable.” She once again felt near tears. She tried to get angry to fight against them. “I’m sure you charge someone for a bogus 911 call, right?”

“We charge pranksters, yes.”

“Well, then, lock me up,” she said, holding out her wrists. “Or whatever. I’m responsible, since I’m supposed to be watching these children.”

Alex looked surprised. “I’m not going to lock you up.”

Taylor rushed to grab her legs. “No, no! My eyes are okay. Aunt Kristen didn’t mean to!”

Alex clasped Kristen’s outstretched hands, but his expression was comforting. “Calm down. Nobody’s getting arrested.”

If he embraced her, she knew she would break down.

She slid her hands away to pat Taylor’s wet head. “We weren’t trying to pull a prank.”

He shrugged. “Children can be a little too helpful sometimes.”

“I feel awful about it. Embarrassed.”

“Well...stuff happens.” Alex glanced around. “This place is certainly a disaster.” Stepping back out into the hallway, he cautioned, “Watch your bare feet, Taylor. Don’t step on the broken lamp.” Then he smiled at Kristen. “How about I help you clean up?”

She took some deep breaths, pulling herself together. “I have to wash Addison’s hair. With no-tears shampoo.” While giving her a talk, though nothing threatening, about making 911 calls.

“And I’ll put some drops in Taylor’s eyes,” Alex said, looking down at the child. “Why don’t you go put your jammies on first?”

Between the two of them, they made fairly short work of cleaning up the broken lamp, mopping up stray puddles, gathering soaked towels and clothing, cleaning out the bubble-choked bathtub, drying hair, and putting two five-year-olds, twenty-one fashion dolls and at least ten horses to bed.

Addison and Taylor were so tired that they barely stayed awake for two pages from the bedtime book that Alex read to them. Alex could definitely handle kids, Kristen realized. The twins had requested that he read to them and seemed very taken with him. He’d be a natural dad. Whereas she’d have to work hard at being a decent mom. She had to admit she was a little jealous.

When they came out of the twins’ bedroom, Kristen quickly checked herself in the hallway mirror. She’d wiped off the runny eye-makeup—which had made her resemble a bedraggled raccoon—and had tried to fluff up her hair.

He followed her into the kitchen where she opened the laundry closet, took the clothes from the washer and put them in the dryer. “So what’s your secret, Officer Friendly?”

“Secret?”

“I bet there wouldn’t have been a flooded bathroom or a bogus 911 call if you’d been on babysitting duty tonight.”

“Two people are probably better than one with five-year-old twins. Plus I think I told you I had younger siblings growing up.”

She vaguely remembered something he’d said about that. “I had younger siblings to take care of, too, but if I had any special knowledge about how to deal with them, I seem to have lost it.” Along with any influence over Brian.

“Don’t give yourself such a hard time. Everything isn’t always perfect, especially when it comes to kids,” he pointed out. “And it probably wasn’t perfect in the past, either.”

When she’d taken care of Brian as a child, he’d seemed easy to deal with. Maybe he’d saved up his misbehavior through the years and it was coming out now. Or maybe he’d only acted like a good little boy. She wasn’t sure.

“Would you like a cup of tea or coffee before you go back to work?” she asked.

“I’ll take some coffee. I’m on the night shift.”

She carefully measured grounds into Heather’s automatic coffeemaker and put a kettle on for her tea. Then she got cups out and set them on the table.

“You can really be Ms. Perfectionist, you know,” Alex said.

She wondered if that bothered him. “Is that a bad thing?”

“Not for a career, but it can be a recipe for failure when it comes to human beings. You can’t expect kids to follow a particular plan all the time.”

“Are you saying that I wouldn’t have this mess if I hadn’t expected the twins to follow my plan? I didn’t have a plan.”

“I’m just saying that you expected everything to go smoothly. Life only does that sometimes. And I’m in a profession to know, believe me.”

“Well, thank you for the advice.” The coffee was done, so she poured him a cup. She also put out a plate of cookies, the rest of a package Heather had hidden high on a shelf, out of the reach of little hands. She fixed her tea and sat down.

He sat, as well. “You’re sounding a little sarcastic.”

“Well, I’m not the sort who likes to be rescued every other day.”

“Helping is different than rescuing.”

She sipped her tea, some of it going down the wrong way, which made her cough. She held up her hand. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to perform the Heimlich maneuver on top of everything else.”

His eyes softened. “No mouth-to-mouth, huh? Now, that would look good on the 911 call report.”

She had to smile and felt warmth course through her. “Maybe later.”

“Great.” He looked ready to perform mouth-to-mouth right now.

“You seriously don’t think I’m one of the worst aunts in the world? I let my nieces steal sweaters and then I tried to put their eyes out with soap.” She went on. “They were out of control all evening, used a whole box of bubble bath, just about flooded the cottage, and nearly came to blows over horsies and dollies. And they weren’t even being bad. I’m sure Heather could have dealt with everything.”

“But your sister is used to kiddie chaos. She’s had a few years of experience that you haven’t.”

“I bet you wouldn’t have had trouble babysitting Taylor and Addison.”

“Don’t bet too much. I could have gotten shampoo in their eyes, too. And who knows what other kinds of trouble we would have gotten into? One time, I babysat my brother’s little girl and helped her bake cookies. We blew up my sister-in-law’s oven.”

“Really?” She grinned. “I would’ve liked to have seen that.”

“We had to peel cookies off the kitchen walls for days.”

Kristen laughed.

“You are absolutely beautiful when you laugh.”

“Even with stringy hair and smeared makeup?”

“Especially with messed-up hair and makeup.” He leaned closer and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Now about that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation you need, ma’am...”

Thrilled by his caring touch, Kristen couldn’t resist, learning forward herself. The kiss was soft and firm at the same time. Exhilarating. The embarrassment of the evening burned away.

He pulled back a second to ask, “Better, ma’am?”

She felt a little breathless. “I’m not sure. I might need more.” And not only of his kisses. She wanted to be with this man who had such easy charm, and not just for his prowess at dealing with emergencies.

Alex covered her mouth again, sliding one warm hand behind the nape of her neck. Kristen lost herself in the embrace, felt as if it went on forever. Felt as if she were melting...

“Ahem.”

The spell of the kiss was broken when Kristen’s eyes popped open, registering that Heather was standing in the kitchen. She must have let herself in the back door.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

Kristen sat back as Alex released her. “Uh, that’s okay. The twins are bathed and asleep. I did a load of laundry and it’s still drying.”

“I noticed.” Heather gave her a curious look. “Is there more tea? I’ll join you.”

“Help yourself.”

“When I saw the police cruiser out front, I was afraid the twins had been robbing the town’s merchants again.”

“They’re good little kids,” said Alex. “You don’t have to worry.”

Kristen noted that he shared nothing about the 911 call, the true reason for his visit. She didn’t want to bring it up, either. She hated to tell her sister about the latest mess she’d gotten into.

Alex said, “I wanted to talk to Kristen, just to see how she’s doing.”

Kristen appreciated that he didn’t mention the big mess they’d cleaned up, though she had no idea of what the twins would say about the evening. Or how she would explain the broken lamp.

“I’m sure she’ll be doing fine after you get through with her.” Heather sat down with a cup of tea. “She’s always needed some police intervention.”

They all laughed and chatted about college studies and kids for a half hour before Kristen announced they should leave so her sister could wind down for the evening.

Alex walked Kristen to her car. “Would you like to do something this coming weekend?”

“Sure. Do you have something specific in mind?”

“I just might,” he said. “I have something specific in mind right now.”

Alex brushed her lips with his but made no move to leave. Kristen’s pulse began to thrum. The way he was looking at her made her flush in response. She waited breathlessly to see what he would do. He smoothed away the hair from the side of her face and slipped his hand to the back of her neck.

When he kissed her again, he took his time. She swayed into him, and he caught her by the waist and held her possessively. It had only been a few days, but she’d missed Alex intensely. Her heart began to pound and her breath caught in her throat, and just when she started to lose herself in the kiss, he pulled away.

With a big grin softening his face, Alex brushed her lips again before walking to his cruiser.