McCallum Quintuplets (21 page)

“Grace, it's Maggie.”

“Oh, sweetie, I'm so glad you called.”

That lurch of her heart was there, that fear in her that something had happened, but she wasn't doing this alone. She reached for Adam, took his hand in her free hand, then spoke into the receiver. “What is it?”

“Jackson, he's okay. No fever, still fussy, but he's ac
tually sleeping now. I'm so glad Adam talked you out of coming back. There's no need for that.”

“Grace, Adam's right here. Tell him what you told me, okay?”

“Sure, sweetie, you two have a good time, and I'll see you tomorrow.”

Maggie held the phone out to Adam, and when she saw him hesitate, she said, “It's okay,” and the relief in his expression was overwhelming. “Jackson's okay.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, then took the phone and said, “Grace?”

He was silent. Maggie watched him, and his eyes never left hers. “Thanks, yes, we will,” he said, then hung up.

He tossed the phone on the chair, then came toward Maggie. “I'll still make it happen if you want to go back.”

She looked at him. “Do you know how much I love you?”

He exhaled in a rush. “I know how much you love the babies, too.”

“Adam, you were so right—if there's no you and me, there's no family. You and me. We're the start and the finish, and the babies are the middle part. I started this with you, and I'll be here at the end, but in the between times I still want you here. I want us here. Do you understand? I'm not leaving. I can't. I won't.”

He came to her without a word, gathering her to him, and they stood for what seemed forever, just holding each other. Each relishing the presence of the other, the reality that they were here, that they'd made it this far. And she was bound and determined that they'd make it to the end. She wasn't her mother. She couldn't just walk away. And Adam had known that all the time.

She tipped her head, finding his lips with hers, and her kiss was answered immediately by his, by the hunger in him that was deep inside her. The robe and towel were gone, and they were in the bedroom, the two of them, together in a way they never had been before. Without doubts and without fear, and just because they both loved each other.

Maggie went to him wholeheartedly, giving herself to him without reservation, without holding back anything, and Adam took her in the same way. He was over her, in her, filling her, and together they found a place where only the two of them could go. And they stayed there for what seemed a lifetime before the climax came and the descent to reality came with it.

They were tangled together, holding each other in the soft darkness. The rain was a mist, barely brushing the windows, and the cabin was warm and snug and perfect. Adam held his wife, relishing the oneness that was there, that had been there the first time and was back again. That sense of life being right. “You're okay with staying for the night?” he whispered against her bent head resting in the hollow of his shoulder.

She shifted, lifting herself on one elbow to look at him. “I'm still worried and I'm still going to be a mother who frets. I mean, there are five little lives to worry about.” She dropped a kiss on his chest and felt him gasp at the contact. “I'm not perfect,” she murmured, “but I'm okay. And the one thing I want right now is to make sure that you and I are okay.”

He lifted a hand to touch her cheek. “Oh, we're okay, and we're okay if we go back now or if we stay.”

“Then let's stay, and in the morning, we can call Grace and see how things are and see how she's holding up.”
She traced the line of hair on his chest with her forefinger. “And if she's still sane and the babies are okay, what do you say we do what you wanted to begin with and stay for a few days?”

He covered her hand on his chest with his. “Do you mean it?”

“Oh, I mean it, I really mean it,” she whispered and bent to kiss him. “Will you stay with me?” she asked.

“Oh, Maggie, forever,” he said and drew her down to him, to show her that forever began right then.

Six months later

Maggie had wanted the birthday party for the quints to be quiet and just family, but Adam's father had insisted on giving it at the McCallum Multiple Birth Wing at the Maitland Maternity Clinic. A way to celebrate everything at once, all of the blessings in his life.

The guest list Maggie had, of just family, had expanded to include so many people she'd given up and let her father-in-law do it his way. The usually sterile cafeteria area was festooned with balloons, streamers and flowers, and three clowns made animals out of balloons and also painted faces.

The quiet halls were alive with adults and with the children who had been born there, the miracles of the clinic.

There were five cakes, three blue and two pink, on tables that looked like circus animals. Grandpa Jackson was carrying Douglas and his namesake, little Jackson. Grace had Julia, with Daniel toddling by her side, and Adam was just intercepting Gracie before she could put a hand in the nearest cake.

The quints didn't know what was going on, and they
didn't care. They loved the commotion, the attention and playing with the other kids. Maggie sat with her back against the wall, loving the five of them and their father.

“Hey there,” someone said, and Maggie turned to find Annabelle Reardon—no, Beaumont now, the nurse who had been there when the babies had been born. “Isn't this fantastic?” Annabelle asked, looking around the transformed room.

“It's incredible,” Maggie admitted. “Jackson thought it was a great idea, and I'm not up to fighting a McCallum man when he has his mind made up.”

“I always knew you were smart,” Annabelle said. “Can you believe it's been a whole year since those five little munchkins burst into this world?”

It seemed like a lifetime, yet as if it could have been just yesterday. “It's unbelievable,” Maggie said. “I could never thank you and your husband enough for everything you did for all of us.”

“Seeing you all here together is thanks enough, believe me. After everything you all went through, this is a certifiable miracle.”

Maggie didn't argue. She nodded, her eyes burning at the memories of what they'd survived. They were still together, all of them. A real miracle. “You…did you get cake?”

“Cake? Did someone mention cake?” Zachary Beaumont was there, looking decidedly unlike a doctor. He came up behind his wife, hugging her to him and smiling as widely as Annabelle. “I love cake.”

Maggie motioned to the five cakes. “Choose your color and go for it.”

“Oh, I will,” he said on a soft chuckle. “How about you, Annabelle? Cake? Or do you think you can keep it down?”

“None for me,” she said.

“Okay, I'll be right back,” Zach said and strode in the direction of the cake table.

Maggie looked at Annabelle, and something struck her. “You're sick?”

Annabelle blushed but looked incredibly healthy. “Oh, no. I'm fine.”

“But he asked if you could…” She looked at Annabelle then, really looked at her. She was glowing. She had that look, and Maggie's eyes widened. “You're…you and Doctor Beaumont, you're expecting, aren't you?”

The blush deepened, and Annabelle lowered her voice. “We aren't making an announcement just yet. It's too early. I'm only six weeks along. We didn't think this would happen.” She smiled a bit uncertainly. “It's almost too good to be true, you know what I mean?”

“I sure do,” Maggie said, and hugged her. “This is so terrific. So…so…”

“It's a miracle, just like your five,” Annabelle said. “A miracle.” Then Zach was back with a plate but without any cake.

“No cake until they sing ‘Happy Birthday,'” he said. And Maggie saw the way he looked at his wife, the same way Adam had looked at her during the pregnancy. That mixture of joy and worry. Happiness and uncertainty.

“We should be singing that pretty soon,” Maggie said, and knew she needed Adam right then. She needed to get close to him, to feel him near, to make that physical connection between them. She needed it constantly, as much as she needed to know the babies were okay. “I'll be right back,” she murmured, and saw Adam going out the door with Gracie on his shoulders. She went after him, into the hallway, and by the time she caught up to them, he was talking to Ian Russell.

She hadn't seen Ian or his wife, Madeline, the fertility specialist who had been the first to tell them there were five babies on the way, for what seemed a very long time. She knew they'd married, and she knew that Adam and Ian kept in touch off and on, on a business level.

“Ian?” she said, reaching for Gracie to slip her off Adam's shoulders and hug her to her chest. Gracie felt wonderfully heavy in her arms, a terrific feel for a baby who had felt so tiny and insubstantial for so long. But Gracie had other ideas, squirming until Maggie put her down.

“Maggie, I was just talking to your husband here about how you deal with having five babies. I think you're both miracle workers to get through it.”

Maggie watched Gracie toddle toward Grace's husband, Douglas, in the doorway. The elderly man held out his arms, and she went right to him, then Maggie knew Gracie was safe and turned to Ian and her husband. She sought and found Adam's hand, holding it tightly and loving the way he held her. “No, we're just doing this day by day and figuring it out as we go along.” She smiled. “Speaking of babies, I heard from someone that you and Madeline are expecting. Congratulations.”

“I'll take a double dose of that,” he said with a grin.

“Double?”

“As in twins.”

“Oh, my gosh,” Maggie gasped. “That's fantastic!”

“Pretty darn wonderful,” Madeline said as she came up to them and very naturally slipped into her husband's hold.

That glow Maggie had seen in Annabelle was there a hundredfold in Madeline, along with the soft swelling of her stomach under the loose blue top she was wearing
with black leggings. The woman looked wonderful with no makeup and her hair loose and curly.

“I was just getting some advice from these two,” Ian said. “About how to deal with more than one baby coming into our lives.”

“Oh, we can use all the advice we can get.”

Adam let go of Maggie just long enough to change from holding her hand to putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her against his side. “There is one thing you two should know, the most important thing,” Adam said. “Don't ever lose each other in the middle of all the craziness.”

Maggie could barely breathe for a second, remembering how close they'd come to doing that very thing themselves. “The two of you are the core of the family,” she whispered. “And it's too easy to forget the most important things in this life.”

“Good advice,” Ian murmured, and she could see his hold on Maddie tightening just a bit. “Thanks for everything.”

“No problem,” Adam said, and glanced at Maggie.

She saw something in his eyes, something that made her look at Madeline and Ian and say, “I'm sorry, I came out here to talk to Adam.”

“No problem,” Ian said. “I'm sure you two don't get enough time together.”

“We're working on it,” Adam said.

Maggie waited until Ian and Madeline were out of ear-shot, then she turned to her husband. “What's wrong?”

He pulled her with him down the hall and into a quiet corner, never letting go of her. “I just keep thinking what could have happened to us, and instead, we're here and we're whole.” He exhaled. “I need you, Maggie.”

She went closer, circling his neck with her arms. “Your
timing isn't very good, is it? We're sort of committed to this party, you know?”

“Oh, I know, and I don't want to miss any of it. Not a minute of it.” He kissed her, a lingering caress that drew at her soul and made a promise of things to come. “But after it's over—” he breathed roughly as he drew back away “—afterward, Grace and Douglas and my dad agreed to take care of the birthday kids for a few hours.”

“Oh, my, this sounds interesting,” Maggie murmured. “And what exactly did you have in mind?”

“I'm open to anything you can come up with.”

“Don't be so sure about that,” she whispered.

“In an hour we can leave,” he said. “Right after the cake and the presents.” He exhaled roughly. “But right now we need to get back to the party.”

She didn't want to let go, not yet, but she felt something at her legs, a tiny body pushing between the two of them, and she looked at little Jackson. He had chocolate cake all over his face and hands, and now that cake was all over the legs of Adam's pants and the pale ivory skirt of her dress. “You little dickens,” Maggie said with a laugh, scooping him up, and when he giggled he showed an impressive number of teeth, the most of any of the quints.

“Let's go to the party,” Maggie said, looking at Adam. “Shall we?”

“Absolutely,” he answered, and they went together into the party room.

Everyone was there, and Jackson McCallum stood in the middle of everything. He held up a hand to silence the partygoers. “Everyone. Can I have your attention?”

The guests turned to him, and as Adam put his arm around Maggie, his dad, in a blue sports shirt with more than his share of chocolate cake smeared on it, looked around and smiled.

“What a day,” he pronounced. “The birthday of my grandchildren, this place thriving and life itself! It was all worth it. A real labor of love!”

As he broke into a chorus of “Happy Birthday” and the others joined in, Adam looked at Maggie and leaned close enough so only she could hear him.

“Yes, it was worth everything.”