Treading Water (45 page)

“
Don’t be sorry, honey. I’m
just glad we got the first part taken care of in time.” He kissed
her as another contraction hit.

She bit back the urge to push. “I can’t wait
any longer.”

A knock on the door sent Frannie flying
across the room. She returned with a young couple. “We’re in luck.”
Frannie introduced Mark and Julie Patterson.

“
I’m a cardiology resident,
and my wife is a labor and delivery nurse,” Mark said, shaking
hands with Jack, who was weak with relief to be getting some
qualified assistance. “We’re here on our honeymoon and heard you
could use some help.”

Andi nodded when Julie asked if she could
examine her.

“
You’re crowning, Andi. Are
you ready to push?”

“
I’ve been trying not to
for half an hour. I should tell you I had a C-section seven years
ago.”

“
Looks like we don’t have
time for anything other than the good old-fashioned way, so on the
next contraction, let’s give it a push.” Julie gave Frannie and
Jack instructions on how they could help.

John Joseph Harrington IV came into the
world ten minutes later, followed eight minutes later by his
identical twin brother, Robert Franklin Harrington. They named the
boys for their father and grandfathers but would call them Johnny
and Robby.

Both babies let out lusty cries, and Julie
estimated them to be a very healthy six pounds each, even though
they’d arrived a month early.

Dr. Abbott rushed into the room five minutes
after Robby was born, shocked to see the babies had already arrived
and everyone seemed to be doing fine. “I missed it?”

“
We work fast around here,”
Jack said as he held Andi and brushed at tears.

Mark and Julie left promising to check on
the new family later. Jack and Andi thanked them profusely for
their help, and Andi promised to comp their stay at the hotel.

When Dr. Abbott cleared everyone from the
room so she could examine Andi, Jack took the babies to the
hallway, where an anxious group of grandparents and siblings waited
to meet their new family members.

A few minutes later, Dr. Abbott came out to
tell Jack he could take the babies to their mother.

Andi rested against the pile of pillows, her
eyes bright with excitement.

Jack sat next to her, handed Johnny to her,
and kept Robby for himself.

“
Dr. Abbott said I was
probably in labor all night and didn’t recognize it because the
pain was in my back,” she said with a sheepish grin. “The back pain
was nothing new, so I ignored it.”

“
No wonder it happened so
fast. But I’m glad we didn’t have time to get you to the hospital
and our sons were born in
our
hotel, which, I might add, is home sweet home
until we find a house for this brood of ours.” He leaned over to
kiss her. “You were amazing, Andi. I’m so proud of you.”

Caressing his face, she was flooded with
relief that he was back to stay and hers to keep. She had two new
rings on her left hand and two new babies to prove it.

“
I woke up today with three
kids, and now I have
six
,” he said, gazing down at Robby.
Both babies had caps of shiny black hair.

“
I had
one,
and now I have
six
.”

“
Okay, you win,” he said,
and they laughed. “I have
sons
.”

“
Three of them. Do you
remember what Dr. Abbott said about identical twins?”

“
A stroke of sheer luck,”
he recalled. “You hear that, boys? You’re a stroke of sheer
luck—just like your mother was for me.”

She tugged him close enough to kiss. “I love
you, Jack.”

“
I love you, too, but I
have one question for you,” he said with a devilish gleam in his
eye.

“
What’s that?” she asked,
amused by him.

“
How will we
ever
explain to these
boys that they were born on our wedding day?”

“
As soon as I figure out
how it all happened, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

They laughed while the babies slept in their
arms.

The story begun in “Treading Water”
continues in “Marking Time.” Clare’s story picks up on Jack and
Andi’s wedding day as she begins to put her life back together. We
also follow Kate as she sets out to find fame and fortune in
Nashville.

Book 2: Marking
Time

Available late November
2011

Chapter 1

Clare checked her watch again. One thirty.
It must be done by now. My husband—or I should say ex-husband—is
remarried.

“Ex-husband,” she said with a shudder.
Unimaginable. Divorced… Such an ugly word.

She wheeled her chair across her room in the
rehabilitation center and gazed out at the steamy August day.
Somewhere along the Ten Mile Ocean Drive in historic Newport, Jack
had exchanged vows with Andi. He has a new family now. Clare had
known this day was coming and had set the whole thing in motion by
letting him go, but that didn’t make it any easier to imagine her
Jack married to someone else. “Not my Jack anymore,” she said to
herself.

The door opened. “Mrs. Harrington?”

Clare didn’t correct the nurse. She wasn’t
“Mrs.” any longer. “Yes?”

“They’re ready for you in PT.”

Taking another long look at the City by the
Sea, Clare wondered what Jack was doing right at that moment. Was
he kissing his bride? Making a toast? Dancing with one of their
daughters? She shook her head, angry to have allowed herself even a
brief trip down that road. What did it matter now?

“Let’s go.” She wheeled herself to the door
to let the nurse push her through the long hallways to physical
therapy.

After dinner, Clare worked her way into
lightweight pajamas. She was proud of her ability to do things for
herself, even small things like changing her clothes. Each little
victory added up. Rolling the wheelchair across the room she’d
called home for the last four months, she eased herself from her
chair to the sofa on her own—another recent accomplishment. Her
recovery was coming along slowly but surely.

That she had recovered at all was a miracle,
or so they all said. No one had expected her to ever emerge from
the coma she’d been in for three years after being hit by a car.
But four months ago, she’d defied the odds and awakened after a
fever doctors had feared would finally end her life. Yep, a real
miracle. Everything that happened since then had been somewhat less
than miraculous: her twenty-year marriage had disintegrated, and
her days were now marked by the struggle to regain her health.

Clare knew she was lucky, but she’d grown
tired of hearing that word. Doctors had told her she would most
likely be confronted with physical challenges for the rest of her
life, including chronic urinary tract infections, a propensity
toward pneumonia, fatigue, muscle spasms, and other fallout from
three years of inactivity. Oh yeah, what a miracle.

A tearjerker movie on TV caught her
attention, and it was a relief to be absorbed into someone else’s
drama for a change. When someone knocked at her door, Clare muted
the television. “Come in,” she called and was surprised to see
Jack’s sister, Frannie Booth.

“May I come in?”

“Of course,” Clare said to her former
sister-in-law. “Come sit.”

Frannie crossed the room to sit next to
Clare on the sofa. She wore her auburn hair in an elegant twist
left over from her brother’s wedding.

“I didn’t expect to see you, especially
tonight,” Clare said, admiring the yellow floral silk dress Frannie
had worn to the wedding. “You look fabulous.”

“Thanks. I was thinking of you and thought
I’d stop by to see how you’re doing.”

“I’m fine, but you didn’t have to come.”

“I wanted to.”

“How was it?” Clare tried to sound casual as
she twirled a lock of her unruly blonde hair around a finger.

“It was lovely but a little more exciting
than we’d planned. Andi’s water broke during the reception. They
had twin boys right there at the hotel. The doctor said they appear
to be identical.”

“Oh.” Clare struggled to hide the surge of
emotion. Jack had sons.

“It all happened so fast.” Frannie shook her
head and smiled. “Apparently, she’d been in labor all night and
didn’t realize it because she’d had back pain.”

Clare worked at keeping her expression
neutral as she absorbed the news that the babies had arrived a
month early. “They’re all fine?”

“Yes.”

“The girls must’ve been excited,” Clare
said, referring to her daughters.

“They were.”

“What’re their names?”

“They named them for Jack and the
grandfathers, John Joseph Harrington the fourth, and Robert
Franklin Harrington. Johnny and Robby.”

Despite her best efforts, Clare’s eyes
flooded with tears. “Johnny and Robby,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry to upset you.”

Clare wiped her eyes. “It’s okay.”

“I’ve wanted to come for weeks to say…what
you did…letting him go…” Frannie had a look of awe on her face. “It
was so selfless.”

“It was the only thing I could do. It was
selfish more than anything.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was amazing. I don’t know
that I could’ve done it.”

A stab of pain hit Clare just below her
broken heart. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore. It’s over
and done with. But I’m glad you’re here for another reason.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ve had lots of time to think,” Clare said
with a small grin. “I don’t know if I ever adequately thanked you
for what you did while I was sick. I mean for you to give up a year
and a half of your life to take care of my kids—”

“Taking care of your girls was a pleasure.
You don’t have to thank me. You’d have done the same for me. So
you’re really doing okay?”

Clare raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Did Jack
send you to check on me?”

“Not this time. I think he’s so stunned by
the babies arriving in the middle of his wedding, he doesn’t even
know his own name right now.”

They shared a laugh.

“I’m sure,” Clare said. “I’m doing fine.
Don’t worry about me.”

“I also came because I have something for
you.” Frannie reached into her bag for a leather-bound book. She
held it against her chest for a moment as she collected her
thoughts. “Shortly after I moved in with Jack and the girls, I
started keeping a journal. It was odd because I’d never had one
before, but I suddenly had a need to write things down. Anyway, I
debated for a long time about whether I should share it with you.
And then I realized that most of the time I was keeping it, I was
doing it for you. I was writing it for you.”

“Did you think I’d recover? No one seemed to
think I would.”

“No, I didn’t think so. But for some reason
I started writing things down, and when I read it over recently, I
understood I’d done it for you, like I was talking to you. I didn’t
consciously set out to do that. Oh, I’m not explaining it
well.”

“No, you are. Can I see it?”

She handed the book to Clare. “I know you’ll
be so happy to get back some of the time you lost with the girls by
reading about their lives, but there’re other things in there
that’ll cause you pain. I wish I could spare you that. I didn’t
give it to you before now because of that.”

“You wrote about them, too, didn’t you?
About Jack and Andi?” Clare asked as she brushed a hand over the
leather cover.

“Yes, and I don’t know if you should read
those parts.”

“Maybe I’ll skip them. You have no idea how
much this means to me.”

“I think maybe I do. I’m a mom now, too,
remember? If you want to talk about it—any of it—you only have to
ask.”

“Thank you.” Feeling as if she’d been given
a priceless gift, Clare reached out to squeeze Frannie’s hand.
“Thank you so much.”

“I hope you’ll still be thanking me after
you’ve read it,” Frannie said with a grin. “Have you made any
plans?”

Clare shrugged. “Not really. They’re saying
I have maybe another month of rehab, and then I can go home. I’m
not sure what’s next for me.” She twisted her face into an ironic
smile. “I find myself at loose ends for the first time in more than
twenty years.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I know the
girls are looking forward to having you at home. Do you need
anything?”

“Your brother made sure I’d never want for
anything. I got my bank statement the other day, and my eyes almost
popped out of my head.”

“He doesn’t want you to worry about
supporting yourself.”

“With that kind of money, I’ll never have to
worry again, that’s for sure. He didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, he did.”

Clare smiled. “I’m glad you came, Frannie.
Will you come again and bring your babies? I’d love to see
them.”

“You bet.”

“Come on, Clare, give me one more step. Just
one more.”

Sweat rolled down her face as she struggled
against the crutches. “You’re a sadist, Jeffrey.”

“You love me. You know you do.”

Clare put her last bit of energy into that
final step and then rested against his outstretched arms.

“Right,” she panted. “Just keep reminding
me.”

Behind them, someone applauded.

Clare turned to find her doctor watching.
“Great, an audience,” she grumbled and swiped at the sweat on her
face.

Dr. Paul Langston came across the room.
“That was outstanding. I counted at least fifty steps.”

“I counted fifty-five,” Jeffrey said.