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Several hours later,Evelyn James wakes. Something isn’t right. Call it women’s intuition.
Her eyes are heavy, with loud footsteps around her. It takes every bit of her effort to open one eye.
“Ah, it looks like you’re awake?” The voice belongs to a woman she doesn’t know, or at least she doesn’t recognize the voice.
“Let me get the husband,” another voice, belonging to a man, says. “You gave us and your husband quite the scare.”
Evelyn is attempting to piece this puzzle together. One minute she’d been at home, and the next, her water broke. Where the hell are the babies? She can’t remember, but with all the beeps and pagers and loudspeakers, she knows she’s in the hospital. It makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and fear takes over.
Someone touches her hand, and with the way he intertwines his fingers with hers, she understands Carl is by her side.
“Evvy, baby. What would I do without you?”
She hasn’t been able to open both her eyes, but she forces herself to ask the question.
“The babies?”
“Evvy, sweetheart, you did good. Noah is in the nursery, waiting to meet his mother. He’s a strong one, that kid.”
Noah. That’s right. If they had a boy, they would name the first one Noah Alexander. But, wait—every bit of motherly concern surfaces, and she opens both her eyes.
When their eyes meet, he begins to smile.
“Baby two?” she croaks out.
“We have another boy. He’s okay,” he hastily adds. “He wasn’t breathing when the doctor delivered him, but he’s doing wonderful now. They’re keeping him overnight to run some tests, but he’ll be back with us tomorrow.”
Carl goes on to tell Evvy that in the moment that William wasn’t breathing and she lost a lot of blood, he had a split-second decision to make—go on the helicopter with the baby or stay with her. He did what she asked in that desperate moment before she fainted and he flew with William to the NICU at the children’s hospital, on the other side of Seattle.
She watches helplessly as her husband tears up at the retelling of the story. It had to have been an impossible decision. Carl’s parents met him at the children’s hospital while her parents rushed from Olympia to be with Evelyn.
“He’s doing great. I had a chance to see him, and he’s a beautiful boy. He had on a little hat, like Noah, so I’m not sure what color hair he has yet. But, twins, Evvy! We have healthy and beautiful twins.”
“And they don’t know why he stopped breathing?”
Carl moves a strand of her black hair away from her face. “No, but it’s why he’s staying tonight, then they’ll transfer him back tomorrow to his tiny little roommate.” He cracks a grin at his joke and she relaxes, knowing he wouldn’t behave that way if there was anything to worry about.
“Could we call him Liam? William seems so formal for a little baby…” she asks.
“Of course,” Carl answers. After what they’ve all been through, he’ll give her anything she wants.
Evelyn could have lost everything in one day. Her baby, her life, her dream. But she had it all. Noah and Liam would never go without love. Noah and Liam would be her life.
2
Noah
Nine Years Old
My brother ismy best friend. I’m only nine, but I know I’ll never be closer to another person than I am with him.
But, as close as we are, he’s never been able to tolerate sharing a bedroom with me. When I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep, I like to draw or paint. Liam kicked me out of his room a few years ago because he said I’m waking him up too much.
I’m good at football, like Dad and Liam, but I’d rather spend my time drawing, painting, and sculpting. Liam isn’t artistic but is really good at most sports and much faster than me.
When my dad got a job offer he couldn’t refuse, coaching at the university in Seattle, Mom resigned herself to living in the city, claiming I was a genius in the world of art and needed a school that would develop my talents anyway.
* * *
