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“How about you name one, I name one?” Adam asked.
I pouted. “I gave birth to them, I should get to name them both.”
“Not when you wanted to name one of them Xena,” he cracked, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t remember anything from the time I passed out in the operating room until Adam told me he loved me.That, I remembered.
I would remember it for the rest of my life.
“Peyton,” he said, looking at our firstborn, who was sweetly nuzzling against him. Our second born was fussing and kickingaround, and I looked at her and chuckled. “What about Piper for our little hellion?” I asked, and Adam looked at me.
“That’s perfect. Peyton and Piper. My girls,” he crooned, and even Piper calmed down, huffing out a breath like she was sighing deeply.
There were tears running down Adam’s face, and I wished with all my heart I would have been able to take a picture at that very moment. It was okay, though, it would stay in my memory forever.
Peyton weighed six pounds, eleven ounces, pretty big for a preemie, and Piper just four pounds, ten ounces. Addie came by to visit the day after they were born, introducing herself to them by giving them both a stuffed animal and calling herself “Crazy Aunt Addie.”
Both twins had a bit of jaundice, and they ended up having to stay in the hospital for three whole weeks. I was there myself for a week, recovering from surgery, and after that, I didn’t want to leave their side.
But Adam talked me into taking shifts, letting him be with them one night and me the next. After all, we still had Colin at home who needed attention. I didn’t want him to ever feel left out when it came to his sisters, and I couldn’t wait for them to meet their big brother.
I was very grateful that Adam had Alice, because I didn’t know what I was going to do with three kids while I was still recovering from major surgery. Adam would help, of course, but he’d eventually have to go back to work. I was taking maternity leave from teaching, but eventually, we’d need Alice full time to take care of all three kids. She was a godsend, along with the other maid and au pairs that Adam had hired in preparation of the twins being born.
Colin was standing at the door when we finally arrived home with the girls, looking up at us excitedly. His hair was a littlemussed like he’d just gotten up from a nap, and he was wiggling around excitedly.
“Are my sisters here?” he asked in an excited whisper, and I laughed.
“Of course they are, honey. Daddy’s getting them out of the car.”
Adam came in carrying their carriers, one in each hand, and Colin looked from one baby to the other in awe.
The twins were wearing matching pink onesies with a little flower on them that Adam and I had picked out. They were a little big on the smaller twin, but they both looked adorable. I had put a blue blanket on Peyton and a white one on Piper so that Colin could tell them apart.
“These areours?” he asked incredulously, and Adam and I burst out laughing.
“All ours,” I agreed, and Adam sat the babies’ carriers down on the floor. Colin crouched, looking into their little faces, and both girls just looked back at him as if fascinated. Even Piper didn’t fuss, she just stared at her brother.
“They’re solittle,” Colin whispered, and he touched Peyton’s face with one finger.
She grabbed his finger with her hand, squeezing it, and Colin’s expression looked like he had just won the lottery.
“Look, she’s holding my hand, Mom!”
“Peyton likes you,” Adam said, and I looked at him curiously.
“That’s Piper, Adam,” I said with a chuckle. Piper had gained quite a bit of weight in three weeks thanks to my breast milk and supplementing with formula, so she was now the same size as her sister, and they were absolutely identical.
“Yeah, Dad, that’s Piper!” Colin exclaimed, giggling, as if he could tell the difference between his sisters after just meeting them.
Adam sighed. “This is going to be a disaster, we have to dress them differently.”
“No way,” I said. “I can tell my babies apart,” I insisted. “Piper has that little birthmark on her neck,” I reminded him.
Adam looked down at her. “Oh, right, she does.”
Colin cooed and played with the girls for a while, showing them his trains and they were quiet the whole time, just watching him intently, as if they were interested. They both had my brown eyes but Adam’s dirty blond hair. They were perfect.
My whole life was perfect. I knew now how Adam felt about me. He told me he loved me every morning and sometimes throughout the day. He wasn’t afraid anymore, and I’d never trusted anyone as much as I trusted Adam.
Toby was out of our lives for good—after Adam had beat him up, he’d been avoiding us like the plague. I knew it was just a matter of time before he’d come crawling back, asking for money, but I was pretty certain that Adam was done with him for good.
