Assignment: Twins. Leigh Michaels

when he realized that it was me again and not his mother almost broke my heart.”

      “Better you than a baby-sitter he doesn’t know at all.”

      Nikki twisted around to look at him. “Don’t you have any sympathy for the poor kid?”

      “Of course I do. I’m just realistic about it instead of sentimental. It’s good for them to get used to different people.”

      “Well, good luck convincing them.” She added a few chunks of chicken to Anna’s tray and handed the baby her cup of milk. “And while you’re at it, try persuading Laura. Though she still hasn’t called back.” Nikki frowned. “Now that I think about it, it’s a little strange that I haven’t heard from her.”

      “There hasn’t been a word?”

      Nikki shook her head. “Aren’t phone calls from a cruise ship pretty pricy? Maybe Stephen put his foot down.”

      “He could try, but I don’t think that would stop her any more than it would keep a mother bear from charging to defend her cubs. Are you in the mood for a bet?”

      “Tell me what it is first.”

      “Whether Laura calls the minute they land at the airport, or she rushes straight home to her darlings.”

      “She’ll call,” Nikki said promptly.

      “I don’t think so. If she calls, she’ll be five minutes later getting here.”

      “It won’t hold her up a bit, because she’ll send Stephen after the car while she’s on the phone. That’s not a bet, Seth, it’s a certainty—so the only question left is how much money you want to give me. Anna, smashed peas are not a good conditioner for your hair. Come on, sweetheart, let’s go wash it out.” She lifted Anna from her high chair. “Do you mind if I leave Zack here for a minute, Seth? It’s much easier to wash them one at a time.”

      Seth waved a hand instead of answering.

      When she came back, he’d turned the radio on and taken the baby out of his high chair. Zack had pulled himself up beside a dining room chair and was hanging on tight, swaying his bottom in an approximate rhythm with the music. Seth was on the floor, both hands out of sight underneath the dishwasher.

      “Hold that bag down here for a minute so I can sort through it, would you, Nikki?”

      She knelt, holding the bag out of the babies’ reach. “How are you doing?”

      “So far I’ve managed to break another valve and increase Zack’s vocabulary by at least two words that Laura doesn’t want him to know.”

      The music stopped and a newscast began, but Zack danced on, too fascinated by his own movement to notice. Anna watched him as if she was studying each step. Seth sorted through pieces. And Nikki, half-listening to the newscast over the rattle of metal parts and the babbling of two babies, caught a few words that sent chills up her spine.

      “Cruise ship…Caribbean…virus…quarantine…”

      She scrambled to her feet and made a dash for the living room.

      “Hey,” Seth called, “where are you going with my bag of parts?”

      Nikki didn’t bother to answer. She dropped the bag in the nearest chair and dived for the television remote control.

      The story was on the second news channel she checked. A mysterious virus had struck a cruise ship in the Caribbean, and public health officials were taking no chances. The ship and the two thousand people on board would be quarantined off the Florida coast until the bug was identified and the passengers were confirmed not to be contagious.

      Nikki didn’t have to hear the name of the ship; the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was the one Laura and Stephen were on. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “All those poor people, shut up on a ship together with stomach cramps and headaches and fevers—”

      Seth stood in the doorway, listening intently. “At least it doesn’t seem as though the symptoms are life-threatening. Just miserable.”

      “Somehow I don’t think it would be a lot of comfort to know you’re not going to die,” Nikki mused, “if you feel bad enough to want to. What a way to spend a vacation!”

      “I wonder if Steve’s boss will charge this up against his sick leave.” Seth’s voice was flippant, but there was a shadow in his eyes and a furrow between his brows.

      “No wonder she hasn’t called. There must be two thousand people waiting in line to use a phone, if they can even get out of bed long enough to dial.”

      “So we both lost the bet,” Seth added, “because she won’t be calling from the airport, and she won’t be coming straight home, either. At least not tonight.” He looked down at Nikki and raised one eyebrow. “Congratulations, Ms. Marshall—you have just hit the jackpot. You are the lucky winner of twins.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      NIKKI stared at him, certain she couldn’t be hearing correctly. “What do you mean I won them?” she croaked finally.

      Seth shrugged. “I could have said you lost the lottery, but I thought it would make you feel better if I put a positive spin on it. What it comes down to is, you get to keep the twins a while longer.”

      Nikki’s head was spinning. “Oh, no.”

      “You’re the one who volunteered for this responsibility,” Seth pointed out.

      “I said I’d take care of the babies for three days. Count ’em—Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I’m—”

      “Or until till Laura gets home.”

      And Laura didn’t expect to be hit by a virus, any more than I would expect to get struck by lightning… But what was she going to do about it? “I wasn’t counting on this.” Her voice felt feeble. “They could be delayed for a couple of days.”

      “At least.” Seth was looking at the television set.

      Nikki followed his gaze. Someone from public health was showing off a chart of infection rates. The angle of the line tracing the increasing number of infected people aboard the ship looked like a rocket’s path to the heavens. If her sales figures were to climb at that rate, Nikki thought, she’d be thrilled.

      She said, trying to sound cheerful, “The good news is that at this rate the virus will have gotten to everybody on the ship by about tomorrow. Once that happens, things can only get better, right?”

      “That’s what you call the good news?”

      Nikki had to admit it didn’t sound very encouraging. “Look, I’m not trying to make light of the situation. I’m as worried about Laura and Stephen as you are. But it looks as if they’ve got the entire public health organization working on it…” Her words sounded hollow. That sort of no-holds-barred action wasn’t directed at every garden-variety virus. This stuff was different.

      Poor Laura had been afraid that she might get seasick on the cruise. Now there’s irony for you, Nikki thought. Compared to the bug that was running wild on the ship, it sounded as if seasickness would be positively pleasant.

      “No point in worrying. There’s nothing we can do about Laura and Steve right now.” Seth picked up the bag of parts and went back to the kitchen.

      Nikki trailed him hopefully.

      Zack had flopped down on the kitchen floor and was chewing on the handle of a screwdriver. Seth took it away from him and put it back in the toolbox atop the counter. The baby howled, and absently Nikki picked him up, handed him a plastic measuring cup from the cabinet and watched in disbelief as Seth snapped the toolbox closed.

      “You’re not leaving.” It was half-question, half-plea. “Seth, I can’t stay here till that ship’s out of