Make Way For Babies!. Laurie Paige

Ph.D. in psychology, she had opened her own practice.

      And she had married Jack McBride, Rose’s oldest son, brother to Spence, who had been her best friend during the lonely years of living with her aunt down the road from the friendly McBride family. Sometimes she wondered if she had married Jack because she had wanted Rose for a mother.

      Or maybe because of the loneliness.

      Spence had made it clear they could never be anything but friends. Her college years had been divided between work and study. Lonely years. Until Jack had started to show interest in her.

      Actually, he’d swept her off her feet, an action that was totally out of character for him, as she had learned during their years of marriage.

      She sighed, thinking of that young girl who had wanted…had truly expected…the moon and stars and all the magic life had to offer. She wondered what had happened to that girl, then realized she knew the answer.

      She’d had to grow up.

      For the rest of the evening nostalgia gripped her in a vague cloud of yearning and regret. After saying goodnight to Rose and Spence, she returned to the hospital for one more peek at the twins and to chat with Taylor before visiting hours ended. Driving home, she tried to throw off the haunting emotion, but it was no use. As she turned out the light and settled into the queen-size bed, she realized she felt sorry for the girl she had once been—the one who had dared to dream.

      And the birth of the twins had stirred those dreams once again.

      Chapter Two

      Ally threw the sheet off and sprang up as if someone had dumped a load of hot coals on the bed. She had so much to do! If everything had gone well during the night, she could bring the twins home this afternoon. She would have them to herself at last.

      The qualms that coursed through her were natural. All new moms felt unsure and apprehensive about the responsibility of caring for babies. Rose would help if she needed her. She only had to call.

      The sadness descended unexpectedly. In her heart, she realized, she still wanted all the things she’d once dreamed of—a husband who would share life with her, who would be there for her as she would be there for him, who would be a loving father to their children. That dream wasn’t to be.

      But the one about having her own family was about to come true in a big way. Twins were double trouble! Laughing, she jumped out of bed.

      She dashed through her morning chores, then, taking her coffee with her, strolled through the house. She and Jack had bought the two-bedroom cottage from her aunt for the acreage that went with it.

      They had planned to remodel the house before having kids. They’d wanted to put in a garden and fence off a section for a pony. Somehow the years had slipped by without their doing any of it. As Spence had mentioned, plans didn’t always work out.

      When she and Jack had married, she’d thought she would never be lonely again. At first, she hadn’t, but somehow things had changed. Jack had become increasingly jealous of her work and her involvement with her patients after she finished her studies and set up the office.

      And of his younger brother whenever Spence joined the family for holiday meals and such.

      She’d had to be very careful not to mention the past adventures she and Spence had shared. She had made sure she was never alone with Spence at the family gatherings and had been careful not to tease or even talk to him very much.

      Later, when she didn’t conceive, Jack had become angry, as if she’d withheld a child on purpose. Their marriage had fallen upon rocky times. He had started working later and later. Last year, she’d even wondered if there was another woman. Then he had died, working alone one night, trying to finish a job by moving lumber with an old forklift.

      Something had gone wrong and the stack of lumber had cascaded down on him. The doctor said he hadn’t suffered. A blow to the head had killed him at once.

      Small comfort in that.

      She had thought, with the coming of the babies, they would have a focus in their marriage. As a psychologist, she knew how foolish it was to hope children would solve a troubled marriage, but they’d had no real problems, no crises of faith or broken vows.

      Just a slow drifting apart…

      Sadness trailed after her as she went into the guest bedroom. She had used it as a home office, but it would have to be the nursery until the addition on the house was completed.

      Twin bassinets stood next to the wall. One was trimmed in blue, the other in yellow. They had known one baby was a boy, but hadn’t been able to tell for sure about Hannah from the sonograms.

      After checking the supplies of diapers, nightshirts, day outfits and bottles, which she’d done a hundred times already, she went to the door at the end of the hallway.

      Two bedrooms and a bath were being added for the twins so each could have a room. The carpenter hadn’t proceeded as quickly as she would have liked. The inside work remained to be done, although the outside was finished.

      Baseboards were stacked in one room, paint cans in the other. She and Rose had made curtains, which still needed to be hemmed after the rods were put up. None of that could be done until the walls and trim were finished.

      She returned to the kitchen. Where was the carpenter she had hired? He was supposed to be there at seven. He liked to start early, what with the heat of summer and all, he’d told her. So where was he?

      She sat at the table and debated calling his home. He got peeved if she pestered him or asked too many questions.

      Men and their fragile egos.

      She called the hospital and found out Taylor and the twins were doing fine. Taylor reported she was leaving the hospital with a friend soon and thanked Ally again for being with her.

      After hanging up, Ally sat and stared out the window at the orchard that separated the cottage from the McBride house where Rose lived.

      Spence had a neat apartment in a new building about a mile from them. She’d been there once when Rose had thrown a welcome-back dinner for him at the place.

      A sigh worked its way out of her. She felt melancholy today for some reason. As if she was suffering from the postpartum depression new mothers often got.

      Her thoughts drifted. She mused on her nine years of marriage and on being a widow for almost eight months. At thirty-two, she felt no wiser than she had at twenty-two, when she’d married Jack.

      Or at eighteen when she’d thought friendship would grow into love. She smiled and felt her lips tremble.

      Memories. Sometimes they could weave a cloud around the heart and make a person ache for what might have been. How young she’d been at eighteen on the night of their high-school graduation….

      Spence, the most popular guy in class, had broken up with a cheerleader, who was the most popular girl. The cheerleader had gone to the graduation dance with the star quarterback to get back at him. He’d dropped by Ally’s house, knowing she hadn’t planned on going to the dance.

      She’d had few dates in high school. With delivering newspapers and baby-sitting jobs, plus working toward a nursing scholarship, she’d had very little time for extracurricular activities, and no money to buy a fancy dress.

      Spence had asked her to go for a drive. She’d gone willingly. They had always been there for each other from the moment she’d come to live with her aunt. The day she arrived, he’d stopped by to see what was happening, and he’d immediately pitched in and helped carry her things inside and store them in the little sewing room that would become her bedroom for the next seven years. He’d even let her ride his new bike. They had become fast friends.

      Sometimes that seemed strange to her, as if they’d been kindred souls, even as children. She’d never been as close to another person, before or since.