More Than a Temporary Family
Autore
Marie Ferrarella
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24
Prologue
Josie Whitaker carefully tiptoed into the nursery, although, she thought wryly, one of the twins was making enough noise to wake the dead while the other, for some mysterious reason, was sound asleep.
However, it wasn’t six-month-old Lucas or his sister, Lily, who Josie was thinking about. She was trying not to startle her sister-in-law, Rebekah, who looked as if she was beyond exhausted and on her way to becoming a complete zombie of the old-school variety. The ones who weren’t aware of going through the paces of doing things while they were doing them.
The exceedingly frazzled Rebekah was in the small nursery, sitting in the rocking chair Grant, Josie’s younger brother, had bought for his wife. The young mother was rocking Lily, trying to get the infant to finally fall asleep before her jarring cries wound up waking her twin brother.
Moving as carefully as a seasoned cat burglar, Josie very slowly placed her hands on Rebekah’s shoulders.
The latter did appear to be startled although not with any display of energy. Rebekah looked far too tired for that. Josie had overheard her talking to Grant, saying she viewed her as nothing short of a blessed lifesaver, who, if not endowed with the ability to walk on water, was at least able to restore much needed order in the household, which, right now, was a totally priceless commodity.
“Josie,” Rebekah whispered as if the other woman’s name said everything there was to be said.
“Why don’t you let me take over?” Josie suggested gently.
It wasn’t really a question since the older woman was already slipping her very capable hands beneath the baby’s bottom, picking Lily up and summarily taking over the baby’s care.
“You heard her crying,” Rebekah murmured needlessly as she surrendered the tearful tiny burden to her sister-in-law.
“The entire state of North Carolina heard Lily crying,” Josie told her with a smile.
Since she had moved from Florida to Spring Forest, North Carolina, and been installed in her brother’s garage apartment, she had been doing all she could to help the beleaguered couple juggle everything entailed in being first-time parents. Not only that, but she was helping Rebekah manage her work at an animal rescue shelter as well.
Remembering what it was like when she had been a new mother, Josie had done her best to help the young couple find their footing in this brand-new chaotic world of parenthood that they were trying so hard to navigate.
Josie glanced over her shoulder toward Lucas’s crib. Miraculously, the twin still appeared to be sound asleep. She watched the baby’s chest to make sure it was moving. It was. He was just, blessedly, a very sound sleeper.
“Lucas seems to be the only one who hasn’t heard his sister’s cries,” his aunt commented with an amused smile.
Rebekah’s look of exhaustion melted into one of concern as she regarded her baby. “Why doesn’t he hear Lily? Why doesn’t her crying wake him up? You don’t think there’s something wrong with his hearing, do you?”
Josie thought of the way the baby had responded to the lullaby she had sung to him last night. He had giggled when she’d made her voice go up extra high. If he could differentiate between sounds, then he could definitely hear.
“No, I don’t,” Josie answered confidently, continuing to rock Lily. “I think you should just be grateful for the mysterious respite. Now go to bed, ‘Mama’ before Lucas decides to wake up and join in the ‘fun.’ Shoo,” she added, waving Rebekah off with one hand.
Rebekah’s face softened. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You can thank me by going to bed,” Josie told her, nodding toward the bedroom door.
Rebekah’s feet were already moving in that direction. Whether the young woman was actually conscious of it or not was another story, Josie thought with a smile. Her sister-in-law desperately needed to get some sleep before she wound up collapsing.
“Go,” Josie mouthed, knowing they were on borrowed time and that Lucas could wake up at any moment.
Josie sighed softly as her sister-in-law left the room.
“Alone at last,” she murmured to the bundle in her arms. For her part, Lily was finally settling down. She was awfully cute when she wasn’t screaming her lungs out.
Rebekah and Grant were still thanking her almost daily for uprooting her life and coming to stay with them. But quite honestly, she was as grateful to them as they were to her. She enjoyed looking after the babies. And helping them out gave her a purpose.
After a life that had been nothing but nonstop work as she’d focused on putting her husband through medical school—even after their daughter, Hannah, had been born—her whirlwind existence had come to an almost abrupt, screeching halt in the last four years. Her less than grateful husband had opened up his practice and the rest of it had turned into a cliché when he’d had an affair with his nurse.
Ultimately, he’d chosen his nurse over Josie, turning his back on both her and their daughter, leaving them behind.
For some reason, perhaps to win over her father, Hannah had decided to become a doctor just like him and, after high school graduation, had gone off to a premed college program in another state. She’d then elected to double up on courses so she could expedite getting her degree.
While she was supportive of her daughter’s choices, that had suddenly left Josie’s once extremely busy life extremely empty.
Oh sure, back in Florida she’d had her catering business, but now that she was in Spring Forest that did little to fill her life. More than anything, Josie liked being needed. So when she’d learned about her brother and sister-in-law’s situation, she was more than eager to volunteer to help them out. Josie had firsthand knowledge what it was like, trying to raise a baby while holding down a job.
In a way, she felt like this was déjà vu—except that she got to hold the babies in her arms instead of leaving that up to friends who were able to pitch in.
In another way, she thought, she was now living that part of her life she had sorely missed out on. Even though she had never complained to her husband during those years, she would have much rather just been a stay-at-home mom and raised Hannah rather than working to pay the bills.
“You’re my second chance,” she whispered to Lily.
Lily responded by finally falling asleep.
Josie went on rocking to ensure that the twin was really asleep. Besides, it felt wonderful holding a baby in her arms.
She went on rocking a long time.
