The Mountain Man's Secret Twins Read online

  The winter had been difficult. With two babies in tow, and constant snowstorms, Kenzie had often felt crazed, running in circles and wishing to herself that the babies would just stop crying. But in her moments of peace, when the snow glittered on the horizon and when Bryce played with the babies, making them giggle and spit, she knew she was the luckiest person on the planet.

  Now that the babies were older, over seven months now, they had begun to sleep through the night. They’d also begun to show their unique personalities, with Molly being more serious and Carter being gigglier and more whimsical. He’d spend hours making faces at his father, waggling his tongue.

  “I was thinking we could drive to town today,” Bryce said. “Larry has a lumber shipment for me, and I wouldn’t mind staying at the bed and breakfast. Marnie wants to see the babies again too.”

  “So you’re going ahead with the add-on, then?” Kenzie asked, nodding toward the side of the cabin, where he planned to build two extra rooms.

  “I am,” he said. “It’s a good summer project to prepare us for winter. I’ll also build another fireplace in one of the rooms to keep that side of the house warm.”

  “What began as a simple cabin, with no decorations whatsoever, will now become a proper mansion,” Kenzie teased, rising from the rocking chair delicately. “I’ll get the babies’ things to go to Cambridge. We need groceries, anyway. And formula.”

  Kenzie and Bryce scrambled to gather everything, loading up the truck and placing the babies in their car seats. Bryce played the familiar radio station quietly, humming along while the babies slept on in the back.

  They arrived in Cambridge about 45 minutes later, parking near the Blue Boys Clubhouse. Bryce left Kenzie and the babies in the cool truck for a minute, walking inside to find Larry. As expected, Larry was awash with drink, but he instructed Bryce where to find the lumber, around back. Larry waved a sloppy hand toward Kenzie, who grinned back while lifting a now-crying Molly from her seat. She waved Molly’s hand as well, whispering, “Say hello to Uncle Larry!”

  Bryce returned to the truck and drove around the back of the clubhouse, finding Larry’s truck in back with the load of lumber. He untied the logs and began to stack them in the back of his truck, whistling. As Kenzie fed Molly, she watched Bryce’s muscles pulse and flash. He was still the attractive, capable man she’d met a year and a half ago. He grinned at her, happy to build their family and their home.

  Afterward, they went to the bed and breakfast. Marnie was out front, sewing another patch onto Larry’s jean jacket. She waved, looking like an excitable grandmother. She set the jean jacket on the side table and busied herself with taking the babies’ bassinets and setting them up in their usual room.

  With the baby monitor clasped safely in Kenzie’s hands, she sat with Marnie and Bryce at the porch table, enjoying a slice of pie and a glass of wine and watching the golden sun retreat behind the trees. Marnie updated them on the Cambridge happenings since their last trip, which had been nearly three weeks before.

  “There was another mugging, but the guy was caught,” Marnie said, looking at Kenzie with knowing eyes. “Turns out it was the school substitute teacher. He just needed a bit of extra cash. And he would steal bills right out of teachers’ purses!”

  “Wow,” Kenzie said, wondering if this was the same man who’d mugged her. She hoped he was behind bars somewhere, not attacking unsuspecting, frightened, pregnant women.

  “What else? Larry’s dating someone new, but I’m expecting that won’t last much longer than a few weeks, maybe less,” Marnie said. “You know how it is with him. He’s always on that bike of his. You aren’t going to let your kids ride on motorcycles, are you, Kenzie?”

  Kenzie turned toward Bryce, shrugging slightly. “Their father appears to like to take risks. If it’s bred into them, then I don’t really see why not. As long as they always wear their helmets.”

  Bryce laughed. “That Carter’s already up to something. I can see it brewing behind his eyes.”

  “He’s silly. Our girl’s going to discover the cure for cancer. But Carter? He’s going to drive across the earth on a motorcycle, giggling all the way. I can already see it,” Kenzie said.

  “Well, I have to admit, when Bryce first told me you were pregnant, I was a bit nervous. Didn’t know how he’d take to being a father. But I see it’s going rather smoothly, so alone up there in the mountains.”

  Kenzie, Marnie, and Bryce enjoyed a beautiful evening together on the porch, with an exhausted Kenzie returning to the bedroom just before eleven to check on the still-sleeping babies. She collapsed beneath the covers, grateful for their good friends and their community.

  Bryce arrived moments later, creaking the door ajar. He gazed at her from the bright light of the hallway, looking blissfully happy, if a little tipsy.

  “Come to bed. You’re going to wake the babies,” Kenzie whispered.

  Bryce began to undress, revealing his muscled torso. He wore only his boxers and stood above her, watching her feign sleep. “I know you’re still with us, Kenzie,” he said quietly, kissing her cheek.

  “I’m exhausted,” she whispered back.

  “You’re beautiful,” he answered.

  He joined her beneath the covers, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her passionately, adrenaline pulsing through his blood. Her body turned toward his, and they made love in the safety of the bed and breakfast, beneath the twinkling stars of Cambridge, Vermont. They collapsed, sweating, in one another’s arms, realizing that the strain of being parents, and of having Kenzie’s mother around, had kept them from making love for several weeks—perhaps a month.

  “Let’s never wait that long again,” Bryce said, kissing Kenzie on the nose. “I missed your body. I need it.”

  Kenzie agreed, passing out in his arms. They slept until the babies began to cry at the crack of dawn, when they rose like haggard soldiers, ready to fight the battle of being parents. They fed the babies and changed them, kissing their dark-haired heads and playing with them until they collapsed back into their bassinets, their little hands forming fists planted near their ears.

  They drove back to the cabin that afternoon, as Bryce was anxious to get started on his building project. When they arrived, Kenzie strapped the babies into her chest carrier, telling Bryce she would leave him to his “loud project” and go for a walk through the woods with the babies. Kenzie felt the fuzz of their hair against her chin as she began walking through the forest, thinking she’d go as far as the lake. As she walked, she heard the first noise of a roaring chainsaw and knew Bryce was in his element.

  Kenzie gave thanks for the past year and a half as she crunched through the dead leaves from last winter and trudged through the mushy grass from the last rain. The trees gave her shade, yet the weight of her babies made her neck sweat. The babies were both much heavier than they’d been in the womb, making her back ache when she carried them on her chest.

  When she arrived at the lake, she skipped a rock across the sparkling water, remembering her and Bryce’s ice skating date, so long ago now. The previous winter, she’d become a remarkable skater, gliding over the glassy water without hesitation while their occasional babysitter, Laurie Smith, watched the kids in the cabin. She’d gotten her body back this way: marching through the snowy terrain, ice skating, and even occasionally skiing, when Bryce agreed to stay with the babies on his own—quite a feat.

  In February, when the babies had been just three months old, their entire family had gotten severe colds. The babies had been particularly sick, unable to shake the shivers, the fevers, and the coughs for nearly three weeks. Kenzie had been endlessly worried, working continuously to ensure they were still breathing, that their nostrils were cleared out. Bryce had continued to chop wood, making sure the fire was aflame and powerful, that their world remained bright.

  Once, when both of the babies had fallen asleep, after nearly 20 hours of being awake and coughing, Kenzie had broken down, sobbing into her palms.r />
  “They’re getting better, Kenzie,” Bryce had told her, lifting her from her sad position on the couch and carrying her to the bed.

  And, as usual, Bryce’s positive words had proved true. Finally, both Molly and Carter were better and growing like weeds, playing with their father and mother and even getting to know each other. Kenzie loved watching them interact, their big blue eyes meeting across the basinet as they giggled.

  Kenzie finished her walk in an hour, feeling exhausted after carrying her growing babies so many miles. She waved to Bryce from afar, telling him to stop hammering, as the babies had just fallen asleep on her chest. Bryce placed the hammer to the side, gesturing to her, and then showed her what he’d built thus far. Weeks before, he’d dug the foundation and solidified it, and now he’d begun to build the floor and the structure, outlining where the entrance to both rooms would be.

  “I know it doesn’t look like a lot—”

  Kenzie cut him off by reaching for him and kissing him, thankful for his strength. “Don’t be silly. I’ll put the babies to bed, and then I’m going to pour us both some wine.”

  Kenzie returned indoors, changed the babies while making sure they remained asleep, and placed them back into their bassinets. Then she poured the glasses of wine, waiting for Bryce to put his tools away. When he returned, he held a frozen slab of venison from the outdoor freezer. He smacked it onto a skillet, excitement fueling him. “We haven’t eaten like kings for a while. What do you say?”

  “If we’re going to rule this mountain dynasty, we’re going to need fuel,” Kenzie said, laughing. She rose from her chair, attempting to help, but Bryce sent her back to the couch, telling her to get comfortable.

  Near the couch, Kenzie found Bryce’s jean jacket, with its Blue Boys Clubhouse patch sewn back on in its original place. In the previous few months, Kenzie had begun to embroider new patches for him, learning the skill from the widow, Laurie Smith. Despite the woman’s cool demeanor, it was clear she really did love Kenzie and the babies. She would anxiously ask after them if she didn’t hear from them for a few days.

  The newest patch was of Blue Blossom Park, the place that had been dedicated to Bryce’s mother and father. The patch featured the bench, several trees, and some flowers, with the words “Blue Blossom” across the top. It had been difficult to embroider, Kenzie tearing out several stitches a day and redoing them.

  But finally, it was ready to sew onto the jacket. Kenzie slipped the thread through the needle’s eye, closing one of her own eyes to do it swiftly, without failing. As the venison sizzled in the skillet, the smell filled her nose, causing her stomach to grumble.

  “That smells amazing, baby,” she called. But Bryce didn’t hear her, what with the skillet still sizzling and the radio crackling in the corner.

  Kenzie finished one side of the embroidery attachment and then peered up at the mantel over the crackling fire. There sat the portrait of Bryce’s mother and father, the first Molly and Carter, holding on to Bryce himself. There was another photo beside it. Kenzie’s little family had copied the portrait, holding on to their babies in Blue Blossom Park and grinning madly, fully knowledgeable of how lucky they truly were to have one another.

  In the photo, baby Carter stuck his pink tongue out, looking silly and wild, while Molly looked demure, far away, as if she were writing tiny poems in her head. Kenzie and Bryce looked tired, but happy—much like the original Carter and Molly in the first photograph. The exhaustion of being parents was constant, but they knew they were the best kind of team when together.

  Kenzie finished the patch and lifted the jacket high, assessing her work. She rolled over the couch top in a quick motion, anxious to show Bryce. She smiled, handing it to him. “What do you think?” she asked.

  Bryce moved the skillet from the hot burner to the cold, noting that the venison was finished cooking. Beside it, a pot of potatoes bubbled. He lifted the jacket from Kenzie’s hands, gazing at her handiwork. He shook his head, a small tear forming in his eye. “This means the world to me, baby,” he whispered.

  Kenzie leaned into him, hugging his muscled torso tight. “Do you mean it?” she whispered.

  Bryce kissed her nose and then her mouth, holding her close. “I always knew I’d find a woman who could sew,” he said, teasing her.

  Kenzie swatted him on the shoulder playfully, and kissed him again. Her tongue glided against his. Their passion for each other was never far away. Her body filled with lust for him. Half of her brain wanted him to toss her on the couch and make love to her, to gobble her up, to make her forget her name.

  But she knew there would be endless hours for that later. In fact, they had an entire eternity together, as parents and partners and lovers and friends.

  The world was theirs. They could see it all from atop their mountain, safe together in their love.

  The End

  Alexa Ross and Holly Rayner

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