Short Story from Gracie O'Neil Author Paranormal Romantic Suspense

"They were certainly a lot easier on the ears," Mum admitted.

I snagged the back of Ricky's jacket as he dashed past. "Hold on a second, Lord Vader. What do you say to Nana?"

"Thanks for having us, Nana!" he gurgled, amid noises that were meant to be the sounds of clashing light sabres.

"Anytime," his grandmother said, and bent to kiss him on the head.

Lisa's face screwed into disapproving wrinkles. "Nana! You can't kiss Darth Vader!"

"If you ask me," a stunned voice muttered, "Darth Vader needed all the kissing he could get."

I'd almost forgotten David. He'd slipped behind me and taken up a position by the door, seeing but not being seen. Now he stood, face slack with shock, staring first at Lisa, then at Ricky.

"Hi Dad," Lisa said, as if she saw him every day--which in fact, she did. I'd never hidden the truth from them; they'd always had his picture by their beds. Her brow wrinkled. "You've had your hair cut," she said. "Hasn't he, Mum?"

I ruffled her own curly mop. "Since the last photo we have of Dad was taken before you were born, I imagine he's had several."

David was still frozen in that utter stillness I knew so well. The one that shouted 'Unexploded Ordnance'.

"Pregnant," he said, with the careful concentration of a man who knows his life depends on his next reactions. "You were pregnant?"

I nodded.

He swallowed. "How?"

I arched an eyebrow. "Well, apparently it's a well-known side effect of sex."

"Twins?"

"Mum calls us Straight and Narrow," Ricky piped up, "because we're the ones who keep her honest."

"Straight and Narrow," David repeated, and his mouth twisted in a grimace. "The straight and narrow. That's why you didn't tell me. That's why you walked. You thought I'd freak. That I wouldn't handle it."

I said nothing. The David of six years ago would have done both those things. Now? I wasn't sure. "You disappeared. Not a word. What was I supposed to think?"

He studied me. Nodded. Then the stunned look left his eyes, and his face lit up like a football stadium during a night match. "My God." he whispered. "They're mine. Ours. Our babies, Jacqui. Don't you think I'd go through hell and back for them?"

At those words, something inside me loosened and fell apart. He wasn't acting. Not this time. That blaze of joy was something even he could never manufacture.

"Through hell and back?" Mum snapped. "You couldn't even go through with your own wedding."

"But, Nana," Lisa said, reasonably. "He'd been abducted by aliens. You said."

I stared at my mother's reddening face. "You didn't."

Mum's cheeks reddened even further.

"Nana was mistaken," David said, quietly. He hunkered down, looked his son and daughter in the eyes. "I was a soldier," he said, "and soldiers have to go where they're sent. I was going to marry your mother, but before I could, I had to leave."

"Almost as creative as alien abduction," my mother murmured.

I thought of the confusion of that last night in Colombia. The devastation. "But better than the truth."

David ignored us both. "I've left the army now. I came here today to ask your mother to marry me. I didn't know I'd be getting a three-for-one deal." He stopped, his throat muscles working. "I don't know how to be a husband--or a father--but I'll do my best. What do you say?"

"You're supposed to love us," Lisa said, helpfully. "And Mum. And keep the car full of petrol like Grandad does for Nana."

"And take us to Disneyland and the movies and McDonalds," said her more opportunistic brother.

Mum sighed. "Oh, for God's sake. They're as bad as he is."

"Not sure about Disneyland," David said, after giving it consideration. "But the rest is doable." That blaze of joy flashed across his face again. "I'll make mistakes, but I'll try not to make any twice." Standing, he held out his hand to me. "Marry me, Jacqui. Please. Make me an honest man."

"An honest man?" I waited a beat. "Is there such a thing?"

"Is now." His gaze swept from me to his children, and back to me. "I'm on the straight and narrow. Are you with me?"

Life, so boring, so constricted, seemed to have suddenly grown wider. Added a few interesting curves. All the same...

I moved closer. "Hurt them," I said softly. "And I'll kill you myself."

"If I ever did," he said just as softly. "I'd let you do it." And he held out his hand.

I took it. Walked into his arms.

"Cool!" said his son.

"OK!" grinned his daughter.

"Straight and narrow?" I heard his future mother-in-law mutter. "Fat chance."

The End