Chapter Seven

Eli threw open the office door and launched his tux jacket onto a chair.

“What the hell is up with Tabby?”

Sam looked up, concern etched into a face Eli knew like the back of his palm. Only this face was older. Tired. Less vibrant. Dark circles under eyes lacking spark and skin stretched tight against his cheeks. Guilt weighed him down, and he collapsed in another chair opposite the one being used as a coat rack.

“What do you mean?” Sam’s sharp voice heightened Eli’s worry. “Tabby’s grieving and stressed. We all are.”

Eli dropped his gaze as more guilt threatened to suffocate him. He would examine that later. Right now, Tabby was the number one mystery to solve.

“Sam, she’s not fine. She’s sick. I held her hair last night while she hugged a toilet, and it wasn’t from alcohol, which, by the way, she seems to suddenly not have any interest in. Pretty sketchy for a master distiller.”

Sam sat back in the chair, tension radiating off of him. “She probably ate something bad.”

Eli stared at his twin. Sam didn’t believe that any more than Eli did, or even Tabby for that matter. Did Sam know the real reason? And, if so, why was it such a big secret? “She didn’t eat something bad and don’t sit there and lie to me. If you know something, tell me so I can help her.”

Sam dropped his gaze and tapped a pile of papers. “She hasn’t told me anything.”

Not a lie, but Eli would bet his Wildlife Photographer award that Sam at least suspected what was going on.

His twin shifted a pile of papers on his desk.

Or rather their father’s desk.

The loss slammed into Eli’s chest. He forced himself to glance around and noted Sam had done nothing to the room. The books still lined the cases, pictures covered in a light layer of dust, the wedding picture of his parents front and center in the window behind Sam. The happy couple in front of the tiny church on the grounds of the first amusement park the company ever owned. Eli slumped farther into the padded chair and rubbed a palm down the center of his chest. Grief burned as the guilt resurfaced. No parents. No more memories. Not enough time with them.

Swift on those thoughts came the choking sensation of being in the collective fold. Only this time, it tasted bitter as he stared at the happy couple. Forging his own path was something he’d had to do, but had there been a better way than almost total isolation?

“Have you been to the graves?” Sam asked, gaze rooted to the desk.

Eli cleared his throat, the lump subsiding enough to speak. “I went with Tabby.”

They sat together, each lost in a world of thoughts. His visit to the graves had prompted Eli’s plan to help while in town. But the weight he saw on Sam’s shoulders, and he expected if he looked closer would find on the rest of his siblings, added a dimension to him staying. The family business wasn’t his cup of tea and certainly wouldn’t be his choice, but he was strong enough to handle his share for the time being. They were family, and he loved them, and life was about choices and making the best of them. His choice was to be home in Gatlinburg for the moment and help keep the companies something their amazing and loving parents would be proud of.

His plan, hence he controlled the outcome.

The twin-to-twin connection broadcasted loud and clear as Sam asked, “How long you sticking around?”

Eli stood and snagged his jacket. “I have no plans to leave anytime soon.”

Sam’s head jerked back. A blank stare and opened mouth slid into a smile. A grin Eli hadn’t seen since he’d returned home. “Glad to hear it, Eli. Welcome home.”

He saluted his twin and walked to the doorway.

“And Eli?”

Eli glanced over his shoulder.

“If you’re so worried about Tabby, maybe you should just ask her?”

Eli snorted and walked out of the office. He’d tried that numerous times, but maybe he hadn’t taken the right approach. Maybe the time had come to track her down and not let her go until she’d given him the truth. All of it.

Whether he wanted to hear it or not.

Five days later, paper crinkled under Tabby as she shifted to the left, and feeling returned to her right butt cheek. Today was the day. She would hear the baby’s heartbeat again. See him or her on the ultrasound and possibly breathe a little better, knowing everything was on track. Of course, that also meant telling everyone. Including Eli.

She’d successfully avoided him all week, and a small part of her had hoped he would have left by now. He’d done his duty for his family and had run back to his job. To the life he’d made for himself, separate from Ellis Industries. She tugged at the loose collar of her dressing gown.

That was a selfish wish.

His family deserved to have him around during this time, and another part of her, the one she shushed on a daily basis, wanted him to stay forever. Why can’t his base be here?

Was her fear really resentment and regret, or was it something else? Was it that she feared she wasn’t worthy of that kind of sacrifice? Was it that she feared if he stayed she would never know if she really could do this on her own?

The door opened, and Dr. Kitt, along with a nurse named Amy, walked in. Dr. Kitt smiled. “You ready?”

Tabby nodded, emotion already overwhelming her in the form of tear-pooled eyes and a lump the size of Canada in the back of her throat.

She laid back as Amy typed something into the ultrasound machine to her right.

“Okay, let’s meet this baby.”

Tabby’s eyed remained glued to the twelve-by-twelve screen. Dr. Kitt squirted something warm on her belly and pressed a hard wand onto the mess, spreading it around. A rushing sound filled the silent room, and Tabby choked on a sob. Next to hearing her father or sister speak again, it was by far the most beautiful and peaceful sound in the world.

Dr. Kitt remained quiet as he moved the wand in all directions, the sound never ceasing but the image distorting and reforming multiple times. Tabby blinked several times as her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Was that a foot? A little finger?

“Well, Tabby. They sound and look great.”

“They?” Tabby croaked, and Amy laughed.

“It seems the Ellis legacy is continuing in fine fortune. Two healthy babies. Probably explains why your morning sickness has been so strong.”

“But at the last ultrasound, there was only one?” Desperation laced her voice. What was wrong with her?

“These little buggers are identical, and it seems they’ve been playing hide and seek, lying right behind one another.”

Two babies.

Her nieces or nephews or both. A gift left behind from a terrible tragedy.

“Can you tell? I mean what they are?”

Dr. Kitt did some more maneuvering and shook his head. “Not yet. At least not to be certain, and with the way they’re situated right now, I would guess they plan on being stubborn for a while.”

A tissue came into her blurred vision, and Tabby smiled at Amy. She hadn’t realized the floodgates were fully open.

Dr. Kitt went through some more images, measuring and explaining, but Tabby heard very little. Her mind circled back to two babies. What a gift for the families. Families she no longer could keep in the dark. A man she could no longer keep in the dark.

Still numb, Tabby got dressed, and Dr. Kitt came back in.

“You okay?”

She nodded.

“I know it’s a lot. Surrogacy on a good day is an emotional roller coaster. But in your case doubly so because of the deaths.”

Tabby cradled her stomach. Her nieces or nephews would never want for anything. She would provide everything they would’ve had growing up with Maisie and Isaiah.

“At least you won’t be handling these babies on your own.”

She nodded. “You’re right. The families will be a tremendous support, and I’ll tell them. I just wanted to make sure everything was as safe as it could be.”

Dr. Kitt smiled. “Well, of course the families. But I also meant your co-guardian.”

“My what?”

“Your co-guardian. Maisie and Isaiah listed two guardians on the agreement. Standard form, really, although no one ever expects to have to use them.”

She couldn’t ask. The words melted away every time she formed them to speak.

“I take it from the blank look and pale face that you didn’t read the agreement.”

“Why would I?” she shrieked. “It was my sister and brother-in-law. I was carrying their baby. I knew I was their backup, but nothing was supposed to happen.” Hysterics weren’t a part of her everyday routine, but these hormones had turned her into a weeping tsunami of Jekyll and Hyde emotions. She hadn’t given the paperwork even a cursory glance. Just signed her name next to the sticky arrow.

Dr. Kitt placed a calming hand over hers. “Tabby, calm down. I didn’t mean to upset you, but the fact is, there are two of you responsible for these babies.”

“Who is it?”

The doctor sat back and crossed his ankle onto his knee. “Isaiah’s brother. Elijah.”

Eli’s plan had seemed simple. Find Tabby. Demand answers. Solve the problem. Only that plan was predicated on finding Tabby. He’d hunted her all week, only to find he’d just missed her or she was at a meeting or off site. He’d resorted to asking her stepmother, Lydia, only to get a blank stare and words that confirmed that no one had paid much attention to Tabby since the deaths. No wonder no one knew anything about her secret. They hadn’t even looked close enough to notice she had one.

He lengthened his stride. Well, the running and hiding ended today. Tabby’s parting words to the boy at the charity event had mentioned Thursday. It seemed she’d gotten herself hooked up with a doctor. Eli growled at the thought of just what they might be doing together today. He acknowledged the flood of jealousy, despite having no right to it.

Tabby wasn’t his.

But the problem with jealousy was it had a mind of its own. And his jealousy urged him to find this little pretty-boy doctor and deliver a few choice words.

Eli crossed into the open Asheville square. People moving in all directions. The dull murmur of conversation mixing with the auto noise from the surrounding streets. There was a fountain at the center, and on the brick surround sat Tabby, her posture slouched, her gaze glassy and unfocused. She clutched a manila envelope in her hand.

He rushed over to her and kneeled. “What happened?”

Glassy eyes met his, and the fear and longing punched him in the gut.

“Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head, confusion replacing her previous expression.

“I’ll kill him.”

“Wait! What are you talking about?”

“That doctor. That boy. I swear, Tabby, I told you he wasn’t your type.” Eli ran a hand through his hair.

Tabby stood, the manila envelope sliding to the ground. “Dr. Kitt isn’t anything to me other than a doctor. Not that you have a right to know that.”

Eli snatched the envelope up to keep it from blowing away.

“Give that to me.”

Startled by Tabby’s tone, Eli glanced between her and the envelope. Her blue eyes were wide pools of fear, staring at the envelope as if it would harm her. He knew at that moment the answer to what was going on with her was inside the yellow flap.

She stood transfixed as he lifted the edge and slid out the picture. His mind rejected what he was seeing. The picture proof positive of the one thing Eli wouldn’t have guessed even if given a hundred more clues.

He stared at the images, unable to look at the woman across from him. “You’re pregnant.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He laughed. Bitterness and resentment in such a simple gesture. “The sickness, the no alcohol, the weakness. All because of this.”

She didn’t answer.

Betrayal bubbled up and spilled over, wiping out concern and any other tender emotion. She was pregnant with another man’s baby. Another man had felt her skin, loved her, carried her though the peak of orgasms. And he’d been stupid enough to imagine a connection between them. To contemplate a future, despite a million hurdles.

“Who is he?” Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t want to know. Had no right to know.

She snatched back the pictures and slid them inside. Her fingers fumbled with the flap.

Chaos erupted in his emotions. Jealousy flowed alongside anger and betrayal. Nothing was as it seemed. Nothing was what it was supposed to be. Tabby shouldn’t be pregnant with another man’s baby.

The bitter conclusion burned his tongue. The hell with rights and wants. “Who. Is. He?

She shoved him in the chest. “Don’t you dare start demanding things from me.”

He caught her wrists lightly and pulled her close. The breaths of their anger mixing and mating. “Who’s the father of the baby, Tabby?”

She lurched out of his hold. “Your brother. There. Are you happy?”