Liv had to have heard the rumors from her friends. Saddle Ridge was too small of a town not to. Was that why she kept her friendship with Wes from her? Or had Wes said something?
“I tried calling Liv again, and it went straight to voice mail. I left a message telling her you were here and that the girls were fine.”
“Nothing about them missing her?” Jade asked.
“I—I don’t remember exactly what I said. Should I have?”
Jade dropped her bag on the antique hall table in the foyer. “If she’s suffering from some form of postpartum depression I’d like to believe hearing the children miss her would prove how much they need her. That’s just speculation on my part.” She wondered if her sister would interpret their being fine as confirmation she’d done the right thing. But Maddie blamed herself enough already. Jade didn’t need to add to it. “Why don’t you head home, take a shower and relax for the night. I appreciate you going above and beyond like you have.”
“Are you sure?” Maddie gnawed on her bottom lip. “I realize you were here when the girls were born, but do you know how to take care of an infant? Let alone three?”
“I’m sure I can handle feeding them, changing a few diapers and putting them to bed.” Jade’s hands flew to her chest. “Oh my God! Liv was breast-feeding.”
Maddie shook her head. “No, it didn’t work out. She wasn’t producing enough milk and was unbelievably sore. They started on formula pretty early.”
Jade had headed back to LA eight days after the girls were released from the hospital. “She never told me.”
“She probably wouldn’t have told me if I hadn’t been staying here. It really upset her.”
“I bet.” Jade imagined her sister thought not being able to breast-feed as the ultimate failure.
“Have you ever mixed formula before?”
“Can’t say that I have.” Jade sighed.
“Come on.” Maddie motioned for her to follow. “There’s kind of a formula to making formula and it all starts with boiling water.”
By the time Maddie walked her through the steps, Jade understood why women opted to breast-feed. Even though the can came with directions, she took detailed notes, not wanting to risk a mistake.
“Just remember to toss out any mixed formula after twenty-four hours. You can make a large batch of it, but it’s not like milk. You can’t keep a gallon in the fridge for a week. If any of them don’t finish their bottle, toss it because their saliva can contaminate the formula.”
“Got it. I’m assuming this is the bottle sterilizer?” Jade pointed to a large dome-shaped appliance sitting on the counter.
“Yes. You can also run their pacifiers through there. But—” Maddie opened the cabinet next to the sink and removed three bottomless bottles and a box “—it’s more convenient to use these with the liners. That way the nipples are the only thing you’ll need to clean. Just toss the liners in the trash.”
After a crash course in infant feeding, Maddie left for the night. Jade peeked in at the girls before heading to the guest room to change. She stood in the doorway as she’d done earlier, almost afraid to get any closer to the children who were biologically hers. She still had a tough time wrapping her brain around it. If she intended to take care of them until Liv returned, she needed to remember Liv was their real mother, not her.
She tiptoed across the room to their cribs, choking back tears. They were beautiful, and she’d help create them. The inexplicable desire to hold them overwhelmed her. She wanted to tell them how much she loved them and that she’d never abandon them. How bad had things gotten for her sister to walk away from her children?
She reached over the side of the crib and lightly ran her hand over one of their matching white-and-pink cotton bunny onesies. Matching! How would she tell the girls apart? They were fraternal triplets, but they looked alike to her. Especially at this age. Liv and Maddie could tell them apart, but Jade hadn’t spent enough time around them yet. If it wasn’t for the large A, H and M stenciled on the wall above their respective cribs she wouldn’t have known who was Audra, Hadley or Mackenzie.
“What if I mix them up?”
Hadley stirred at the sound of her voice but didn’t wake up. Jade scanned the room. She needed something to distinguish them from each other. Nail polish came to mind, but she feared they’d chew it off. She ran back downstairs to Liv’s office and dug a black permanent marker out of the drawer. She’d have to write their first initial on the sole of their foot until she researched a better solution online. Maybe the pediatrician could offer a suggestion. She had to call there anyway to find out when the babies’ next appointment was. First, she had to fabricate a plausible excuse as to why she was calling and not her sister. She didn’t want to arouse suspicion about Liv.
One triplet began to cry as she reached the top step. She ran into the room, pulled off the marker cap with her teeth and wrote a large H on the bottom of Hadley’s foot when the odor of a full diaper smacked her square in the jaw.
“Good heavens. For a tiny little thing, that is one big stink.” Jade lifted Hadley into her arms as Audra began crying. Within seconds, the room was full of shrieks and smelly diapers. She couldn’t pacify or change the girls fast enough. She wasn’t even sure how to get them downstairs to feed them. Maddie would. Jade went to pull her phone from her pocket before remembering she left it in her bag. “Okay, I guess we’re going down one at a time.”
Mackenzie started crying louder than the other two before she reached the hallway. “What is it, sweetheart?” She cradled her against her chest, afraid to put her down. “You have a clean diaper and I will feed you in a few minutes.” Mackenzie’s tear streaked face turned red while her tiny arms flailed in the air. Jade adjusted the baby’s position and sat in the rocking chair. “Shh, I’ve got you. I know you miss your mommy, but I’m here.”
Mackenzie’s cries continued along with her two sisters and Jade wondered if Liv had postpartum depression or if she’d needed a sanity break. She easily saw how this could try even a saint’s patience after a while. Jade couldn’t do this alone. She needed help.
* * *
WES SAT IN LIV’S driveway for ten minutes before he got the nerve to walk up the porch stairs and knock on the door. Once he did, he heard a baby cry from inside. He hadn’t even considered he might wake them up. He hadn’t considered much on the drive over except that he hadn’t given Jade his phone number and he didn’t have hers. His concern for Liv was worth the risk of seeing the girls.
Wes’s heart pounded in his chest as a cold sweat formed across his brow. His biological daughters were inside that house. It was the closest he’d ever been to them and all he wanted to do was run. Why hadn’t he called Liv’s house and left a message on the answering machine if Jade didn’t answer? Because he hadn’t thought this through. The reality he’d created three children with the bully responsible for the beatings he’d received in the high school locker room struck him harder than a runaway Mack truck.
“Maddie, I need you!”
A chill ran down Wes’s spine at the sound of Jade’s desperate plea. He grabbed the knob and flung the door open, causing it to bang against the interior wall. “Jade!” He ran toward the baby cries, uncertain what he might find. He stuck his head in the numerous rooms that branched off the center hall of the old farmhouse. “Jade, where are you?” he asked as he reached the kitchen, only to find Jade, barefoot and disheveled holding one screaming infant in her arms while the other two wailed from bouncy chairs perched on top of the table.
His heart stopped beating at the sight of them. His daughters. His. They had his DNA, his genes, his—Wes grabbed the doorjamb.
“Thank God you’re here.” She took a step toward him.
He shook his head, trying not to break