Niñito

Prologue

Time passed, the way it always does, and the twins were just about to turn eleven. I couldn't begin to imagine that Doralice and me had been married that long, but there was no denying the fact of the matter. Lily Beth, our miracle baby, was almost four, and we were confident we'd finished populating our portion of the Maverick ranch. God, I'm sure, was laughing at us.

One Saturday morning I'd promised to take Doralice into town for supplies that she and Pauly wanted for their newest invention. She's been talking non-stop since we got in the buggy and I was half-listening, the way I usually did when she suddenly grabbed my arm. "Pull over," she practically hissed at me, and as soon as I did so she bolted from her seat and hit the ground, leaving her breakfast in her wake. I wrapped the reins and followed her down, trying to keep her from landing in the dirt. I pulled out my handkerchief and wiped her mouth when she was finished, and we both got that look in our eye.

"I can't be. I'm too old to be. I thought we were finished a long time ago," my beautiful blonde wailed.

Don't get me wrong. Even though the love of my life sounded as if she was desperately unhappy, I'd seen the look she got every time she laid eyes on a new baby. Me, I was happy as a pig in slop. Of course, I wasn't the one having them, and somewhere along the way I seemed to have mastered the art of smiling and cooing at me, rather than screaming and yelling. But I was careful with my reaction. "Honey, just think about how sad you were when you realized that Lily Beth was our last little Maverick. Now you don't have to be sad anymore."

"I'll remind you of that when the whole house is awake at three o'clock in the morning because someone is hungry."

I stroked her hair and held her close. "You know I'd feed them if I could." I pulled her to her feet and helped her back into the buggy. "Good thing Lily Beth's ready to move out of her crib."

"We need another nursery."

"Oh. Yeah. I'll leave that up to Pauly." I must have read her mind. "I guess we better see Doc, huh?"

She smiled, and I knew she wasn't too upset. "Think he'll tell us what's causin' 'em?"

"We'd best know by now." And we both laughed as we drove on into Little Bend. "Let's keep this one to ourselves for a while."

"Boy or girl?"

I had to think about that one. "You know I'm partial to girls. But as long as they're healthy . . ." Like I said before, I'm sure God was laughing at us.