Chapter 174
Springtime For Friars

Lucas never understood the way Maya spoke of what it was like with her students, how proud they could make her, so well as he did after a few weeks as Ava Nash's riding instructor. They had not even had a handful of lessons yet, only one ever Saturday morning, but his young student had shown up every time, not just on time but early, always ready for whatever they'd do that day… And she was already showing that she was learning. To him, it got to feel as though Juliet had known exactly what she was doing when she had paired them up. It wasn't just that they'd struck up a solid bond when they'd met; Lucas could see any of the other trainers getting along with a girl like Ava. What it really felt like instead was Ava had started this rapport with him, while he had benefited from the connection in finding his confidence as a brand-new instructor. The accident was behind him, his concerns over his place at the ranch, they were… somewhere in limbo, as he continued to figure a few things out… In pairing them, Juliet had set them up to look forward to Saturday mornings as much as the other did.

"When school's over for summer, can I come more often?" Ava asked as she got ready to leave after her lesson.

"That's mostly up to you, and your parents," Lucas told her. "I have my other job with my father so I might not get to be there, too," he pointed out. Ava looked as though she hadn't considered this. "Why don't we worry about that when summer's closer?" he suggested, and she smiled. That worked. "Who's picking you up today?" Lucas asked. Ava stopped to think about this, and he got the distinct impression that she was trying to decide.

"One of my brothers, I think. I should go in case they're waiting. Thanks for today, bye!" she waved before taking off at a jog toward the arch.

Lucas watched her go, which in turn allowed him to spot someone else coming his way. There was Maya, walking toward him. Ava nearly ran into her as she went but quickly sidestepped and apologized before continuing on her way. Maya followed her progress for a moment before turning again and walking to meet Lucas as he did the same and met her halfway.

"That was her, wasn't it?" she asked, excited. She had so loved to hear about his lessons with her over the last few weeks, so getting to meet her now, even in passing, was something she had looked forward to.

"Yeah, that was Ava," he nodded, still seeing the running figure as she grew smaller and smaller before disappearing from sight.

"Everything alright?" Maya asked, catching something in his eyes. He looked at her, the question catching up to him.

"It is… At least I think it is… I don't know, I can't help but feel like something's going on with her, but I'm not sure if I should press her about it."

"What are you going to do about it?" Maya asked, sharing in his concern.

"I… I don't know," he admitted after a moment. "I'll think about it before next week, I guess." There was little more to do, wasn't there? To act on such a vague hunch, he needed more. With little else to say or do on the matter, he closed the door on it for the time being and focused on what was right in front of him… or who. "I didn't know you were coming…" he smiled to his wife. She seemed to remember why she was here, too.

"Well, I dropped the boys off at Charlie and David's, and after that, I figured you'd be done with your lesson soon…" she slowly explained, all the while looping her arms around his neck, which made him smile and lock hold of her as well, arms meeting around her waist.

"Meaning…" he smirked.

"Meaning," she nodded, her hidden smile bursting at the seams and begging to be set free. "Unless you have something else in mind…"

"If I did, they just slipped right out of there," he promised.

It felt almost as though they blinked and then they were home, and then upstairs, and in their room, shutting the door on reflex, just in case. Then it was a matter of shedding clothes, and then everything was wonderful on that April morning. It wasn't until afterward, as they lay together, heads still loopy in the best way, that Maya turned a sneaky smile up to her husband.

"What?" Lucas laughed, cupping the side of her face in his hand.

"I may have been a bit… misleading about my intentions, getting you here," she told him. He tried to be suspicious but, looking at her, he could only smile.

"Your intentions were not to get me into bed in our… ongoing effort?" he asked, and it made her snort.

"Alright, I did want to get you into bed, because why wouldn't I?" she shrugged, and he tipped his head, humbly agreeing. "But it was less about the other part," she continued, and he looked back at her, unsure what she was getting at. Did she not want them to try for a baby anymore?

But he kept looking at her, kept seeing that lingering smile, and the expecting look in her eyes like she was waiting for him to put pieces together. In his mind, it started like a fleeting curiosity. It grew into wonder, and then a question, and then a jolt… Was it… She kept looking at him, kept waiting and, at some point, his face must have shown what he was thinking, because her smile changed… concentrated. His heart sped up again, this time for reasons other than activity. He sat up a bit, and she moved with him.

"Because it's not about trying anymore?" he tempted, and in response she stretched over him, pulling her nightstand drawer open, the better to present him with not one but two positive tests.

He saw them, he took them in his hand, but he barely acknowledged them in that first instant, needing instead to wrap his arms around his wife and hold her close while she laughed, then yelped as they tipped over. He never let go, and now he kissed her, and she kissed him… It was happening! They would be parents for a fourth time. The number felt massive, thinking about it for the first time, and it was all they could hope for.

When Lucas became aware of the tests in his hand again, he had questions, so many of them. Had she just found out this morning? Middle of the night, technically. She'd gotten up to go to the bathroom and even as she'd been walking down the hall, half asleep, something in her brain was clearly wide awake, because if she was not mistaken, the numbers were there and… maybe? After that, the thinking had gone 'well, if I'm just going to use the toilet, might as well make it count.' And had it ever. When she'd seen the lines on that first stick, she'd thought for sure that she was imagining things, that she was just dreaming, something. She'd hidden everything away and then gone back to bed.

It wasn't until hours later, after Lucas had gone to the ranch and she was getting the boys ready to go play with their cousins, that she remembered about her middle of the night test. She'd halfway forgotten where she hid it, which led to some ridiculous searching without result. Finally, since she had another one still in its box, she'd gone ahead and taken that one. It was as she waited for the timer to go off that she had a flash and remembered where she'd hidden the first test. She'd just gotten her hands on it – and her eyes, which saw that it was positive – when her phone's timer rang, and she got a look at the second one… which was saying the same as the first: she was pregnant.

"You would think that, with us trying to make this happen, I would have thought more of this here, but I really just shrugged it off until today," she told Lucas, pointing at herself. He was no better off. It was impossible for him not to have noticed, even in passing, that her shape had started to change, just barely but still enough that, after three times already… But he looked at her now and, knowing what they knew… It was all happening, and they couldn't wait to see what the next several months would bring.

A week went by, and it was Saturday again. Finding themselves with a secret to keep, especially this kind of secret, Maya and Lucas both felt like they'd been granted this extra perk to make an already happy feeling feel happier, bubblier... They had in their possession the knowledge of something they knew would make the people in their lives as happy as they were, and though they were keeping it to themselves for now, its potential was such that it would sometimes make it near impossible not to give themselves away. But they were pulling it off so far and, soon, they would all know...

In the meantime, life went on. Maya was still teaching even as she dealt with the reappearance of unfortunate morning sickness. At least this time wasn't nearly as bad as the last time, but that didn't make things pleasant either. Elliott especially seemed to take notice like it reminded him of something, but he didn't connect the dots. Noah and Jamie were clueless as well, though they did wonder what was going on with their mother. How none of this led to them accidentally spilling the beans was beyond their parents.

Lucas had spent the entire week feeling like, surely, with them sitting opposite one another for hours on end, his father would have realized that something was up. If he did, maybe he had decided to keep it to himself, to let his son and daughter-in-law say what they had to say when they were ready. And now... now it was Saturday morning again and he was on his way to the ranch for his lesson with Ava.

He saw her before he got there. He was running late, on account of Maya's morning mad dash, and as he pulled to a stop at a red light, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. There was a bus, driving at his side, and sitting there at a window seat, oblivious to him as she read her book, was Ava. He couldn't see either of her parents or brothers, and maybe they were just sitting where he couldn't see them, but it didn't feel that way.

Lucas reached the ranch, parked, and then started on his way to the stable. He was halfway there when he heard the sound of shoes skidding over gravel, bringing Ava to fall in step with him two seconds later.

"Hi!" she greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning," he smiled back.

"My dad had an appointment, so he just dropped me off and went," she told him, and the statement made him realize he'd gotten some version of what boiled down to 'you can't see who dropped me off, they're busy' but felt more like 'no one dropped me off, I came on my own, but I'm pretending like they drove me.'

"On the bus?" he asked her, no accusation, no trap, just honesty. Ava looked at him. Oh, she definitely considered trying to spin this, to preserve her secret, but she didn't say anything. She kept walking with him, but she was quiet. It was the only admission she'd give him, and he didn't want to risk her pulling away. "How about we start today where we left off last time. You were getting pretty good at it." Subject changed, and she was back.

As they worked together, Lucas considered the situation as he was aware of it. Was it a problem that she took the bus on her own to get here? No? Yes? She was ten years old, and while he might feel as though it rode the line between too young or not, ultimately that would be for her parents to decide. His opinion wouldn't matter. The real issue was that she was lying about it, claiming that someone was dropping her off and picking her up each week when he was sure now that they never did. Why hide it?

"Ava?" he called to her before she could run off like she usually did at the end of the lesson. She paused, but there was still haste in her. Doesn't want to miss the bus. "Would it be okay with you if I called your house and saw if they'd be okay with me driving you home?"

She'd hesitated, but finally she'd agreed. He'd made the call, which had been picked up by one of the brothers. This had then gotten him Mr. Nash, who sounded like he'd just woken up. At Lucas' request, he'd given the impression of being about to say he'd come himself before taking a moment and finally agreeing to the offer with a rumbling thanks. It was settled, so they took off.

"I would be happy to drive you next week, too, and anytime after that. No trouble at all," Lucas told Ava as they made their way to her house.

"Okay," she replied, sounding far more distant than he'd ever heard her. "Is it okay if I read? I was in the middle of a chapter."

"Go ahead, I get it. I used to work at the bookstore, up at the mall?" he pointed, and she nodded. "You want music or do you prefer silence?"

"I don't mind. It's noisy on the bus," she reasoned. It wasn't much, but he felt as though she radiated gratitude. She didn't like her home life touching this one part outside of it, the ranch, which clearly meant so much to her. But here he was now, and he'd shown her that she had nothing to worry about.

He considered going up to the house, to talk to her father, but his gut told him to quit while he was ahead, at least for today, so he didn't follow. What he did do, for peace of mind, was to reach in his wallet and find one of the bakery's business cards. He gave it to Ava.

"See this number here?" he pointed, and she nodded. "That's my wife's phone. If you need anything, call there and you can reach me. Okay?" It was a simple card, which she could have picked up at any time, but it was also a connection.

"Thanks," she nodded before reaching into her bag, sticking the card in a zipped pouch that held her money and her ID for the bus.

"Same time next week?" he asked, smiling, and she smiled back with a nod before getting out and jogging to her door.

Lucas told Maya about the day's developments when he got home. He might have kept it quiet, for Ava's sake, but if she was going to use the card at some point, then Maya needed to know. She received the information and now their existence as a line of assistance as he figured she would. Had she been in his place, she would have done the same.

It was nearly another whole week of the same, playing it cool, before they made it to Friday afternoon, where Maya had an appointment and Lucas picked her up from school at lunch time. She would be back in time for her eighth graders if all went well. They went and ate before heading to the clinic.

Any development, any new bit of information about a new pregnancy was always exciting to them, and today would bring a few things for them to roll with. For one, Maya was due the 1st of December. And for the other...

It didn't take long to figure out that the doctor saw something that drew her focus as she performed the scan. There was nothing to suggest good or bad, but there was definitely something she was trying to determine, to confirm or deny. Maya just kept looking at her, waiting. Lucas was trying to do the same, even if there was a mounting beat of concern in him that wanted to say something, to remind the doctor that they were still there, left to wonder if something was wrong with their baby while they waited.

But then she smiled, sat back on her stool with a slow nod to herself before turning to her patient and her husband and realizing what they must have been thinking. She apologized with a light-hearted chuckle before showing them what she had seen and heard: not just one heart beating but two. They were expecting two babies, and suddenly they were finding themselves months away from going from three to five children rather than four.

It didn't properly hit them until they were back in the minivan. Twins... Two more... This was not unheard of, not in either of their families, but still...

"We're happy about this, yeah?" Lucas had to ask. Maya looked at him, blinking.

"Of course we are," she breathed, and after a second or two more of letting the news sit with them, they could smile. They reached for one another's hand at the same time, which only made them squeeze harder before leaning to meet in a kiss, which turned into a hug. "It's just surprising, you know?"

"I do," he agreed. They pulled back to look at each other, and there was his smile again as he reached down and pressed his hand over the start of her bump. Now she laughed, covering his hand with hers. "That means two new 'little' names, huh?" he remarked, and she nodded. It wouldn't have felt right not to carry on the tradition, would it? "I... I sort of had one in my head all this time, but I was waiting to see what you'd say," he admitted.

"I had one, too," Maya revealed. "I guess in the middle of everything, I never brought it up..."

They looked at each other, smiled at what this meant. Inadvertently so, they had come to have two nicknames at the ready for this new baby they were expecting, never knowing that there were two, which meant they could both be used... unless of course it turned out they'd thought of the same one.

"You first," Maya raised her chin, like they were facing off. He laughed, but he accepted the challenge.

"Peanut," he revealed, and her expression melted. She loved it. "Not what you had?" he guessed, and she shook her head. "What's yours?"

"Nugget," she told him, and he grinned, especially as she insisted that it had nothing to do with how many times their boys requested those for lunch or dinner.

"Look at that, they rhyme," he told her instead, and she had a look like she'd realized it at the same time he did. "And they're both food."

"All the more reason for the grandparents to claim they could just eat them up..." Maya added. "Speaking of which... When do we tell them?"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners