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“I think you should call Sadie,” Brian added.
“Who’s Sadie?” Mark asked.
“The Sunday School teacher?” I asked incredulously. “She works with Father Montgomery.”
Brian nodded. “I’m aware, but I have done a thorough search on the girl, and she’s clean. I also have ulterior motives, so hear me out. I think if you hire Sadie, the old reverend will feel threatened. It may be a way of drawing him out.”
“I won’t do anything that would put my twins in danger,” Mark said sternly.
Brian raised his hands. “I wouldn’t either. I will be here the whole time, even overnight. I just think that the sooner you can get this behind you, the better.”
“I don’t think so…” Mark began just as I said.
“I think we should.”
Mark turned to me. “Really?”
I nodded. “We have been living under a shadow for a year now, and Brian will keep us safe. You know that. Besides, you will be here as well.”
Mark’s lips thinned a little, and I knew in my gut that he hadn’t told me everything that was going on with the company.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I need to go back to New York to straighten out the Fredrick Brewer deal. It shouldn’t take me more than a few days.”
I blew out a breath. “It sounds like we'll need that help more than ever. I can’t expect Brian to get up in the night with me.”
Brian looked immediately panicked. “I’m not good with babies.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re fine when you hold them. You are just quick to give the girls back if they cry or fill their pants.”
“Messy little monkey princesses, that’s for sure,” Brian said, watching the girls fondly.
Their thick dark hair was sticking up at all angles, and they looked a little plumper than when we first brought them home from the hospital. At their last appointment, the pediatrician said they were nearly seven pounds.
I did need help, and we all knew it. “Let’s call her,” I said impulsively.
Mark took my hand in his. “Are you sure she’s safe?”
Brian nodded. “As far as I can tell, the only thing she’s ever done that even hints atbadis she writes erotica under a pseudonym. But that’s it. And it’s actually pretty good writing.”
Brian broke off speaking when I burst out laughing. “What?” he said.
“Sadie, the Sunday School teacher writes erotica on the sly?” I could barely get the sentence out between my gales of laughter. The girls began to stir and fuss for something to eat.
“Great,” Mark said sarcastically. “You woke them up.”
I shook my head. “They need to eat anyway. But wow, I didn’t realize how much I needed a good laugh. Thanks for that, Brian. For a moment, I actually believed you.”
Brian opened his mouth to say something but then stopped himself. Mark had gotten up and taken Evie out of the swing and handed her to me. Before I could whip my breast out to feed her, Brian turned and headed out the door.
He’s said more than once that a brother-in-law should never see his sister-in-law’s tits. There was some kind of in-law incest there.
I tried to explain to him that there was nothing more natural than a mother feeding her baby. Brian said I could do whatever I wanted. He just wasn’t going to hang around for it. Mark agreed with Brian, so when it was feeding time, Brian left.
I pulled out my breast and helped Evie latch on. Then I turned to Mark, who was picking up an angry Avery. “He was kidding, right?” I asked.
Mark shrugged. “I don’t know Sadie, but it’s not like Brian to joke around. However, you never know.”