healing-hearts (13 page)

“So, you think
that’s
a reason for us to get married?”

“It all depends on how bad you want the children.” He sipped his coffee gingerly, squinting at the rising steam.

She rose abruptly. “Not bad enough to marry you or anyone else.”

Yasmine quickly exited the room like something horrible was after her.

Jason listened to the door close firmly behind her. He sat at the table a few moments to finish his coffee. Then he got up to get dressed and packed for check out from the hotel—he had an hour. For that amount of time, he wouldn’t think about Yasmine, his offer to her or the fact that she’d turned him down.

“Well, Mr. Coleman, I hope I get points for trying.” He stripped off the towel and grabbed a pair of boxers from the top drawer of the dresser.

~ML~

Yasmine walked down the hall, and didn’t stop until she got to the elevator. She should have never allowed Leigh to use her powers of persuasion to find out in which room Jason was staying. She had heard it once said that ignorance was bliss, now she understood what the statement meant.

She never planned on getting married again, but if God had dropped love into to her lap she couldn’t say for sure she would turn it down.

But, this...

This proposal wasn’t anything and because of that reason she would brush it under a rug somewhere and never think about it again. She prayed every night that Joshua and Jessica would be placed in a good home. It was time for her to realize it may not be with her. She loved them and wanted the best for them, but if she couldn’t get someone to realize she could love them enough for two parents, then she would have to come to terms with possibly losing them.

She was glad when the elevator doors opened up on the lobby floor. When she stepped out of the elevator she imagined that Jason and his offer were both in it. With the sound of the door closing softly behind her, it signified all that was said on the fourteenth floor was locked away.

Yasmine may have been able to choose not to get married, but over the last twenty minutes she’d just found out she had no control over her desire for the opposite sex. It felt good to know Blake hadn’t killed that also.

For a moment she recalled the image of Jason standing in nothing but a stark white towel. The contrast of it against his tanned skin was alluring. The way the towel rode low on his hips; as if it was barely staying in place and at any moment it would slip loose and sail to the floor at his feet—strong masculine feet.

Yasmine closed her eyes for a moment; she could still see the sight of his lean muscular chest, a swimmer’s chest, with naturally developed tone that screamed vital strength. Jason had abs that begged for slow kisses. Her hands tingled with the thought of lightly raking her fingers through the dusting of hair in the center.

Shaking herself to clear her head, Yasmine walked up to the plush chair where Leigh was sitting and flipping through a magazine, as if she were reading it.

“So, do you want to talk about it?” Leigh asked curious.

“Nope.”

“Okay, then lets go.” Leigh’s voice rang with awareness and then teased her. “I understand that you don’t want to share the lovely info with your best friend after she’s had to agree to a date with a twenty-year-old hotel desk attendant. A child, for cryin’ out loud, but that’s what
I
would do for you.”

The corners of Yasmine’s lips lifted as she linked their arms together. “Come on, I’ll buy you lunch since neither of us had breakfast.”

“That sounds more like it.” Leigh slid on her sunglasses as they exited the hotel.

It had been three weeks since the Neptune Festival when Yasmine walked into the orphanage to visit the children. She had purposely stayed away to give herself some space and put things into perspective. She had done that and was feeling rational about the fact that the twins would never be hers.

“Hi, Yasmine. It’s good to see you.” Ms. Andrea was standing at the visitor’s counter when she came in.

“How’s everything been going over the past few weeks?” Yasmine liked the other woman. Her patience and sweet disposition was just what the children needed here. Most of the kids spoke highly of Ms. Andrea. The other staff members had told her frequently they had to stop some of the little ones from calling her mommy, because of the closeness and time she spent with the children, they naturally reached out to her as a parent.

“Good, we had an adoption carnival yesterday and got a lot of applications submitted and even quite a few for some of the older ones.”

Yasmine’s heart plummeted. The older ones usually didn’t get adopted, and if a lot of them were getting eager parents looking at them, then that meant most likely Joshua and Jessica were on the list. She had worked hard on coming to grips with the fact they would go to someone else, but she wasn’t prepared for it happening this soon.

“That’s great news.” Yasmine smiled at the woman, hoping her disappointment about losing the twins wasn’t written on her face.

“It sure is. I’ve got you signed in. Most of the children are in the playroom, if you want to go in there.”

“I brought some new books with me to read. I’ll drop them at the desk on my way out so you all can get them processed into the library.” Yasmine held up the bookstore bag she had at her side.

“That’s great. I’ll tell Nancy so she’ll be expecting them.”

“Thanks.” She headed toward the playroom, with heavier steps than she had entered the house with.

When she entered the playroom, all of the children stopped playing and begin to jump up and down and chant, “Read us a book! Read us a book!”

Yasmine grinned at them all. “Okay, okay, I’ll read. Everyone sit in the reading area.”

As all the kids in the room scrambled to sit in a semi-circle around a chair that stood on a large area rug that was decorated with books. Yasmine scanned the room for two familiar faces.

As she sat in the chair and talked to the children about the books she was going to read, she realized that Joshua and Jessica were not in the room. Her heart began to race, assuming that the two of them may be visiting somewhere with their soon to be adoptive parents.

She kept a lid on her emotions and decided to focus all of her attention on the children eagerly awaiting the books to be read.

An hour and half later her mouth was dry and her legs had gone numb, Yasmine closed the third book the kids had bribed her into reading. Then she said good-bye to them and headed back toward the desk. She enjoyed being with the children and even though the twins were gone she would still come and visit them.

“Hi, Nancy,” Yasmine spoke to the lady who ran the mini library in the orphanage. “Here are the books. I read three of them and the kids loved them, the other two are by one of the same authors so I’m sure they’ll like them also.”

“I’m sure they will. They always enjoy your reading to them, when I do it they don’t pay attention as much.”

Nancy was a salt and pepper haired woman who’d begun volunteering her time at the orphanage since she’d retired from hotel chain, where she was the president’s secretary. They’d given her a healthy severance package, which allowed her to work for free. She’d been at the house for a few years, a very talkative grandmotherly type who nurtured the children in just the way they needed it.

“It’s just a new face.”

“No it’s your voice and your animation as you read through the stories. The children get a kick out of it.” Nancy confirmed.

“I noticed the twins weren’t there—do you know where they are?” Yasmine had considered not asking about them, but she knew she would never get it out of her mind if she didn’t get some kind of closure.

“They weren’t?” Nancy looked a little shocked. “They love your story time. You may want to check upstairs, maybe they’re in the TV room.”

Yasmine’s heart did a small leap of joy. She would have an opportunity to say good-bye to them before they left.

“Thanks, I’ll check upstairs before I leave then.”

“Okay. I’ll see you next time.” Nancy headed toward the kitchen.

Yasmine performed a light jog up the stairs to the second floor landing, when she reached the top of the stairs she walked into the first room on her left and peeked inside. She didn’t see either of them among the other children, mostly teens. The next room was on her right and it was where the boys slept. She tapped lightly on the door, when a young masculine voice called out she opened it and walked in.

There were only three boys in the room, playing cards; none of them being Joshua. She left and walked to the second door on the left which held the girls’ room, opening the door without knocking she walked in and found two girls looking at a magazine and one girl napping.

Feeling dejected and giving up hope of finding them, thinking maybe they were in one of the visiting rooms or perhaps helping some of the volunteers with something, Yasmine headed down the backstairs instead of turning to walk the way she had come.

When she approached the landing she stopped. Joshua and Jessica sat on the stairs with tear-streaked faces, holding each other’s hands.

“Sweeties, I’ve looked everywhere for you. What’s the matter?” Yasmine descended the stairs and sat on the one below them.

The similar faces continued to look at her, filled with sadness and silence.

“If you don’t tell me what’s wrong I can’t do anything to help you.” Yasmine replied sincerely.

She watched them look at each other as if deciding whether to talk or not, then they spoke in unison. “Nobody wants us.”

For the second time that day, Yasmine’s heart dropped. “What do you mean no one wants you?”

Jessica spoke first. “Saturday, at
da
fair no
buddy
—”

“—
ast
Mizz
Andrea to be
r
pair
-
rents
.” Joshua finished.

“Oh...babies.” Yasmine was at a loss for words. She had assumed that the two of them had been selected and was attempting to prepare herself for that instead of considering the twins would be turned down at another fair.

“I hate
da
fairs.” Jessica whined.

“Me, too,” chimed in Joshua.

“Sweeties, I know it’s hard when none of the couples want to adopt you, but I promise one day soon someone is going to get you two and you’ll have a wonderful life with them.”

“What if they only want Jessica?” Joshua asked.

Before Yasmine could speak up Jessica cut in. “I won’t go.” Then threw her arms around her brother and squeezed tight, “
Day
kan’t
make me go, can
day
,
Mizz
Yazz
-
men?”

“I hope not.”

“But,
da
man and lady already
ast
Jessica if she wanted to
wive
wif
dem
.” A fresh batch of tears streamed down Joshua cheeks.

Jessica’s little voice drew her attention.

“I
toe
dem
no, not
wif
out Joshua.”

“
Dey
won’t make her,
white
Mizz
Yazz
-
men
?” Joshua brown eyes were full of fear.

“Oh, babies, I know this has got to be hard for you.” She placed a hand on each of their cheeks. “I don’t know...but, I’ll find out what I can and let you know.”

“We don’t
wik
it here anymore.” Jessica was saying as she amazingly squeezed her brother tighter.

“I’m sure Ms. Andrea will do her best not to split you two up into different homes.” Getting a tissue out of her purse, Yasmine wiped the little brown faces. “Joshua and Jessica, can you two come with me please?”

Yasmine waited for them to agree, then rose and took a hand in each of hers and walked down the remaining stairs.

When they arrived at Ms. Andrea’s door, Yasmine tapped lightly on the lower part of the door, not letting go of either hand.

Andrea got up from her desk and came around it to the door. “Well, who do we have here? Hello, Joshua and Jessica, it’s so good to see you two.” Andrea squatted down in front of the two children.

When the children remained silent, with their heads bowed, Andrea looked up at Yasmine with curiosity in her eyes.

“I guess this weekend at the adoption fair, one of the couples asked Jessica if she wanted to come live with them.”

“Yes, I remember them very well.”

Yasmine didn’t expect for her to comment any further. To say more would have been a breach of confidentiality. “Well, they are very concerned and upset that they may be split up and have to go to separate homes.” Yasmine informed the director.

“Oh...I see.” Andrea looked back at the twins. “Well, if the two of you can go into my office and have a seat, we can talk about it.”

Two cinnamon brown faces turned up toward Yasmine, appearing the color of Georgia clay from all of the crying they had done. She could easily read the fear and question in their eyes.