Away With the Fairies (The Swallow Barn Cottage Series, Book 2)

Double Standard

"I can't believe they just left their babies with us!" Fiona hissed.

"They have the app on their phones," he said. "If Olivia or Lynette as much as squeak, one of them will be in that bedroom faster than either of us. The skating rink's five minutes away, remember?" He shrugged and walked to the kitchen. "It's a gesture," he deadpanned and sat down at the table, placing the baby monitor near his laptop.

"What gesture?" Fiona whispered, sitting down in front of him. "Is this your brother's way to say he trusts you?"

He remained just as blank-faced and clicked something on his laptop.

"I wouldn't leave my children with a stranger," she muttered.

"I'm not a stranger," he said, starting to type.

"I am," she said.

"That's the point, Fiona," he said and looked at her over the top of his laptop.

"What?" she asked, confused.

He gave her one of his amused meaningful looks and went back to typing.

"Wait– are you saying they trusted me with the babies?" she said, and he smirked, without looking up from the screen. "That's such a responsibility! I can't– I don't know what to do with babies!" she exclaimed, still keeping her voice down. "What if they wake up? What if they... cry?"

"You pick them up and check their nappies," he said, his fingers rapidly drumming on the keyboard.

"What? But where's their– stuff? The nappies, and the wipes, or cloths, or whatever they use? Do they have bottles?! Are they–"

She stopped because he was watching her with some new emotion in his eyes.

"What?" she asked, pouting. "They're tiny human beings that can't take care of themselves. And their parents just left them with us! We need to be prepared!"

"Why don't you have children, Fiona?" he suddenly asked in an even, calm tone.

It almost sounded like it was a casual question - except he was forgetting she'd studied his face well, and she could see the intensity hiding in his eyes behind the nonchalance and the offhand tone.

"Because Nate can't have them," she said and sighed. "At least so he told me. I've always wanted children. I've alway wanted them - and to make them happy. To give them what I didn't have, I reckon. Support, and love, and appreciation. I remember, when I lived with my Nana, we gathered herbs, and she had this large garden, overgrown and mysterious, and she told me of the aos sí, and how to make teas... I know it sounds childish, but I always wanted my children to have a magical childhood, you know, full of those wonderful things, that you ask yourself if they were even real when you're an adult. And we tried at the beginning–" she started but then shook her head. "It was hard. You know how I'm– how much I enjoy sex," she whispered. His left eyebrow twitched, and she continued, "It's linked to my hormones. It isn't in all women, but I have what's called 'an overactive uterus,'" she finished in an even quieter whisper. "I have had these heightened levels of hormones, and– my body produces more... eggs than normal as well," she said, embarrassed. "We went to a doctor, and he suggested a hormone therapy for me, because I was just so– focused on it. But then it sort of went away. Because I thought I'd never have them - so what was the point of even thinking about it? And now I'm thinking that it just had been one of those things I've been brainwashed about. Nate, and my Da when he was alive, and the doctors Nate took me to - they all kept telling me that I was crazy to want children so much. That I was hysterical and– And then I look at your sister-in-law, and she has two sets of twins! And she doesn't seem to be freaked out by the whole thing!"