Marti: Seven Sisters Book Read online

  “I think you will, too.”

  “Why did you name her that?” She didn’t really care too much, but she needed to get her mind off of her racing heart and onto something else.

  “When I went to look over her litter, I picked her up, and she’d just had a bath. The little girl who was part of the family who had her said, ‘She’s fresh as a daisy!’ and the name just kind of stuck.”

  “I like that! I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “Just know, she’s going to be begging for any food you have, and you’re not allowed to give her any. She thinks she should be fed from the table, and it’s just not happening.” He pulled into the driveway of Michael’s ranch and turned to her. “I’m going to walk you to the door like a good date, but there’s probably someone who will be watching. I’m going to kiss you goodnight here. I was a good date, right? Well-behaved?”

  “Yes, you were. A goodnight kiss is forthcoming.”

  He pulled her to him and kissed her softly, his lips warm against hers. When he lifted his head, he sighed. “Same time tomorrow?”

  She nodded. “That gave me enough time to sleep after being up all night with the babies.”

  “Is it weird keeping those hours?”

  She shook her head. “I’m a night owl at heart. Always have been.” With a quick kiss on the cheek, she got out of the truck and rushed toward the door. It was cold! When she got there, she saw him shaking his head at her from the truck. She hadn’t waited for him to walk her to do the door. How rude!

  As she shut the door behind her, she breathed in deeply. How on earth was she going to be able to keep her heart intact with him around? Especially with all the visions she was seeing.

  Heather was sitting in the kitchen watching her, and she blushed. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Marti said. “How are the babies?”

  “They’re good. How’s my baby sister?” Heather was watching her closely.

  “He’s the one, isn’t he? I keep having visions of myself with him. In front of a fire reading. Walking down the aisle. Slow dancing.”

  Heather nodded. “He’s definitely the one. Are you ready for a serious relationship, though?”

  “I have no idea. I thought I was coming here for a little while to help you with the babies. I had no idea I was going to stay on as a nanny or find the love of my life.” Marti collapsed into a kitchen chair. “I’m not sure this is the right thing for me to do right now.”

  “Whether it is or isn’t, the ball is rolling. It’s up to you to slow it down if that’s what you feel the need to do. You’re seeing him again tomorrow, right?”

  Marti nodded. “We’re watching movies at his place.”

  “I would say that you need to think long and hard before then. If you want to slow things down, now is the right time. Tell him you feel something for him but you don’t feel ready for a committed relationship . . . or something like that. I don’t know! You seem awfully young to find the love of your life right now, though.”

  “I know. I had no idea this would happen. I . . . I’ll think on it. Does Mom know?”

  “That he’s the man you should spend your life with? Yeah. I told her. She expressed the same concerns I did. And what if you’re only attracted to him because of the visions? Are we letting our magic force us into decisions we’re not ready for?” Heather shook her head. “Not me. I was definitely ready to marry Michael. But you just finished college. You should have a year or two of living the crazy life before you marry and start having quadruplets!”

  “I’m not having quadruplets. Ever. I’ve seen the work they involve!”

  “I didn’t think I was having them either, and look at me.” Heather got to her feet. “I’ll make us each a mug of hot chocolate, and we’ll discuss. I’m sure I can tell you lots of deep dark secrets about Josh. Michael tells me everything.”

  “Sounds good to me! I need to make an informed decision, and how could I do that without deep dark secrets? You’re the best!”

  Chapter Five

  Marti thought long and hard about what to say to Josh the following day, but how could she tell him he was moving too fast when they were only spending a day together? Instead she decided to let things go and see what happened.

  When she arrived at his house, there was a fire in the fireplace, and he had several movies out for her to choose from. “I have baked potato soup in the Crock-Pot. I figured we should stick with the whole potato theme,” he told her.

  She grinned at him. “Works for me.” As she said it, she felt a cold nose pressing up against her. Dropping to her knees, she put her face in the dog’s fur. “You must be Daisy. We’re destined to be best friends.”

  Daisy wagged her tail and stood, obviously enjoying the scratches she was receiving.

  Josh smiled down at his dog with the woman he loved. Loved? Wasn’t it too soon for that? He wasn’t sure, but it sure felt like the right word for what he was feeling. “Want to grab some snacks? Or just start with the movies?”

  “I’m good either way.” She truly didn’t care as long as she got to spend the whole day with him.

  He grabbed a bowl of potato chips and a couple of bottles of Coke, and they went into the living room. He had spread pillows on the floor in front of the fire. “I thought it might be nice to lounge as we watch.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him—something she’d practiced for hours in front of a mirror, wanting to be more like Spock from Star Trek. “I don’t know if that’s going to work.”

  “Daisy is here for us. I promise.” He plopped down on the pillows, and before she could blink, Daisy was right there, on top of him.

  Marti couldn’t help but giggle as she joined the two of them on the pillows, the dog firmly in between them. He couldn’t kiss her if he tried! “I think this might work after all.”

  He held Daisy’s head down so he could look at her around the dog. “Yeah . . . as long as we don’t care about seeing each other or touching each other, we’ve got it made.”

  After the first movie, they had a bowl of the soup, and she doctored hers with the bacon and cheese he put out. “It’s a good thing I like potatoes,” she mumbled under her breath.

  He laughed. “I heard that!”

  “I’m looking for a good taco. Heather says you don’t have good tacos around here, and it’s all she wanted to eat in Texas. Well Mexican food and Tracy’s Irish nachos.”

  “Ooo . . . what are Irish nachos?”

  “I guess you could even call them Idaho nachos. They’re fresh-made potato chips, with a beer queso and bacon. Really yummy.”

  “You’ll make them for me sometime?” he asked.

  “Oh, sure. Whenever you want.” She made a mental note to call Tracy for the recipe. She wanted to do it right and not fake it like she usually did when she was cooking for someone.

  In the middle of the second movie, Daisy got up to go lay on the couch, and Marti looked over at Josh. He was watching her. “You know, the movie is that way,” she said, indicating the TV.

  “Who needs a movie when they have something as beautiful as you right there in the room with them. You’re all the entertainment I need.” Josh took her hand and brought it to his lips. He had yet to kiss her, because he sensed he was moving a little too quickly for her.

  She scooted a little closer to him, but not too close, turning her attention back to the movie. Or seeming to. She had no idea what they were even watching. It didn’t matter, as long as they were watching it together.

  As she turned her face back toward the television, the room faded away, and instead, she had a vision of Michael dropping one of the babies. She could see the clock behind him, and it said seven-thirty. It was seven-twenty now.

  She jumped to her feet. “We have to call Michael. Right away!” She’d learned that her visions couldn’t be ignored.

  Josh looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, but he nodded, deciding that whatever she thought was so urgent needed to be listened to. He grabbed the phone an
d dialed, listening as it rang. “No answer.”

  “Call again!”

  This time someone picked up on the seventh ring. Josh handed Marti the phone. “Hello?”

  “Marti? What’s wrong with you? We’re feeding the babies!” It was her mother’s voice, and Marti couldn’t be happier. She glanced at the clock. Just in time!

  “Mom, Michael is going to drop one of the babies at exactly seven thirty!”

  “What? I’ll stop him! Thanks!” And the line went dead.

  Marti breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t know if permanent damage can really be done by dropping a baby on its head, but that’s what your brother was about to do.” She shook her head in exasperation.

  Josh stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “You act as if you’re sure that would have happened. And your mother sounded like she believed you, with no question. You wanna tell me what on earth is going on?” Her mother’s voice had been loud enough to be heard across the room.

  Marti took a deep breath. “I think we need to be sitting down for this conversation.” She led him into the living room, and instead of plopping back down on the pillows, she took a seat on the couch, and he sat right beside her. Even Daisy sat up and listened to what she had to say. “My dad is really into gadgets. He designs games for Atari. Anyway, he was showing off some new gadgets, and he’d called all seven of us home to see them.”

  “Gadgets? Why are you talking about gadgets? I want to know about the premonition you obviously just had!”

  She sighed. “I’m getting there. I promise!” Looking down at her hands, she continued. “While Dad was showing us his new stuff, there was this zap of electricity. We never knew if it was lightning or just the wires going haywire. Anyway, after that happened, all seven of us had some sort of strange power. My power is precognition. I can tell if something is about to happen. We don’t tell anyone, because we’re afraid they’ll think we’re insane, but our parents know. That’s why I came here. I had a premonition that Heather needed me, so I got in my car.”

  He stared at her for a moment, trying to comprehend what he’d just said. “Heather has some weird power, too?”

  Marti nodded. “She has the ability to tell if a couple belongs together. Something about the way their colors mix when they’re together. One of my sisters can diagnose any illness. Another can see what’s happening as people tell her stories. They’re all strange, but we use them for the good of people around us.” Marti had almost said all mankind, but she knew that was too melodramatic even for her.

  He frowned at her. “So will Michael not pick up a baby because you said that? Will he believe it?”

  She nodded. “Michael knows. He was the first person Heather told. She told him before us.”

  “Wow. I’m not sure what to even say to this. What else can you see? Do you see the lottery numbers?”

  She laughed. “I never have. My cousin has, though.” She shook her head. “Here’s where it gets a little weirder.”

  “Weirder? This can get weirder?” Josh thought she’d totally lost her mind, but she talked about it so calmly, he wasn’t sure that could be true.

  “It can! So in my family, there are always seven sons. And each seventh son has seven sons. My dad was not the seventh son, and he had daughters, but there aren’t usually seven.” She shook her head. “I digress . . . anyway, the seventh son always has some kind of power. In our generation, that’s Peter. His new wife is already pregnant with their first of seven sons.”

  “So these strange powers are kind of a thing in your family?”

  “Yes, but usually only once per generation. We think whatever the power surge was triggered latent powers in us.”

  “I guess that makes sense . . . but it’s all kind of strange, too.”

  “I’m sure your family has some deep dark secrets somewhere.”

  He tilted his head to one side as if thinking about it. “Every set of twins has some sort of power.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but that’s different.”

  “But . . . we just merged the McClains and the Muirs, and there were quadruplets. Double twins! What happens then?”

  He blinked a couple of times, not having thought of that. “I don’t know. Do you think the girls will have . . . powers?”

  “I hope so! If they grow up with them, they’ll handle them a lot better than we did. We were blindsided by them. I can’t deny it.”

  “Wow. I need a bit for this all to sink in. And you might want to put a bug in Heather’s ear about the possibility of the quads having powers. That might be crazy!”

  “It will definitely be crazy if they do have them.” Marti sighed. “Maybe we should get back to the movie.”

  “Maybe you should have to tell me another deep, dark secret about you before we do. It seems like a secret sharing kind of day.”

  “Oh . . . that’s hard.” Marti thought for a moment, trying to think of a good secret. “My last year of college was really easy, because I saw all the test questions before I ever got the tests.”

  “Is that cheating?” he asked.

  “I have no idea! It wasn’t something I sought out, so I decided it wasn’t. I couldn’t stop it from happening.”

  Josh grinned. “Now if you’ll just give me the lottery numbers.”

  “If I had them, I would.” She looked around his house. “It doesn’t seem like you need them, though. This place is nice.”

  He shrugged. “Nice enough. I’ll never be rich as a rancher, but I’m not poor either.”

  “Well, I think you will do fine as long as you’re not poor. Middle class is nothing to sneeze at.” She frowned at him. “Now where’s your deep, dark secret for me?”

  “Who said I was going to share a secret with you? I don’t remember that being part of the plan!”

  “Don’t be a pain in the butt, Muir. You need to tell me something, or I’m going to have to be mad at you!”

  He laughed. “Let me think of a good one . . .” There had to be something he could tell her. “Oh, when I was a teenager, I stole a watermelon from my mother’s garden, but I was a little . . . shall we say inebriated, and I didn’t realize it was my mom’s garden. She never could figure out what happened to that perfectly ripe watermelon, and I always felt bad about it. But never bad enough to tell her it was me!”

  Marti giggled. “You don’t still get inebriated, do you?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. It was that one and only time, and I felt so bad after, I’ve never touched alcohol again. I’m boring like that.”

  “I like boring.” She sighed. “I guess that secret works for me.”

  “Do you want kids?” he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

  She shrugged. “I do like kids, but I think I’d prefer them one at a time and not four at once like Heather did.”

  “No doubling, tripling, or quadrupling up! Got it!”

  “No quintupling either. Just have to be clear!”

  He grinned. “I can agree with that. Can you tell the babies apart?”

  She shook her head. “I think your mom is the only one who can. Honestly, they’re not all identical, but they look enough alike that it gets confusing. I don’t know how your mom does it.”

  “Well, she is their grandmother.”

  “Yes, but Heather is their mother, and my mom is their other grandmother. Neither of them know one from the other unless they look at the marks on their feet.”

  Josh blinked a couple of times. “Marks on their feet?”

  “Heather marks their feet after each bath, so she doesn’t get them confused. She’s worried that she’ll forget who they are.” Marti shrugged. “I’m trying to talk her into color-coding them. Putting one in pink all the time, and one in yellow. That kind of thing. I think I’ve almost convinced her. I hate not knowing which I’m carrying around.”

  “I like the way you think. That would help all of us, but it might take some of Mom’s power from her. Not sure how much she
’d like that.”

  Marti laughed. “She liked the idea. She thought everyone should be able to tell them apart.”

  “Then go for it. They have so many clothes, and you could even match them to their blankets.”

  “Great idea. I’ll make sure that’s instituted when they go up a size. Right now they’re all still in preemie clothes. They were born so small.”

  Josh shrugged. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their health, though, is there?”

  “Not at all. They’re all as healthy as can be. Just small. Heather is small, and there were four of them. She looked huge before she delivered, but that’s just because there were so many babies.”

  “Let’s finish our movie.”

  “Are we okay?” she asked. Suddenly it mattered a great deal that he didn’t think she was a freak of nature. She wanted him to still want to spend time with her.

  “We’re great.” He quickly kissed her, pulling away before she could wrap her arms around him. He’d gotten the impression she wanted to go slow, and not touching much was the only way he could make that happen.

  “I’m glad. I’m not sure most men would be able to take information like that and not freak out.”

  “Well, I’m not going to say it didn’t surprise me. I’m not sure that my head is completely wrapped around it, but it will be. By next Saturday. When I’m taking you out again.”

  “Oh, you are, are you? You’re no longer asking? Just announcing?”

  “Yup. That’s how it is. And I’m also announcing that I don’t want you seeing anyone else. If Amos asks you out again, the answer is, ‘Go away!’ Right?”

  She laughed. “Sure. If Amos, or anyone else in town, asks me out, that’ll be the answer. Now, if someone from Boise comes along . . .”

  “Don’t you play games with me, Marti. I know you’re not interested in big city men.”

  She laughed. “I’m not sure I’d call Boise a big city, but whatever.”

  “Movie?”

  “Yes, let’s watch the movie. But remember. If I’m not allowed to go out with men from Boise, you’re not allowed to date anyone else either.”