Page 24 of The Rescuer

CHAPTER 16

Edwin left the kitchen and went into the living-room for a hundredth time that morning as Mrs. Michaels, the cook, remarked a few seconds earlier when she shooed him away again. The man had a childish grin on his face, eyes shining with excitement at the thought of the special visitors he expected later in the afternoon.

After a hiatus of six weeks, Brian, Bart, and their children were coming to spend the weekend at the villa again. Edwin giggled in anticipation, thinking about the shenanigans he and the children were going to get engaged in. “Especially since Edward’s four kids would be joining us,” he said to himself, the grin turning into a bright smile.

Head tilted backwards, eyes closed, Edwin remembered his twin’s first visit to the villa the same day Brian started to see him again after Reardon’s death. Twenty minutes after his older brother left, the doorbell rang again, and a wide-eyed Mrs. Haggard announced a man who was his spitting image was asking to see him.

The poor housekeeper had a good reason to react the way she did; Edwin never invited Edward to the mansion, he didn’t even mention having a twin, so the lady had no idea about his existence. To her huge surprise, the master of the house himself went and let the visitor in, introducing him as his twin Edward.

The brothers spent hours on the same couch Edward was sitting on, closing the distance between them bit by bit with every revelation they had about each other and the secrets they shared. In the end, when the brothers realized the relationship between them was close to getting ruined by misunderstandings and miscommunication, they hugged each other and stayed like that for a good while, listening to one another’s heartbeats.

From that day on, the twins talked over the phone regularly, but Edward’s and Julien’s busy schedules didn’t allow them to pay a visit to Edwin and bring the kids with them. That was until two days earlier when Brian called his younger brother and announced that he was going to have visitors over the weekend.

In a hesitating voice, the librarian asked if Edward, his husband, and their children could also come, to which Edwin mentally slapped his forehead. With Reardon coming back from the realm of the dead and making love to him, he completely forgot to tell Brian about his twin’s visit and the conversation they had.

Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit Edwin, and he pressed his lips together and gritted his teeth, hoping it would pass soon. After two whole weeks of puking every morning, the nasty sensation disappeared a couple of days earlier, and his appetite came back with a vengeance. The man thought that the stomach bug, or whatever caused the nausea, went away, but apparently he was wrong.

Not today, Edwin thought,and certainly not tomorrow or the day after. He wanted to enjoy every minute in the company of his cute nieces and nephews but had the feeling the combination of nausea, dizziness, and fatigue would keep him in bed most of the time.Well, there are a lot of fun things we still can do, the man thought, leaving his seat to go into the kitchen again.

“Surprise!” Brian appeared in the doorway, grinning. “All four of us took a day off so we can spend more time with you, so here we are.”

“You made me so happy!” Edwin left his seat, but the nausea hit again, making his stomach churn. “Sorry,” he said before running to the nearest bathroom.

“Congrats, Dad!” Brian looked in the direction of the armchair Reardon sat on, giving him two thumbs up. “Are you all right?” he asked his younger brother when he came back. “You don’t look very good.”

“No. I puked all morning. And I'm sleepy. And hungry,” Edwin whined. “It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been like that, and it drives me crazy.” He frowned. “I think I ate something spoiled.”

“I'm sure that's all it is.” Brian spoke in a soft voice. “Bart will get something to help. He always packs stomach bugs meds when we’re away since you never know with eight kids.” He smiled. “Lay down and I'll rub your back. It will help.”

“Thank you.” Edwin gave his older brother a pale smile. “That’s very nice of you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you, my love. The seed I put in you came to life; you are carrying our children.” Reardon whispered in his husband’s ear, wrapping his arms around him and softly kissing his face.

“Your husband came to me with a proposition, and I agreed, but before proceeding, I wanted to talk to you about it.” Brian discreetly coughed, then told Edwin about Reardon’s offer to switch his side and leg with him. “Your husband and mine think I'm stubborn, but I wouldn't want to hurt or disrespect you by making that choice behind your back. You should have a say in this.”

“Look, Reardon was the only man who saw me as a person and not two warm holes to abuse. I'll always love him, no matter how he will look.” Edwin smiled radiantly, eyes filled with love. “If he, beyond the grave, wants to give you that, why do you make him sad by rejecting it?”

“I'm not rejecting it, bro.” Brian inhaled sharply. “I'm respecting you and Reardon as a married couple, and I wanted to make sure you were good with it, too. I didn't mean to make you sad.”

“I know.” Reardon materialized and offered the librarian a smile. “You are the same good-hearted kid from thirty years ago.”

“So when do we do this?” Brian tried to hide the emotion his friend’s words produced in him.

“Right now. Mister and Missus Haggard took Edward, Julien, and all the kiddies on a tour of the villa so the four of us could have some alone time.” Reardon winked. “Close your eyes.” A few seconds of silence followed, then the supernatural being spoke again. “It's done, you can open your eyes.”

“Whoa!” Brian touched his leg and side, shaking his head in disbelief. “Thank you, nothing hurts anymore.”

Reardon smiled and hugged his brother-in-law, then at the sound of Julien’s and Edward’s voices, vanished; the two of them knew about the librarian’s special gift but weren’t ready to find out about Edwin’s husband’s real nature. It was better to avoid any unpleasant situations for the time being, especially since Reardon sensed Edward was also pregnant.

Indeed, like his twin earlier, the man rushed to the bathroom a few minutes after he walked into the living-room, Julien proudly informing everyone his soulmate was expecting. Edwin offered to go to the kitchen and bring his brother a lemon to lick as a natural remedy against nausea, but Julien advised him against it. Edward, he said, couldn’t even stand the sight of lemons when he was pregnant.

Edwin nodded with a mix of understanding and sympathy. Taking advantage of his twin’s absence, he asked Julien what other foods gave his husband nausea or made him puke, then made a list with them. He also asked about Edward’s favorite dishes and fruits and wrote a note to Mrs. Michaels so she knew and cook them next time he would come to visit.

He’s a fast learner,Bart said to himself, smiling at the sight of Edwin focused on his twin’s culinary preferences. Reardon was right; once people around him stopped shoving Edward down his throat, Edwin started to express the affection he felt for his twin in his own way, in his own words. Life was good.

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On his way to the veterinary clinic and sanctuary, Brian felt like a child on Christmas day, seconds before the presents’ unwrapping. It was for the first time after he switched his leg and side with Reardon when the librarian went to ride Legend, the horse Luca gave him as a present one week before he got shot while stopping the attempted kidnapping on Blaise.

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