So when Aiden and Caden were staying with different family members and babysitters and he was still out of the country half the time, the boys lost even more structure.
His cell phone rang, and when he saw the number for the elementary school on the display screen, Luke wished for the thousandth time that he’d been more on top of their discipline. He loved his children more than anything, but man, were they magnets for trouble.
“Captain Gregson, here,” he answered.
“Hello, Captain. This is Mrs. Dunn, the nurse over here at Sugar Falls Elementary.”
Thank God, it was the nurse this time, and not the principal. Wow, that was a really bad thought. “Are my sons okay?” he asked.
“Yes, everyone is fine. Now. Caden had a little incident on the tetherball court and Aiden tried to help him get untangled and, well, the rope got caught. Anyway, I think it’s just a bad sprain, but you should probably get some X-rays just in case.”
“Which one?”
“The left one.”
“I mean, which of my children got injured.”
“Aiden has the actual sprain, but from the way Caden is carrying on, you’d think he was the one hurt.”
It was a twin thing. Luke and Drew had experienced the similar phenomenon growing up. And even as adults.
“I’m coming right now. Is his arm in a sling?”
“Uh, no. Why would it be?”
Luke only had basic medic training to assist in emergencies until a corpsmen got to the scene, but it would seem to him like the nurse would at least want to take pressure off the injured body part. “I just thought that maybe it would help stabilize his arm.”
“Oh, sorry, Captain Gregson. I should’ve been clearer. The sprain is to Aiden’s ankle.”
“How in the world did he sprain his ankle with a tetherball rope?”
“That’s a great question, Captain. And as soon as he gets his brother to relax, maybe Aiden can tell us. I had to snatch some pudding cups out of the school cafeteria to help in the calming-down process.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Luke disconnected the call, got into his nana’s brown Oldsmobile and drove less than a mile from downtown to the school. He’d grown up in Boise, but his parents owned a cabin here and he had spent most of his summers in Sugar Falls before joining the Navy. While the town setting was familiar, he was still getting used to the slower pace of life.
He would’ve preferred to drive around in the yellow Jeep his family kept at the cabin, but when his brother, Drew, had stepped in to care for the boys last summer during Luke’s last deployment, his overly cautious and analytical brother had insisted that the thirty-year-old sedan was safer for shuttling children than the fun and masculine four-by-four.
At least the Oldsmobile was in good shape. Before she’d passed away ten years ago, his grandmother had only driven the thing three times a week—to the grocery store, to the beauty shop and to the casino out on the reservation—so it had low mileage and only some minor dings in the right front fender. Nana never could make the tight turn into her carport at the mobile home park.
He kept meaning to buy a more functional and fuel-efficient car, especially since he was making the hour-long commute into Boise four times a week. But, contrary to what Drew and their sister, Hannah, thought, he’d always been Nana’s favorite grandkid and he missed the old gal.
Growing up, Luke had been the naughty twin—the proverbial pastor’s son who drove his mother to distraction. Nana would come pick him up to give his mom a break, calling him her wild child and having him light her menthol cigarettes for her so she could keep both hands on the steering wheel.
He took a deep breath, still able to smell the Benson & Hedges along with the lingering scent of her Shalimar perfume. His parents were fair and loved him, but Nana had been his island—his place to escape. Driving this brown beast made him feel closer to her.
When he pulled into the school lot, he gunned the eight-cylinder engine, just like she used to do, before pulling into a parking spot. He also overestimated his turn radius and the right bumper knocked into the custom sign that read Principal Parking Only.
Yep, just like Nana.
He walked inside and waved at the school secretary, who, after the third week of school, had programmed Luke’s cell number into her phone’s speed dial.
He let out a little sigh of relief when he turned left to go to the nurse’s office instead of heading straight down the hall toward the principal’s. He’d spent plenty of time sitting outside doors just like that one when he was growing up. And, since history seemed to be repeating itself, his children had a tendency to do the same.
Karma was definitely on the upswing with his genetics. Luke’s parents often referred to it as God’s sense of humor.
When he entered the room, he saw Aiden, the injured twin, sitting behind Mrs. Dunn’s desk and showing her how to play a computer game. Caden, the uninjured one, was propped on the cot and eating a chocolate pudding cup. His left foot was elevated on several pillows with an ice pack balanced precariously on top.
Even Luke’s brother, Drew, a well-respected Navy psychologist, couldn’t explain twin telepathy. But both he and Luke had experienced it firsthand and he didn’t doubt for a second that Caden could legitimately feel his brother’s pain.
Although, from the way Aiden was swinging around in the nurse’s chair and yelling commands at the woman on how to fight the Creepers on her computer, it seemed nobody was really the worse for wear.
“Dad? Oh, good. You’re finally here,” Caden said as he sat up and reached for his backpack. “We need to get Aiden to the hospital for some X-rays. Let me see your phone.”
Luke patted his pocket, ensuring his cell was far out of reach from his dramatic and impulsive son. “Who were you planning to call?”
“Officer Carmen. I’m gonna tell her we need a police escort with lights and sirens and the works.”
Luke raised his blond eyebrow at Aiden, who had just high-fived Mrs. Dunn for reaching the next level on his favorite game. “I think your brother will be fine on the way there. We can forgo the Code Three routine.”
Besides, he was pretty sure Carmen was off duty by now. Wait. How had he known that? Had she mentioned her schedule to him when he’d seen her at the cookie shop earlier?
Considering she hadn’t said more than two words to him, he doubted it. So why did he know what her shift was? Because today was Wednesday. And she always worked the afternoon shift on Sundays and Mondays, then the morning shifts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
He tapped his toe against the linoleum. Yep, the ground was still solid. So then maybe he could stomp out some of this useless information he was carrying around about a woman who would just as soon do fifty pull-ups than say hello to him.
Of course he would know her schedule because Tuesdays were the days she always picked up the boys after school, right after putting in a ten-hour day. He had to give the woman credit for that. She was an absolute sweetheart with the twins and had the patience of Job. Aiden and Caden couldn’t stop talking about her or singing her praises, which was probably why she kept popping up in Luke’s head so often—just like his renewed knowledge of Star Wars sequels, now that he’d shown the DVDs to the boys.