Sleeping Beauty (Love Inspired Series #415)

My sister, Mickey, apologizes a lot these days."I can't imagine what Tommy and Terry were doing to knock it off the top of your china cabinet.You have no idea how badly I feel, Suze. We'll pay for it, of course....""Never mind, I didn't like those Waterford crystal candlesticks much anyway."Mickey has been asking for forgiveness, expressing regret and acting contrite for three years. That's when her twins learned to walk. Before that, life was relatively calm. Since the boys mastered locomotion, however, nothing has been the same. Tommy and Terry are adorable with loose black curls, blue-violet eyes with long lashes as dark as midnight, rosy cheeks and wide smiles that reveal faint dimples. We lovingly refer to them as the Terror Twins, Tommy Tomahawk and Terry the Tormentor.Mickey, whose name is short for Michelle, flung herself onto my couch. "I can't go. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to make you take care of the boys for three months.""Nonsense. They're my flesh and blood. Of course I'll take care of them." Saying it, I felt a little like the martyr Stephen stepping up to be stoned. "Do what you need to do to adopt your baby girl. If it means staying in South America for ten or twelve weeks until the baby is ready to leave the country, then go for it."Medical problems had made it impossible for Mickey to have any more children, and she's always dreamed of having a little girl. I love my sister and would do anything for her. I'd give her a kidney. Of course, offering to care for the Terrors for twelve weeks might be more like giving her both my kidneys."Have you heard anything on the new job yet?" Mickey asked."I'm interviewing in Chicago on Thursday.""You aren't moving there are you?""No, but I have to interview at the main office.""What if you have to start immediately?You wouldn't be able to take care of the kids while we're gone.""The position doesn't actually open up for four months. Someone is retiring. Besides, if I did have to travel, Mom and Dad could manage an overnight or two with the boys." My parents, though only in their early sixties, can't handle the boys full-time. When I think about it, no one can, not even the boys' own parents."Mom and Dad would come here to feed the animals anyway.""Speaking of the animals, what have you got now? Other than that crazed hamster, I mean." "He's not crazed. He's sensitive, that's all." Whenever Hammie perceives that I'm upset, he gets upset, tooand begins to run on that wheel of his until I settle down. He's become a great predictor of my emotions. He's also made my home a much calmer place. I have to stay calmdeep breathing and envisioning a sunny place with vast white beaches and dolphins playing in the surfotherwise the sound of that whirring, rattling wheel in his cage would drive me nuts."There's a lady in my spinning class who was very interested in what you do. She is looking for a dog for her mothersomething loving and easy to spoil.""Chipper would be perfect. She'd like a black Pekingese. He's small, dignified, affectionate, a real character. He needs lots of brushing though.""That's fine. Her children have requested that Grandma get a dog to groom so she'll be too busy to tell them to cut their hair and dye it back to normal colors. But what'Baer, Judy is the author of 'Sleeping Beauty (Love Inspired Series #415)', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373874514 and ISBN 0373874510.