“Nope.”
“Then there’ll be three more mouths for dinner.”
“One more.”
“But you said?—”
He cut her off with a bark of laughter. “You’ll understand when we arrive. Can you get another cabin ready?”
“Just one? You mean they’re staying overnight?”
“Yeah.” Hearing footsteps coming down the hallway, he hurried to end the call. “Time to go. Expect us in fifteen. ‘Bye.” He replaced the receiver in its cradle as Ingrid and another woman entered the reception area, each with a sleeping infant in their arms.
Spotting him, Ingrid smiled, and G8 realized it was warm and honest…and directed at him. He couldn’t help but return it.
“We’re ready,” she announced. “How long will it take to get there?”
“About fifteen minutes.”
He went to hold the front door open for them when Deputy Connors hurried to catch up, a cardboard box in his hands. Exiting the building, he joined them on the sidewalk.
“Where’s your car?” Ingrid asked.
“Don’t have one. We’ll have to take yours,” he admitted. “Oh, and I don’t know how to drive. Yet. Even if I did, I don’t have a license.”
She cast him a strange look. “I never thought about it. I bet there’s a lot of things you don’t know how to do in this strange new world.”
“Every day is something new.”
“My car’s the red SUV.”
“SUV?”
Ingrid laughed as she led him over to a boxy red vehicle. Turning to him, she held out the infant she’d been carrying. “Hold him for a sec, would you?”
G8 took the child, gingerly cradling it in his arms, and watched as she touched the handle on the driver’s side door. There was an audible click, but instead of opening it, she reached for the door behind it and opened it instead.
Turning around, she held out a hand to the deputy. He handed her the box, which she placed on the floorboard, behind the driver’s seat.
“Hand me the baby.” She held out her arms to him, then gently set the infant inside the box. Taking the second baby from the deputy’s wife, she put him into the box next to the other one.
“Will they be safe enough there?” G8 asked.
Ingrid glanced over at the deputy. “By law, I’m supposed to have them in car seats, but I haven’t had the chance or the money to buy one, much less two of them. Am I going to be stopped and ticketed for not having car seats?” she asked the man directly.
Connors rubbed his chin. “Well, if you drive safely and under the speed limit, I don’t see why you’d be pulled over. And if you’re not pulled over, the babies won’t be discovered.” Turning around, the deputy casually sauntered back to the station.
G8 closed the back door. “We need to go.”
While she thanked the woman for helping her, he got in the passenger seat. Ingrid got in, started the car by pressing a button, and pulled out of the parking lot.
“You don’t need a key?” he finally asked when he felt it was safe enough.
“For what?”
“To turn on the vehicle.”
Ingrid smiled, leaving him awkwardly happy, and he couldn’t fathom why. “Boy, do you have a lot to learn. By the way, thanks for the escort. Did I misunderstand, or did the sheriff call you a deputy?”
