Author's Note: This story has been written as a follow on story but the reader, may want to read the edited and expanded original story with the name of Rick and Julie - Brother and Sister published on this site.
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It had been three months since I had brought Julie and our twin babies home from the hospital. I remembered saying to myself, I can't believe how small this apartment is for us and our two new babies. Then I decided it was time that we began the search for a new and larger place to live in The Woodlands that would more comfortably accommodate all of us. Both Julie and I love these precious two babies so much we were always happy to arrive home after work each day to hold them, see them and see how they are each growing day. We were especially happy to see how they became bright and attentive to seeing us each day, too
This apartment was perfectly fine when it was just me and even after Julie had moved in with me it was still adequate. But, when we added two babies and all of the things needed to care for two infants with a lady, Regina, who cared for our twins while both Julie and I were busy at work each day, the apartment was more than crowded. It was overloaded.
We were hampered with the lack of bedroom space, if we needed Regina to stay the night with us there was no bedroom and no place for her to sleep except on the couch. Neither Julie nor I thought it was right to ask Regina to sleep on the couch despite her having said that it was Ok. I had been on a couple of two day business trips out of town since the babies were born and that loaded extra work on Julie with the babies while I was gone. Not to mention the fact that Regina didn't have a proper bed or bedroom to sleep in. And that didn't even take into account my travel up to the ranch to consult with Carlos, our ranch superintendent whom we had left in charge of the ranch and all of the ranch operations.
We had told Carlos one or the other of us or both would come back to the ranch to consult with him about the operation of the ranch on a periodic basis. Julie and I had agreed that for the time being I would be the one to travel to the ranch to consult with Carlos. On my first trip back to the ranch after the babies were born Carlos greeted me at the ranch gate and said to me, "Hola, Rick, how are Miss Julie and the babies doing?"
I replied to him, "Carlos, Julie is doing very well since the twins were born and she has gone back to work, now. The twins are fine, they are growing very fast and they are so very cute. We have a wonderful lady who cares for them each day while Julie and I are away at work. She is such a fine caring lady and she is so good with the twins. Her name is Regina and she really loves and cares for the twins like they are her own children."
Carlos was excited to hear about Julie and the babies and asked, "Rick have you brought any pictures of the twins for me and my wife, Calista, to see?" I opened my brief case and pulled out a packet of pictures and handed them to Carlos. He was very excited to see them and after he looked at them he asked, "Can you please get us copies of these pictures of the twins, Rick? I know that Calista will want to see them, too."
"Those are copies, Carlos. I brought those pictures for you and Calista, Carlos, since I knew that you both would want to see pictures of the twins." I replied. Neither Carlos nor Calista had ever mentioned to me or to Julie that we as parents of the twins are brother and sister. I think that they felt it was not their place to say anything to either one of us about it and Julie and I were thankful that they did not say anything. Carlos and Calista were truly good friends and friends of the family that we have known for many years and we love them nearly as much as we loved our Mom and Dad. And we think that they thought of us as though we were their children and our babies were their grandchildren.
"Calista and I want to thank you and Julie for the bringing us the pictures of the twins, Rick. We both think about those two little ones as though they are our own grandchildren. They will be just about big enough to begin to ride and rope before long just like you and Julie did when you were here on the ranch with your Mom and Dad."
"I know, Carlos, but, it is going to be just a couple of more years before we can get them in the saddle and put a lariat in their hands."
"Yeah, Rick. But they can sit in the saddle with you and Julie or me and Julie when you bring them up here to see us. I can remember how you and Julie loved it when your daddy and I took you two out on horseback the first time. You both were very excited to be riding in the saddle with us. Of course, Julie was a little hesitant about being up so high on horseback."
"Yeah, Carlos but, we were only four or five years old when Mom would finally let Dad put us in the saddle with him. Even then Mom was scared to death about it and I think that Julie will see it the same way about the twins. You know how women are about their little ones. They all think that daddy can't take care of them as well as momma can."
When Julie and I left the ranch she and I agreed to have Carlos maintain the ranch house for us so that we would still have a place to stay when we visited the ranch on each of our visits. I happened to notice that some areas of the ranch house that appeared to be showing some signs of deterioration. During my review of the ranch operations I asked Carlos, "Amigo, have someone come out and do a general inspection and make any repairs necessary to bring the ranch house back into good condition, will you please, Carlos.
"Bueno, Rick. I'll see to it that the inspection and repairs are started." he replied.
When I got back home to the apartment Julie said to me, "Rick, while you were gone I had a lot of work to do at the office and I asked Regina to stay over until I got home and by then it was too late to take her home since the twins were asleep. I asked her to stay the night and the only place for her to sleep was on the couch. We really need to find somewhere with more bedrooms that'll give us the room we need and Regina won't have to sleep on the couch."
Ok, Honey, we'll start looking for another, bigger place this coming weekend, Baby. We'll need Regina to look after the twins one day this weekend while we go house hunting."
Julie and I looked for three weekends in a row looking at homes in the general area that would be adequate for our family and would accommodate our day care provider, Regina, too. We needed a guest bedroom for her to use if she had to stay overnight with us. At the end of the third week we found a five bedroom home not too far from either Julie's or my offices and we made the commitment to buy it or at least we and the mortgage company bought it. The new home was close enough that we could continue to retain Regina as our day care provider which both Julie and I were very happy about.
When the time came for the next review with Carlos came up I was tied up at work and Julie made the trip up to the ranch to meet with Carlos. When she arrived at the ranch Carlos was very happy to see her and as she pulled her rental car up to the ranch house. Carlos helped her take her luggage into the main ranch house. Then he said, "Before we do anything else, Miss Julie, Calista really wants to see you and say hello to you."
Carlos took Julie into their home and Calista was very happy to see Julie hugging her. After she hugged her Calista told her, "Julie, you look so good and well rested for having had twin babies."
"Well, Calista, I have had help from Rick and especially from Regina to take care of the twins and they have taken a lot of the load off of me with regard to the twins."