The Rancher's Twin Troubles. Laura Altom Marie

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СКАЧАТЬ “How’s your cat? Heard he had a sick spell.”

      “Better, thanks.” Josie loved how everyone in the school was an extended family. What she lacked for company at home, she more than made up for at work. “How’s Teddy’s job hunt?”

      “Great.” Her sixteen-year-old had been saving for a car. “He starts at the drive-in on Friday.”

      “Wonder—”

      “I hate you, Thomas! Take your stupid cake!”

      Josie peered through the serving-line door just in time to see Bonnie fling a chocolate square at poor little Thomas Quinn. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she then smashed it into his hair.

      “I hate you, too!” Betsy hollered. “Bonnie’s a princess and you should’ve just given her the stupid cake.”

      “Girls, knock it off!” Dallas said, surging into the melee.

      Thomas started to wail and showed no signs of letting up. “Sh-she g-got cake on my new g-glasses!”

      “Let me clean those for you, bud.” Dallas set his lunch tray on the table and then took the boy’s gold-rimmed frames. To Josie, he said, “Be right back.”

      “Th-there’s c-cake on my shirt, t-too. Mommy’s gonna yell.”

      “No she won’t, sweetie,” Josie assured the boy. To the twins, she demanded, “What were you thinking?”

      Hands on her hips, Bonnie said, “He should’ve just gave me that cake.”

      “Yeah,” Betsy said, adopting the same pose.

      “I’m Bonnie Buckhorn.” Wearing a satisfied grin, Bonnie added, “Daddy says I’m one half of a perfect bunch and that I can do whatever I want.”

      After handing Thomas his freshly cleaned glasses, Dallas grabbed the collars of his daughters’ matching pink T-shirts. “Ladies, we need to talk.”

      IF DALLAS HADN’T SEEN the whole incident with his own eyes, he never would’ve believed it. Steering the girls into their quiet, dark classroom, he said, “Put your behinds in your chairs.”

      “But, Daddy,” Bonnie whined, “why are we in trouble when Thomas was the one being mean?”

      “We gave him cupcakes,” Betsy thoughtfully pointed out.

      Dallas rubbed his throbbing forehead. “You can’t just take your friend’s dessert. It’s wrong. And—”

      “You tell us we can do whatever we want.” His eldest by a minute held his stare.

      “Yes, but, hon, that doesn’t give you the right to do bad things.” Was everything else his girls had been accused of true?

      “We aren’t bad, Daddy.” Betsy left her chair to crawl onto his lap. Bonnie soon followed.

      “I’m sorry, Daddy.” Bonnie wrapped her chubby arms around his neck.

      “Both of you need to get it through your pretty heads that just because you’re Daddy’s princesses, that doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want. At school, you have to follow the rules.”

      Bonnie chimed in with, “Miss Griffin never said we couldn’t put cake in Thomas’s hair.”

      The statement was so ridiculous, Dallas had to chuckle. “Honey, I can think of very few situations where you should put cake in anyone’s hair.”

      “Do you still love us?” Betsy asked.

      Hunching over, he made growling, tickle monster noises, attacking their rib cages to the accompaniment of shrieking laughs.

      Now that both girls had been scolded, it felt good to return to their usual Buckhorn family fun.

      “WHO WANTS COFFEE AND DONUTS?” Friday morning, Josie halted her walk around the classroom to see Dallas and his girls wielding snacks.

      “Me, me!” The majority of the class didn’t even bother raising their hands before running over to claim their share.

      Betsy and Bonnie beamed.

      Thomas sank down in his chair.

      “Stop!” Josie hated always being the bad guy, but this was ridiculous. “The school has a healthy snack policy and last I checked, coffee and donuts aren’t on the list.”

      “But it’s Friday,” Dallas complained, sounding suspiciously like his daughters. “Plus,” he nodded across the room, “as an apology, my girls wanted to give a special offering to that little fella.”

      If Thomas scooted much lower, he’d have dissolved into a puddle on the floor.

      “I don’t care if it’s Christmas,” Josie argued, “you’re not caffeinating my kindergarteners.”

      “You’re impossible.” Turning his back on her, he said to his crew, “Come on, girls.”

      “Where are you going?” Josie asked, following them into the hall.

      “Teachers’ lounge. Or will you deny your coworkers a happy start to their weekend, too?”

      Beyond furious with the man, she folded her arms and watched them go. Unfortunately, back in the classroom, she was met with much whining and pouty stares.

      Nipping that behavior, she refocused her students on their daily writing practice. When Bonnie and Betsy returned with their father, she already had their tablets and pencils ready to go.

      “You’re a killjoy,” Dallas noted once she sat at her desk to finish writing next week’s lesson plans.

      “And you’re a child disguised in a grown-up’s body.”

      “A man’s body,” he said with the slow grin she’d grown to alternately hate and adore. Every time he pulled this stunt, he was usually trying to get himself out of hot water. No wonder his children were such a mess. Look who they had for an example! Worse yet, Dallas wielded that grin like a weapon. Same as his daughters, he knew how to pour on the charm.

      “You’re impossible.”

      “Thanks.” He had the gall to combine his grin with a wink.

      How, she didn’t know, but Josie managed to survive the morning and lunch hour and even afternoon recess without suffering a meltdown. Everywhere she went there was Dallas, being generally helpful and offering to pass out papers. Which only put her that much more on edge.

      Friday afternoons, she always introduced an art project that was fun, but also worked on building a sense of community. For this week’s lesson, she’d had the children draw names of a friend. Once paired up, they would then create each other’s portraits with finger paint.

      After letting each student pick a cover-up from the pile of men’s and women’s oxford shirts she’d collected at yard sales, she passed out the oversize paper and spent a few minutes going over СКАЧАТЬ