In high school, while other kids were earning money babysitting, she had been writing articles for the high school newsletter and for the Rodeo Wrangler.
She was more comfortable with her friends’ children, maybe because they were little pieces of her friends in miniature form. She wasn’t comfortable with Zach, so perhaps there was a double whammy thing happening here. She couldn’t relax around Zach. It made sense she couldn’t relax around his children, either.
After what felt like an eternity, Nadine put down her spoon, her soup bowl empty. It might have been plain food, but it brought back memories of lunch in the high school cafeteria with her friends, and that wasn’t a bad thing. She wondered if they were still serving the same food or if they’d updated it by now. Teenagers were a lot savvier than they used to be.
Funny, she’d enjoyed the soup and sandwich after all.
If only the children would stop sneaking peeks at her. She wanted to ask Rick questions about Zach, but would rather not do it in front of the children. Instead, she engaged him in chatter about things going on around town.
Eventually, one of the boys—Ryan, maybe?—piped up.
“You write?” he asked. He’d been fidgeting throughout lunch.
“Yes. I write articles for the Rodeo Wrangler about all the things that go on around town.” She cursed the sound of her voice, too fake and hearty. Even to her own ears, it betrayed her unease with the little boys.
The child fixed her with an intent gaze. “Can you read my story?”
“You wrote something?” she asked. “How wonderful.” She, too, had written stories at that age.
He nodded. “Can you read it?”
“I guess that would be all right.”
“Great.”
He got up from the table, but Zach said, “Aiden,” in a quiet but firm voice.
Aiden stopped and looked at his father.
“After dessert.”
“Okay, Dad.” Aiden sat back down.
Obedient kids.
Throughout a long dessert—long to Nadine, at any rate, with Zach quiet and intense at the opposite end of the table and the two boys fidgeting until the last mouthful was swallowed—she tried to relax.
Was that what children did, fidgeted, or were these two unusually active? Zach didn’t seem to notice or mind.
When he stood, Nadine breathed relief. His father collected dirty plates and cutlery. When Nadine offered to wash dishes, he waved her away. “Go read Aiden’s story.”
Zach led her to the living room and motioned for her to sit on the sofa. Aiden and Ryan ran into the room and jumped up beside her, nestling as close as they could on either side.
“Oh!” She wasn’t used to children crowding her. Nadine tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go, bracketed as she was by the boys. She allowed Aiden to insert his head up under her arm so she had no choice but to put her arm around him.
Friendly little guy. His twin did the same on the other side.
Aiden retrieved something from the small table beside the sofa.
“Here.” He thrust a folder at her, homemade from yellow Bristol board and decorated with a drawing of a boy on a horse. She smiled, wondering if he wanted to be a painter like his dad one day.
She took her arm from around Ryan’s shoulder and gingerly accepted the story from Aiden, avoiding the small blob of cheese still stuck to one of his fingers. Her dress had been expensive when she’d bought it three years ago. She couldn’t afford to replace it if grease from that cheese stained it.
Go clean your hands. Where do you think we live? In a barn?
Nadine shut out that voice so she could give Aiden’s story her full attention. She opened the folder. Large, childish printing covered four sheets of lined paper, front and back.
“Read it out loud,” Aiden ordered.
With the boys’ warm weight tucked close to her sides, she read Aiden’s story...and was charmed. The story of what he knew—life on a ranch—delighted her.
When she closed the folder, he leaned forward and twisted around until he could look up at her. “Is it good?”
“Yes, it is.” How could she deny that earnest gaze anything? “It’s a wonderful story.”
His smile warmed her heart. “What was the best part?” he asked.
“When the boy rescued the pony from the crevasse he’d fallen into.”
“Yeah! That’s my favorite part, too. Boys are good at rescuing.”
“Girls, too,” Nadine said, but Aiden’s returning look was dubious.
Oh, dear. She shot a glance at Zach who said, “Girls, too.”
“Dad, tell her,” Ryan ordered. “Boys do the rescuing. Not girls.”
“Son, this is a conversation we need to have later.” His eyes met Nadine’s. “And we will.”
His promise eased her concerns. “Girls can be anything they want to be,” Nadine said.
“Anything?” Aiden asked.
“Anything.”
The earnest, matching expressions on the twin’s faces were reminiscent of their dad’s even if their eyes were a lot darker than his. Their mother’s, perhaps?
She’d never met Zach’s ex. Had never even seen her.
Aiden touched Nadine’s chin to bring her attention back to him. She wondered whether the presence of a woman was unusual enough for them to vie for her attention.
“Tell me what else you liked,” he said.
She outlined all that she thought was strong about his writing. Aiden watched her without a word, his serious attention charming her.
When she finished, he asked, “Can you put it in the paper?”
“The newspaper?”
“Yeah.”
He’d surprised her. She had no idea what Lee would think. “I can ask the publisher, if you like.”
He nodded so hard a hank of hair fell across his forehead. “I’ll write another story,” he said. “Just for you!”
Nadine looked at Ryan on her other side. “Do you write, too?”
“No, but look what I can do!”
He jumped up from the sofa and did a somersault across the carpet.
Aiden joined him and they started to roughhouse.
They rolled around on the floor like a pair of bear cubs in freshly fallen snow, so much like two halves of a whole it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended.
Zach and Rick carried on a conversation with Nadine, asking questions about how the fair was coming along—Nadine was on the Rodeo Revival committee, and the event was only a month away—while she kept her eye on the two boys grappling and giggling.
Apparently, this was normal. Neither Zach nor Rick batted an eye. But Nadine noticed...and remembered the admonishments she’d received as a young preteen.
Don’t slouch. Stand up straight.
Only speak when spoken to.
Don’t get your clothes dirty.
Put your books away now. Cleanliness is next to godliness.