they said in unison, big blue eyes wholly innocent.
“There you have it.” Hands on their backs, he ushered them to the classroom’s door. The smell of crayons and paste was bringing on a headache. Clearly, the teacher must’ve been sniffing too much of that white school glue. “My girls said they’re not guilty. End of story. Before we go, want help switching out the water?”
“HE DIDN’T?”
“Oh, he did.” Josie put a carrot stick to her mouth and chomped. The teachers’ lounge was blessedly quiet. Josie had a free period while her kiddos were in music class, and she was enjoying every minute with her best friend, Natalie Stump. “Then he and the girls cleaned out the tank. Does that sound like something the father of innocent children would do?”
“No…” Natalie struggled opening a chocolate milk carton. “But it was decent of him. Maybe he has issues with admitting his daughters are anything less than perfect.” As Weed Gulch Elementary School’s counselor, Natalie was always on the hunt for the best in people. Usually it was a trait Josie found endearing, but in this case, already dreading the twins’ next stunt, she wished Dallas Buckhorn would wake up and see the delinquents he was raising.
Josie sighed. “Bonnie and Betsy are adorable and funny and smart, but both have an ornery streak I can’t control.”
Without thinking, Josie took Natalie’s milk carton and had it open in a flash.
“You’re good at that.”
“I’m pretty sure I had a college course on stubborn milk.”
“Nothing on tough-to-handle kids though, huh?”
“More than I can count, but these two beat anything I’ve ever seen. If they continue this trend, by third grade they’ll be robbing ice cream trucks.”
Natalie chuckled. “They’re not that bad.”
“Mark my words. This isn’t the last time I’ll have to confront their father.”
“At least he’s hot.” Natalie poked Josie in the ribs with an elbow. “Makes for interesting parent/teacher conferences.”
Heat crept up Josie’s neck. Hot was hardly the word. The man was more in the realm of drop-dead gorgeous, but that was beside the point. “He’s all right. If you go for that sort.” Tall, spiky dirty-blond hair, faded jeans that hugged his—
“Don’t even try lying to me. That porcelain skin of yours gives everything away. You’re blushing.”
“Am not.” Josie had always hated her pale complexion, and this was just one more reason why.
The late September day was warm and she dumped her last two baby carrots in the trash, preferring to stand in front of the window air-conditioning unit, letting the cool wash away her crabby mood.
“Let’s hope,” Natalie said, thankfully off the subject of the all-too-handsome cowboy, “this conference will serve as a wake-up call for the girls. I bet you don’t have a lick of trouble from now to the end of the year.”
“BETSY! BONNIE! GET DOWN from there before you break every bone in your little bodies!” Beneath the mammoth arms of an oak that’d no doubt been on the playground since before Oklahoma had even been a state, Josie stared up at the Buckhorn twins. How had they scrambled so high? Especially so fast? The first branch was a good five feet from the ground. She’d cautioned the three teachers on playground duty to keep a close watch on the twins, but they reported that the girls had been too quick for anyone to stop them.
“Look at me!” Bonnie shouted, hanging upside down monkey-style at least fifteen feet in the sweltering air.
“I can do it, too!” Betsy shouted, much to Josie’s horror, mimicking her sister’s stunt. It’d only been a week since Josie’s meeting with their dad and already they were finding mischief.
Winded, Natalie approached. “I called their father and he’s on his way. Luckily, I caught him on his cell and he’s already in town.”
“Thanks,” Josie said. “Obviously, the girls aren’t listening to any of us. Maybe he can talk them down.”
“I’m flying!” Bonnie shouted, holding out her arms Wonder Woman-style.
“I wanna try,” said pigtailed Megan Brown who gazed at her classmate with wide-eyed awe.
“Me, too!” All of a sudden at least twenty of the thirty-eight kindergarteners outside stormed the tree base. Jumping up and down, they looked more like a riotous mosh pit than normally well-behaved children at recess.
“Bonnie, please,” Josie reasoned, hand to her forehead shading her eyes from the sun. “Halloween’s almost here and you wouldn’t want to ruin your costume with a big cast, would you?”
“Casts are cool!” Jimmy Heath declared. “I broke my leg sledding and Dad painted it camo.”
“Ooh…” was the crowd consensus.
Josie prayed for calm.
What she got was a black truck hopping the parking lot curb to drive right up onto the playground. At the wheel? Dallas Buckhorn. Lord, how she was well on her way to despising the man. If only he’d taken her seriously during their conference, maybe this wouldn’t be happening.
“Come on, kids,” Natalie and the other teachers on duty called, gathering the children a safe distance away.
Dallas positioned the truck bed beneath the girls before killing the engine.
Exhaust stung Josie’s nose, causing her to sneeze.
“Bless you,” he said with a grin and a tip of his hat.
“Daddy!” Betsy cried, waving and swinging. “Look what I can do!”
“I see you, squirrel.” He didn’t look the least bit disturbed. “Now, before you give your teacher a heart attack, how about you two scramble down from there and into the truck bed.”
“Do we have to?” Bonnie asked. “I thought you said it was good for us to climb trees?”
“It is, but that’s at home. My guess is that around here, shimmying up things taller than you breaks more than a few rules.” Wearing faded jeans, weathered boots, a red plaid Western shirt and his trademark hat, the man looked nothing like a father. More like a cowboy straight off the range.
Natalie leaned over and whispered, “He’s so handsome it hurts to look at him.”
“Hush,” Josie snapped. “This is a serious situa—”
Before she could finish, the girls had scurried down the tree and into the truck bed. Legs rubbery with relief, Josie finally dared to breathe.
“See?” Hat in hand, Dallas sauntered over. His walk was slow and sexy. “My girls are expert climbers. I don’t even know why you called.”
Stunned by his cavalier attitude, she wasn’t sure what to say. “Do you realize that if either of your girls had fallen from that height,
