in there. But you’re going to get awfully hungry before the day is out. I’m going downstairs to make myself some blueberry pancakes with whipped cream on top and scrambled eggs and sausage and wash it all down with some hot chocolate with marshmallows.”
Loud, agitated whispers.
The bathroom door opened and one of the twins stuck her head out. “Whipped cream on pancakes?”
Cherry nodded.
An identical face appeared and asked, “Big marshmallows? Or little ones?”
“Which do you prefer?”
“Little ones. Mrs. Motherwell only bought the big ones.”
“Then we’ll cut them into little pieces,” Cherry suggested.
“All right.” Annie shot out of the bathroom before Raejean could stop her and took Cherry by the hand. “Let’s go.”
Cherry waited to see what Raejean would do. The twin obviously wasn’t happy to see rebellion in the ranks. She seemed unsure whether to stay where she was or abandon the fort. Her stomach growled and settled the matter. Raejean left the bathroom and headed down the hall toward the stairs, ignoring the hand Cherry held out to her.
Cherry realized as she followed Raejean down the stairs, Annie chattering excitedly beside her, that she might have won this battle, but the war had just begun.
CHAPTER SIX
BREAKFAST WAS A HUGE success. Cherry sat at the kitchen table giving herself a pat on the back for having pleased both girls so well. Two plates had been licked clean. Annie must have eaten almost as many additional marshmallows as the two of them had cut up together for her hot chocolate. Raejean had devoured the entire batch of whipped cream. The kitchen was a mess, but Cherry would have time to clean it once the twins were at school.
“Uh-oh,” Annie said.
“Daddy’s going to be really mad,” Raejean said.
Cherry followed the direction of the girls’ gazes out the kitchen window and saw the school bus at the end of the lane. It paused momentarily, honked, and when no one appeared, continued on its way.
“Oh, no!” Cherry raced to the back door, yanked it open and shouted to the bus driver. “Wait!”
He didn’t hear her, which was just as well, because when she turned back to the kitchen she realized the girls weren’t dressed and their hair wasn’t combed.
Billy hadn’t asked much of her—only that she feed his children breakfast and get them to school and be there when they got home in the afternoon. She couldn’t even manage that.
She looked at the clock. Seven-thirty in the morning and she was already a failure as a stepmother. Before despair could take hold, it dawned on her that elementary school surely couldn’t start this early. Maybe she could still get the girls there on time.
“When do classes start?” she asked Raejean.
“Eight o’clock sharp,” Raejean answered. “Mrs. Winslow gets really mad if we’re late.”
“You still have time to get there if we move like lightning,” Cherry said.
She hurried the girls upstairs, but the more urgency she felt, the slower they both seemed to move. She ended up accidentally yanking Annie’s hair as she shoved the hairbrush through a knot.
“Ouch!” Annie cried. “That hurt.”
Cherry was instantly contrite. She had too much experience of her own with substitute parents who were in too much of a hurry to be gentle with her. She went down on one knee in the bathroom beside Annie and said, “I’m sorry, Annie. I should have been more careful. I guess I’m worried that I won’t get you to school on time.”
“Yeah. And Daddy will be really mad,” Raejean reminded her through a mouthful of toothpaste.
“Spit and rinse,” Cherry ordered Raejean as she finished putting Annie’s hair into pigtails. “I’ll get to you next.”
For a moment Raejean seemed to consider putting up a fight, but she stood still while Cherry pulled the brush through her tangled hair.
“My mom always put ribbons in our hair,” Raejean said.
Cherry heard the wistful longing in the complaint, but there wasn’t time to fulfill any wishes this morning. “Tonight we’ll see what we can find and have them ready for tomorrow morning,” she promised.
It wasn’t until she had dressed herself and was ushering the girls out the back door that she realized she had no idea what they were going to use for transportation. There had to be some vehicle available, because Billy had suggested she go shopping during the day. But the only thing on four wheels she saw was a rusted-out pickup near the barn.
A set of hooks inside the back door held a key attached to a rabbit’s foot. She grabbed the key, shoved the girls out the door, and prayed the truck had an automatic transmission.
It didn’t.
“Don’t you know how to drive?” Annie asked, concern etched in her young brow.
“I can drive. I have the license to prove it.”
“Then why aren’t we moving?” Annie asked.
Cherry stared helplessly at the stick shift on the floor of the pickup. “I’m not sure how to get this thing into gear.” She tried moving the stick, and it made an ominous grinding sound.
“If you break Daddy’s truck, he’s going to be really mad,” Raejean said.
Cherry was getting the picture. If she didn’t figure out something soon, she was going to be dealing with a seriously annoyed teacher when she got the girls to school and a fierce, wild-eyed beast of a man when Billy got home.
She crossed her arms on the steering wheel and leaned her head down to think. She could call her sister Jewel to come rescue her, but that was so mortifying a prospect she immediately rejected it. She felt a small hand tapping her shoulder.
“I can show you how to do it,” Annie volunteered.
Cherry lifted her head and stared suspiciously at the six-year-old. “You know how to drive a stick shift?”
“Sure,” Annie said. “Daddy lets us do it all the time.”
Since there wasn’t anyone else to show her how, Cherry said, “All right. Go ahead and show me what to do.”
“Put your foot on that pedal down there first,” Annie said. “Turn the key, and then move this thing here.”
Cherry pushed down the clutch, turned on the ignition, and reached for the black gearshift knob. To her amazement the gearshift moved easily without making a sound. However, she ended up in third gear, didn’t give the truck enough gas, and let the clutch go too fast. The pickup stalled.
“You have to follow the numbers,” Raejean chided, pointing to
