The Bridal Path: Danielle Read Free

stunned.
    “A hundred and twenty,” his father corrected. “I’d say you’re going to be very busy this summer earning extra money to pay off your debt.”
    Shock spread across Kevin’s round face. “But, Dad, we’re just little kids. You can’t make us get jobs.”
    “No, but I can give you chores,” he said sternly. “Lots and lots of chores. So many chores that you’ll fall into bed exhausted every single night and won’t have one minute left over for mischief.”
    Despite Slade’s forbidding expression and his unspoken warning not to interfere, Dani took pity on the boys. They hadn’t meant any real harm. They couldn’t have known these pies were her livelihood. They’d just missed their mother’s baking. Her heart ached for them.
    “Perhaps we could work out an arrangement,” she said as two pairs of hopeful eyes instantly fixed on her. “You could do some chores for me to earn the money.”
    Their expressions brightened at once. Clearly they felt that she’d be a far less stern taskmaster than their father. They probably figured they could con her out of a share of baked goods, too.
    “Like what?” Timmy asked.
    Since she hadn’t actually thought it through before making the impulsive offer, she improvised. “Well, I never seem to have enough time to do what needs doing around here. The porch needs sweeping again right this minute, for one thing. The windows probably should be washed. I never did get to my spring cleaning this year. And somebody has to clean up all these blueberries before they stain the wood.”
    They eyed the porch dubiously. There was no mistaking what a daunting task that would be.
    “It might even need painting,” Timmy suggested unhappily. “Dad doesn’t let us paint.”
    “Not since you spray-painted the dog,” he agreed. He gazed at Dani. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I really don’t think this is such a good idea. You can’t possibly know what you’re–”
    Dani cut him off before he could say another discouraging word. “Of course I do, and it’s a wonderful idea,” she said. “Extra pairs of hands are always welcome.”
    “I think these hands will be more of a hindrance than a help,” he said.
    “Let me worry about that,” she insisted. “I think Timmy, Kevin and I understand each other. I’ll enjoy having them here.” She glanced at the dog. “Pirate, too, of course.”
    Slade Watkins actually gaped at that.
    Dani returned his startled expression with an amused look of her own. She doubted anyone in Riverton had volunteered to spend so much as a second more than necessary with his boys. Left unspoken was the fact that she craved the noise and confusion these two imps would bring into her too-quiet house. How could she explain a thing like that to this man who seemed totally bemused by that very same mischief?
    “Dad, would that be okay?” Timmy asked. “
Please.
We’d do whatever she says. You were going to have to find somebody to baby-sit us soon, anyway. You said so yourself. You said we couldn’t be left to our own devices one more minute.”
    He was clearly echoing his father’s precise words. Slade Watkins looked too chagrined not to have said exactly that, and quite recently.
    “I’m sure you would be very helpful,” Dani said, cheerfully agreeing with Timmy. “Really, Mr. Watkins, they’d be just fine with me.”
    “I’m less concerned with their welfare than yours,” he said.
    “No need to worry about that,” she assured him. “I adore children.”
    “They’re something of a handful,” he added, as if she needed reminding of that.
    Talk about an understatement! Yet he sounded so weary that Dani immediately wanted to throw her arms around him and tell him everything would be all right.
    This was the role she’d been born to play–mother, wife, nurturer. Never before had she seen a man or children so in need of what she had to offer. Never had she felt this quickened pace of her pulse just gazing