The Rancher's Twin Troubles Read Free

been under. She’d always loved her job. As a general rule, kindergarteners were a lovable, trouble-free bunch. Oh, sure, she’d dealt with plenty of mischief, but nothing as regular and confounding as the stunts of Betsy and Bonnie Buckhorn.
    â€œYou all right?” Natalie asked while waiting for the other women to take their turns.
    â€œSure,” Josie said, swirling her plastic cup of beer. “Why wouldn’t I be?” White lights decorated the course’s trees. With temperatures in the seventies, it felt as if fall had finally arrived. Shrieks of laughter mingled with top-forty music blaring from loudspeakers. The mouthwatering scent of the snack bar’s trademark barbecue normally would have her stomach growling. Lately, though, she’d been so consumed with dreaming up a delicate way to manage the twins that she forgot to eat.
    â€œYou seem awfully quiet. Man trouble?” Tipsy,Natalie leaned on Josie’s shoulder. Beer mingled with her pretty floral perfume, again causing Josie’s lips to curve into a smile.
    â€œOh, sure. As you full well know, I haven’t been with a man since Lyle, and he was a disaster.”
    â€œOnly because you didn’t put an ounce of effort into the relationship. It’s been four years since Hugh died. He wouldn’t want you to be lonely.”
    Then why had he left her?
    â€œWho said I am?” Josie swigged her beer. “And who are you to talk? When’s the last time you went on a date?”
    â€œTwo weeks ago, thank you very much.”
    â€œYour turn,” Cami said to Josie, writing down her score. “What are you two gossiping about?”
    â€œNat, here, says she had a date.” Josie centered the ball on the putting mat before giving it a swat. It landed between a giant plaster frog and a rubber lily pad. “You believe her?”
    â€œAbsolutely. It was with the UPS man. I witnessed him asking her in the front office.”
    â€œImpressive…” Josie’s shot landed her ball ten feet from the moat’s dragon. Sighing, she stepped over a second lily pad to set up for stroke three.
    â€œKind of like Betsy and Bonnie’s dad. Whew.” Cheeks flushed, Cami fanned herself with the scorecard. “He’s gorgeous.”
    â€œDon’t look now, but he’s also headed this way…” Natalie downed the rest of her beer.
    Upon meeting Dallas’s penetrating stare, Josie hit her ball all the way to Hansel and Gretel’s cottage on hole fourteen!

Chapter Two
    â€œLadies…” Dallas tipped his hat to Bonnie and Betsy’s teacher and three other women he’d seen around the girls’ school. “Nice night to be on the links.”
    The tall brunette laughed at his joke.
    â€œMiss Griffin?” He was intrigued by the notion that she found it necessary to hide behind a pine.
    â€œPlease,” she mumbled, ducking out from behind a particularly full bough to extend her hand, “outside of school you can call me Josie.”
    When their fingers touched, he was unprepared for the breeze of awareness whispering through him. It’d been so long since he’d noticed any woman beyond casual conversation that he abruptly released her. Just as hastily broke their stare. Had she felt that shift from the ordinary, too?
    â€œHi, Miss Griffin!” The twins and three of their more giggly friends danced around him.
    â€œH-hi, girls,” their teacher said. Had she always been so hot? Maybe it was the course’s dim lighting, but her complexion glowed as pretty as his mama’s Sunday pearls. Her hair hung long and wild, and she wore thehell out of a pair of faded jeans and a University of Oklahoma sweatshirt. Red cowboy boots peeked out from beneath her hems. “You all having a party?”
    Bonnie nodded. “Daddy’s letting us have a sleepover for doing good on our chores all week.”
    â€œCongratulations,” their