With Family In Mind (Saddle Falls Book 1) Read Free Page B

guests with water when they walk through the door, do we?”
    “No sir,” they said in unison, glancing guiltily down at their dirty sneakers before peeking up at Rebecca.
    “Well?” Jake waited expectantly.
    “We’re sorry,” Timmy mumbled.
    “Yeah, sorry,” Terry added glumly.
    Timmy looked up at her and Rebecca’s heart melted. “We didn’t mean to squirt you, honest, but we thought you was Uncle Jake.”
    “Yeah,” Terry repeated. “We thought you was Uncle Jake.”
    Jake groaned. “Boys, boys, boys.” Shaking his head, he corralled them both by their shoulders, then crouched down so he was eye level with them. “Let me give you a bit of advice.” He glanced back at Rebecca and winked. “Never, ever tell a woman you’ve mistaken her for a man.”
    “How come, Uncle Jake?” Eyes wide, Terry stared at his uncle in confusion.
    “Yeah, how come?” Timmy scowled, his dark brows drawing together over his blue eyes.
    Jake laughed again, then shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll tell you when you’re older.”
    “You always say that,” Terry complained with a shake of his head that sent his mop of black hair flying.
    “Yeah, always.” Timmy mimicked him in disgust.
    Trying to head off a conversation about the complexities between the sexes, Jake raised his hand in the air. “Okay, boys, are you hungry? It’s almost lunchtime.”
    “Starved.” Rolling his eyes, Timmy clutched his stomach as if he would faint.
    Jake laughed at the dramatics. “Okay, we’ll have lunch, but first you’ve got to go get cleaned up.”
    “What’s for lunch?” Terry asked, misdeeds forgotten as he grinned up at his uncle.
    “Peanut butter sandwiches with Hershey’s chocolate syrup.” Jake tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. “What else?”
    “Again?” the boys groaned in unison. “You always make us peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches. And we’re sick of it.”
    “Yeah, we’re sick of it, Uncle Jake. Can’t you cook us something?” Timmy asked, looking up at Jake with pleading, soulful eyes. “I want hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.”
    “He can’t make us hot dogs,” Terry said to his brother with a dramatic sigh. “He can’t cook, remember?”
    “Can you cook?” Timmy asked, turning wide, guileless eyes on Rebecca.
    Taken aback, she merely stared at the inquisitive imp. “Cook?” she croaked, swallowing hard at the hopeful look on his face.
    “Yeah,” Jake chimed in with an almost identical grin. “Can you cook?”
    She thought of the pitiful meals she grabbed on the run, the frozen pizzas and TV dinners she consumed while engulfed in a story, wondering if that qualified as cooking.
    “Yes…well, I…can cook. A little,” she clarified, as a gleam came into Jake’s eyes. “ Very little,” she added, not certain if what she was capable of cooking was suitable for small children to eat.
    “She can cook, boys,” Jake announced, as if they’d just won the lottery. “I vote we invite her to lunch.”
    “Yeah,” the boys caroled in unison, hooking their arms together. “Let’s invite her for lunch.”
    “Wait—I—”
    The boys didn’t give Rebecca a chance to protest, but grabbed her hands and fairly dragged her out of the foyer and down the long, wide hall, talking a mile a minute. The mop of fur named Ruth followed, barking and leaping.
    Outnumbered, and feeling a bit overwhelmed, Rebecca turned to Jake for help, but he merely grinned at her, apparently not willing or wanting to be any help at all. She scowled at him just as the phone rang and he disappeared into a room off the foyer, leaving her to the mercy of the twins.
    “Uncle Jake’s fun, but he can’t cook,” Terry complained, still dragging her along.
    “Yeah, just cuz he always ate peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches when he was a kid, he thinks we always gotta.”
    “Always,” Timmy said with a dramatic roll of his eyes.
    “And we’re sick of ’em, right,