Free The Case of the Missing Secretary by Diana Palmer Page B

Logan chuckled. “I suppose they were expecting a floor show.”
    “Those kids know too much already,” she said, refusing to be baited. “But they’re sweet children.”
    “They are not! Why do you think the family avoids this place like the plague? My cousin Belinda came down here to spend the night last year and the little monsters put an armadillo in the bed with her.” She whistled. “I’m glad they like me!”
    “You’d better be. They defanged a rattler and shoved it in my room the first time I was fool enough to spend a night here.” “What did you do?”
    “I went out the window, of course,” he said. “Stark naked, because that’s how I sleep, and I think I took at least two-hundred dollars worth of pane glass with me.” She could almost picture it. “Weren’t you hurt?”
    “Only my pride. The glass did very little damage. Fortunately for them. I haven’t been back since, until now.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “But they’ll be nice to me this time. They think I’m going to kiss you, and they can catch us at it and we’ll be embarrassed. “That’s not a nice thing to say!” “Why do you think they were hiding in here?” he asked patiently
     
    The Case of the Missing Secretary357 and smiled at her confusion. “Well, hide your head in the sand. But they’re getting old enough to be curious, you know, and I’ll bet Emmett hasn’t told them zilch.”
    “He has so!” Amy interjected until two small hands, one on each side, clapped over her mouth.
    “You varmints!” Logan raged at them. They’d eased back in and were crouched just inside the door behind a wall. “You’ll swing for this, you sidewinders!”
    “You’ll have to catch us first, and you’re old!” Guy called. The three of them escaped at a dead run.
    “They’re right,” Kit said thoughtfully, eyeing him. “You are old. Thirty-five just this year.”
    He glared at her. “How would you like to be flattened out on the hay here for a few minutes?” he asked, glancing around. “The kids could sell tickets.”
    She cleared her throat. “I take it all back. You’re young. You’re in your prime, in fact.”
    “I was in my prime at eighteen, actually,” he remarked. He smiled wickedly. “But I can still go all night.”
    She leaped up in the wake of outraged embarrassment, brushed off her jeans and stalked out the door just in time to connect with three small, warm bodies. They all went sprawling, Kit included.
    “I told you they were both too old,” Guy muttered as he helped his siblings to their feet. “You have to watch teenagers to find out that sort of thing, not old people. Come on. We’ll go down to the river and spy on Josh Landers and Cindy Gail when they get through fishing!”
    Flushed with glee they rushed off again, leaving Kit muddled and out of sorts.
    “I told you,” Logan said from behind.
    Emmett passed the kids, whirling around as they went by him like cyclones. He didn’t ask where they were going. He wandered on down to join Kit and Logan.
    “Why are you sitting on the ground?” Emmett asked Kit conversationally. “Is there a sudden chair shortage?” “I’m just where your offspring left me, flat in the dirt,” Kit told

358
    Diana Palmer
     
    him. “They were down here spying on us-” She broke off when she realized what she was saying.
    Emmett lifted an eyebrow and looked at Logan, who had a disgustingly smug and triumphant look on his face. “Oh,” Emmett said. He smiled a little sadly, managing with one word to convey total understanding of the situation and regret on his own account.
    “They’re just curious,” Emmett added after a minute, rocking back on his heels. “I told them the basics, and how to stay out of bad trouble with it all. They cleared their throats and pretended not to listen.” He chuckled.
    “Well, they were on their way down to the river. Something about a couple of teenagers fishing there…” Kit told him. “Ohmigod!”
    Emmett did