Free His-And-Hers Family by Bonnie K. Winn Page B

Friday.”
    “Yeah. It’s done.” Kevin was scooting his chair backward, scraping it against the tile floor. “I gotta go. The guys are waiting.”
    “If your father says it’s all right...”
    Kevin looked imploringly at his father. “Dad?”
    Clearing his throat, Blake found his voice, realizing he had a part in this after all. “Sounds okay.”
    Kevin popped up, not waiting for any second thoughts, grabbing his plate and heading toward the kitchen.
    “Be home at nine,” Cassie cautioned him.
    “Yeah, yeah. Later.”
    The twins quickly finished their fruit and, along with David John, jumped up, pushing their chairs back noisily.
    “Mark, you didn’t finish your milk.”
    “I’m Todd,” he replied shortly, ignoring the glass.
    “No, you’re not. And you usually drink all your milk, Mark. You feeling okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m just full.” He squinted at Cassie. “You sure I’m Mark?”
    “Very sure.”
    He shrugged his shoulders as he sent his identical twin an exasperated glance.
    Blake stared between Cassie and the twins. None of the other housekeepers had managed to tell them apart after months of being with them. “You can already tell Mark and Todd apart?”
    She glanced at him quizzically. “Of course.” Then she turned her gaze on D.J. and the twins, who were scurrying away. “And what are you three up to?”
    “We’re making something,” David John confided, just as Mark elbowed him sharply.
    “Come on, D.J., we gotta ditch,” Todd inserted.
    Cassie’s eyebrows rose, but she didn’t question them. “Take your plates into the kitchen.”
    Turning back to the table, they obliged, disappearing quickly.
    “D.J.?” Blake questioned.
    “His new identity,” Cassie replied with an ironic twist of her lips. “Says David John is a Texas name, and he’s an L.A. dude now.”
    Blake couldn’t resist a chuckle.
    Jimmy Ray and Katherine Ann were rising, as well, automatically gathering their plates, along with the serving dishes. They trooped into the kitchen, and then footsteps clattered up the back staircase. In an instant, the crowded table had emptied, leaving only a twosome.
    The candlelight still flickered between them, and the scent of orange blossoms from the open window wafted through the air.
    “Well...” Cassie began.
    “So...” Blake said at the same time.
    Laughing awkwardly, then letting that fade into silence, they glanced at one another, then away. Cassie folded and refolded her napkin, then ran her fingers up the glass, drawing swirls in the condensation that beaded its exterior.
    “The children seem to have taken to you,” Blake said finally, wondering why he, too, had suddenly lost his usually glib tongue.
    Cassie shrugged, not drawing her hand away from the glass. “I’m not sure I’d say that. We’re still getting used to one another.”
    “It usually takes an act of Congress to pry anything out of Kevin, but you know about his schoolwork, where he’s going.”
    Cassie glanced at him in surprise. “I don’t believe in not knowing where my kids are. Kevin pointed out that he wasn’t my kid. So, I told him if he didn’t tell me, I’d follow him. Everywhere he went, I promised to be his shadow. I guess he thought that could be pretty embarrassing, especially in front of his friends.”
    Blake tried not to let cynical amusement color his tone. “I guess it would be, at that. How’d you come up with that plan? It would never have occurred to me.”
    “I’ve been taking care of my children on my own for a long time now. I’ve gotta be smarter than them, or they could run over me. Especially boys. They tend to listen to a man more than a woman. Knowing I didn’t have a man around, I couldn’t let go of my control. Since Kevin wasn’t already in my control, I had to be a little more ingenious.”
    Her eyes had that tough fierceness in them again. Still, they resembled smoke in the diffused light. Blake lifted his glass, saluting her. “However you managed