Free Love Thine Enemy by Patricia Davids Page B

finished.
    Lightheaded with relief, Cheryl leaned back on her elbows. Her luck had held. The Queen of Hearts wasn’t going to come running in and demand her head.
    Cheryl eyed the bulky white cast on her leg. Her foot was broken, she was out of a job and she had no place to live. Some luck.
    “Did Bonkers—” began the one on the right.
    “—wake you up?” finished the one on the left.
    Cheryl smiled to reassure them. “He did, but that’s okay.”
    The twins looked at each other silently for a long moment. Cheryl detected a twinkle, very much like their father’s, sparkling in the depths of their brown eyes. Bonkers lifted a paw and gave it a lick.
    “Daddy said—”
    “—we can’t wake you up, but—”
    “—he didn’t say, Bonkers—”
    “—couldn’t wake you up.”
    Cheryl followed the twisted logic, but she was having trouble following the single conversation coming from the two children. She scooted up in bed and leaned against the headboard, gritting her teeth as a stab of pain shot up her leg. “Do you always do that?”
    “Do what?” they asked together.
    “Finish each other’s sentences.”
    Again, that look flashed between them. “Not always,” they replied together again.
    “I know your names are Lindy and Kayla, but which one is which?”
    “You have to guess.”
    “How’d you hurt your foot?”
    “How’d the doctor get that cast on?”
    “Can you still—”
    “—wiggle your toes?”
    Cheryl smiled. “I think your father tried to warn me about you and your questions.”
    “Daddy likes you,” remarked the child on the right.
    “Yes, he does,” the girl on the left added. She picked up the cat, draped him over her shoulder, and they all trooped out of the room. Cheryl eyed the bedroom door for a while, but the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit didn’t show.
    She left the bed an hour later still feeling unsteady, but she managed the crutches well enough. The pain in her foot was bearable if she didn’t move too fast or bump it. There was no one in the kitchen or the living room, and Cheryl toyed with the idea of going back to bed until she heard the sound of shouting outside.
    She crossed to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony and eased it open. A crisp, cold breeze blew in, lifting the ends of her hair and chasing the last of the cobwebs from her mind as it carried the sound of children’s laughter to her.
    Leaning a shoulder against the doorframe, Cheryl watched the sledding party in progress on the slope of the opposite hillside. Sam stood behind the twins as they piled on a red sled. He steadied it, then gave a shove thatsent them squealing and shrieking to the bottom of the hill. They tumbled out of the sled, trudged back to the top and started all over again.
    Cheryl smiled with amusement as Bonkers crept up to investigate the sled. The twins picked him up and settled him in between them. Sam gave them a push, and they flew down the hill again. Halfway down, Bonkers apparently decided he didn’t care for the ride. He jumped out but went rolling and sliding down the snowy slope. The twins shrieked in alarm as they hurried toward the snow-covered cat.
    Bonkers didn’t wait for help. He picked himself up with wounded dignity and stalked off, shaking his paws with every other step. Cheryl laughed aloud at the cat’s antics. She saw Sam laughing, too.
    He must have heard her because he looked up and gave her a brief wave. She waved back. A warm glow settled in the center of her chest as she watched him playing with his children. This was a new side of him. It couldn’t be easy raising two small daughters, but he seemed up to the job. He was certainly enjoying himself now. He even took a turn on the sled as the girls shouted encouragement.
    Cheryl covered her smile with one hand. What a comical figure he made when he sat on the small sled. His long legs were bent with his knees drawn up almost to his ears. With one hand, he kept his hat jammed on his head.