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“But it stinks,” he moaned pitifully.
“If you don’t think things through, most of your consequences will stink,” she said patiently. “Now use both hands.”
The cute blonde, with curly hair like her mom, giggled.
“Don’t laugh, it’s not fair, Amber,” Lachlan frowned at his sister.
“I’m the one shoveling throwed-up. That’s not fair.” She turned her big blue eyes to her mom. “Can we change now?”
“I’ll tell you what. You go sit on the top stair and wait for me. Don’t go downstairs. I’ll get you some food in ten minutes, but only if you stay right there. Got it?”
“Are you going to shovel up the throwed-up?” Lachlan asked.
“Yes. Then I’m going to use the vacuum that Mr. Drakos brought. After that, I’ll get you some food.”
Lachlan shoved the plastic bag at his mother. She took it, and her daughter handed her the dustpan. They started toward the door.
“Wait a minute.” The kids stopped. “What do you need to do?”
They both turned around in unison. They smiled the cutest smiles. “Thank you for helping, Mr. Drakos,” Amber said.
“Yeah. Thanks,” Lachlan said.
Then they were out the door. Jase would bet his bottom dollar that they would have Farah conned into plates of food within two minutes.
Bonnie was still on her knees, and she twisted to look up at him. “I can’t thank you enough. I’m sorry I wasn’t finished by the time you got back with the steam cleaner, but I really thought it was important that my little terrors did most of the cleaning.”
“That’s how our parents always did it. Sometimes it actually sunk in,” Jase said as he knelt down and tugged at the plastic bag and pan that she was holding.
“What are you doing?”
“So far you haven’t got your pretty dress messed up, let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Her dress had scrunched up almost to the top of her thighs, and Jase tried his best not to ogle her pretty, plump flesh. Thinking about this woman’s thighs would cause too many adverse reactions at his brother’s family-friendly barbecue.
“What about you in your jeans?” she protested.
“Malik and I are about the same size. I’ll just grab something from him. Done deal.” Jase made quick work of shoveling cherry-smelling vomit as Bonnie pulled the down comforter out of the duvet cover.
“Well, here’s some good news. The comforter is fine. Nothing leaked through the duvet. I’m telling you, with these two, my dry cleaner is making her monthly rent,” she laughed.
“How old are they, six?”
“Seven. They were preemies. Twins and all. Because they look younger, they’ll sucker you in. You won’t realize they’re so devious.”
“Seems like Amber is the mastermind.”
“You caught that, did you?”
Her smile was positively wicked. Kind of like her son’s. He enjoyed seeing that twinkle in her eye.
“How do you keep a straight face?” Jase asked.
“Most of the time, it’s easy. I’m really trying to teach them right from wrong, and I want the lesson to get through at an early age. Like when they were three, but apparently, I failed. So now I’m trying for the lessons to sink in at seven,” Bonnie sighed.
“And laughing?”
“I bite the inside of my lip, or pinch my hand so hard it bruises,” she admitted. “I swear, they’ll come up with the darndest things. Amber will mastermind something, Lachlan will put his twist on it, and now we have cherry pie dog vomit all over my friend’s daughter’s bedroom. I wish this were a one-off, but it isn’t. You should see the science experiments they concoct, and their book reports that turn into creative writing exercises.”
“Were you like this as a kid?” Jase asked.
