The Rancher's Want Ad Mix-Up by Megan Besing

Author:Megan Besing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-01-27T16:44:43+00:00

* * *

Della glanced up when Mr. Lamson came around the chicken coop.

“Miss Wagner, if you don’t mind, I must steal the boys for a while.” He shielded his eyes from the sunshine with a bunch of empty flour sacks.

“Awww.” Wallie scrunched his nose and tapped his piece of chalk against his blackboard. “I want to do lessons.”

That boy sure knew how to lift her spirits. If only she could remember to call him Wallace as he’d requested a couple days ago.

Edward pointed at the sacks. “I don’t want to do whatever those mean.”

Mr. Lamson tossed a sack to each boy. “Means we’re picking apples.”

With a groan, Robert crumpled the material into a ball. “Can’t we pick them later?”

Did she need to clean out her ears? Since when was picking apples worse than lessons?

“Later the sun will be hotter. Come along.”

Wallie used the bag to wipe off his board. “I’d rather not do apples at all.”

“Wallace.” Miss Wagner gave him the eye.

“Fine.” Wallie huffed and pushed to his feet. “But will you come, too?”

Mr. Lamson stopped, and Robert almost rammed into the back of him. “I didn’t mean for you to have to help as well,” Mr. Lamson explained.

“I don’t mind.” Della collected the chalk and boards and placed them into her basket of school supplies. There was no need leaving the chalk out to allow the chickens to get a taste of it—her supply was running low enough as it was. She’d considered ordering more, but it hadn’t seemed worthwhile if she was going to be heading back to Indiana eventually.

Wallie threw his bag into the air. On the way down, it slipped through his fingers and he nearly toppled over trying to snatch it before it hit the ground. “Can we play the game, if Wallie gives an apple to Mabel how many does he have left?”

“Yeah or if Wallie loses one more tooth, how much longer until—”

Della raised her brow, and Robert’s smirk disappeared.

“Sorry, Wallie,” he mumbled as he stretched the bag out of its crumbled form just to squish it down again. “Boys don’t really turn into rabbits.”

“It’s okay. Plus, if I turn into a rabbit and have to live outside, I can live inside the coop with Mabel. Right, Miss Della?”

Della shook the leaves and dust off the blanket. “Sounds like a perfect plan.” She smiled, but stilled when she caught Mr. Lamson’s stare. She touched her face around her mouth and cheeks, worrying that something from breakfast was hiding there. But the boys, always ready to point out someone’s misfortune, would have let her know if that was the case, wouldn’t they? She folded the blanket in half. Was he upset over what Wallie had told her? It wasn’t like it was her fault.

Mr. Lamson cleared his throat. “I had only meant to recruit the boys.”

She reached for one of the bags in Mr. Lamson’s hand, her fingertips meeting his skin. “I can handle gathering apples.” And she wasn’t ready to give up all her time with the boys yet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.