Their Other Mother by Janis Reams Hudson

Author:Janis Reams Hudson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

The men—except Frank, who wouldn’t leave his beloved horses—were gone four days. Belinda thought that surely by the time they returned she would have herself and her reactions to Ace under better control.

She thought she was doing pretty well on that score during his absence. She concentrated on the boys and was able to thoroughly enjoy her time with them. Except for those times when they asked when their daddy would be home. Which was, oh, about every three minutes during that first day. It was better the second day, as they were occupied with giving Scooter a bath during the afternoon. That chore quite naturally turned into a water fight during which everyone, including Belinda, got soaked. Scooter rolled in the dirt and had to have a second bath that same day.

By the evening of the third day Belinda felt as though she had her balance back. She wasn’t thinking of Ace every few minutes, and when she did think of him, she was able to do so objectively. More or less.

Just before bath time that evening, Belinda’s mother phoned to visit with her grandsons. The boys were thrilled to talk to her. One at a time they told her about Scooter and the water fight, about herding the cattle, about their daddy being gone. “But that’s okay,” Jason told his grandma, “because Aunt Binda takes good care of us. She’s cool.”

That was, to Belinda, the highest of compliments. As near as she could tell, being considered “cool” put her right up there with Batman, Arnold Schwar-zenegger and Scooter.

When the boys finished talking, Belinda took the phone and let them go back to watching television while she spoke with her mother for a few minutes.

“How are you feeling?” Belinda asked.

“Much better. I’m fine now.”

“You sound tired,” Belinda accused gently.

“Honestly. You and your father. You both sound like a couple of worrywarts.”

“That’s our job, Mom. Somebody’s got to look after you, since you won’t look after yourself.”

“I am looking after myself just fine. And if I fall short, believe me, Howie is right here to straighten me out.”

Belinda chuckled. “Hovering, is he?”

Elaine let out a good-natured groan. “Worse than a mother hen. But enough about me. How are you holding up, chasing after those three boys and their father?”

A tight knot formed in the pit of Belinda’s stomach at the thought of her chasing after Ace. Never!

“The boys and I are getting along great.” She told her mother about Clay’s accident, the knot on his head, his black eyes, and her use of her eyebrow pencil to save the other two from like injuries. “We’re down to plum eyeshadow now, heading toward green.”

Elaine laughed so hard she got choked and started coughing, which told Belinda that her mother wasn’t as well as she claimed.

“Oh, my,” Elaine said when she got her breath back. “Those little devils, to try and fool Ace that way. Speaking of Ace, has he been seeing anyone?”

The knot in Belinda’s stomach tightened. “Seeing anyone?”

“Yes, dear. As in dating?”

“I know what you meant,” she said irritably.

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.