Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Dad. Dad. Dad.” Ryder flopped into one of the empty chairs like he’d just run a mile. “The water fountain in the hall is leaking.”
“And Mr. Can-Do is gone for the day.” Legend followed his brother into the room. The janitor’s real last name was Kaʻuhane, but generations of students had called him Mr. Can-Do because of his usual response to any request.
“And neither of you had anything to do with this leak?” I tilted my head, already bracing for the answer.
“It was an experiment.” Legend offered a toothy grin. The boys looked more like Alyssa—darker eyes than mine, dark-brown hair, less of my ruddy, tanned complexion and more of Alyssa’s warm-gold mixed Polynesian looks. Today’s outfit was a red T-shirt and black shorts. When they were babies, matching outfits had been an inevitable side effect of having identical twins, but these days, the matching had way more to do with mischief. “I might have pressed the button a little long—”
“With your elbow,” Ryder helpfully added. Despite being identical, there were small tells as to which twin was which. Legend had more of an overbite awaiting braces, while Ryder had a slightly more singsong voice. And unlike his brother, Ryder had zero poker face. His eyes went wide and shifty as he noticed Nolan. “Oh. Hi, Mr. Bell.”
“Why do you sound so guilty?” I groaned.
“It was just a joke.” Legend sounded confidently dismissive, but I was not so sure.
“What was?”
“Getting Mr. Bell to step into the hall so we could shut the door on him.”
“And lock it.” Nolan had a sharp look for the boys and me.
“Boys. Seriously. No more pranks.” I closed my eyes. I’d counted to ten so many times in the last eleven years, but never more than over the last few months. And year twelve looked to be even more challenging. “I worked so hard to get us into this school. Please. Don’t land me on Principal Alana’s naughty list.”
“We’ll be good.” Ryder’s smile was almost enough to make me a believer. He turned in his chair, peering down at Nolan’s feet. “Are those Armani shoes?”
“Close.” Nolan grinned widely. “I love shoes. A bit too much. Luckily, I’m great at bargain hunting.”
“So is our mom. I’ve got a Gucci shirt.” Ryder had zero filter, as usual. And I hated that Alyssa’s limited influence on the boys was to give Ryder a taste for luxury apparel. “And I like shoes too.”
He kicked a foot up to reveal his canvas sneakers with a sparkly print. Legend, who deferred to Ryder in all matters of fashion, had a similar pair, but Ryder’s love of glitter was another way to tell the twins apart.
“I like them. They give me merfolk vibes.” Nolan’s sunny approval apparently gave Ryder a case of regret because he squirmed in his seat.
“Thanks. I’m sorry we tried to lock you out.”
“It’s okay. Tomorrow is a new day.” Between his seeming inability to get irritated and his penchant for optimistic sayings, Nolan was practically a walking motivational poster.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll go check the leak.” And as for me, I was never this grumpy, but something about Nolan set me off big time. Luckily, the leak ended up being nothing more than a stuck button, and I returned to the conference room a few minutes later to find Nolan and Ryder deep in conversation about music while Legend played on his tablet, taking advantage of the school Wi-Fi. All I needed was Ryder getting too attached to the new teacher, but there was a limit to how rude I was willing to be, especially in front of the twins.
“How’s it going?” I asked, struggling for a friendly tone.
“Mr. Bell will be here through winter break,” Ryder reported.
“Yep,” I said tightly. Seeing the boys getting along so well with Nolan made me even crankier for reasons I wasn’t about to unpack right then. Instead, I turned toward Nolan. “Listen, I have to get these two home and fed before outdoor club tonight. You work up a reasonable plan, and we can discuss it further. You can text me.”
“Excellent.” Nolan handed me his notepad to scribble my number. Something told me Nolan and I would have vastly different definitions of reasonable. “Outdoor club sounds fun.”
Nolan’s pale complexion and soft hands said he didn’t see much outside other than catching a taxi to his next performance, but I couldn’t exactly call him on his undoubtedly fake interest with the boys right there.
“It’s a non-affiliated scouting alternative. Keeps them busy.”
“You wouldn’t like us bored.” Legend’s ominous tone made us all laugh.
With that, I hurried the boys to my older hatchback and then to our apartment, where we let Barney out onto our small patio. Our scruffy dog, who stumped even experienced vets about his breed, had been waiting patiently since our neighbor let him out around lunchtime. I rotated his water while Legend filled Barney’s bowl with chow.