Dillan reached out to tug on Noah’s shirt. “Noah, this is Miss Amanda. She’s my teacher and she’ll be yours when you’re three. She’s cool.”
“Hello, Noah.” Still smiling, she tipped her head to catch his gaze. “That is one great swing set you have there.”
He nodded. “I like the slide.”
“I noticed,” she said. “You’re a master at it.”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
All of this talk seemed to snap Mindy from her shyness, because she rushed forward to hug her legs.
“Missmanda! Missmanda,” the little girl repeated as she hugged tightly.
“Hi, Mindy.” She chuckled, bending down to pick up the sweet little girl. Amanda met Dante’s gaze and the warmth inside his chocolate brown eyes ricocheted through her. Giving herself a mental shake, she focused on his son. “Sometimes I help out in your class,” she told Noah. “We’ll have fun, isn’t that right, Mindy?”
She drew back to look into the cutie’s big, blue eyes. “Yeah,Missmandacolors and sings, too. Can we do it now?”
“Maybe another time,” someone said from behind her.
Amanda turned around to find Mindy’s father smiling at them. “Hello, Cooper.”
He grinned back. “Hello, Miss Amanda.”
“Daddy!” The little girl lunged for her father.
Amanda released her after she was sure Cooper had a good grip.
“Hey, princess,” he said, kissing her temple. “You having fun with Dillan and your new friend, Noah?”
Mindy nodded. “Yes. We were playingstuperheroes.”
“Yeah, and now we have a new command center,” Dillan said, wiggling so Hunter set him on his feet. “Come on, Dad. I’ll show you.” The little boy grabbed his father’s hand and pulled him toward the swing set.
“Yeah.” Noah squirmed and once Dante set him down, he grabbed the guy’s hand. “Come on.”
“Yeah.” Mindy did the same. “’mon, Dad.”
The kids led their fathers to the swing set, and she stood smiling with Emily and Holden.
“Boy, they sure do have great imaginations,” her sister said.
She nodded “I know. It’s wonderful.”
“What’s even better is the mischief those three are going to get into,” Holden said, a big grin on his face. “Man, I can hardly wait until Mindy hits her teens and those boys start doing the following.”
She laughed along with her sister. “That will definitely be interesting.”
Lyndsey and her husband, Gabe, the sheriff wandered over, smiling as they caught the end of their conversation.
“That’s when the fun begins,” Lyndsey said.
Gabe snorted. “Hope those boys learn to swim, cause Cooper plans to install a moat by then. He’s already got the plans drawn up.”
They all laughed.
“Hey, Holden, you got a minute?” Gabe asked when they sobered. “I’ve got a question about Chief.”
Chief was the guy’s gorgeous gray pit bull. He went everywhere with him.
