“Ma, we’re here!”
“In the family room. Come meet our guests.”
They walked in with their stocking feet, having taken off their muddy boots.
Mary looked up and did a double take. She recognized the taller of the two men immediately.
And he recognized her.
“New York? What in the heck are you doing here?” It was Mary’s cop.
“You two know each other?” Dot asked.
“Oh, yeah. She’s the new troublemaker in town.” He jutted his chin toward Mary and winked at her. “Serial offender.”
“Hardly!” Mary’s cheeks grew immediately hot. She rarely let anyone get a rise out of her, but there was something about this man.
Just behind him, his twin walked in.
“Harper?”
“Tommy!”
“Mary!”
“Hey, Tommy.”
“Wait. How do you all know each other?” Dot was confused.
“I love writing in bars, and he owns the Sin Bin—the bar that’s just down from your office.”
“This is amazing,” Dot said.
“Wow. What a coincidence!” Grace loved a small-world story.
Soon they were all talking. The conversation flowed easily.
“You two really do look alike,” Harper said, looking back and forth at Tommy and his twin, whose name was Jake.
“They both have that dimple that melted my heart the first time they smiled at me,” Grace said.
“But I got the height,” Jake said, needling his brother.
“That’s all right. I got the hair,” Tommy gave it right back to him. Jake’s hair had receded so much that he’d just shaved it all off.
“Seems like a fair trade,” Mary said, thinking Jake had made the right decision not to fight the inevitable.
“Boys, enough. You’ve been harping on each other since the womb.”
Joe then stood up and suggested that they all get the chores done before supper.
Jake said he’d do the chickens and challenged Mary to go with him. She accepted, not sure what “doing the chickens” meant.
That left Tommy to handle the cows. Harper offered to join.
“Boys, get those girls some muck boots and old coats from the shed. They can’t walk out there in... that.”
Jake and Tommy left to retrieve the more appropriate footwear.