Page 18 of The Sheikh and the Single Mom

“Plus, when you’re cooking for kids, you always want to know that the food will be nothing but net.” Nina mimed tossing a basketball through a hoop.

“I like basketball,” Miles announced. He and Kate had been eating quietly, but sensing a change of topic to sports, he jumped enthusiastically on the opportunity to participate.

“I like bunnies,” Kate countered, clearly not wanting to be left out. “I want seven bunnies.”

“Mommy, Kate can’t have seven bunnies, can she?”

“Mommy, can I please have seven bunnies?”

Nina smiled at her children. “Kate, seven bunnies would be a lot. How about, after lunch, you draw me a picture of the bunnies you’d like to have and tell me all about them? Then we can pretend that we already have seven bunnies.”

“I want sevenrealbunnies,” Kate said sadly.

“I know, and if I could wave a magic wand and get you seven bunnies, I would.”

“Okay. I’ll draw the bunnies now.” Kate kicked her small legs. “Can I be excused please?”

“Yes, honey. Take your plate to the kitchen and then you can start drawing the bunnies.”

“Miles, you come with me?”

“Yeah. Can I be excused?”

“Of course.”

The twins carried their plates to the kitchen while Rashad turned to Nina.

“Has she always wanted seven bunnies?”

“No, and she probably doesn’t even want seven bunnies now. She just likes the idea.” Nina shrugged. “She’ll forget about it by evening, or she won’t, in which case I’ll end up buying her seven toy bunnies for her next birthday. It’ll all work out.”

“It’s amazing how well you know them.”

“We do spend a lot of time together.” Nina finished the last of her food and got to her feet. “Can I take your plate for you? I should check on the kids anyway.”

“Thanks.”

In the kitchen, the twins were talking in low voices about where they might find cookies. Nina helped them put their plates in the small dishwasher and shooed them back onto the deck before she loaded her plate and Rashad’s. When she returned, the twins were back at the table and Rashad was showing them what looked like a large wooden game board.

“What’s this?” Nina leaned against the table to get a better view of the board.

“It’s a traditional Al Soubi game called Kish-Kish,” Rashad explained. “It’s been around for thousands of years — the oldest versions were found buried in a sunken city off the coast. It’s hard to know if we follow the same rules today as they did then, but it’s still amazing to think about. Miles found this one on the bookshelf.”

“Can we play?” Miles asked, bouncing in his chair. Nina opened her mouth to say that she was sorry but it was time for her and Rashad to get to work, but Rashad got there first. To her surprise, though, he agreed with Miles.

“Perhaps one round. Is that all right, Nina? We have plenty of time for our business later today.”

Nina was more than happy to put off what was sure to be a high-stress meeting to have fun with the twins and Rashad, so she nodded.

“That’s fine with me. How do we play?”

Rashad handed out four small bags of tokens. Upon closer inspection, Nina saw that each token was a smooth, marbled material and that they were printed with different symbols. Hershad small moons, while Rashad’s had suns, Kate’s had stars, and Miles’s had clouds.

“The game is pretty simple,” Rashad explained. “You’re trying to get all your tokens home.” He explained how to move, how a token could be sent back, and how to win. After a moment, Kate’s eyes lit up.

“It’s likeSorry!”

“I’m not familiar with that,” Rashad said.

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