Page 59 of A Cozy Christmas Blizzard
“Oh, sorry, I thought you had.” One look told her Wynn wasn’t amused. “Come on, Wynn,” she said, as they merged with the freeway traffic. “You have to admit it was a little ridiculous.”
He didn’t appear to be in the mood to admit anything. “Are you happy?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You proved your point, didn’t you?”
So that was the problem. “If you’re referring to how the girls behaved then, yes, I suppose I did.”
“You claimed that after your sister read my book, they changed into undisciplined hellions.”
“Well...” Wasn’t it obvious? “They’re twins,” she said, trying to sound conciliatory, “and as such they’ve always needed a lot of attention. Some of what happened on Friday evening might have happened without the influence of your child-rearing theories. Freddy would’ve escaped whether Zelda read your book or not.”
“Very funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. Frankly, rushing to the store to buy hot dogs because that’s what the girls wanted for dinner is over the top, in my opinion. I feel it teaches them to expect that their every whim must be met.”
“I beg to differ. My getting the dinner they wanted showed them that I cared about their likes and dislikes.”
“Two hours of sitting on the floor playing Old Maid said the same thing,” she inserted.
“I let you put them to bed even though they clearly weren’t ready for sleep.”
“I beg to differ,” she said, a bit more forcefully than she’d intended. “Zoe and Zara were both yawning when they came out of the bath. I asked them if they wanted to go to bed.”
“What you asked,” he said stiffly, “was if they werereadyfor bed.”
“And the difference is?”
“Two hours of storytime while they wore us both out.”
“What would you have done?” she asked.
His gaze didn’t waver from the road. “I would’ve allowed them to play quietly in their room until they’d tired themselves out.”
Quietly?He had to be joking. Wynn seemed to have conveniently forgotten that during the short time they were on their own, Zoe and Zara had gotten into his overnight bag. Thanks to their creative use of his personal things, the goldfishnow had a bluish tint. The two Yorkies were nearly hairless. She could argue that because the girls considered themselvesfree, they didn’t see anything wrong with opening his bag. The lack of boundaries created confusion and misunderstanding.
“Twins are not the norm,” he challenged. “They encourage ill behavior in each other.”
“However, before Zelda read your book, they were reasonably well-behaved children.”
“Is that a fact?” He sounded as though he didn’t believe her.
“Yes,” she said swiftly. “Zoe and Zara were happy and respectful and kind. Some would even go so far as to say they were well-adjusted. Now they constantly demand their own way. They’re unreasonable, selfish and difficult.” She was only getting started and dragged in another breath. “Furthermore, it used to be a joy to spend time with them and now it’s a chore. And if you must know, I blame you and that blasted book of yours.” There, she’d said it.
A stark silence followed.
“You don’t mince words, do you?”
“No...”
“I respect that. I wholeheartedly disagree, but I respect your right to state your opinion.”
The tension in the car had just increased by about a thousand degrees.
“After this weekend, you still disagree?” She was astonished he’d actually said that, but then she supposed his ego was on the line.
“I’m not interested in arguing with you, Katherine.”
