Page 30 of Never Say Never

"We saw you going out and you looked real nice again," Navy said. "Too nice. We wanted to see where you were going."

Nyra nodded. "Are you on a date, Daddy?"

Oh my God. My twins were every bit as perceptive as their mother and truth be told, me. They would make excellent agents someday.

"Who's this?" Navy asked. "Your boyfriend?"

"He's a friend from work," I said quickly to stop their nonsense right away. "Paul, this is Navy and Nyra." They both waved. "This is Paul Gallo."

I turned to see if he was as utterly horrified as I was, but his face was blank. I turned back to my kids. Never in a million years did I think our second date would be crashed by my kids, but apparently, they had other plans. Ones to drive me crazy.

"You two are so very grounded when we get home."

"Awww, that's not fair," Navy whined.

"Fair? You're wandering around a park in New York by yourselves. What if you were kidnapped? Or murdered? Or both!"

"Daddy, but we're not," Nyra added. "I was very smart. We kept close and if anything happened, we both have these."

To my astonishment, they both pulled matching bottles of pepper spray out of their pockets. I reached down and snatched them away, stuffing them into my pockets.

"What is wrong with you two? Where did you get those!"

"We found them online," Nyra said.

"It's really easy to buy stuff online," Navy added.

"Oh my God."

A snicker grabbed my attention. While I was stunned, I turned to a laughing Paul. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand, but there were wrinkles around his eyes and his neck was red from him trying to contain himself. I blinked at him.

"You're not helping."

"Sorry, sorry," he said as he removed his hand and laughed again. "Hi, girls."

He held out his hand to them. Each of them exchanged a look, silent words exchanged behind those big eyes before they each turned back and shook it. I had no idea how they communicated that way, but it freaked me out every time.

"Hi, you're cute," Navy blurted.

I stared at her in shock. Why was it that she was the one that always said the first thing on her mind? Nyra was the quiet one, but even she seemed to be enamored by Paul.

"Why, thank you, little lady," he said as he smiled at her. "I love your dress. Blue is my favorite color."

"Mine too, and Nyra's. Isn't that right, Nyra."

"Light blue," Nyra supplied.

"Well, I like dark blue, but they're close," Navy said as she tilted her head. "Your eyes are pretty."

Paul whistled. "You are a little flatterer, if I have ever met one. Can we buy them ice cream?" he asked.

I stammered over my words as the girls cheered. "Absolutely not! I will not reward bad behavior. You two are going to come home right now. Where is Shelly?"

"Who's Shelly?" Paul asked.

"Our nanny," Nyra muttered. "She's the worst."

"She is not," I said. "You two don't like that she has rules."