Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON
49
the woods? Was the only difference that he’d been able
to afford to buy this place?
The kids were all in the kitchen, Willow as usual
looking shy and apart from the group, Erin equally apart
but serenely so. John was nowhere to be seen. Fiona
carried a basket upstairs and collected dirty clothes.
Going back through the kitchen, she said, “Boys,
you get KP duty this morning. When everyone’s done
eating, it’s your job to wash the dishes.”
Inevitably Hopper grumbled, “Why us?”
“Because we’re all going to take turns.” She surveyed
the table. “Tabitha, Erin and I are going to make lunch.
Willow, Kelli and Amy will do the lunch dishes. Dinner
we’ll discuss when it gets closer.”
Smiling, she left them groaning and whining. Some
of them had looked shocked enough, she had to wonder
if they were required to do chores at home. That was
the thing with a ritzy private school—the kids came
from a whole different world than the one in which
she’d grown up. They were more sophisticated in many
ways than the teenagers with whom she’d gone to
school. They compared Thai food at a restaurant to food
they’d had in Thailand, snorkeling off Belize to experiences
on the Barrier reef. They wore designer clothes,
had every electronic gadget and drove BMWs the
minute they turned sixteen.
But there were also huge gaps in their knowledge.
They spoke of maids instead of having to carry out the
garbage. She doubted most of them knew how to mop
a kitchen floor or scrub a toilet. Maybe even how to
wash dishes, although they were smart kids—they’d