Father Christmas (37 page)

How could acquiring full custody of his
precious, beloved, adorable twin offspring overwhelm him? Just
because their mother hadn’t packed their pajamas and toothbrushes
in an accessible place...

The children exploded out of the bathroom,
apparently racing each other back to bed. “He belched, Daddy, he
belched!” Erin reported in her loudest tattle-tale whine.

“
That wasn’t a belch. It
was gag-gling.”

“
He was gagging,
Daddy!”

“
I was gag-gling. You
know, where you take water in your mouth and you put your head back
and you spit it up like a water fountain? That’s called
gag-gling.”

“
He is so disgusting!
Daddy, when can I have my own room?”

“
That wasn’t
belching.
This
is belching,” Sean clarified before ripping loose
with a burp loud enough to register on the Richter
scale.

“
Daddy!
”

“
I was only
demonstrating!”

“
Daddy, make him
stop!”

Dennis closed his eyes and cursed. Smart,
shrewd and brilliant? Heaven help him if his adversaries in court
ever found out that Sean and Erin Murphy, seven years old and cuter
than sin, could reduce the smartest, shrewdest, most brilliant
attorney in Arlington, Connecticut to a state of sheer panic.

“
Daddy, don’t curse so
much,” Erin chided.

Yeah,
he added silently: sheer panic and way too much
cursing. That was what his world was coming to.