A Texas Legacy Christmas by DiAnn Mills Page B

Frontier Press would soon become a daily paper, an evening edition. Before the twins, he’d wanted to print a morning paper, but he couldn’t leave his children until eleven at night. Press time at noon made more sense.
    Electricity was now a luxury. He’d gotten spoiled with it at the Times, but new advances would come to Kahlerville in due time—as well as a printing press that ran the pages instead of requiring the lengthy process of doing it by hand.
    “Zack, you’re grinning like the mouse that ate the cat.” Hank laughed.
    “I feel like Christmas came early.” He felt a tug on his coattail.
    “Mr. Zack, where’s the newsboys?” Curly said. “I ain’t seen anyone sellin’ papers.”
    “The proper word is ‘I haven’t seen anyone.’ We don’t sell papers here like in New York. Some folks come into the office to buy them. We also have a stack at the general store and the boardinghouse. Hank and I will deliver newspapers to folks who live on farms and ranches, and a young man here in town takes them to the people of Kahlerville. We mail some of them too.”
    The little boy shook his head. “Sure is strange. No sisters or priests and no newsboys. Makes me wonder what a body is supposed to do to earn a livin’.”
    Hank laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. He lifted his hat from his bald head and laughed some more. “The city has just met the country.”
    Zack worked with Hank and discussed the paper until the twins could not handle another moment of behaving themselves.
    “You hit me one more time, and I’m going to black your eyes and break your arm.”
    Zack whirled around to see Charlie with her little arm drawn back. Curly lay sprawled on the wooden floor, and she sat atop him.
    “Is that any way for you to treat your brother?”
    She lifted her chin. “He said girls can’t fight as good as boys.”
    “You’ve already proven him wrong. Get off of him, and we’ll leave here in just a minute.”
    Hank muffled another laugh. Zack turned and grinned. “I know I tried my mother’s patience, but these two will make an old man out of me.”
    “You need a woman.”
    Zack blew out an exasperated sigh. “My luck with the female gender has had its share of problems.”
    “You need a Texas girl to treat you right. Me and my missus have been married for forty years, ever since she was sixteen and I was eighteen. Love will come courtin’ you, son. I can feel it in my bones.”
    *****
    Chloe had chores well under control. One boarder had checked out and another had arrived. All the rooms were in order, and the scent of pork roast and creamed corn swirled through the air. Never had she eaten so well. As the boarders drifted into the dining room along with other townspeople who enjoyed Simeon’s good cooking, she found herself watching for Zack and the twins.
    While balancing three plates of food from the kitchen to a table, she saw Zack and the children enter the dining room and take a small table in the corner. Her heart betrayed her, for it raced at the sight of him. No, it must be impossible. Her concern was for the welfare of Curly and Charlie. A few moments later, she made her way to the trio.
    “Did you have a good morning?” she said.
    Zack leaned back in his chair. His city-bought suit gave him a dashing look. “We’ve been to school and visited with Miss Scott,” he said. “And we’ve been to the newspaper office.”
    She hastily tore her gaze from him to the children. “Busy morning for you little ones.”
    “We’re going to a ranch after we eat,” Curly said.
    “That sounds like tremendous fun to me.”
    The little boy nodded. “We’re going to see horses, cows, chickens—and animals.”
    “And family,” Charlie said with a nod.
    Chloe swung a quick glance at Zack. The compassion on his face moved her to rethink her earlier opinion of him.
    “Every person who is my family is now yours,” he said.
    Chloe swallowed the emotion rising in her throat. “I’ll hurry