Maizy the Bear Charmer(Diving Creek Ranch 16)(18)

She watched them remove their silverware from their napkins and place the linen in their laps. “You have nice manners.”

Heath and Spencer grinned at Cody, and then Cody said, “There’s a special lady in our lives that we have to thank for you noticing that fact.”

“Your mom?”

Cody nodded. “Far as we’re concerned, yeah. She’s actually our foster mom. She was a stickler for good table manners.”

She toyed with the edge of her napkin and said, “You don’t have to do that, you know.”

Heath arched an eyebrow. “Why? Have you never dated anyone who had good manners?”

Maizy shrugged, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. “I have but it always seems to fall by the wayside. I just mean you don’t have to try to impress me. I’m already impressed.”

“You are? Good,” Cody said as he turned to face her. “But we’re not using good manners to impress you. We were taught good manners by a good teacher. It sounds like you dated guys who saw manners and impressing you as a means to an end.”

After considering it, Maizy said, “Maybe so.”

“We have other ways to impress you. We don’t need to use common courtesy to do that,” Cody said with a smile as he opened the menu.

She took a breather as she consulted her menu until the waiter approached. He greeted the men as if they were regular customers and wrote down their drink orders.

The waiter returned with their beverages and took their orders. Maizy ordered the petite filet with squash casserole and a Caesar salad.

Cody’s order was as straightforward as he was. “I’ll have the sixteen ounce T-bone, medium rare. Baked potato with butter and that’s it. And a salad with ranch dressing.” The waiter nodded and looked at Spencer.

“Give me the chicken fried steak with fries on top and cream gravy on top of that.”

“Any other sides? A salad maybe?”

“No, thanks.” The waiter nodded and then looked at Heath.

Heath said, “I’ll have your filet mignon with a baked sweet potato, and salad with ranch dressing.”

“How would you like that filet cooked, sir?”

“Is Bobby working today?” Heath asked in reply.

At the waiter’s smile and nod, Heath grinned and said, “Tell Bobby I said to clip its horns, wipe its ass, and serve it up.”

The waiter grinned and scribbled on his pad. “Very rare. I’ll let Bobby know you asked for him.”

Once the waiter was gone, the men turned their attention to her. She knew she had a million questions to ask but they all deserted her. Miss Tongue and Miss Lips were suddenly mute.

“How long have you been teaching kindergarten?” Spencer asked.

“Six years. All of them here in Divine.”

Cody looked closely at her. “Is that the only grade you’ve ever taught?”

Maizy nodded. “That’s been my dream all my life, to teach young children. I was offered the position of Elementary Principal a couple of years ago but I didn’t have any interest in it. My dad was very upset I didn’t at least take it.”

“‘At least?’” What did he mean by that?” Cody asked with a frown furrowing his dark, arched eyebrows. He looked fierce when he did that.

“I have a master’s degree in education. My father had aspirations for me teaching at the college level. He was very disappointed I took a low-level teaching job. He considered the offer for the elementary principal position to be a step up.”

“Low level?”

“He sees kindergarten as glorified daycare. He doesn’t understand that it’s now where the foundational reading and writing skills are taught, at least it is here in Divine.”

“Your dad sounds hard to please.”

Maizy smiled. “He would tell you he has high standards. He thinks all I do is help kids glue pinto beans onto construction paper and watch them play on the playground.”

“Ow,” Heath said. “It doesn’t seem like his opinion bothers you very much.”

“It did at first. But I know my own worth as a teacher. He doesn’t understand that I’m helping them develop muscle memory for writing and keyboarding, and teaching them to be able to break down and read most words. I could teach at whatever level I want to because of my degree but I’m already doing exactly what I was called to do. The master’s degree just gives me more options. If for some reason I left this job, I wouldn’t have to rely on him for anything because I know I could support myself. I had a full scholarship to go to school so I didn’t have to rely on him for much while I was in college, either. I loved learning almost as much as I love teaching so I excelled. I grew up watching him push my older sisters, who are now in high-level positions, but neither of them seems very happy. Conversely, he’s very pleased with them for their choices. Patrick and I seem to be the mavericks in our family.”