Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,12

three and four days off.

Which made it so she was able to spend time at her dad’s cabin in the woods. The cabin was actually pretty fancy for a “cabin,” but it was in some of the most beautiful country in the Ozarks, in Journee’s opinion.

Not to mention there was a fun brook in the meadow that she was in now, plus lots of rocks to climb and places to explore.

When her parents had foster children, Journee often took them up for an overnight trip, and sometimes, they spent a couple nights, depending on the kids and how much they liked it.

Currently, her parents’ latest charges, Frank and Darcy, were with her. Darcy was much more interested in horses, and Frank was a sports fanatic, but both of them were having fun wading in the brook, splashing and laughing, not far from where Journee sat with her notebook and with Computer Geek’s latest letter.

She wasn’t sure what exactly had caused his change of heart, but he seemed more vulnerable than he had in any other letter.

He said in a postscript he did run into a problem with his app and was working on it. But it also sounded like things were shifting in his professional life, whatever he did for a living.

She had to admit she was curious, and if it hadn’t been for her promise to her dad, she’d be asking all kinds of questions.

She remembered her dad’s warning though, and that was what prompted her hesitation.

She didn’t really trust herself, but all of her heart and soul said to go for it. That, sure, like any other man in the world, he had hang-ups and problems, but she felt like she could trust him.

Maybe her feelings were wrong.

After all, she trusted Alex. That had been a mistake.

She couldn’t live her life never trusting anyone again because she had made one bad decision.

The kids laughed, and she looked up in time to see Darcy slip, her arms fly around, and Frank reach out.

They helped each other, and both of them managed to stay on their feet. Barely.

The sight made her smile. She had a happy childhood thanks to Race and Penny adopting her.

She could go have a good time with Darcy and Frank, and maybe she wouldn’t wait around for Mr. Right to have children. There were lots of kids who needed a home.

Although she wasn’t sure what her life would be like, if she hadn’t had a dad. Would she have been happy with just a mom?

She suspected, if that was all she knew, she’d have been happy with it.

She wasn’t sure exactly whether she should go forward with that thought or not.

The Bible was clear that a man and a woman got together, and then they had children. But in a world that wasn’t perfect, where there were children who needed a stable home, maybe a mom would be sufficient.

Or maybe the Lord would send a dad.

Setting aside her notebook, thinking a little more about Computer Geek and exactly how much she was going to open up to him, she yanked her shoes and socks off, rolled up her pant legs, and ran up the edge of the creek toward the children as she braced herself for the cold water.

Kids were only young once, and if she could make even one day in their childhood a special one, she wanted to do that.

DEAR COMPUTER GEEK,

I would like to be your friend.

I understand what you’re saying about people that you think will be there, and they’re not.

I suppose we’ve all had people in our lives like that. It sounds like you maybe more than most.

I’d love to go whitewater rafting with you. I might be a big baby about it, though. I’m not big on fear. While I think I would enjoy the rafting part of it, the whitewater I’m not so sure about.

I’m sorry to hear that you ran into trouble with your app. I hope you get the kinks worked out.

I know you said you didn’t care for sheep, and I get your explanation. It made sense to me. What about gardening? I’ve actually been working on one this year and have really been enjoying it. Not necessarily because of eating what I grow, but because it’s been fun to make the garden look pretty. I know, weird, right?

There’s a festival in my town soon—like there are in July in towns across America. Everybody’s gearing up for that now. It’ll be here before we know it.