Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,48

see you were overwhelmed.”

“I was handling everything quite well, thank you.”

“One of the kids was completely naked when I walked in. I don’t consider that handling everything well. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world might put some qualifiers on that as well.”

“Hey, he was alive, and fed...almost fed...and clean and warm. I was doing pretty good. Even if I have to praise myself.”

“Let another man praise you and not your own lips?” She grinned, maybe making fun of him a little that his father was pastor.

“I wasn’t always a PK. In fact, I started my life as a farmer’s kid. I guess that’s why I’m here now.”

“Once a farmer, always a farmer?”

“I guess it doesn’t hit everyone like that. But I sure got it going that way.”

“This is not what I thought about you.”

“Thought?” he prompted

She shook her head but didn’t say anything more, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What did you think?”

“Don’t be offended. But I think ‘darkness.’” She said it kind of easily, not like she was insulting him, just like she was casually talking about the snow or about supper.

“I guess there is some in there. I’m working on it. Or maybe I should say God’s working on me. Interesting that you should say that though, because when I think of you, I think ‘light.’”

She laughed. “It’s a deliberate cultivation on my part, because...” Her voice trailed off, and she put her hand out again, touching the snow, like she didn’t want to think about what she was about to say.

He wanted to find out what she was gonna say. In fact, he thought he might outright ask her about her past. But not right now.

Chapter 17

“I told you I wanted to talk to you, because I wanted to thank you. I appreciate you staying today. Appreciate you helping me before.” West spoke sincerely, hoping Poppy knew he truly meant what he said.

She’d turned to him and was listening. It was harder to talk when she met his eyes, so he looked over her head.

“You’re right. I don’t like to admit that I was overwhelmed. I don’t think that’s anything any guy likes to say. You know, we like to give the illusion at least that we’re in control of everything. But I needed you. And you didn’t give me a hard time about it, and you could have. I haven’t always been the nicest to you. So, yeah, thanks.”

He took a breath when he was done, glad he managed to get it all out. He shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning his shoulder against a porch beam, looking out at the snow as it fell. It really was pretty, although not something he would normally sit around and stare at.

Somehow though, watching snow fall seemed like fun when Poppy was beside him.

“Well, I told you that the church asked me to do it. Although, I wasn’t supposed to start this soon. But Miss Penny seemed to really want those pull-ups out here today.”

“Obviously, I needed them.”

“Not you. Unless you have something else you want to tell me?”

He chuckled.

Then he sobered. While he was saying things, he might as well tell her. “You make me laugh easier than anybody else. How do you do that?”

“When the light and the dark combined, the light always wins.” Her words were gentle. She wasn’t lecturing him. “I told you. I read the back of the book. I win.”

Of course, she was right. He didn’t think of himself as darkness, though.

“After my parents died, I went to a foster family. That’s where I met Minnie. She was there too. There wasn’t a whole lot of supervision, and there were some really awful things that went on in that house. But it was the friends I fell in with and the things I did with them that really took me down. They were into a lot of séances and devil worship, black was a good color. Just dark stuff. It was only a few months, but it’s amazing how you can walk away from everything you’ve been taught when everything around you is nothing but a deep pit.”

He realized he was actually pushing into the post with his shoulder, and he forced himself to relax. “I can see now how stupid I was, but it kind of marks you. If you give the devil a hold, he pushes the door down. It’s really hard to clean house after he’s been there.”

She didn’t say anything, and he thought