Some Bright Someday (Maple Valley #2) - Melissa Tagg Page 0,30

for you.”

She beamed. “I’m happy for me, too.”

And then she did it a second time. Hugged him all over again and suddenly he was convinced that moving to the cottage was both the best and stupidest thing he’d ever done.

As quickly as she’d appeared, she was gone, racing back to the house, her ponytail swaying behind her.

“I get it now.”

He was still absurdly out of breath when he turned. “Get what?”

Noah rose from the chair at the large paint-splattered table in the corner. “Why we ditched the B&B for this place.”

“What do you mean?” He stepped into the cottage, irritated as much by the tone in Noah’s voice as the knowing look in his eyes. Just what exactly did he think he knew?

“You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?”

Lucas went still. “Say something like that again and—”

“And you’ll what?” Noah leaned his hip against the kitchenette counter. “Tell Flagg you’re giving up on me?”

“Tell him he should give up on you. I’m serious. Disrespect Jen one more time in front of me and I’ll send you packing so fast you won’t know what hit you.” He plucked Noah’s bag from the floor and tossed it in a bedroom. “Now go get the cleaning supplies and get to work.”

She couldn’t stop staring at the baby in her arms.

The creak of her rocking chair was a lullaby in the silence of the room she’d picked out for Cade—breezy yellow walls, tasseled rug with a geometric pattern of blue, white, and gray. Marshall had helped her carry the old crib down from the attic on Saturday, but up until today, it’d been in the room down the hall where Colie and Violet slept.

But now that she knew the kids were staying indefinitely, it made sense to give them their own rooms. Not like she didn’t have plenty to spare. She’d rolled the crib in here and had given the girls the pick of the remaining rooms.

Jenessa leaned closer to little Cade, the scent of baby lotion lifting from his soft, pink skin. He’d spent half the day crying. He’d pooped through his diaper. He’d made Violet shriek when he’d grabbed a fistful of her hair at suppertime.

But right now? With his little chest rising with each deep breath and his impossibly long eyelashes resting on his cheeks? It felt like she was holding a piece of heaven in her arms.

“Jessa?”

Her gaze flitted to the bedroom door. The light from the hallway spilled into the room, creating a silhouette around Violet’s thin form. “Hey, you.”

Violet wore a Little Mermaid pajama top with red-and green-striped Christmas bottoms and held a bright pink toothbrush in one hand. Carmen had stopped by Tessa Hollis’s house earlier in the day, picked up clothing and other items—Cade’s high chair, a plastic grocery sack filled with a few toys, several pairs of shoes, car seats—and dropped them off at Jenessa’s. But none of their belongings had excited Violet as much as the new toothbrush Jenessa had produced later.

She had Mara to thank for that. Her friend had swung by the mini-mart this evening and then dropped off a few things.

And thankfully, Jenessa had found a temporary solution to the vehicle situation, leasing a mid-sized SUV from a local dealership that had delivered it right to her driveway.

“I can’t reach the toothpaste, Jessa.”

Jenessa blinked and stood. She kissed Cade’s cheek once more before crossing the room and laying him in the crib. She turned on the baby monitor, another item Carmen had found in Tessa Hollis’s rental house.

What would happen to the rest of the stuff the kids had left behind? To all of Tessa Hollis’s belongings? Maybe Jenessa should bring the kids over there at some point. Let Colie and Vi pick through whatever was there and identify anything else they wanted to make sure to keep.

Or maybe that was a job better left to their father. Assuming he could be found before the home’s owner took it upon himself to empty out the place.

She reached Violet and took the little girl’s hand, leading her across the hall and into the bathroom. Moments later, Jenessa had the pink toothbrush loaded with toothpaste. “Are you old enough to brush your own teeth?” Colie had been in the bathroom with Violet the past two nights.

From her perch on the bathroom footstool, Vi’s chiming giggle was almost as cute as her dimpled grin and her mismatched pajamas. “You’re silly, Jessa.”

Or just tragically inexperienced at taking care of kids. But she’d done okay so far,