Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,1

fast as she could, taking the chance that she might hit a bump and come down hard with the bouncing, giving undue pressure on what looked like old, rotted timbers?

Deciding moderation was always a good choice, she closed her eyes and pressed on the pedal.

Wait a second. Old rickety bridge or no, she was almost begging for trouble to drive with her eyes closed. They snapped back open.

She laughed at herself.

She trained herself to be happy, yes, but she hadn’t completely conquered the common sense she’d been born without.

What seemed reasonable and obvious to everyone else seemed like a brilliant discovery to her, years after other people had figured things out.

Like driving with their eyes open.

She knew it; she just forgot sometimes.

Her front tires hit the old timbers of the bridge and began to rumble across.

The thought that she could point the steering wheel straight and still close her eyes tugged hard at the back of her mind, but she kept her lids up. She would be brave.

She could be both happy and brave.

Maybe having problems to work out was good for her. Always in the back of her mind was the knowledge that she could end up like her mother. After all, she’d gone through the same horrifying experience.

Just because she hadn’t fallen into a deep depression right away didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

She wouldn’t let it.

It felt like years before her front tires hit solid ground on the other side, and she let out the breath she was holding. The food had made it safely across, and so had she.

Now all she had to do was go back over the bridge on her way home.

It didn’t take any time at all to pull up to the house and grab the hot food. She’d come back for the casseroles in a bit. It was February, just a few days before Valentine’s Day, and even though it was Arkansas, it wasn’t hot.

As she climbed the porch to the small house, she realized with the pan of food in each hand, she wasn’t going to be able to knock on the door.

What sounded like a muffled thump and a scream on the other side of the door made her wonder about the wisdom of whether this was a good time.

If they wanted their food hot, it had to be a good time. Also, she really didn’t want to have to drive over the bridge three more times instead of one, so she was going to deliver it right now despite any inconvenience.

Another three thumps in quick succession had her pulling her lip in and biting down on it. It sounded like maybe the kids had taken over in there.

Maybe she could help.

For the woman and her kids who were staying here and not necessarily for West.

Using her elbow, she rang the doorbell, hoping it worked.

She couldn’t hear whether it rang or not.

It felt like forever that she stood waiting before using her elbow to ring again.

She’d given up and was looking for a place to put the pans in her hands down so she could knock when the door jerked open.

West, with a screaming baby in one arm and a crying child holding onto his left leg, stood facing her.

Poppy had been a Christian all her life. She’d been taught not to laugh at another’s calamity. That seeing someone else suffering shouldn’t make her smile. That she should love everyone and not wish ill on anyone.

Maybe she was arrogant, but she thought, usually, she did a pretty good job on those.

Still, seeing West so overwhelmed with the crying baby and the clinging toddler and the yelling that was going on behind him, she couldn’t help it.

She smirked.

“I’d really like to send you away, because I don’t want to see happy people right now, but if you’re holding food, you can come in.” West’s eyes had narrowed, and while his words, spoken above the crying child, were not terribly kind, they did represent the type of relationship that she seemed to have with him.

Not hateful; they didn’t hate each other. But not friendly either. Kind of a jabbing, poking relationship.

Her smirk fell right in line with that, and his annoyance at her happiness was typical as well.

Apparently, West preferred to be around sour, grumpy people all the time.

She wasn’t going to go back and undo all the work she’d done just to keep West happy.

Plus, she highly suspected that he wouldn’t be happy anyway, no matter what she did.

He said he picked