Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,15

be something you’re not. But you really are that thing you want to be.”

“That sounds like Pollyanna talking. Peppy Pollyanna.”

Gabriella let out a soft burp along with some white liquid with just a few chunks which landed on and ran down West’s shirt.

“Crap. Forgot the burp rag.”

“Crap,” Warren said, from the end of the picnic table.

“Crap, crap, crap,” Garrett echoed.

West’s jaw flexed, and his eyes closed. Like he was digging deep, for patience or for wisdom, Poppy wasn’t sure.

“I don’t think that’s a word your mother probably wants you to say.” She looked at Warren first. He looked down at the table. Of course, he knew precisely that his mother didn’t want him to say that word.

“And Garrett,” she said sweetly and softly, because she was a stranger, and they weren’t her kids, but if she were dying of cancer, and someone else were raising her children, she would really appreciate it if they would teach them to do right and not just let them get away with anything even though they were going through a hard time.

Of course, she wanted people to have compassion for her children. But she didn’t want her children spoiled, either.

Garrett, a French fry sticking out of his mouth, looked up at her with big brown eyes.

“Don’t say that word. There’s lots of other words you can say instead.” She squinted her eyes and pretended to think really hard. “Like...French fries!” she said, like she just pulled that word way out of the blue and hadn’t thought of it because he had one hanging out of his mouth.

Garrett giggled. “French fries.”

“Hey, give me that,” Warren said as Garrett pulled a fry off his Styrofoam container.

She lowered her voice and looked at West. “There’s something very satisfying about saying French fry. Probably better than that other word you had.”

“That’s another area where I’ve been struggling. Every single thing I do, they copy. There’s nothing like a kid to magnify your faults.”

That was so true.

“Nothing like a kid to show you where your faults are.” Her lack of patience, her selfishness, her inability to want the best for someone else over herself. “I’ve been told it gets easier.”

“I’m hoping that they don’t stay young long enough for it to get to be easy.” He sighed. “That sounded terrible. I’m sorry.”

“No. I understand. This isn’t what you’d been planning for your life. I guess sometimes we just have these bumps in the road.” Boy, did she ever know about bumps in the road.

West’s head lowered, and he spoke low. “Don’t look, but there’s a lady from church. She’s been staring at us for at least ten minutes.” He jerked his head over toward the sidewalk where the gate to the playground was. “I guess that’ll be another bump in the road when we walk into church on Sunday morning and everyone expects us to be sitting together.”

“We’ll just not live up to expectations at that point.” She certainly wasn’t going to sit with anyone just because people expected her to. And she was one hundred percent sure that West wouldn’t either.

“I just hope they don’t give my parents any ideas. Sometimes, my folks get crazy thoughts in their head, and somehow, they manage to finagle things into happening.”

“Really?”

“Sure. It happened with my brothers. I’m pretty sure Denver wouldn’t have ended up with Natalie if it hadn’t been for my dad’s meddling.”

“But they’re so happy together! I mean, Natalie is perfect for him. And he’s amazing with her. Just looking at them makes you believe in love.”

He snorted. But then he sighed again. “Yeah. You’re right. But none of their hocus-pocus can work with me. And I’m warning you, only because you’re helping me today, that you better stay away so they don’t start trying to work it on you if you don’t want to end up married to some poor sot.” He shivered, only partially joking, she thought. “I pity the poor girl they sic on me. I’m not going down without a fight.”

He seemed to be lifting a little bit of the darkness that had been surrounding him, and that last was said with more than a little humor.

“I’ll be fighting right alongside you then, because I’m not interested in any hocus-pocus in my life either. I’m definitely not going through that again.”

“Going through what?”

She shook her head. West had maybe said more to her than he intended to. But she wasn’t doing the same. There was no way she was talking about her past. Not with