Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,17
siblings in when no one else would. Six kids was a lot for anyone; six kids who were almost all teenagers was more than they could expect anyone to do.
Race and Penny had jumped in and had done just as good a job as anyone could expect birth parents to do. Had loved them like their own, had disciplined them like their own, and hadn’t given them any slack while they hadn’t withheld any love either.
He’d been blessed to have two of the most amazing sets of parents in the entire world.
He looked at the kids at the table and the baby in his arms, innocent and trusting. They weren’t going to have what he had.
How could he even think about himself when faced with that reality?
Even though that question was totally reasonable and rational, he still resented the fact that his life had been upended. And he’d been forced to come face-to-face with the thing that he most feared.
Losing someone he loved again.
“I imagine Minnie’s probably tired. We’ll get this stuff gathered up and get her home so she can take a rest.” She’d barely been out of bed in the time she’d spent at his house. She had to be exhausted.
“Maybe Poppy can take the kids over to the truck. I’d like to talk to you.”
He jerked his head in assent, then dug his keys out of his pocket after putting Gabriella in her car seat and buckling her. He handed her off, and Poppy took her without saying anything, Trevor on one hip and the car seat carried in the other hand, his keys in her teeth.
He didn’t even mention the unsanitariness of that. No point. After having the kids for as long as he had, he understood a person did what they had to do.
Penny waited until they got to the gate before she came around the picnic table and sat down, her hand landing on his knee.
He put his hand, bigger and browner, over top of it. “You’re going to give me the lowdown?”
Penny took a deep breath in and blew it out, watching as Minnie carefully got out of her car when Poppy approached it. The boys ran to her, and Poppy put a hand out as though trying to slow them down. Minnie looked like a stiff wind would blow her away.
“Hospice means hospice. I don’t think I need to spell that out for you.”
“No.”
“I don’t know if she’s talked to you about the pain she’s been in, but that’s going to be an issue.”
“No. She hasn’t said a word.”
“I figured not. There’s probably a lot of things she hasn’t said.”
“Are you going to?”
Penny shook her head, but it wasn’t a no; it was almost an I don’t know where to start. “She found out about the cancer about the same time she found out about Gabriella. She had to make a choice. Obviously, you can see what her choice was. Since they knew about the cancer, they induced her early and hoped they might be able to get a jump on treatment. There were some delays, some issues regarding her insurance, and of course having cancer and a newborn and three other children was overwhelming. That’s how she ended up with you.”
West looked away. He could hardly imagine a sacrifice like that.
“Where’s the dad?”
“He was working for a pig farm in Iowa, and he fell into the manure pit. They didn’t find the body until they drained the pit.”
West lived in a farming community, and agricultural accidents were not uncommon to hear about. Still, he cringed. He couldn’t imagine.
“I don’t think the first two are his. And I don’t think they were married. She didn’t exactly live a straight-line life. But there’s no doubt she wants the best for her children.”
“Sounds like you two had quite the talk.”
“She’s scared. Not really of dying.” Penny rubbed her free hand along her leg, seeming to be trying to figure out how to say what needed to be said. “She’s scared for her children. She knows she hasn’t done the best or made the best choices for them, but she really wanted to correct that, and she thought she was heading in the right direction. Then this past year, things unraveled, and right now, her sole focus is doing right by her kids.”
“So we’re looking for a foster family?”
Penny didn’t say anything for a while, letting the silence wash over them.
A soft breeze, flowing over the damp earth fresh from winter, clean and new, stirred