Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,21

entail more work.” Penny named the figure that the church board had agreed on. It wasn’t quite double what she was making as a waitress. “How about you take some time to pray about it and think about it. You can give me your answer—”

“I’ll do it. When do you want me to start?” Poppy put a hand up. “Wait. I need to go pick up Hazel. I can’t start until then.”

“I’ve actually asked Blakely if she’ll take over your shift today. She couldn’t make it until one o’clock.” Penny looked at her watch. “That’s fifteen minutes. If you want, I’ll check with Kelly and make sure it’s okay, but you can probably go get Hazel now and be back tomorrow. You can start then.”

Poppy tucked her hair behind her ear, thinking. “There were clothes that people had donated for the children that I was supposed to deliver out to the farm today.”

Penny nodded. “If you don’t mind, Paula has said she’ll do that, and she’s just waiting for a call from me.”

Paula was painfully shy. Poppy tried to picture her standing up to West and couldn’t. But Miss Penny wouldn’t send her out if she didn’t think Paula could handle it.

Come to think of it, opposites often attracted. Maybe Paula and West would hit it off.

Poppy tried to smile. “That’s perfect. I don’t need time to think about it. Everything seems to be falling into place, with Hazel coming and me being offered a job I can do and still have her with me, not to mention the family that needs help.” No matter how painful it might be for her to help. No matter how much she might want to avoid West.

“Don’t rush your trip.” Penny reached into her purse and pulled out a slip of paper. “Before I forget, here’s a number you can call to talk to someone about your mom and paperwork. Your mom has approved you taking Hazel, which will expedite things.”

Poppy’s fingers shook as she took the paper. Funny how she felt so in control of things when everything was going well, but as soon as there was one little wrinkle in the life that she’d built for herself, she felt weak and disoriented and like she was ready to crumble.

She straightened her back. She wasn’t going to crumble.

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

That had become her life’s verse.

“I’ll be back by tomorrow night. I can start then.”

There was that storm that everybody had been calling “the storm of the century,” but she wasn’t sure exactly what day it was supposed to hit. It didn’t seem to be on Penny’s radar, so she wasn’t going to worry about it either.

“I meant it. Don’t rush. The day after tomorrow will be soon enough. In the meantime, Paula can give West a hand if he needs it.”

Chapter 8

West dropped the pooped underwear into a plastic bag, tied the bag, shifted Trevor on his hip, and threw the bag into the bathroom trashcan.

That was the third pair today.

“I can’t believe someone as little as you could have so much poop in his body,” he said under his breath to Garrett who was splashing in the tub as the water ran freely into it.

At least his little butt wasn’t brown anymore.

The doorbell rang, yet again. Was that the third or fourth time?

West wasn’t sure, and he didn’t really care. Surely Poppy would figure out that he was probably changing pooped underwear—what else did he do anymore—and would let herself in.

Tempted to yell that the door wasn’t locked, he refrained.

“It’s kind of expensive for me to be using one pair every time you poop. We either need to get diapers or those pull-up things.”

Garrett totally ignored him, probably couldn’t even hear him over the running water, and splashed happily.

“Maybe changing your underwear shouldn’t be quite so much fun, then you wouldn’t want to do it so often.” Now there was an idea. What kid didn’t want to get naked in the tub and splash around?

He almost laughed. Really, he didn’t truly think that Garrett pooped his pants on purpose just to get in the tub, but hey, it seemed reasonable. Right now, he wouldn’t mind that himself actually.

He had baby spit on both shoulders, and he was pretty sure that Trevor was leaking out of his diaper.

The only kid that hadn’t put bodily fluids on him today yet was Warren, but the day was only half over. Yesterday, Warren had fallen and scraped his knee.

Blood counted.

There