Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,25

or rainbows one time.

Reaching in the manila envelope, he pulled out his wallet. He knew he didn’t need to count the money in it. Pollyanna wouldn’t take anything.

Pulling a twenty out, he handed it to Paula. “If you want to help me today, go to the store and buy as many pull-ups as that will buy.”

Paula blinked several times like she wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking her to do before she reached up and carefully took the money from him, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she was extra careful not to brush his fingers.

Maybe she thought his bad attitude was contagious.

His thoughts weren’t charitable. He was just frustrated because he had been looking forward to seeing Poppy and she wasn’t here. He also wanted to answer her. It wasn’t fair that she got the last laugh.

And then he remembered: he had her phone number.

“Do you need help carrying the clothes in?” Paula asked, and he thought she sounded almost hopeful. But that couldn’t be right.

“No thanks. I’m good. These pull-ups are more important than clothes, to be honest.”

She nodded quickly, her head bobbing up and down. “I’ll get them. As many as I can. Really fast.”

“Hey.”

She’d already started off the porch, and she jerked to a stop, turning. “Yes?”

“If I don’t answer the doorbell, just go ahead and set them in front of the door. I’ll check after lunch.”

Her eyes fell. He felt a little bad. Race and Penny wouldn’t send anyone to him that wouldn’t seriously be a help, but he kind of felt like he’d be better off doing this himself than constantly worrying about offending Paula. Or scaring her. Or upsetting her. Whatever happened when she got all red like that.

He felt bad about it, wished he could fix it, but he had the kids to deal with.

He wasn’t fooling himself. He didn’t want Paula, not because she was a pain, but because she wasn’t Poppy.

He stepped back and closed the door, grinning down at Garrett who took his towel and spread his arms out, creating wings above his naked little body.

As he went sailing through the living room, yelling some kind of battle cry at the top of his lungs, West thought, what would happen if he just let the kid be naked? Would the poop fall out behind him? Or maybe that would help him remember to go to the potty?

Maybe they could make some kind of deal about it. He could be naked as long as he pooped in the pot.

Even if the poop fell out behind him, it would be easier to clean up if it were just lying on the floor rather than smashed into underwear and little boy butt.

He was gonna solve the problem. No doubt.

But first, pulling his phone out, he sent Poppy a text.

The trapdoor thing? It’s not true. He found the emoji button and selected a unicorn before hitting send.

Chapter 9

Poppy looked at her phone and laughed.

Who would have thought West could make her laugh with a text?

It came at the perfect time.

“It’s my professional opinion that your mother will never be able to live on her own again.” The serious-looking man wearing a long white lab coat and holding an iPad stood beside Poppy looking through the one-way glass at where her mother stood staring out the window at the rolling green fields of Missouri while Hazel sat quietly at the child’s desk behind her, her coloring book and crayons in front of her but her hands clasped on her lap, staring at the desk.

“We have Hazel interacting with other children, in a pre-K and a 4-K program, but a more normal home life would be better for her.” The man clicked a couple of buttons on his iPad. “Your mother has agreed to this. She knows it’s for the best. Especially now that she’s on a suicide watch.”

“I wish there was more I could do. It seems like she’s worsened today because of seeing me.”

“I think seeing you reminds her of the life she lost. That’s the trouble right now. We can’t get her to stop focusing on her loss and start thinking about the possibilities and opportunities of her future. She can’t stop her downward spiral. Medication helps, but she needs to change her thinking pattern.”

Poppy nodded. She knew exactly what the doctor was saying. It was what she had had to do in order to move past the tragedy that had claimed her family.

Several hours later, she held Hazel’s hand as they