Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,45

any of those emotions.

It was all her.

Maybe he wanted to lay out the schedule he wanted to keep with the kids. Or something they had to do with Minnie.

Or maybe some kind of proposition for cooking and cleaning.

She turned her head away. “Of course, I’ll talk to you. We need to get some things figured out with the kids.”

“That’s...” West trailed off.

Garrett ran up to them. “I have to pee. I have to pee.”

“All right. We’ll do that right now,” West said, with just a hint of panic in his voice, like he wasn’t totally confident that even though Garrett had told him he had to pee that he could actually wait to pee.

Poppy didn’t want to watch him leave. She wanted to get right back into what she was doing, but her eyes kind of hooked on him as his hand reached down, and Garrett’s slipped into his, and they hurried off to the restroom.

She certainly had gotten a more rounded glimpse of West since Minnie and her kids had moved in.

Hazel stood on a chair and helped her do the dishes, and Warren emptied the dishwasher and loaded the silverware and plates back up.

It probably didn’t cut down on the time that she had to spend in the kitchen, but eventually it would, for someone anyway. Whoever ended up with Minnie’s children.

When West took the boys up to give them a bath, she opened the door and stuck her head out. It was too dark to see the river, but she could hear it easily, even though the rain still hadn’t let up. It seemed to be much cooler out, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there were some white flakes coming down with the raindrops.

If she recalled correctly, some of the weather forecasters had said there would be ice before the rain turned to snow.

She still wasn’t worried about the snow lying on the ground. It never did in Arkansas. She didn’t need snow. With the river up, she might not even be going home tomorrow.

Chapter 16

“I want to hide by myself,” Garrett said as he held West’s hand while walking into the living room from the kitchen where Poppy had started counting.

Warren had already taken off after having offered to hide with Trevor, and he must have found a place because West couldn’t hear any movement. To make it a little easier, they limited the places where the kids could hide to the downstairs. Still, it wouldn’t take Poppy long to count to fifty, and they didn’t have much time.

“Okay, buddy. Find a spot and be still and quiet.”

He grinned to himself, thinking that he’d been playing pretty nice with Poppy and hadn’t done any kind of trickery. They’d each been “it” about five times or so, taking turns with each of the boys and Hazel.

This was the first time he got to hide by himself. He couldn’t help thinking it would be fun to scare Poppy. He was pretty sure she’d be okay with it. She was always so happy and bubbly, and he’d considered that annoying, but after being around her so much, the whole happy thing was growing on him.

Not to mention, he found he wanted to be closer to her.

Thankfully, he was wearing dark clothes, and with the clouds outside and the rain coming down, it was almost pitch black in the house.

He slipped into a corner behind his recliner but didn’t hunch down, just pulled his sweatshirt up over his nose to keep his face from glowing in the dark.

“Ready or not, here I come,” Poppy called from the kitchen.

Almost immediately there was giggling, but Poppy said, “Hmm. I think I hear West giggling. Only he sounds like a little boy. West, is that you?”

Garrett said, “No. It’s Garrett.”

“No. It is West. I’m giggling.” West couldn’t resist speaking up, knowing it would make Garrett laugh harder.

Immediately, the direction of Poppy’s steps changed; they started going toward him.

“And now I think I hear Garrett in the living room. Only his voice has gotten deeper.”

More giggling came from the dining room, and he heard Hazel laughing in the hall.

Funny how being around Poppy made everyone laugh. He didn’t even think what she was saying was so funny. She was just being goofy, and while he could see the appeal for children, it was funny that she roped him in, too. Despite him maybe not wanting to be roped in.

Her footsteps got closer, and he tensed.

“I’m pretty sure I heard Garrett in here, although his