Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,5

time. He didn’t have anything to put her in. Like a buggy or whatever they called things like that nowadays.

“I could put the kids down for now and watch the baby, if you don’t mind carrying the food in from the car before you go out and do your work.” Poppy’s never-ending smile was on her face, and she spoke without looking at him.

Instead, she made a face at Garrett and got him to grin.

West didn’t say anything, though, and he resented the appreciation he felt for her. He didn’t want to start to like her.

“I can stay for a while, if it’ll help you.” She turned to him, her smile just as big as it always was. He didn’t let himself smile back.

“If you get the kids down, you can tell Minnie to call me if she needs me, and then you can go. I’d appreciate it.”

“Will she be awake? Would she like some food?” Poppy looked around, like she supposed that Minnie had been sleeping and now realized she’d neglected her duty by not fixing her a plate.

In West’s experience, Minnie wasn’t going to eat anything anyway. Maybe a few bites.

“She’s upstairs in the first bedroom on the left.” Gabriella let out a deep burp. It never failed to surprise West that such a small baby could make such a loud noise.

“I can take her. You can go.” Poppy stood, holding her hands for the baby.

West definitely wasn’t going to fight about it.

He held Gabby out to Poppy. The little body felt warm and light and cuddly, and his arms felt strangely light as Poppy lifted her out of his hands.

He reminded himself he’d have plenty of time with her at night, when she seemed to spend most of the hours screaming and stiff as a board.

Still, it was almost impossible not to fall completely in love with her, helpless and fatherless.

The urge to buy her something pink also surprised him.

Minnie had explained that all she had were boys’ clothes, and she hadn’t been shopping since Gabriella had been born.

West helped clear off the table, and then as Poppy held Gabriella in one hand and Trevor’s hand in the other, she left the room while chatting with Garrett, taking the children upstairs.

“I guess it’s just you and me, bud,” he said to Warren.

“I want to go outside.”

He nodded. “Let’s get these dishes in the dishwasher, then we’ll do that.”

Chapter 3

Poppy cradled the tiny little body of Gabriella in her arms. The little one couldn’t be more than a month or two old. If that.

Her little rosebud mouth pursed as she blew her breath out, her eyelashes peacefully resting on her chubby little baby cheeks, and her body completely limp. Trusting.

Pain, dull now instead of sharp, pushed through Poppy’s chest, and she remembered another baby, from another time, time that felt like ages ago, who had been just as trusting and just as precious.

She shook her head, willing the memories to go away and putting the smile that she’d worked so hard to have back on her face again.

She would not have children; she’d already made that decision because she didn’t think she could fight this feeling every day.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t love other peoples’ kids.

Especially babies.

She’d already put Trevor and Garrett down and seen the crib in the darkened corner of the bedroom on the left, since the door had been cracked.

She’d also seen the still form on the bed. She assumed that was Minnie.

She hadn’t talked to Minnie since she’d come to West’s home, although the church had delivered other meals.

Poppy was in charge of the benevolence ministries, and she’d coordinated the meals, but this was the first one she’d delivered.

Slipping the door open just enough for her to glide through, she tiptoed into the room, intending to set Gabriella down and tiptoe right back out.

The room had that stale smell of a sickroom, which almost drowned out the now-familiar male scent that was uniquely West’s. She didn’t see any of his stuff lying around, but from the scent, she assumed he’d given up his bedroom for Minnie.

Again, she wondered what Minnie was to him, not that she cared.

There was definitely something odd about the feeling that she had for West, but so far, she’d been successful in terming it antagonism. The kind that two people had who would never be able to get along but were too much adults to actually fight.

Whether she was just deluding herself about that or not, she wasn’t sure.

She’d