Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,71

had been a godsend, that was for sure. Especially since Nana wouldn’t accept any rent for it.

She wished that she could find a way to make additional money during the evening hours, but she had no idea where to start. Since her main goal in life had always been to become a wife and a mother, she’d never really explored ways to make money beyond the job she’d had as a cashier.

A few nights earlier, she’d searched out how to make money at home on the internet, but nothing she found through the search had looked doable.

She dropped her head back against the chair then turned her head to look out the picture window that faced the front yard and the street. The streetlights had come on, casting pools of light on the ground.

As she watched, someone walked by with a dog on a leash. Maybe Bryson would like a dog. Even as the thought entered her head, she shook it right out again. She couldn’t take on something that would require her to stretch her already thin budget.

And there was no guarantee that Bryson would even like a dog. They’d had dogs in the compound, but they certainly hadn’t been pets. No, the dogs that prowled the compound at night and had been chained up near the entrance during the day had been guard dogs. Used as much to keep people in as they had been to keep people out.

She reached out to turn on the light and picked up her journal from the end table next to the chair. Opening it to the previous entry, she read it over then sighed. There was not much to add to it as it was already a recap of what was going on in her head.

It was a bit like she was chasing her tail, going around and around without reaching any solutions. Every time she wrote in her journal lately, it was always the same thing. Writing it all out again would just be a waste of paper and ink.

How she wished that she was more decisive like Natalie. Her sister would never be so wishy-washy. She went after the things she wanted aggressively, never letting anything stand in her way. And then there was Sophia…barely able to make a decision, let alone figure out how to move forward with her life.

Knowing she wouldn’t be solving any of her problems that night, Sophia closed the journal and set it aside before picking up her phone. Without anything else to do, she opened the app to continue reading the book she’d started a couple of nights earlier.

For an hour or so that night, fictional characters would be the ones keeping her company. She could lose herself in their world and forget about her own problems for a little while.

“Is he almost here, Momma?” Bryson asked as he ran into the kitchen.

Sophia glanced at him, then turned her attention back to the potatoes she was cutting. “I don’t know, baby, but I think he’ll be here soon. Just be patient.”

She realized that she’d made a mistake telling Bryson that Ryker was coming that day. It had just been hard to see the sadness on his little face when she knew that hearing that Ryker was coming would brighten his day.

All she hoped was that nothing came up to keep Ryker away. At least it wouldn’t be anything weather-related since it had been a mainly sunny day. He hadn’t texted to say he wasn’t coming, so Sophia was fairly certain he would show up. She didn’t think he’d leave Bryson hanging in that way.

“Why don’t you keep watching out the window?” she said as she put the cubed potatoes into a pot of water and set it on the stove.

“Okay.” He skipped out of the kitchen.

While she waited for him to yell that Ryker was there, Sophia stirred the ground beef in the pan on the stove. She wasn’t sure if Ryker planned to stay for dinner or not, but she’d have enough food if he did. Shepherd’s pie was a pretty basic dish, but she’d discovered that Bryson liked it, so she made it at least once a week.

That night she planned to pair it with some biscuits. Bryson liked the biscuits, too, because she would let him eat leftover ones with his beloved bananas and peanut butter.

She liked the dish because she could add vegetables to it, and Bryson would eat them. So she added peas, carrots, and corn into the