“It’s okay.” Her gaze shifts to the floor. “Everyone has problems.”
The way she says it haunts me. What arehers?
Before I can even attempt to dive into that, Bug starts clearing the table. “I’ll do the dishes,” she says. “It was really good, Kenna. Thank you.”
I clap my hands together. “I guess we should get your stuff out of the car.”
Kenna looks out the window. “It’s getting dark, and, um…” She glances at her daughter.
Realization dawns, and I pat Amelia’s shoulder. “And we promised her a snowman.”
Kenna smiles. Damn, I love her smile. Lettuce or no, it’s amazing. It lights up her face. It lights upmyface.
“Frosty!” Amelia jumps down from her chair excitedly. “We can make Frosty now?”
“Leave the dishes for later,” I say to Bug. “We have a snowman to build. And we’re losing daylight fast.”
I turn on the outside floodlights as Kenna bundles up Amelia then herself.
“Okay, we’re going to tag-team this because it’ll be dark soon.” I lead the way outside then point to Amelia. “You’re in charge of the head. Christian, you and Bug do the middle. Kenna and I will do the base. Everyone got their assignments?”
Kenna giggles and whispers to me, “So you really are a drill sergeant?”
Damn, her hot breath on my ear does absolutely nothing to squelch my growing attraction for her. I take her elbow. “Come on, let’s start out by the street where there’s plenty of snow from the plows.”
I ball up some snow as tightly as I can and make a large snowball. I put it on the ground and start rolling it. Kenna scoops more snow with her gloves, moving it toward the growing ball.
“We make a good team,” I say.
She stops gathering snow and looks up at me. “You really don’t have to do all this, you know.”
“It’s a snowman, Kenna.”
“No, I mean everything. The house. The car. The getting of our things. The… everything.”
I look around, taking in theeverything. “Just one single parent helping out another. Listen, I know how tough it can be. And, well, you haven’t exactly mentioned a job, so I figured you’re between them.” I roll the growing snowball a little closer to her pile. “Besides, I have a sister. She’s not a single mom, but I hope if she were ever in a bind, someone would step up.”
I’m not sure why my words have her looking guilty. I’d hoped they would put her at ease.
“Besides.” I shrug. “What goes around comes around, eh?”
“So you’re doing this for good karma?”
I laugh. “Sure? Why not?”
Something hits me in the back. I turn to see Amelia giggling.
“Did you just throw a snowball at me, pumpkin?”
She giggles some more.
I pack a small ball of snow and toss it gently toward her legs. She looks down, maybe a little shocked I retaliated. But then a cunning smile flashes across her face.
Before I know it, all five of us are in a full-on snowball fight, laughing and yelling and running around. Well, Christian isn’t running. He’s sitting on the bench making ammunition for Bug and Amelia, loving every minute.
Kenna is running after Amelia when her legs slip out from under her and she ends up flat on her back. When she doesn’t immediately pop up, I race over, my heart pounding when I see that her eyes are closed and she’s completely still.
“Jesus, are you okay?”
