“Where do you want me to put this one, cuz?”
Adam turned his attention from his daughter, who’d just risked getting squashed by a pile of boxes she insisted she wanted to help carry, to his cousin Cayden, whose head peeked out around the side of a big cardboard box.
“Just leave it wherever you find room. I’ll sort them out later,” he said, picking up Sophie and setting her on the kitchen counter. “Now sit here while Daddy finishes bringing in the boxes, okay?”
Sophie’s face puckered. “But I want to help you,” she said, her voice rising an octave.
Why hadn’t he accepted his mother’s offer to keep Sophie in the bakery with her until he, Kean and Cayden finished moving everything into the new house? The answer was easy: Sophie had been so excited about the idea of a new house that she hadn’t shut up until he’d agreed to let her tag along. If she was this stubborn at such a young age, he didn’t want to imagine what she’d be like as a teenager.
“You can be the moving manager. Make sure everything’s looking right and everyone’s doing his job.” Kean came up from behind him and put his blue Mariners cap on her head. He tapped the peak twice and she nodded. The cap fell over her eyes, and she pushed it up, giving him a toothy grin.
“Yes. I can be the manger.”
Kean laughed and Adam smiled. Sometimes his brother seemed to be a better father than he was, even though he didn’t have any kids. Kean always found the perfect things to say to steer Sophie’s attention from the thing she’d been so focused on to something else she could get just as excited about, and without her even complaining or making a fuss like she did when Adam told her she couldn’t do something.
The thought of having to deal with her on his own now scared him a little, if he had to be honest with himself. For three years, he’d had the constant support of his family and his in-laws. Whenever he didn’t know what to do or how to make her stop crying, he had a support network in the house who’d know exactly how to help.
“This is the last one,” Cayden said, bringing in the last cardboard box and setting it on top of another. “I don’t have to be at the station until late tonight, and the twins are spending the afternoon with their friends and will be staying at your parents’ tonight, so I can stay and help you unpack.”
Once again Adam was grateful for his big, old-fashioned family and the support they provided. Kean had turned the rundown cottage into a livable, comfortable home for Adam and his little daughter. Cayden had given up his morning and afternoon off to help him move his stuff. Kacey had helped Sophie pack up all her toys, while Ryley had helped Adam haul the boxes into Kean’s truck. It just wouldn’t have been the same without their help.
“Come on, let’s start in the living room.” Cayden turned his Spring Harbor Fire Department cap around and rubbed his hands together.
Adam looked at the cluster of boxes, furniture, and plastic bubble-wrap around him, and wondered if he’d ever feel at home in these new surroundings. Kean had done one hell of a job, reroofing the cottage and finishing the renovations in less than two weeks. Adam had been determined to move in before Sophie started school, and Kean had hired an additional man to make it happen.
The new basic furniture he’d ordered had been delivered just yesterday. When he left Seattle to come back to Spring, he’d given what little furniture he and Hannah owned to Goodwill. Kean had offered to help him bring his stuff to Spring back then, but Adam thought the few items would only be a painful reminder of what he’d had and all he’d lost.
He’d been lucky that Kean knew a couple of furniture shops that had been able to deliver the basic items needed to turn the empty house into a home for Sophie and himself on such short notice. And he also had the few pieces of furniture he’d built together with his grandpa the first few months after coming home—when the old man thought that a few hours chopping and carving in the workshop in Adam’s parents’ barn would help him get over the pain. It hadn’t really made him miss Hannah any less, but at least this hobby he’d once shared with his grandpa back before he went to college had kept his mind busy. In a way, it had kept him sane.
Even though it looked like a bomb had exploded in the living room, at least they wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor or buy takeout every night because he didn’t have kitchen appliances.
“Daddy, I’m bored.” Sophie tugged on the hem of his blue t-shirt, which was now sticking to his back and his stomach. He closed the box he’d just opened and crouched in front of her.
“I know, baby girl. But I have to finish unpacking all these boxes, so we won’t trip over things tonight.”
“Can we play ball?”
Why hadn’t she agreed to stay with his mother at the bakery today? He knew she had every right to be bored, but he didn’t have time for a break now. He had to take advantage of Cay and Kean’s help while they were here. He couldn’t go play with his daughter while his brother and cousin did all the work.
“Not now. Let me finish unpacking first, then we can play, okay?”
Sophie huffed, crossing her arms and squeezing her stuffed bunny in the movement.
“Buzz is bored too,” she said, her tone turning whiny. “Can we watch Fwozen?”
“The DVD player is still in a box. We haven’t set it up yet.”
Sophie frowned. Her little girl’s brain probably didn’t care about cables and stuff. She only wanted to watch her favorite movie.
“We’ll watch it tonight after dinner, okay?”
She shrugged, squeezed Bugs to her chest and walked back toward the living room, where Kean and Cayden were busy unpacking. He’d forgotten how much he hated moves. The last time, Hannah had made it fun, but now he just wished he could close his eyes and find everything magically settled into place when he opened them again.
If only it were possible.
* * *
“What are you doing?”
Ellie looked up from the pot of pansies she was busy planting in her backyard, her trowel in mid-air in her other hand. A little girl with a round, rosy face, framed by wheat-blond, corkscrew curls that reached down to her chin, stared at her with big blue eyes under long thick lashes. She was probably three or four years old and held a pink stuffed bunny to her chest with her right hand. The tiny fingers of her left hand twitched the bunny’s ear.
Ellie smiled and sat back on the heels of her feet. “I’m planting flowers to make my garden look nicer.”
The little girl grinned. “I like your flowers. They’re beautiful.”
She took a step closer and crouched down, mirroring Ellie’s position, then leaned closer to sniff the flowers. When she raised her eyes again, she scrunched up her nose. “They smell funny.”
Ellie laughed. “Pansies aren’t like roses. They don’t really smell like flowers, more like grass and earth.”
“Gwammy has woses in her garden. They smell nice.” She touched the petals of a purple flower and smiled with delight. “Ooh, it’s soooft.”
The thing Ellie loved the most about working with little kids was the way they could get excited over small things adults took for granted. Like how soft a petal was.
“I’m Sophie. What’s your name?” the girl asked, moving on from the conversation about flowers. Another thing kids were good at: shifting their interest from one thing to another at the speed of light.
“I’m Ellie. It’s nice to meet you, Sophie.”
“Dis is Buzz,” Sophie said, holding out the stuffed bunny for Ellie to see.
“Like Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story?” Ellie asked, frowning at the unusual choice of name.
Sophie rolled her eyes in a very grown-up way, as if she couldn’t believe why Ellie didn’t get it. “Noooo! Like Buzz Bunny!” she said emphatically.
“Oh, I see. Well, nice to meet you, Bugs.” Ellie shook the bunny’s paw, making Sophie giggle. She looked past the little girl and frowned when she didn’t see a grown-up anywhere. She looked back at Sophie, who was now very interested in Ellie’s gardening tools. “Where are your parents, sweetie? Do they know you’re here?”
Sophie pointed behind her. “Dis is our new house, we don’t live with Gwammy and Gwampy anymore. But Gwammy is coming to the beach to make sandcastles wif me. Uncle Kean said I could be the manger, but I was bored and Daddy said I can’t watch TV ’cause there are loooots of boxes in the woom.”
“You can stay here with me for a while, if you want. If your Daddy looks for you, we’ll hear him calling, and you can go back inside.”
Sophie smiled. A cute dimple flashed in her right cheek, and Ellie couldn’t help comparing her to a little angel from a picture book.
“Would you like to help me plant the flowers?” Ellie asked.
Sophie’s face lit up with an even wider smile, and she nodded. Ellie put a pansy plant into the soft ground, surrounded it with a pile of earth and handed Sophie the small green watering can. “Here, you can give the flowers a little water. I think they’re thirsty.”
Sophie nodded, stuffed the bunny inside the front of her denim overall so that only the face and ears peeked out, and took the watering can with great effort, even though it held barely more than a pint.
Three flowers later, she put down the empty watering can and turned her attention back to Ellie.
“Ooh, a kitty!” She squealed with delight when Ellie’s lazy housemate walked out of the kitchen door and into the garden. “Is it yours?”
“Yes. He was lost and I took him in. His name’s Bobcat.” Ellie reached for the tabby and picked him up, setting him on her lap.
Sophie stepped around the flowers and stopped in front of her. “Ooh. The poor kitty was lost. He’s lucky you finded him.” She grinned and looked up at Ellie, her big blue eyes wide with wonder and innocence. “Can I pet him? Please?”
Ellie’s heart melted. This little girl was adorable. “Sure. Rub his head, right here behind his ears. He loves it.” Ellie showed her how, and Sophie giggled when Bobcat started purring.
“My Gwampy is a pet doctor, he saves the animals. Sometimes he lets me pet some of the kitties and the puppies that stay in his hotel,” Sophie said, reaching out to scratch Bobcat’s head again. Ellie frowned. Why would a vet keep animals in a hotel? “But Daddy won’t let me bwing some of the kitties home. He says they have to stay in the hotel so they can stay all togever and don’t feel lonely. Then sometimes some nice people visit them and bwing them home. Gwampy is happy when they leave the hotel to go to a nice house.”
Realization dawned as she remembered the sign for the animal shelter downtown. That must be the hotel Sophie was talking about.
“I want a puppy but Daddy says we can’t have one because his hands are full. But I checked and he didn’t have anything in his hands when he said it.” She shrugged, and her cute face puckered. Ellie smiled. “But Gwampy has a nice doggie called Queen, and I always play wif her. We wun in Gwammy’s garden, but now she’s vewy fat and she can’t wun fast anymore.”
“Maybe your Mommy could convince your Daddy to get a puppy, now that you have a new house.”
Sophie shook her head. “My Mommy is an angel. She lives in heaven, and she can’t speak to us.”
Ellie’s heart broke at the words, and at the way the little girl said them, as if she were recounting a bedtime story her father had told her. The only consolation was that she’d probably been too small to understand what was happening. From the way she’d just spoken and how lively and carefree she seemed, Ellie’s professional eye told her she’d either never seen her mother or she’d been way too young to remember her at all.
“But it’s okay. Daddy says we can still go to visit Gwammy and Gwampy and I can play wif Queen when she feels better.”
“Well, you can come and play with Bobcat anytime you want,” Ellie said, feeling a surge of affection for the cute little girl. “If your Daddy says it’s okay, of course.”
Sophie nodded, her curls bouncing like springs. “And you can come and play wif Queen. You can dwive in our car. I can’t give you my pwincess frone ’cause you’re too big, but you can sit next to me.”
Ellie smiled. “You have a princess throne in your car? That’s nice.”
“My Daddy says I always have to sit in the frone when we wide in the car so I don’t get hurt. He buyed it for me when I was little. It’s pink. I like pink. Do you like pink, too?”
“Well, pink’s a very nice color, especially for a little princess like you.” She tapped her finger on the tip of Sophie’s nose, making her giggle. Ellie loved the sound of children’s giggles, but this girl’s was particularly endearing. “And your Daddy’s right. You always have to sit in your throne when you’re in a car.”
“Do you have a frone in your car, too?”
“No, I don’t. Actually, I don’t even have a car. I ride my bike into town.”
“I don’t know how to wide a bike. Daddy says when I’m four he’ll teach me,” she said with a shrug. Then her face lit up. “But I wide horses. Gwampy has horses in his garden, and Daddy lets me wide with him. Uncle Kean, too. Can you wide horses?”
Ellie shook her head, smiling as she rubbed her hand along Bobcat’s spine. She couldn’t help wondering whether Sophie was always this chatty, or if she’d simply been excited by finding a new friend. It was refreshing, though. Kids’ chatter and hunger for knowledge, shown in the million questions they always fired at adults, was one of the things she’d always loved most about her job.
“Dat’s not a problem. You can wide with my Daddy,” she said, before Ellie could say a word. She opened her mouth to say something more, but a man’s voice calling her name stopped her. “That’s my Daddy. Maybe he finks I’m lost. I have to go.”
Ellie nodded. “Yes, you’d better go tell him you’re not lost. I’ll see you another day, and you can play with Bobcat if you’d like.”
Sophie grinned. “Bye-bye, Ellie.”
She took off, squeezing her stuffed bunny to her chest in a protective way and bounded into the house at the speed of light, shouting at her daddy that she wasn’t lost. Ellie sat there, staring at the house next door and hoping the girl’s dad wouldn’t mind letting her spend some time with Ellie every now and then. After the year she’d gone through, she couldn’t wait to be surrounded by little kids’ chattering and their enthusiasm for life again and forget the painful memories she’d left behind.