Page 13 of A Dream for Daphne

“She’ll be thrilled,” Reese said, moving to Poppy again. “I’m going to work.” He kissed his wife and walked out of the kitchen.

“You need to find that,” Poppy said. “I want to say it’s not easy, but man, when you do, everything in life just falls in place.”

Daphne nodded and looked down at Tatum in his navy one-piece pajamas. His blue eyes stared up at her, pleading, and his body wiggling while she waited for the bottle to warm in the machine.

When it dinged, he knew he was getting what he wanted and kicked his legs in excitement.

“I’m good with the way life is falling right now,” she said.

The more she told herself that, the easier it was to believe.

5

FIND THAT FOR YOURSELF

Abe showed up on the McGill property at eleven. His crew was finishing up the first of the paths and working fast to lay the rest of the pavers. He wanted to get it all tamped down before the rain hit tonight. No work here for them for two days. Probably no work for his guys at all.

He’d be doing office work, which he hated with a passion but knew it had to be done too.

At least the things his mother or office manager didn’t deal with.

“It looks great,” Reese said when Abe was walking around inspecting everything. They had about twelve more rows to go, then could fill the gaps in with sand after the guys had fun with the plate compactor and got it all set in place.

“Thanks,” he said. “I love the stone you chose.”

Expensive for sure. And they were getting lots of it.

There were no run-of-the-mill materials on this property.

“Poppy picked it. Unless it’s wood, I don’t have a ton of say. She’s got much better taste than me. We always go with her choices in the end, so I let her pick and I’ll narrow down from that.”

“Hey,” he said. “Whatever works. I’m going to let the guys do this and I’ll take a mental break and mow your lawn.”

“I feel so special,” Reese said, grinning. “That the owner is mowing my lawn.”

He liked the dude and his personality.

“I’ve been mowing lawns since I was eight,” he said. “Now I only get to do it when we are short staffed. Between throwing stones or driving around to clear my head, I think I know what I’d rather do today.”

“That’s what being the boss allows you to do,” Reese said, slapping him on the back.

“I’ll never work for anyone else. Not sure how people do it,” he said.

He just wasn’t cut out for it and never gave the impression he was.

“Lucky for us, we don’t have to find out,” Reese said.

He checked in with Mac one more time and then went to the trailer with the Husqvarna zero-turn mower and drove it off the back.

With the speed this baby had, he’d be done in no time and could call it a day while he helped the guys clean up and put the equipment away until Monday.

He was just getting ready to get started when his phone rang in his pocket, so he shut the mower off and pulled it out to answer even though he had his earbuds in to talk hands fee. He’d been planning on blaring the music that was interrupted by an announcement it was his mother.

Though he could call her back later and she’d understand, he opted to take it.

It’s not like he was in a rush.

“Hi, Mom,” he said.

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