Page 34 of A Dream for Daphne

“They did. But they weren’t around much either. Anyway, I got a job in a daycare center. I liked kids and it was full time with benefits and I thought, okay, this will work. But once I got a full-time job my parents decided that I could pay more rent. I was paying half their mortgage for them. I had my bedroom and thatwas it. I wasn’t even eating their food half the time because there wasn’t much in there. As kids, we had a ton of takeout.”

“My mother made Easton and I learn to cook. We each had to cook once a week. I thought it sucked as a kid, but I’m glad she did it.”

“I find that nice that she instilled that in you. Not that it looked like you did it much with the way you shopped today.”

He winked at her smirk. “I might get a bit lazy now and again, but I do know how. I’ll prove it to you too.”

“If you get in over your head, I know how to grill burgers and can lend a hand.”

“Then we can do it together,” he said.

“We can,” she agreed. “So moving on to my lovely life. I’m working full time at a daycare that pays minimum wage and can barely afford to pay my parents’ rent let alone everything else in life. I’ve got Aster’s second-hand car that he left for me, but it needed work at times. So I start to be a server part time a few nights a week. I ended up making more doing that, but there are no benefits.”

“Health insurance is a bitch, but you need it,” he said.

“I’m lucky enough to get it at this job and was stunned, but shouldn’t be,” she said.

“The Bloom sisters treat their employees well,” he said. “Go on.”

“Aster moves here, I’ve got my dismal life at home and feel like such a loser going nowhere and don’t even know how to move forward if I want. Can I tell you I feel even worse saying all of this? It’s just as embarrassing.”

He got up from the chair he was in. She’d been on the couch and he moved closer to her. She didn’t shift away and he reached for her hand.

“Don’t feel that way. We all have a history that embarrasses us. I think it just makes us humble and gives us the strength to take the next steps in our journey.”

“That’s it exactly,” she said. “It’s nice you understand.”

“More than you realize,” he said. She looked at him oddly. “Continue.”

“My parents decided they wanted to sell the house. They wanted something smaller, a townhouse they didn’t have to maintain. That meant I had to move out.”

“Did you want to move out?” he asked.

“I’d wanted to for years, but I couldn’t afford to live on my own, even though I’d been putting money away. And I didn’t want to get a roommate. I might as well stay living with my parents who were never home rather than some stranger.”

“Good point,” he said.

“But I didn’t have a choice. I was feeling sorry for myself. Aster wanted me to move here. I came to visit and just check the area out. His bosses wanted to meet me and I didn’t think anything of it. The next thing I know the three of them are interviewing me for a nanny position. I don’t even know how it happened, but before I left I was offered the job and a place to live on top of it. It’s literally like a dream come true for me and many would scoff over it.”

“Maybe that is why Poppy thought we’d get along so well,” he said. “You’re humble like me. I’m not out to show the world how wonderful I am. I’m just living my life the best way I can and doing it the way I know how.”

She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Seems to be working for you.”

“It does,” he said. “And maybe it’s working for you too.”

“I hope so,” she said. “If I can get over some of the decisions I’ve made.”

“Back to that again?” he asked. “I thought we were going to move past it.”

“I’ll try,” she said softly.

12

THE SIMPLEST REASON

“You’re not putting enough pressure on the ball,” Daphne said an hour later.

“Huh?” he asked.

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