Page 2 of Her Summer Hope

“Ellie!” she called, looking down a little belatedly at Emmie to make sure she wasn’t sleeping. The baby was staring at her with wide eyes, chubby little cheeks moving enthusiastically as her milk let down.

“Yeah?” the little girl called back.

“Can you get James and Jackson their milk?”

There was silence and Madison had a sudden feeling of doom.

“Uh, James already got it…” her daughter said, moving away. Then, from the kitchen, “James! That was a whole gallon of milk!”

Crap.

Her heart sank as she nursed Emmie and contemplated the disaster in the kitchen. James had spilled the milk again. She felt like crying. Whoever said not to cry over spilled milk obviously had enough money to buy more.

She would have to have a talk with him again, but she couldn’t bring herself to yell at him. He was only five, and he was taking the death of his father worst of all. Whereas nine-year-old Ellie was serious and had started a crusade to help her with everything, and seven-year-old Jackson had taken it upon himself to make her laugh as much as possible, James had become, for lack of a better term, the problem child.

He had been the most like Rob—personality-wise—and had been Rob’s favorite, though she knew he had tried hard to never let the other kids know that. She saw it though, and when he died, James had taken it much harder than the others.

He seemed to resent her a little, perhaps blaming her for his father’s death, or perhaps not. She wasn’t sure. At least he was talking and laughing again. She hoped time and love would help her little boy overcome whatever was keeping him distant.

Ellie came into the room. “I saved part of the milk, but the rest spilled. I made him clean it up. He used the good hand towel though.”

Madison huffed out a laugh. The good hand towel. As if things like that mattered now.

“That’s okay. Did you guys drink your milk?”

“Yeah.”

Ellie was neat and fastidious. She loved to read and devoured every book in sight. Madison had to keep her romance novels high up in her closet so the little girl wouldn’t get her hands on them…not that she did much reading anymore. She should probably get rid of them.

These days it was all she could do to work part-time, go over the kids’ lessons with them, cook, and keep the house in somewhat livable condition after Hurricane James passed through every day. The house was larger than she could afford now, but she couldn’t bear to take the kids away from the only home they’d ever known.

The insurance money hadn’t been that great, and what was left after the lawsuit was only enough to cover the mortgage, car insurance, and home insurance. The only mitigating factor in the whole thing was that Rob had been under the legal limit and the other driver hadn’t.

Eventually, she’d have to worry about covering the insurance payments, but hopefully, the kids would be in college by then. For right now, everything else was up to her. Utilities, food, clothing, gas, and—God forbid—medical expenses were all on her shoulders.

Emmie was finished and falling asleep so she burped her and switched sides.

“Can you tell the boys to brush their teeth and get in bed? I’ll come to tell you all goodnight as soon as I’m finished feeding Em.”

“Can I stay up and read?” Ellie begged.

Madison sighed and knew she should make the little girl go to bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to discourage her from reading. Books had been her life, once upon a time. Ellie’s love of them came naturally.

“A few more chapters,” she finally relented.

Ellie flashed her a grin and ran out the door yelling instructions at the boys, who may or may not listen.

Her eyes were heavy and she felt them closing against her will. Sleep threatened to drag her down and she wanted so badly to let it. She was so tired.

Her head jerked and she startled awake, shifting on the bed to keep herself awake.

Tomorrow she would be up at six to feed Em, then get the kids ready to go next door to Mrs. Thompson. She needed to be at Christian’s Corner Books by eight, then she’d need to dash home on her break to feed Em, then go back and work another couple of hours. Her lunch break would be spent the same way before she went back for her final two hours.

She worked six hours a day at the bookshop and what felt like thirty-six hours a day at home. Her evenings were spent homeschooling Ellie, Jack, and sometimes James when she could get him to sit down. They had just started their third year and it was going to be a doozy.

She briefly considered giving it up after Rob died, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that either. She enjoyed the time with the kids, and now they were all she had. If she was getting overwhelmed, well…that was just part of being a mom.

Her phone rang and she quickly silenced it before checking the ID. She closed her eyes and sighed as she answered it.

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