Page 28 of Unbreakable Love

Tracks were in her driveway, telling me she’d already left, anyway. Maybe I’d be nice and do it for her later. Not that buying her dinner and offering her a fork to share dessert hadn’t also been nice, but with the way she avoided me all night, I didn’t think I’d quite made up for being a jerk to her. I’d stayed quiet through the meal because it was an equal mixture of endearing and infuriating watching Josie and Penny together. A part of me wanted to grab my daughter and whisk her away from the woman she was becoming enamored with. The other part wanted to lean in and give my daughter everything she desired. Every time my daughter declared her great, I counted down until the moment when I was tucking her into bed and Josie would ask, “Can she be my new mom?”

As if finding a mother for Josie or a wife for me was some Dr. Seuss book.

She hadn’t yet, but I was certain Penny was quickly passing Josie’s vetting process.

“Oh no!” Josie cried from the back seat. “There’s a car on the curb!”

I’d been focusing on the cars in front of me that I hadn’t noticed it, but as soon as it came into view, I tightened my grip on my steering wheel and pulled off to the side.

“Is that Miss Pesco?” Josie asked.

“It is, kiddo. Stay in the truck, okay?”

I was already opening my door and hopping out of the truck. Penny had her back passenger door open, the half of the car that was halfway up onto the grass. Her front driver’s tire was up against the curb, the rest of the front end on the sidewalk, and her back end sticking out at an angle. From a quick glance, her tires were thousands of miles past needing to be replaced.

“You okay?” I asked, loud enough she jumped up.

Her mouth formed a perfect round shape in surprise and then tugged down to a frown when she recognized me. “Hey. Yeah… just slid at the turn and well…” She waved her hand toward her car.

“Yeah, I see that. But are you okay?”

“I’m good. Thanks.” She tugged a black tote bag out of her car and hitched it up over her shoulder.

“Let us take you to school.” It wasn’t like she could drive, and the sidewalks hadn’t been cleared yet.

“I can walk.”

She had on boots that might hold up in an inch or two of snow, for a short walk, but not for the distance she had to go. Besides, we were heading in that direction. The offer wasn’t ridiculous, it was neighborly.

Irritation spiked. So I hadn’t been all that nice, but she didn’t need to be stubborn about this. “Don’t do that. Let me take you to school.”

“I said I’m fine.”

Her voice must have risen enough for Josie to hear because her voice screeched from the back of the truck. “But it’s cold out!”

Indecision warred in her features. Josie could soften the hardest and most frozen of hearts. I would know. I was the best example of her miracle powers. Penny glanced down the road, probably calculating the distance she had to travel on foot, with a mountain of bags, through the snow, and whether that was worth it over sitting next to me.

Before she could decide, I took a deep breath and tried to stop coming across like Dalton, the family a-hole.

“Miss Pesco, may we please take you to work? We’re obviously headed in the same direction, and Josie’s right. It’s not only cold, but with the snow, anything could happen.”

She glanced back at her tires, frowned, and then scrunched her nose. The move accentuated a light smattering of freckles I hadn’t noticed before, but maybe it was the pinkening on her cheeks bringing it out, or the way the snow and sunshine made everything brighter, including her blue eyes I had no business noticing.

“Fine,” she finally huffed. “What do I do about my car?”

“Leave it. After I get you and Josie to school, I’ll make sure it gets to the local shop. It’s out by the gas station when you enter town.”

“Are you sure? That’s a lot, and?—”

And I hadn’t been all that helpful or nice to her. Or polite or respectful. I didn’t need her to finish the train of thought. “I don’t mind. Snow will slow us down on the site today, anyway.”

“Okay then.” A quick flash of a smile appeared and vanished. “Thank you.”

“Yay!” Josie kicked the back of the passenger seat. “This is great! We should take Miss Pesco to school every day since she lives so close!”

I was keeping one eye on Penny, the other on Josie. “I don’t think that’s possible, kiddo. How would she get home afterward?”

“Oh. Good point, I guess.”

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