Page 100 of A Dream for Daphne

Something she was damn good at in her life.

Aster was a fixer when it came to things that were broken.

Daphne liked to believe she was a fixer when it came to pivoting.

“What has you smiling?”

“I just thought of something.”

“Are you going to share it?” he asked.

“That I’m good at what I do. I’m good at changing paths and adjusting on the fly.”

“You are,” he said. “Very good at it. I’m glad to see you are acknowledging that rather than always being worried someone is going to think a negative thing about you.”

“It’s nice to not worry about that too much anymore,” she said, leaning over the fence to get a kiss from him.

She didn’t even worry if Reese could see her. She was confident that they knew she was doing her job and only visiting for a moment.

She turned her head and Holly got up from lying in the grass and went over to one of her ride-on toys and was driving it around the best she could and making engine noises.

“Good to know,” he said. “Which means I’ve done my job to get you to forget about how we met.”

She laughed. “I’ll never forget it. It will always be there, but maybe I’m not as embarrassed over it anymore.”

She and Poppy had been talking one day and she’d been told that Heather admitted to a one-night stand with Luke at Lily and Zane’s wedding. That it came out the night Luke proposed, but Poppy had called it all along.

She didn’t think Poppy could possibly know she did the same thing with Abe, but the heat that filled her face that day couldn’t have been stopped.

“Then I’m happy,” he said.

“You’re always happy. Are you going to stay tonight?” she asked.

“Probably not,” he said. “Is that okay? My mother only has two more days and I’d like to spend them with her. Even though she gets on my nerves, I know I won’t see her again until Christmas. She is talking about coming home for the holidays this year. Last year I went to her.”

“I’d think it’d be nicer to go to Florida in December than want to come here,” she said, laughing.

“I’d love to go if I could get you to go with me,” he said. “Do you think you’d be interested in it? Could you take a week off?”

She cringed. “I’ve got the vacation time. I don’t know,” she said. “They do a big Christmas party here before the holiday for staff. Or maybe they won’t since they are growing so much and it’s going to be a big summer party now.”

She’d heard there was a possibility of only doing one party now and having it in the summer allowed them to blend out into the yard at Mona’s rather than worrying about squeezing into a room.

That the Christmas party had always been more about office staff and upper management, so it was smaller anyway.

If she was away, they’d have no one to watch the kids.

“Do you think you have to go to that?” he asked. “I’m sure not everyone attends. But we could leave after? I’m sure they do it over the weekend. Like a week before.”

“Oh,” she said. “I doubt I’ll be invited. I’ll have to watch the kids.”

He laughed. “Or Julie can since you’ve been watching all four. Think about it,” he said. “It’s as you said—it might be nice to go there.”

She smiled. “I’ve never been on a real vacation before.”

“What?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t take one often. It’s hard to with my business, but in the winter I’m slow enough. I’ve got Mac to plow for me if need be.”

“I’m glad you’re able to do that. If you think you want to go away for Christmas, let me know soon. I’ll mention it to Poppy and see if she is okay with it. Even if it’s only half the week into the weekend.”

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