Page 113 of A Dream for Daphne

“No,” he said. “And Holly doesn’t need to bear that burden. Things happen. It’s just one of those things.”

“That is what I said to Holly. You’re staying with Daphne, right? If not, Poppy will want her at the main house with us.”

“I’m staying tonight. I’ll stay a few days until we get things figured out. She might kick me out before that, but I’ll be stubborn for a bit.”

“Good,” Reese said. “I’ll talk to you later.”

And hours later, he was cleaning up dinner that he’d made, Daphne on the couch resting. Not sleeping, but the TV was on and her eyes were shut.

She refused to take any pain medicine that would make her sleepy until she went to bed, so she was only taking over the counter stuff for now.

There was a knock at the door and he opened it.

Holly came running in before Poppy and went right to Daphne. “I’m sorry. I brought you flowers.”

Daphne gave Holly a one-armed hug. “It’s okay, honey. Accidents happen. And thank you for the flowers.”

“I’m so sorry.” Poppy came in next. She hugged Daphne. “We’ve told Holly so many times not to run away from us or climb on things. She listens to you but gets so excited over the equipment. She’s fascinated with it.”

“I can understand that,” he said. “I was as a kid too.”

“I don’t know what she was thinking. I’m glad she didn’t get very far up. I mean if she fell and you didn’t catch her, she could have gotten hurt more than scared.”

Holly was snuggling up under Daphne’s good arm.

“Maybe she won’t do it now,” she said. “Sometimes they have to learn that way.”

“I hope she does learn,” Poppy said. “My heart can’t take it. I feel horrible that you’re hurt from saving our daughter. I don’t want you to worry about work. You take care of yourself.”

“I need to work,” she said. “You need me to watch the kids.”

Poppy laughed. “I do need you to watch my kids, but you got hurt on the job. It’s called worker’s comp. You’re an employee. You can’t work. You’re covered. Don’t worry. But you’ll get your full salary. I don’t want you to think you’re going to lose your job or anything.”

Daphne sniffled. “But you need someone to watch the kids.”

“I do,” Poppy said. “Which is why we’ve got Julie as a backup. For two weeks, she’s going to have one if not both. Reese and I can flex our time to cover it. We’ll work it out after that. If it means that Julie has to come here and you’re an assistant to her and entertaining Colin and Holly and she has the babies, then it is. Don’t stress, please don’t.”

“I’ll try not to,” she said. “Thank you.”

“If you’re stressing, then I’m stressing, and that causes wrinkles. Please, my daughter is giving me enough of them. I don’t need anymore,” Poppy said.

Daphne laughed. “Okay. I won’t.”

“Good,” Poppy said. “That’s settled and we’ll get out of your hair. Abe will take good care of you.”

“Bye,” he said when Poppy and Holly left.

“I want to say I don’t need you to take care of me,” she said.

“But you’re not going to, because you do need me. And if the roles were reversed, you’d do the same, right?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Then no more talk of it. No worries either. For the rest of this week, you can sit on the porch and watch me work. How is that?”

“That alone might have made it worth the pain,” she said, smiling.

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