Mom Over Miami by Annie Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

order.
    It had worked with Sam. Why not the DIY-Namic Duo?
    She gripped the handle of the bucket and retreated another step.
    Thunk .
    Her heel clomped against one of the paint cans she had yet to finish hauling to the church basement.
    Suddenly she knew just what task she could use to getthem out of her hair—and, more importantly, out of her nursery.
    “Terrific! So fabulous for you both to offer your time, but we’re actually all done for the day here.” She clunked the bucket back down and shook the last bit of damp from her hands. “Tidied up as much as we can for now and…Say, maybe there is something you two can do to help me out.”
    Jacqui tipped her chin up and shook back her short, sassy blond hair. “Name it.”
    “Well, you see, when I got here this morning, I found this room being used for storage, but I knew we were going to need it if we wanted to expand our infant and toddler programs. So, with that in mind, I started clearing the way, grabbing some paint cans and carpet samples and—”
    “No!” Jacqui flashed her sister a stunned look, then turned to Hannah again, blinking slowly as she asked, “Really?”
    “I…uh…” Hannah glanced at Sam, who looked a lot like he did the day he came in to find the dog had rubbed skunk spray all over their living room.
    “Can you believe it?” Cydney shot upright so fast that her tot-size chair tipped over backward. She raised the rolled-up edition of the Wileyville Guardian News , like Lady Liberty lifting high her torch, and marveled, “I never dreamed I’d see the day.”
    “The day when someone would ask you…” Hannah motioned toward the pile of junk waiting for relocation.
    “Ask us.” Cydney pressed the paper to her chest. “ Us , sister.”
    “I heard it.” Jacqui held up her hand, always the one to remain calm and take charge. “But let’s not go all flighty and ridiculous about it.” She fixed her megawatt smile on Hannah. “We should have seen it coming, really. How could this lovely lady not have come to us to meet this exciting challenge?”
    Hannah jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward the cans. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a challenge.”
    “Well, what else could you call it—redecorating the baby and toddler rooms?”
    “Re…re…” Hannah swallowed and forced herself to say it aloud. “Redecorating? You two? My nursery rooms?”
    “Don’t think of them as your nursery rooms anymore, Hannah.”
    “No?”
    “Think of them as our canvas.” Jacqui flung her arms out.
    Out.
    What a lovely, compelling, unattainable word. It was all Hannah wanted right now—to get out of here so she could try to figure out what she’d just gotten herself in to.
    Think, Hannah, think .
    “I, uh, I can’t talk about this just now. Payt’s at home fixing lunch for Sam and Tessa and me. Well…not for Tessa, but…we really can’t stay.”
    Hannah swept through the room and into the nursery like a miniature tornado. Snagging Sam and directing himwith a well-placed hand on his back, she gathered the diaper bag and her drowsy daughter up in one swoop, then turned to make her goodbyes.
    She’d started the day with a single goal. To do the job she’d volunteered to do and to do it perfectly. And she had.
    Except for the spill.
    And the paint cans left in the hallway.
    And the fact that she had just unleashed the DIY sisters on what she had thought would be her own quietly controlled territory.
    Other than that, however, the day couldn’t possible have been more perfect.
    “Hannah Bartlett, why didn’t you tell us?”
    She jerked her head up to see Jacqui and Cydney poring over an open page of her hometown newspaper.
    Oh, dear. What had Daddy gotten up to now? Somehow she’d thought that by living in another state she might escape the embarrassment of her father’s lively antics.
    Tessa squirmed against her shoulder.
    Hannah adjusted the baby for comfort, and though she didn’t want to, asked, “Tell you what?”
    “About