Read Online Her Valentine Family by Renee Andrews - Free Book Online Page A

but Chad surprised her, placing his fingertips against her cheek before gently brushing them down her face. Then he’d told her he would call her today so they could plan a real date.
    Thankfully, they’d remembered to exchange cell numbers, and she’d already received a text message from him this morning.
    I’m glad you said yes.
    She couldn’t stop smiling, and her coworker noticed.
    â€œOkay, what’s his name, and does he have a brother?” Angie, the toddler room teacher, asked.
    Jessica completed her current task of straighteningthe tiny jackets hanging along the wall hooks, ran her palm over a fuzzy pink pom-pom that embellished one of the little hoods and laughed. “Am I that obvious?”
    â€œYou’ve met someone, and from the look on your face, he’s made quite an impression.” Angie moved around a table filled with toddlers, their faces expectant as they waited for her to distribute their morning snack. She handed each of the tykes a muffin, then nodded toward the sippy cups. “Can you start those?”
    â€œSure,” Jessica said, and followed behind Angie to hand out the apple juice.
    â€œI thought you’d just moved back here,” Angie said, grinning as she gently steered one little boy’s hands back to his own muffin, since he appeared to be making more of an effort to pick the blueberries off of his neighbor’s food than to eat his own.
    â€œI did.” Jessica helped one of the little girls break her muffin into manageable pieces. She’d wrinkled her nose at hers and was more interested in poking her fingers at the blueberries than consuming any.
    â€œSo how did you meet a Mr. Wonderful so quickly? I mean, Claremont doesn’t have an abundance of party places or social hangouts for people our age.”
    Angie was probably ten years older than Jessica, but Jess understood what she meant.
    â€œI’d known him before I left,” she said and couldn’t hold back an even bigger smile as she thought of Chad, their past relationship and the one they were starting now.
    â€œWell, it looks like you two are catching up rather nicely.” Angie placed the extra muffins in a Tupperware container and stored them in the wooden pantry.
    â€œYeah, we are.”
    The children in the class one by one finished their snacks, and Angie and Jess wiped their crumb-covered mouths before helping them move from the eating area to the play centers.
    Jessica was considered a “floater,” or someone who rotated from room to room depending on which teacher needed help on a particular day. She’d also been hired to substitute as a main teacher or assistant teacher when any of the others were out. Today she was filling in for Angie’s assistant, who’d called in sick. Jess liked the opportunity to move from class to class; it meant she’d be working with all of the children at the center eventually.
    She was particularly excited that she’d been assigned to the toddler room today. There was something so endearing about this precocious age, from eighteen months to two years. The energy in the room was palpable, and since she was already feeling positive from her time with Chad last night, this was an added treat to what promised to be an amazing week.
    A tug at her jeans brought her attention to a tiny blonde girl, her big blue eyes looking up at Jess as she held up a book. “Peese,” she said then smiled into her cheeks, so that Jessica got a full view of sweet little baby teeth lining her gums. She instantly thought of Nathan and that cute new gap that sometimes caused his s ’s to slur.
    Jess grinned and scooped the little girl into her arms, then took the book from her hand. “The Three Bears,” she said. “Oh, that’s a good one. Why don’t we go over to the reading corner and see what happens.”
    She noticed that this child was one of the younger children in the class and