Chapter 21

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The hot August sun shone bright and the time on her small phone clock read seven am. Etta was fussing and hungry. Quinn, half asleep, picked her up and changed her as quiet as possible before the pair padded off into the kitchen to quietly make a bottle of formula. Quinn began to feed her as she walked back to the make-shift bedroom and laid down with Etta in the crook of her arm. The baby snuggled into Quinn and placed her little, left hand atop Quinn's chest. Quinn's heart pounded harder at the rush of admiration she was beginning to feel for this orphaned girl. She instinctively bent down and nuzzled Etta's newborn fluff of hair and drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later Quinn was woken up by little fingers poking at her eyes. She couldn't help but smile.

"Shh.. you're going to wake her up!" Poppy scolded as she batted her brother's hand away from their mother's eyes.

"But I'm hungry!" He whined and began poking again. "Mom, please wake up! I'm so hungry. Is this our house? Where's grandma? Is this her house too? It's old like her house."

"Finley, it's not nice to call grandma old." Poppy said sternly.

"I wasn't talking about her!"

"Okay you two!" Quinn said and the children startled to attention, quitting their argument. "Good morning!" She kissed them both and sat up, moving sleeping Etta to her bassinet.

"Yes, this is our house! Do you like it?" She asked them. Their eyes widened and a palpable hum of excitement filled the room. "Why don't we go look around and pick out which bedrooms you each want? The movers will be here soon."

All at once, life began in their little farmhouse. At the front of the entry was a flight of stairs, original to the home, the ad had said. Quinn believed it. They looked familiar, though painted and stained differently now. The walls on the way up to the second floor were covered in more white tongue and groove paneling and Quinn's heart sung. This house was a picture of her soul, she decided. And this was going to be quite an adventure. She pulled her hair up into a bun while following close behind the two excited children running up the stairs. She shushed them gently, reminding them the baby was sleeping. Quinn couldn't help but not be angry though, and allowed them to just be. She watched them in awe of their resilience and strength, and felt so blessed to be able to give this to them.

On the second floor there were four small bedrooms and a bathroom at the end of the hall. Each bedroom was covered in ship-lap and painted in a light grey. The bathroom's walls were in raw, stained wood and there was a dreamy claw foot tub next to a shower tiled in white subway tiles. Quinn nodded at the black grout and quietly thanked the designer who headed the remodel for that. The hallway echoed in laughter and joy as Poppy chose the bedroom at the end of the hall on the right, because she could see the neighbor's horses from her window; and Finley chose the room across from hers. He insisted that if he looked hard enough, he could see grandma's house through the trees.

Quinn walked into what would be her bedroom, as the actual master suite was downstairs and she was not comfortable with being so far away from the children. Her spirit soared. It was small, but now that it was only her, it would be enough. She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked out the wood framed window and out onto her land. Jack would have loved to see their children so happy; though he was never one for the fresh air of the country, she thought. Quinn smiled at the thought of him. It had been a while since she cried over the loss of him, and it felt as though her children were moving on well. He was in and out of their conversations all day long, however, they were more talks of memories and what he was like. Quinn enjoyed talking to the children about him, it was her way of keeping him close, and they deserved that. She dreaded the day they would find out about him cheating on their mother, and hoped that it would not soil their memories of him.

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