my sword,” Rob said.
Steve lunged at the toy. “Give it back.”
“Ugh. The dragon again.” Megan looked as over it as Poppy had felt when Mike had brought up his mother’s size-two wedding dress. And the spring wedding. And the five kids.
So many options for why she dumped him. In fact, she could have used a fire-breathing dragon out there to drive home her point. Where were all the good dragons when you needed them? They were probably as fictional as the idea of a good man.
Poppy grabbed a roll of aluminum foil as a grin overtook her face. She might not know how to handle weird dates or weird jobs or other weird attempts at adulting, but swords, dragons, and elementary schoolers? No sweat. “I’ve got this.”
“Thanks, Poppy.”
“Hey guys, what’s going on?”
“But Aunt Poppy…Steve won’t give me his sword.” Rob explained the situation with conviction. Life was tough when your little brother dogged your every move.
Steve didn’t care about his brother’s reasoning. “It’s not my fault you broke yours.”
Poppy paused, then looked around the room with an exaggerated manner. “Do you guys hear that?”
Instantly, the two boys paused. “Hear what?”
“It’s the dragon. Breathing.” Now that she had their attention, she improvised more of the story. “While you two fight over that sword, he’s getting closer. Now, you know what’s more important than a sword when you’re defending yourself against a rogue dragon?”
They were hooked. Poppy threw herself into selling this scenario to the boys with all the gusto of an Oscar-worthy performance.
“No.”
“A fireproof shield.”
“Oh…” The boys were united in their understanding of what they needed to conquer the dragon.
Calm had come to the kingdom. Poppy wanted to pat herself on the back, but the battle was not yet over.
“Throw me that pillow.” Poppy caught the blue square with one hand and began to wrap it in a length of tinfoil. “Now, if that dragon breathes on you, you are toast. You’re worse than toast. You’re burnt toast.”
Both of her nephews stared, wide-eyed. She could feel their appreciation for her story. After all of today’s craziness, it was a balm for her soul. Who knew that a fire-breathing dragon would be the best part of her day?
“Now go,” Poppy spoke with conviction to the pint-sized knights. “Defeat the dragon. Both of you.”
They took their orders seriously.
Steve held up the new shield atop their makeshift fort. “Ha. Take that. In your face, dragon!”
Rob brandished the sword. “We’ve gotcha now.”
Poppy couldn’t help but smile. Soon, the dragon would be slain. Too bad the utter mess her life seemed to have become couldn’t be handled in the same way. She’d give anything to solve her current problems with a sword and some tinfoil.
She needed a knight in shining armor. But fairy tales weren’t real. There was no knight riding into Seattle on a valiant steed named “Adulting,” who was going to charge into her world and make everything work out.
Megan watched the scene with a smile as Poppy walked back across the open area between the living room and the kitchen. “Well, you do know I’m not getting that pillow back now, right?”
Poppy would take her victories where she found them.
“A small price to pay for saving the kingdom from ruin,” she pointed out with a laugh in her voice. It felt good to shake off the day—and the idea that she needed her own hero. She could do this herself. She just had to figure out where her path led.
The boys ran toward the kitchen table with enthusiastic pride. “We did it!”
Steve high-fived his brother as they sat down. “We got him!”
“Yeah!” Poppy joined in their cheers. “That’s awesome.”
Megan caught Poppy’s eye with a knowing nod. “This—” She gestured to the boys and their foil-covered weapons. “This is something you’re really good at.”
The boys immediately focused on dinner, as though everything in the house had instantly returned back to business as usual. “This broccoli is really good, mom,” Rob said.
Steve echoed him with a simple sound of appreciation. “Mm-hmm.”
But Poppy smiled, knowing her sister’s words had changed everything. Maybe she could find her zen after all. Maybe all she needed was some time with children to turn her into a full-fledged adult.
Ryan Larson brushed off the knock at the door, followed by the sound of the doorbell. Whoever it was would just have to wait. It was probably just FedEx dropping off a package, anyway.
They could just leave it on the porch. He was on the phone with his lead developer who was on a business trip to Japan. This call from halfway around the world was one of the final keys to everything. It wouldn’t be long until he was presenting to the entire Yamoharo Global team, persuading them to buy his new app technology.
Once they did, the sky would be the limit.
Until then, nothing in heaven or on earth could be a distraction. Especially not the doorbell.
“Look, we’re getting five thousand downloads a day. And if we can land this, that number doubles. Yeah, I know. I hear what you’re saying. Well, I don’t think it’s that complicated. We just tell them who we are, you know? We’re a young, proven company. We’ve got apps that work. And this one has a great interface, it’s simple…exactly.”
Ryan paced across the front of his home office, oblivious to the light filtering through the windows or the sounds of the birds in the trees. He could feel it. One step closer to sealing the deal. “Yeah. And I just think we share the comments…I’ve got ‘em right here.”
Ryan dragged his finger across the touchpad mouse on his laptop and pulled up his email. He tapped the forward button and sent the summary brief with the feedback flying halfway around the world to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Suddenly he couldn’t keep his focus anymore. A woman in a lightweight brown jacket was jumping up and down and waving and flailing outside the window to his office. He lived in a popular neighborhood with lots of families and hustle and bustle. But a strange woman dressed in fall-appropriate layers and practically tap-dancing in his front yard was something he’d never seen before. “I’ve got to call you back.”
His colleague acknowledged receipt of the email. Ryan wrapped up the conversation. Through the window, he gestured for the woman to meet him at the front door.
Ryan opened the dark wooden door and a woman with
