Page 73 of One Kind Goal

Not about a job, about a direction her life should take, about a passion. She’d been having fun, but she hadn’t been ignited. Not truly. Not until this Vermont trip. Maplehaven was a magical place, and living and working here was definitely something Morgan wanted to do. If she could get Sawyer and Nia to factor into those plans somehow, she might have everything needed to orchestrate The Perfect Life.

With another hug, Morgan left Trixie, promising to come back tomorrow with the Rayhill family lawyer Austin had called to handle the sale. By the time she made it back to the cottages—after a quick pit stop along the way—Sawyer and Nia were sitting on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. Nia’s crayons were sprawled out on the table and copious drawings littered the floor around them.

“Are we mass producing artwork?” Morgan lowered to the floor opposite them. Seeing Sawyer’s big body wedged into the small space beside his daughter did a little something to her heartbeat.

“We are.” He held up one of the sheets of paper. “Frogs in particular.”

Morgan angled her head at the green blob on the paper, smiling when Sawyer winked at her. “A frog, right. I see.” Only because he’d told her.

“I’m making a ballerina now,” Nia said, a pink crayon in her hand and her head bent over a clean sheet.

“Nice.” Morgan perused the other drawings, not sure what half of them were, except for one of a little brown puppy. She turned that one to face her to get a better look.

“Daddy made that one,” Nia said without looking up from her work.

Sawyer held up his casted arm when Morgan looked at him. “I can usually do better, but it’s not easy to draw with a busted arm.”

“I think it’s a good picture,” Morgan said. “I’m surprised, however, that a big, manly hockey player likes to draw little brown puppies.”

Nia snickered, but she kept focused on her ballerina.

“I’ll have you know that little brown puppies are very manly,” Sawyer said, the left corner of his mouth tilting up.

“Oh, really? Like little pink bunnies?”

Nia chuckled and switched to a purple crayon.

“Exactly.” Sawyer pushed a few crayons toward Morgan’s side of the table. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Picasso.”

Rolling up the sleeves of her sweater, Morgan picked up the purple crayon Nia had put down. Switching colors a few times, she drew a black-haired girl wearing a purple dress and standing next to Sawyer’s puppy. Using the red crayon, she connected the two with a leash. She made a red collar around the dog’s neck and added a dangling name tag that said Maple.

When she turned it and slid it to Sawyer, he picked up the green crayon and scribbled some grass beneath the girl and puppy.

Working upside down, Morgan added a tree in the corner then she lightly shaded the background with blue sky.

“We made a nice picture together.” Sawyer’s gaze lingered on Morgan’s face for a few seconds.

“Let me see.” Nia picked up the drawing. “Oh, is it me, Morgan? Me and Daddy’s puppy?”

“It is.”

“I love it!” Nia held up the picture. “You should get a doggie, Daddy. Can I keep this picture?”

“Of course,” Morgan said. “But you have to give us each one of your drawings in return.”

“Okay!” Nia shifted through the papers on the coffee table. “Daddy, you can have the helicopter picture.” She slapped a paper down in front of Sawyer. “And . . .” Nia moved a few more papers around then plucked one out of the pile and waved it at Morgan. “You can have the Pegasus.”

Morgan took the drawing, smiling at how big Nia had made the wings. “Thank you so much. I think I’ll hang this in Trixie’s Attic when I’m officially the owner.”

“Yay!” Nia gathered the crayons to put back in the box. “Where will you put yours, Daddy?”

“Hmm . . .” Sawyer studied the drawing. “I think I’ll trim it so it’s a little smaller and put it inside the back window of my SUV. That way, every time I put my hockey equipment in or take it out of the trunk, I’ll see your wonderful artwork and think of you.” He put his arm around Nia, and she cuddled up to his side. Sawyer bent his head to lay his cheek on the top of Nia’s curls.

Squish alert. Once again. Morgan couldn’t take how cute the two of them were.

Nia peeked up at Sawyer. “So about that puppy . . .”

“I’m not getting a puppy, Nia,” Sawyer said. “I’m on the road a lot with games. It wouldn’t be fair to the puppy.”