Single Mom Seeks... by TERESA HILL

might not survive.
    He was cutting up chicken, and Lily was assembling ingredients when the girls burst into the kitchen, arguing as they went.
    “Cannot!” Ginny said, heading for the refrigerator.
    “Can, too!” Brittany said, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout so adorable, it was all Lily could do not to laugh.
    It was a good thing she looked cute when she pouted, because she pouted a lot and whined. The whining got really old, but the cute pout often saved Lily from getting too irritated.
    “Cannot!” Ginny said, standing in the open refrigerator and blocking her sister’s view of all the goodies inside.
    “Can, too!” Brittany folded her arms and glared at her sister.
    “What is it that Brittany cannot do?” Lily asked, giving her oldest daughter a look that used to have the power to silence her instantly, but was quickly losing that magical effect.
    “She cannot have a horse for her birthday! She doesn’t get a present like that!” Ginny said.
    A horse?
    Lily gaped at her baby girl, tears filling her eyes now as she tried to turn on the charm and get her way.
    “Oh, honey,” Lily said. “A horse?”
    Brittany nodded hopefully. “Mattie Wright got a horse, and a special outfit to wear to ride it and riding lessons for her birthday!”
    “Mattie Wright’s father owns half the county,” Lily said. “Including a farm on the edge of town where Mattie’s horse can live. We don’t have a place where a horse could live. We just have the backyard.”
    “He could live there,” Brittany said.
    “Honey, it’s just not big enough for a horse.”
    “We could get a little horse,” Brittany reasoned. “A baby horse. He wouldn’t need much room.”
    Ginny started laughing at that. “A baby horse? You are so silly. A baby horse grows up into a big horse, Britt. Everybody knows that.”
    Brittany glared at her and started to cry.
    Jake jumped in then, trying to help. “You know, Brittany, horses are really big. They can be kind of scary. One of my brothers was on a horse once, and he fell off and the horse stepped on him and broke his nose.”
    Brittany looked highly skeptical. “Did he really?”
    Jake nodded. “Maybe it would be better to wait until you’re bigger to have a horse.”
    Jake looked to Lily to see if that was a mistake or not. To imply she might get a horse later.
    Lily nodded. Anything that got her daughter off the horse thing for now was okay with her.
    “Isn’t there anything else you’d like for your birthday?” Jake tried.
    “Well.” Brittany sighed, like it was quite a lot to ask, that she give up on the horse and go to her second choice. But she liked Jake and gave him an answer. “I thought about…a tree house.”
    Her eyes lit up once again, a new dream replacing the horse just that quickly.
    Lily frowned once again. “A tree house?”
    “Yeah,” Brittany said, like it sounded like the greatest thing in the world.
    “Oh. Great.”
     
    “Do you know anything about building tree houses?” Jake asked three nights later as they wolfed down take-out Chinese food for dinner.
    Nick made a face. “You want a tree house?”
    “No!” Jake looked disgusted. “Lily’s daughter, the littlest one, Brittany, does. It’s her birthday next week. I heard her talking to Lily about it when I was over there helping her with the wallpaper.”
    “Oh.”
    Lily.
    Stay away from Lily.
    Nick might need a flashing neon sign.
    “So, do you know anything about ’em?” Jake asked.
    “Not really. I mean, we had one when your mother and I were growing up, but it wasn’t much more than a platform in a tree and a ladder to reach it.”
    “You think I could build one?” Jake said between shoveling a huge mouthful of curry chicken into his mouth.
    “Have you ever built anything?”
    “Not really.”
    “Then I don’t think you should start with something in a tree. That’s something you want to get right, especially if little girls are going to climb up there and play in