Pokrewne

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Chelsea Handler Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (epub
Brit Brinson [Dia of the Dead Dia of the Dead (epub)
Cody Goodfellow [Radiant Dawn Radiant Dawn (epub)
Cate Tiernan [Immortal Belove Immortal Beloved (epub)
Drew Hayes [Super Powereds 02 Super Powereds Year 2 (epub) i
Beth Harbison [Shoe Addict 02 Secrets of a Shoe Addict (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
C M Kars [Never Been Kissed Never Been Kissed (epub)
Desiree A Cox [Lust, Desire a Twisted by Desire [MF] (epub) i
Brown, Sandra Rage Zorn

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.And nothing tastes better than my sister’s homemade triple cheese lasagna.“Do you want me to get you something to drink?” she asks as if she needs something to do.“Okay.”While she’s getting a glass from the cupboard, she asks casually, “So how did things go with Paige? Did you see your daughter?”I’m surprised she waited this long to ask me.I know she wanted to ask the minute she walked in.I take my time chewing and swallowing before answering.“Yes, I saw Brianna.”Diane sends me a goofy smile as she pours orange juice into a large glass.“Isn’t she adorable?”With the image of Brianna vivid in my mind, the ache in my chest returns.“She looks like Paige.”“She does,” Diane agrees as she returns to the table and places the glass in front of me.“And she’s such a good baby.I hardly have any problems with her.”“So not like father like daughter, huh?” I ask, letting out a short self-deprecating laugh.My sister smiles indulgently.“You do have your moments, but you aren’t that bad.In the past, there’s only been a couple times when I wanted to knock some sense into you.”Apart from this major fuckup, when I was fourteen I ran away after our parents were killed in a car accident.I hopped on a bus and was halfway across the country in Yuma, Arizona, when Diane and Dan caught up with me two days later.I was on my way to see my friend Chad, who’d moved to San Diego the year before.Needless to say, I’d been grounded for two weeks and was forced to endure a lecture that lasted the four and a half hour flight home.My sister hadn’t cried that much at our parents’ funeral and Dan had looked as if he’d aged a decade in those two days.God, I’d even gotten a very stern lecture from Dan’s father for worrying them as much as I had.“In the past?” I say, raising an eyebrow.“Not to Paige it isn’t.She hates me.I think she’d be happy if I went back to New York and stayed out of Brianna’s life.”“Mitch, you left her.It’s normal for her to be hurt and angry.Give her some time and she’ll come around.”If by time, my sister means before my daughter graduates from high school, maybe.I wouldn’t count on anything less.“I should have come home when you called.I should have been there when she was born.” If there’s one thing I could change, it would be that.It’d been the pivotal point.A time when I could have undone some of the damage.“You’re talking as if it’s too late, which isn’t the case.Brianna’s young—still a baby.She won’t even remember a time when you weren’t in her life.”No, it isn’t too late for Brianna, thank God.But it’s definitely too late for Paige.Not that I want to start anything romantic back up with her.I don’t.But let’s just say for argument’s sake I did, I can safely say that’s not going to happen.We’ll be lucky if we can make this co-parenting thing work between us.“Paige never sent the termination of parental rights form for me to sign did she?” It’s a rhetorical question because it’s clear Diane must have been the one responsible for that.Paige would have admitted if she’d sent it.“No.But I started thinking about the future and wondering what would happen when she gets married.If you’re not in her life, it would make sense for her husband to adopt Brianna.” Shaking her head, Diane says, “I couldn’t let you make that mistake.I had to do something to—to make you care.To make you want to be part of your daughter’s life because I know if you didn’t, it would be a decision you’d regret for the rest of yours.”“I would have come to my senses before that happened.”The picture alone had done the trick, the form had only added an urgency to it.Three days later, I’d packed as much of my belongings into my car as I could fit, and driven two days to get here with one overnight stop.At some point, I’ll have to go back and deal with getting the rest of my stuff from the apartment because I won’t be going back.Here is where my daughter is, which means this is where I’m going to stay.PaigeIf I got more than four hours sleep last night that would be saying a lot.Thank God Bree didn’t have my problem, only waking up once during the night because her diaper was wet.The second I put her back in her crib, she went out like a light.It’s eight o’clock now and I’ve been up since five, yesterday’s events playing over and over again in my mind.Mitch is back.That’s all I can think about and all I’ve been able to think about since I saw him.Figures he’d come back when I’ve reached a place in my life where it doesn’t hurt to think about him and what he did.I’m finally over him, you know? I’ve moved on with my life.Now he’s going to screw everything up.I know what it was like when it was just me and him.Those were the carefree, easy years.It was laughter, fun, and hot sex.This past year, it’s been me and Bree.Now it’s going to be Bree and me, and Mitch and Bree.And that’s a situation I didn’t think I’d have to deal with.I stare up at my ceiling, trying to summon up the will to get out of bed and start my morning.No summer class today but my shift at the restaurant starts at eleven.I need to drop Bree off at Diane’s by ten thirty if I want to make it to work on time.God, I think I’m going to have to revisit this whole babysitting thing with Diane now that Mitch is back.Yes it’s convenient and it’s free and she is Bree’s family but is it worth it for me to have to see Mitch when I don’t have to? Or am I being a selfish bitch? Hard to know right now.As I’m contemplating my day, how I’m going to handle everything, I hear the muffled jingle of my cell phone.My gaze flies to my nightstand.It’s not there.I bolt up into a sitting position, ears perked as I try to identify its location.This always happens when I don’t put the damn thing in the same place every night.By the third ring, I’m off the bed and whipping back the covers and patting the mattress down like it’s a recovered prison escapee.By the fourth ring I realize it doesn’t sound like the phone is even in my room.I dash over to Bree’s and see my iPhone lit up on her dresser.By the time I get my hands on it, all I see on the screen is Missed Call before it goes dark.Now more important than who called is did it wake up my daughter? I tiptoe over to her crib and peer inside.Bree is wide awake, her big green eyes staring back at me.Then she smiles and my heart melts.“How’s my girl?” I coo as I pick her up.She rubs her eye, gives a big yawn, and lays her head on my shoulder.I love her like this, all sleepy and warm.“Come on, honey, let’s get you changed and then we’ll get some breakfast, ’kay?”Breakfast is the magic word.She perks up and cries, “Ba-ba.”“Yes, Mommy’s going to change your diaper and feed you.You’d like that won’t you, honey?”“Ba-ba,” she says again.Just as I’m about to check the phone to see who called, it rings in my hand.Mitch Calling.It’s been so long since I’ve seen that.And although I was expecting it, the sight causes my heart to skip a beat.Which is not good.Not good at all.I mentally compose myself before answering.“Hello.” I don’t want to sound too familiar.“Hey, Paige, it’s Mitch.”As if I didn’t know.“I didn’t expect you to call this early.”There’s a pause before he says, “It’s after eight.”“Oh, so you’re saying you know what time Brianna wakes up in the mornings?” I go formal with my daughter’s name.The shortened version of her name is for people who know her intimately.Beyond whatever his sister has told him, he doesn’t know anything else about my daughter [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]