Free Keeping You by Jessie Evans

dad said. “We just need to find them. Once we get enough evidence to prove he’s bad for Felicity, everything will be fine. You can stay here, and we’ll get this marriage annulled and—”
    “ No, Dad,” Aria said, surprised to find the possibility of staying with her parents not even a little tempting. “That isn’t going to happen.”
    No matter how generous and helpful her mom and dad had been, she was past ready to move out. Grown children weren’t meant to live with their parents. It was unnatural and stirred up every adolescent hang-up Aria had ever had. Even living with Nash and dealing with all the insanity that was bound to cause was more appealing. And by the time she and Nash went their separate ways, she would be getting a pay raise from Lark and hopefully be able to afford a small apartment of her own.
    Besides, even if she wanted to stay, she had made a promise to Nash and she didn’t take promises lightly.
    “ I’m moving in with Nash, and Felicity is coming with me, and Nash and I are going to do our best to make our marriage work,” she said. “That’s the end of it.”
    “ But you don’t love him,” her dad said, standing up to pace the carpet in front of the bed. “I can tell, even if the rest of those dummies down there can’t.”
    Aria smiled. “You just called your wife, children, and future son-in-law dummies, Dad. That’s real mature.”
    Her dad scowled. “I’m not trying to be mature, I’m trying to keep my daughter from making another mistake.”
    Another mistake.
    The way he said it made it seem like all Aria had done was flit from one bad choice to another, from the day she first left home to the day she drug herself back in disgrace years later. She had made her share of mistakes—Aria could admit that—but she had also had wonderful adventures.
    She’d studied to be a pastry chef in France, backpacked through Germany, lived on a commune on a vineyard in the Italian countryside, and gone to more rock concerts than a Rolling Stones groupie. She had more interesting stories to tell after twenty-eight years than most people had after a lifetime.
    She also had a daughter. A beautiful, magical little girl who, despite the fact that her father wasn’t the man Aria thought he was, was not a mistake. Felicity was a treasure, and Aria could do worse for her child than moving in with a man who obviously adored babies in general, and Felicity, in particular.
    She could do much worse for Felicity…like staying here with a grandpa who made her mama feel like a sad, pathetic failure.
    “ I love you, Daddy,” Aria said, swinging the baby bag over one shoulder and grabbing the small suitcase from the floor. “But this is my life and I have to make my own decisions, and this one is already made.”
    Her dad frowned. “Well, don’t come crying to me when it falls apart, because it will. That boy has never had your best interests at heart, not when you were a little girl he was attacking in the woods, and not now.”
    “ I wasn’t a little girl, Daddy, and he wasn’t…” Aria stopped herself.
    Once her dad had something stuck in his head, it was pointless to argue. She was wasting breath and time she and Nash would need to get the crib he had borrowed set up in Felicity’s room before bedtime.
    “ You know what?” she said. “I’m not going to argue about this. I’m going to tell you goodnight and thank you for trying to help, and I’m going to go. I hope next time we get together we can enjoy each other’s company without all the unsolicited advice.”
    “ Maybe we can,” Daddy said, scowling. “As long as you leave that idiot you married at home.”
    Aria shook her head and sighed, a part of her wanting to defend Nash—he had many annoying qualities, but he was far from an idiot—but she knew when to cut her losses.
    She turned and walked out the bedroom door and down the stairs without a backward glance, kissing her mom and sisters goodbye before heading out