Free Promises (New Beginnings Book 2) by Michelle Lynn Page B

"I'm actually not here for me and you know that."
    "I do."
    "He died a few months ago. It took me a while to work up the nerve to come here, and even longer to extract your information out of Elijah's mom. Mrs. Lugo seems to think you'd be better off if you never met me." He smiled slightly as if it were a joke, but his eyes were sad. Mrs. Lugo had been like a mother to him as well.
    "How'd you get her to give you Elijah's number?"
    "I finally told her the real reason why I had to come."
    "Which is?" Maggie was not known for her patience and she could tell when someone was stalling.
    "I have a letter for you. From your dad." Jake reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded envelope. He held it out to her, but Maggie just stared at it with wide eyes.
    Jake dropped his hand and put the letter on the seat between them.
    "Your dad was sober in the end," he said quietly.
    "What?" Maggie snapped her head up.
    "I was already in the program when he joined. He got sober a couple of years ago, but he didn't think he had the right to contact you. That, and Mrs. Lugo would have never given your information to him."
    Maggie couldn't speak. She kept opening and closing her mouth like a fish before pressing her lips together in a firm line. She took the envelope from the bench and gingerly flipped it over in her hands. Her name was written on it in her dad's sloppy style.
    She thought she’d cut all strings to that man. She’d barely thought about him in years until Elijah told her he’d died. Anger suddenly washed over her. He’d caused her so much pain over the years and here he was, doing it again. His final words weren't going to hold anything that would make up for the childhood she lost. They weren't going to make her feel better about never having her parents’ love. They were only going to remind her of what she never had.
    She hated him. She hated her father, and now he was dead, so she hated herself as well. Whoever said 'never speak ill of the dead' never knew a man that could reach from the grave to cause more pain.
    "I don't want it," Maggie said after a few moments of silence. She handed the envelope back to Jake.
    He looked at her with a mixture of worry and sadness. He’d always been able to make her feel guilty for things she shouldn't have. It felt like a twisting in her gut.
    "You're going to regret not reading it," he said.
    "The only thing I'll regret is letting that man back into my head."
    She thrust it at him and let go. The envelope floated through the air before landing on the ground. Maggie looked at it once more and then back at Jake.
    "Goodbye, Jake." She got to her feet. "Don't contact me again."

Eleven
     
    Elijah was getting frustrated. Maggie wouldn't talk to him. She told him she met with Jake, and he’d gotten angry that she didn't tell him beforehand. What would he have done? He wanted to go with her, but knowing Maggie, it was something she had to do alone. He understood that. But he wished she would talk to him and let him help her.
    She wasn't saying much to Jason or Michaela either. As they all worked at the house, the three of them kept stealing glances at Maggie. She didn't have much else to do, so she threw herself into working on Elijah's house.
    Kimberly was with them today, and she was the only person that could get Maggie to smile.
    "Are you sad?" Elijah heard Kimberly ask Maggie.
    Maggie bent over and looked the kid in the face. "No, sweetheart. I'm fine."
    "You don't look fine."
    "Kimmy," Elijah called, trying to get her and her questions away from Maggie. "Why don't you go upstairs to help Michaela?"
    He heard small footsteps running up the stairs. When he turned to Maggie, she was already back to work. He was about to say something when there was a knock on the back door.
    He opened it to find a delivery man with a rather large box.
    "The note out front said to bring deliveries around back," the man said.
    "That's right," Elijah replied. "Don't want anyone hurting themselves