Free And Then Came You by Maureen Child Page B

was going to have to take lessons. “Honest. I’m fine. A little tired, maybe.” Comes from lying wide awake in your bed all night, with visions of your ex-husband dancing in your head.
    Sugarplums—whatever the hell they were—would have been much safer.
    And to clear that picture from her mind she spoke up fast before Grace could work up a full head of steam. “You know what, Grace? Jo will be taking care of the paneling in the library, why don’t you go show her what you have in mind?”
    Distracted, Grace snatched at the suggestion like a kid grabbing for the last piece of candy in a bowl. “Good idea.”
    Sam watched her go and tried to feel guilty. She failed. She’d just tossed her older sister to the lions and all she felt was a small twist of satisfaction. That said something about her, didn’t it? But what did that matter when she could watch Jo face the determined little woman like a condemned man waiting for the first bullet to strike flesh?
    Life was good.
    “Does my mommy want me now?”
    Jeff scraped one hand across his face, then looked at his little girl. This had been so much harder than he’d ever thought it would be. But then, that wasn’t really a fair statement, was it? Because he’d never imagined having to have this conversation.
    The living room of their suite at the inn was filled with morning sunlight and the soft sigh of the ocean breeze, dancing across the balcony and into the room. The ocean’s heartbeat sounded loud and steady andJeff tried to match his to it. At least that would keep him breathing. “I told you, M&M,” he said, using the nickname he’d called her since the first time she was laid in his arms. “She
always
wanted you. She just couldn’t keep you when you were a baby.”
    Now, that comforting statement he’d been giving his child since she was old enough to understand had new meaning for him. After hearing Sam’s story and
sensing
the truth in it, he was forced to reevaluate the anger he’d kept for her all these years. And with that reevaluation came a whole new fury, directed solely at his mother.
    The great Eleanor Hendricks. The woman who’d ruled her family and her world like a dictator with all the bashful charm of Idi Amin. Jeff’s father had danced to her tune and hadn’t found freedom until he’d dropped dead of a stress-related heart attack at fifty-eight. Though Jeff had missed him, he’d also missed the buffer zone his father had provided. Without her husband to concentrate on, Eleanor had focused her abundant energies on whipping her only child into shape.
    And dammit, he’d
allowed
it. It had been easier than fighting back. Easier to go along and not make the waves that would have eventually drowned him.
    Now, he was paying the price. All last night, he’d paced the confines of the suite, wishing for a chance to confront his mother. Since Emma had come into his life, he’d pulled away from Eleanor, refusing to let his daughter be ruled by the same velvet fist he’d always known. But that pulling away hadn’t been enough. There should have been more. She should have been made to see just how much misery she’d caused.
    Because that wasn’t going to happen, Jeff had to deal with his own frustrations. But that could wait. There was something—someone—much more important at the moment.
    “Your mom always loved you, Emma. Just like I told you.” It cost him. Giving his daughter the mother she so desperately wanted and needed was costing him more than he’d ever thought it would. If that made him a selfish bastard, well, he’d just have to learn to live with it.
    Emma nodded solemnly, as if she were considering his words carefully. Reaching up, she tugged at the end of one of her pigtails and twirled it around her fingertips. Her one front tooth worried her bottom lip and Jeff wished he didn’t have to do this. Didn’t have to face his baby and shake her world.
    Dammit, he was the
dad
. The guy who was supposed to make sure