Free Be Mine at Christmas by Brenda Novak Page B

you. Will you come over?”
    It was Matt. Of course. She’d known it would be.
    Angela bit her lip. Could she really break her promise to Betty? What if he insisted on raising Kayla, and Stephanie managed to get her life together? Would he include her at all?
    There were so many variables, so many risks….
    “Angela?”
    “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she said and hung up.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    S TEPHANIE SAT ON HER COT and kept rocking, back and forth, back and forth. It was the only way to deal with the turmoil inside her. The methadone the nurse had given her was curbing her withdrawal symptoms, but nothing could ease her agitation over what she’d just learned.
    When the nurse had called Angela’s work number, she’d been told that Angela was out of town. Then the nurse had explained that it was an emergency, and some assistant had said Angela had gone to Virginia City for the holidays.
    Stephanie rocked faster. Virginia City. Angie had gone home without her. And she’d taken Kayla. After thirteen years.
    Why? That was the question. There was nothing left in Virginia City.
    Except maybe Matt.
     
    A NGELA COULD SCARCELY breathe as she waited on Matt’s front step—and it didn’t get any easier once he opened the door.
    Dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a blue stripedshirt with a white T-shirt underneath, he was fresh from the shower. His hair was still damp and curled around his collar. She thought he looked better than she’d ever seen him. Especially when his lips curved into a crooked smile as his eyes swept over her, telling her that he liked what he saw just as much. “Come in.”
    She couldn’t get physical with him, she reminded herself. They both needed to have clear heads, to make a wise decision uninfluenced by peripheral desires. A decision about Kayla.
    But then he tilted up her chin and kissed her softly, and all she wanted to do was melt in his arms and let him bury her fear beneath a torrent of sensation.
    “I’m making you some dinner,” he said, as she greeted Sampson. “I hope you’re hungry.”
    Angela had been so preoccupied that she hadn’t bothered to eat. “I am hungry,” she admitted and ignored the voice that was yelling Tell him! in the corner of her mind. They had all night, didn’t they? She had to wait for the right moment.
     
    S TEPHANIE STOOD at the pay phone, cursing the long wait as other addicts called a boyfriend, a girlfriend, family. They were limited to one call a day and Stephanie had already taken her turn, but she didn’t care. She pushed in front of several people, brushing aside their complaints. She needed to use the phone again, and no one was stopping her.
    Was Angela moving to Virginia City? Was that what was going on? Or was she taking Kayla to her father?
    After she’d found out she was pregnant, hermother’s reaction was the only reason Stephanie hadn’t told Matt. She’d wanted to let him know about the baby, could hardly wait to break the news that he had to notice her now. That she had something no one else did, even his beloved Danielle. She’d never seen her mother as angry as she’d been the day she’d learned—thanks to Angela—exactly what Stephanie had done. Betty had promised right then that if Stephanie ever told Matt about Kayla—if she ever told anyone the name of Kayla’s father—it would be the last straw. Betty would disown Stephanie, and she’d be out on her ass. For real. No family. No friends. No one to catch her when she fell.
    Deep in her heart, Stephanie had known she needed her mother too much to sever that tie. And, in her more honest moments, she’d also known that even if Matt had accepted Kayla, he would never fully accept Stephanie. So she’d been forced to stick with her only form of support. She had to save herself one last chance, always. Betty was her ticket to a better life, when she’d finally had enough.
    Once she’d grown older, however, she hadn’t used that chance and she’d rarely