Free Always by Jezebel Jorge Page A

waiting for me
all those years ago.”
    Dess pulled down her oversized sunglasses
and gave him a wry smile. “That seems like a lifetime ago.”
    He moved his hand a little further up her
thigh. “How about we get a babysitter and you make Lauderdale with
me Friday night?”
    “I could use a date night.” She put the sun
glasses back in place to where he couldn’t see her eyes, just her
jutting lip below the dark shades. “But this little monster has to
eat.”
    “She’s the one getting fat as a little
piggy.” He tweaked the baby’s toe and Amalie stopped feeding,
moving her head to look at him.
    Baby Amalie giggled and babbled, “Da da da
da.”
    “She said daddy.” Graham’s heart about
melted. “She knows who I am.”
    “Da da da da,” Amalie repeated.
    “She’s been babbling like that for days.
You’d know this if you spent a little more time with us.”
    “I’m sorry I had to work this weekend.” He
tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “You know, to put a roof
over your head and take care you and our child.”
    “My house is paid for.” Odessa snorted. “If
you left your wife that would be one less family you’d have to
support.”
    “Don’t you think she’d sue me for alimony?”
Not to mention that a divorce will kill his carefully built
reputation with the people who mattered in their community. “That
would cost me an arm and a leg.”
    Just as if she’d read his mind, she said,
“And having a bastard baby is so good for your clean cut good guy
image? Please.” She yelped as Amalie latched back on to her breast.
“I don’t know why you insisted on me having this child.”
    “Don’t you think it’s a little too late to
go worrying about that now?” He countered.
    “I can’t do this all by myself.” Odessa
yanked Amalie away from her breast and the child started screaming.
Odessa screamed louder, “Why is this kid so damn needy?”
    “She’s just hungry, that’s all.”
    “Then how about you fucking feed her.”
Odessa shoved Amalie into his lap. “My nipples are sore and she’s
getting too big for this breast feeding nonsense.”
    Graham grabbed hold of Amalie just as she
teetered toward hitting the floorboard. Steering with his free
hand, he bounced her around attempting to shush her without pulling
over the car. Trying not to shout in his daughter’s ear, he asked,
“Did you pack a bottle or maybe a pacifier?”
    Odessa reached into the diaper bag and
pulled out a bottle of gin. She took a shot straight from the
bottle before offering it to him.
    “Not that kind of bottle,” he said.
    She took another drink and licked her lips.
“Now that’s better.”
    “You’re not supposed to be drinking.
Carmella says the alcohol contaminates your breast milk and,” he
bounced Amalie against his knee, “makes her fitful.”
    “Well, it makes me feel a lot better.”
Odessa took another drink before reaching back into the diaper bag
and pulling out a pacifier. She took a cup from the holder and
drizzled the gin over the pink nub before offering it to Amalie and
then downing what leaked through into the cup. Amazingly enough the
kid instantly stopped her crying. “From the way she’s been gnawing
on my tit she’s got to be teething.” Odessa took another more
ladylike sip of gin. “The sooner she gets her teeth, the sooner she
starts eating on her own.”
    She tucked the liquor bottle back in the bag
and acting as if she had all the time in the world went about
zipping up her dress. She applied a fresh coat of lipstick and
smiled at her reflection in the mirror before reaching to reclaim
her daughter.
    “See, I’m much more motherly with a bit of
gin in me.” Odessa smiled at him, her dark mood seemingly
passing.
    The sunlight from the passenger window made
her hair light up as if it were on fire and Graham couldn’t help
but think about how damn gorgeous she was all dressed up like that
with his daughter in arms in their matching polka dot