Free The Switched Baby Scandal (A Scandals of San Sebastian Novel) (Entangled Bliss) by Theresa Meyers Page A

play?”
    Taylor reached forward and wrapped an arm around Emily. “She’s in heaven, sweetie.”
    Emily twisted in her mother’s grasp and stared wide-eyed at her and then Reece. “You mean my sister’s an angel?” Her words came out full of wonder and awe.
    Taylor nodded.
    Emily wrinkled her forehead in thought. “What happened to her?”
    Taylor stroked her daughter’s dark hair, sorrow collecting heavy and hot in her breast. She forced herself to hold back the tears that came whenever she looked at Alyssa’s photo and even more so now that she was in Alyssa’s room. If she cried now it might upset Emily, and so even though it hurt beyond measure, she held it together. “She died in a car accident, baby. That’s when she went to be an angel.”
    “When can she come back?”
    “Once you’re an angel, you can’t come back here to stay. They need you up in heaven to sing.” The words hurt more to say than Taylor could have imagined. It suddenly made it all too real, too tangible to be standing here surrounded by the shadows of Alyssa’s short life and not able to have been part of it.
    Emily nodded as if in deep thought. “That means she’s not here to play with, doesn’t it?”
    “That’s right. But we’re going to look at some pictures of her. Would you like to do that with us?”
    Emily shrugged. “I guess.” She walked forward a few steps, then yanked hard on Taylor’s hand. “Mommy, do you think she can teach me to fly?”
    Reece chuckled.
    Emily looked perturbed. Taylor glared at him. Explaining death to a child wasn’t humorous and it was obvious Emily had her own ideas. Her daughter looked up at Reece and scowled at him, her small hands balled into knots at her slender hips.
    “What’s so funny? Don’t you want to fly?” she asked in all seriousness.
    He wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes, a soft smile lighting up his face. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you, Emily. I just never thought of it that way. It’s a great idea.”
    Emily smiled in return, nodding her head in agreement, then turned back to her mother. “Well, Mommy, when she gets back, can she teach me?” Taylor shifted her weight, bothered by the half-truth Reece was playing, but keenly aware that Reece had softened the idea for Emily, making it easier to move on to looking at pictures.
    “Let’s talk about that later, okay?”
    Emily screwed her face up in disagreement. “Okay,” she said with a sigh.
    An oversize beige recliner rocker sat in one corner with a stack of picture albums beside it. “Where would you like to start?” Reece asked.
    Taylor handed him the stack in her arms. “Why don’t we look at Emily’s first so Emily can tell you about them.” She sat down cross-legged on the floor, and Emily curled up between the two of them. His male presence was unsettling, especially when she was used to having Emily all to herself. It made them seem like a family, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for something so inclusive just yet.
    “That was me when I was a baby,” explained Emily in her most grown-up fashion as she looked at Reece.
    “You were very pink.”
    Emily grinned. “I like pink.”
    “So did Alyssa.”
    Emily’s face became furrowed for a split second. “Reece, if this is Alyssa’s room, how can she fly in here?”
    Reece pushed up from the floor and pulled back the drapes with his hand. “Through the window.”
    Emily beamed. “Does she have extra wings here?”
    Taylor stifled a smile. “Angels don’t have extra wings.”
    “But I have extra shoes. Why doesn’t God give them extra wings in case they wear out?”
    Taylor grabbed Emily in a hug. God bless little children who never saw the ugly side of life. They could see good in anything—and what they couldn’t see, they still believed in. “That’s a good question; maybe someday we’ll find out.” She flipped to another page of the album as Reece settled back down to the carpet on the other side of