Page 9 of From Rivals to I Do

make things convenient to hop on his offer, I’d feel weird doing it. A mom takes care of her kids, not the other way around.

“I appreciate the thought, but it’s really no big deal,” I reply. “Besides, I’ll have all weekend to settle in.”

I don’t want to worry, Sparrow, but to be honest, I was lucky to get the house that I got. Joseph had apparently made some not-too-

great decisions I wasn’t aware of, in my name—probably due to that little jezebel he’d messed around with. So, my credit wasn’t the

best. Plus, even with the house being smaller, and the mortgage being less, it was still expensive to handle all on my own.

“If you say so,” Sparrow replies as I look in the bag, searching for the sugar buns I’d ordered with our food, but unfortunately, they aren’t there.

“Oh no, they forgot our dessert!” I groan, sporting a frown.

“Mom, it’s totally fine, don’t worry about it,” Sparrow replies as she helps Jade eat some noodles.

“Yeah, it’s really not that big of a deal,” Daniel agrees. “It’s not like we’ll die without them.”

“Nonsense, you guys deserve it after today,” I say as I throw my paper plate in the garbage. “Let me go run to the store really quick

and knab us a pie.”

I get up, run to the bedroom, and find my suitcase full of my usual clothes and work stuff, changing out of my dusty moving clothes

and into one of my favorite dresses. I go into the bathroom, pin up my hair a bit, and slap on some ruby red lipstick before I grab my

purse from the kitchen and head to the door, slipping my heels on. “I’ll be right back,” I say, only to be surprised as I reach for knob

that there’s a knock on the door.

“Ooh, maybe that’s the delivery guy,” I say to myself as I open the door. “Hi, thanks for coming back—”

I stop mid-sentence, my smile completely disintegrating as my jaw slacks, and I look up at the tall person in front of me. It isn’t the

charming, Chinese delivery guy from earlier that I’d flirted a little with. No, it’s someone I thought I’d never have to lay eyes on again

nor had I wanted to.

“Hey, Darla,” Joseph says. “Nice to see you.”

“Can’t say I can say the same,” I reply as I cross my arms against my chest and lean against the door frame, glaring at him. “What are

you doing here?”

“Now that’s no way to act, Darla,” Joseph replies. “I come in peace.”

“Sure, you do,” I reply. “And I’m the pope.”

“I came here to talk,” Joseph says as he seems to ignore my sarcasm entirely.

“About what?” I ask.

“Us,” Joseph says as a smile spreads across his face. “The future.”

“Come again?” I ask, hit with a wave of surprise at first, which rapidly changes to an unimpressed leer.

“I just think that maybe we may have been a bit too hasty with all this divorce stuff,” he replies, and his answer boils my blood. I lost

my animals, my horse, and my home. I constantly felt inadequate, even when I dressed to the nines in my old pin-up outfits to try to

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