Page 72 of Follow My Heart

“I wonder if at some point it’s better for your kids to see you stand up for yourself,” I said, thinking out loud.

“You might be onto something there.” Daphne’s gaze was on the fire. “But the realization has to come from him. He has to want the situation to be different, and it’s a risk for him. The court could give him less custody. He was the one who moved out of state.”

“For work and to be closer to family,” I said.

“But farther away from Faith’s mother,” Cole said.

“I was lucky in a way because my ex didn’t want anything to do with Izzy. It’s not a great situation for her, but it allowed Cole to step in and be the father figure she needed.”

“Thank you for listening. I know it’s not exactly the situation you were in, but it helps to hear the parent perspective.”

“What she’s doing is jut causing more stress for everyone, and I guarantee Faith is feeling it too,” Daphne said.

“I don’t want to cause any more stress for Ryder and Faith.” I wanted to be their support system. I’d have to keep my concerns to myself and hope that Ryder saw what Stacy was doing. But I had a feeling he didn’t want to do anything to upset her. He was worried she wouldn’t let him see Faith at all. I wouldn’t get in the way of him seeing Faith, even if I had to break things off with him.

If Stacy didn’t like me around, and she kept making things hard for Ryder and Faith, I’d have a difficult decision to make. I didn’t want to walk away, but I would if it would help them.

Then there was the niggling insecurity that I was always going to be in second place when it came to my parents or to my relationship with Ryder.

I’d give it time. We had the holidays to get through, which might be the toughest since it was their first since the separation.

“I hope Stacy stops playing these games. For everyone’s sake,” Daphne said.

I sighed. “She controlled Ryder through the marriage. Why would she change now?”

Daphne sipped her water and then said, “Maybe her new boyfriend will help her see reality. He has kids. I’m sure he has to deal with an ex too.”

We talked for a bit longer about Izzy and Colson. Then I said goodnight. I was sure they wanted time to themselves with the kids asleep.

I loved how Cole had become part of Daphne’s family. I wondered if it would ever be like that for me and Ryder.

Would Stacy let him go, or would she want to hold onto him forever?

CHAPTER 16

RYDER

Iwas disappointed that my date with Violet was derailed by Stacy. I had a feeling she’d done all this on purpose to show her power. She called the shots, and I couldn’t argue with that. I just wanted to be there for Faith.

I hoped Violet was okay. Surely, she’d understand that Faith had to come first. That even if Stacy was difficult, I couldn’t let Faith get hurt in all this.

At the same time, this back-and-forth couldn’t be good for Faith. I should insist we stick to the schedule, but that meant seeing Faith less often. I didn’t want that either. I wanted to be able to coparent, working together so that Faith saw both of us. It shouldn’t be a big deal to help each other out.

But in this case, Stacy didn’t really need my help. She could stay home on her weekends and spend them with Faith instead of being at Phil’s house.

Stacy had been with Phil for months, and I had no plans to date outside of Violet. I’d met her in a transitional period of my life. It wasn’t ideal, but I wasn’t ready to let her go.

I wanted to make it work. But my declaration about dating Violet prompted Stacy to do what she did. She’d insisted on following the custody agreement, but then when Faith was upset about spending time with Phil, she’d called me.

Tension swirled in my gut as I got closer to Phil’s house. I was annoyed that Stacy asked me to come here to get Faith.

I rang the doorbell, worried about meeting Phil for the first time.

Phil opened the door. He was tall and lanky, still wearing a button-down and slacks, which had to be his work clothes. “Thanks for coming. Faith was upset.”

“I’m glad you called,” I said as I stepped into his foyer.

Two boys ran past, chasing each other.

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