Page 113 of Dancing in the Rain

“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”

Downstairs she found her cellphone and called Drew’s number.

“Yeah?”

“You’re pissed.”

Silence vibrated in her ear.

“I called to apologize,” she said. “I overreacted. I was taken by surprise and…and, well, I don’t condone skipping school, but…you made Chloe happy.”

After a beat, he said quietly, “Thanks for the apology. Open the door.”

“What?”

“Open the door.”

Frowning, she moved to the front door and peered out the window. She closed her eyes and dropped her forehead briefly against the door at seeing him on the veranda, leaning against the railing, ankles crossed, cellphone at his ear.

She opened the door but spoke into her phone. “She’s doing her homework right now.”

He pushed away from the railing. “Great.”

“I’m sorry I was a bitch.” Now he was only inches away from her, and her gaze fastened on his.

“You’re not a bitch. We’re all just doing the best we can.”

They both lowered their phones.

She nodded, heat flowing through her body at the intent expression on his face “That’s true. Come in.”

Chapter 25

Even though she’d apologized and they’d had a hot makeup make-out session on the couch, Drew was still rankled by the things Peyton had said when they’d argued. He didn’t even want to admit how much it had ripped his guts apart at how she’d thought so little of him. He’d been so goddamn afraid of screwing up, of being a bad dad, and sure as shit, he’d gone and done it. He hadn’t thought that all through, but it hadn’t seemed such a heinous thing to skip school for one afternoon. And it had made Chloe so happy.

It had also bugged him that Peyton said she wanted him to ask permission before doing basically anything with Chloe. He was her father.

And he had no rights whatsoever.

It was killing him, thinking about Peyton taking her to New York.

Of course, it was killing him thinking aboutPeytonbeing back in New York, too. He just had no clue what to do about it.

Like the rest of his life. No fucking clue.

Just when he started to feel like he had a little control over things, that things were finally going his way, that he had people he cared about who maybe cared about him, too…they were going to be taken away from him.

That sucked.

But what could he do about it?

Feeling like he needed to do something, get back some smidgen of control, he made an appointment to see his lawyer.

“Biological parents do have a right to seek child visitation or child custody,” Tyrell told him, sitting at a round table in his office. “Although the new laws no longer refer to it as ‘custody.’ Now we talk about shared parental responsibility and shared parental time.”

“Huh.”

“It makes it less adversarial,” Tyrell said. “There’s no winner or loser, as is often the outcome of custody battles. Under the new framework, parental responsibilities are broken into categories like education, health, religion, and extracurricular activities. The court can allocate the respective responsibilities either jointly or solely to the parents. In any case, the courts use the best interest of the child to decide cases involving unmarried fathers. Generally, unless there is evidence otherwise, the courts make the presumption that having both parents involved is beneficial to the child.”

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