Page 82 of Breaking Emily's Rules
Molly loved her father, but sooner or later he would have to realize she’d grown up when he wasn’t looking. She had a baby of her own, and she’d just have to show him that she could handle Sierra. Handle Dylan.
Because Emily might be a first class organizer, but she had no idea how to brush her teeth while simultaneously propping up a bottle for a baby with one elbow. Molly did. She could hold her baby while rocking and swaying like a palm tree’s leaves in a tropical night breeze. She had memorized all the words to her favorite lullaby, could carry Sierra in a football hold like an NFL champ, and occasionally sleep with one eye open. So maybe she hadn’t been a total disaster as a mother.
All right. Time to do this. Molly gathered her purse and her courage and marched to the front door. She held out her finger to push the doorbell and then pulled it back.
She didn’t know why, but Dylan scared her a little bit. There was no reason for it, as he’d never so much as raised a hand to her. Not a hand, but he had that look. She used to call it the Drill Sergeant glare.
But dammit, there was no world in which Emily had more hutzpah than Molly did. She pushed the doorbell and then once more for good measure.
Footsteps sounded from inside as did her baby’s deep belly laugh. Sierra used to laugh like that when they played peekaboo. Had Sierra outgrown peekaboo? What if Molly couldn’t think of any new games to play with her?
And then Dylan’s voice called out, “All right, all right, I’m coming.”
When Dylan opened the door, Sierra in his arms, it didn’t take two seconds before he’d given Molly the Drill Sergeant glare. “I might have expected this.”
“Hi, Dylan. Hi, Sierra.”
Sierra stuck her thumb in her mouth and smiled around it.
“What do you want?”
He wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? “I want to see my baby.”
“I thought we talked about this.” Dylan didn’t move from his spot as Door Guard.
“Youtalked about it. And here’s the thing. That’s not going to work for me.” Molly wanted to take the snippy comment back as soon as it had left her mouth. Dylan held all the cards right now, and she needed to play nice.
Dylan sighed. “Let’s not do this.”
“Sorry. We’re going to do this. I’m not going anywhere. Are you going to let me in or what?”
By some small miracle, Dylan hesitated only one second before he moved aside and nodded for Molly to come in. Once the door closed, he set Sierra down and she toddled off.
Molly tried to follow her baby girl, but Dylan grabbed her arm. “Wait.”
Why was it that, against all odds, she still felt a tingle roll down her spine? Dammit. “Wait for what? I’ve been waiting. I’m done with it.”
He let go of her arm. “Just don’t—confuse her. Please.”
Somebody stop the presses. Dylan had just said please. “I’d never do anything to hurt her. Is that what you think?”
“What I think—what I know is that you don’t always think things all the way through.”
Thank you, Dylan, for being right again. One day she’d tell him how annoying it was. “I just want to hold her again.”
What was it Emily said about letting Dylan know how much it hurt to be away from Sierra? But even now, her back tensed with self-righteous anger. She needed to take a deep breath and calm down. Dylan loved Sierra, too. He only wanted to protect her. The problem was, he seemed to think Sierra needed protecting from Molly.
She’d have to show him how wrong he was. When she turned into the living room, it was to see the most precious display on the planet. Sierra stood a few feet away at a little play kitchen, chewing on a plastic spoon.
Molly’s hands shook a little bit. What if she messed this up, too? “She’s gotten so big.”
Dylan stood inches behind Molly. “This isn’t some game we’re playing. This is my daughter’s life.”
Molly whipped her head back. “She’s mine, too. And I don’t know what game you think I’m playing.”
“We’re not going to fight over her like she’s the last slice of pie.”
“I didn’t say we were.”
