Page 15 of Hers to Hold
She put her hands defiantly on her hips. “How, for years, I’ve had to sacrifice for everyone else?” She stepped closer, her eyes narrowing. “I thought I was free until I met you,” she seethed. “Then you knocked me up and I was back where I started.”
Wes swallowed. His skin went cold and his eyes darted to the kitchen entrance. He didn’t see his daughter, but she as probably listening. “Our daughter is the best thing—”
“For you, maybe, but not me.” She plunged an index finger into her chest. “From now on, I’m doing me. I’m sick of working the late shift for next to nothing. Sick of taking care of your problem.” That index finger slammed into his chest.
“What are you talking about?”
She backed away, a feline grin on her face. “I’m joining the circus.”
Wes had no words.
She continued. “I met a guy. He’s”—her eyes fell down his form—“everything you’re not. Not messed up in the head.”
Wes’s tongue grew thick and then numb. He averted his eyes. Caroline was right; he wasn’t right in the head. What he did to Kadynce in the bakery.
And then the kiss…
He closed his eyes, the memory of her lips filling his chilled body with warmth. Feeling returned to his tongue.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Wes straightened his shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. “I hear everything you say. Now you’re going to listen to me.” She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. Had he been so compliant that she didn’t respect him as the father of her child?
Pushing that thought from his mind, he stepped closer and lowered his voice so their daughter wouldn’t hear. “Chastity is coming to live with me. And, I’m taking you to court.”
She shrugged.
He ignored the knot forming in his stomach over his ex’s indifference. “You wanna run off with your boyfriend and leave your daughter, you’re going to have to pay child support.”
Snickering followed her snort. “You’re not going to get a thing from me. You think the court is going to rule against a mother?”
“How can you do that to your own child?”
“How could you knock me up and leave me?”
“I was in the military! I was deploying! I couldn’t just stay.”
“Not the way I see it.”
Wes shook his head. “You have no sense of reality.”
“Oh, so you’re saying I’m crazy?” her voice rose. “That’ll go over real well in court.”
“I doubt you’ll be there.”
He marched out of the room and nearly bumped into his daughter, who was crouched in a position near the entrance. He knew she was listening. Chastity was a bright girl; too bright. He worried how all of this was affecting her.
“Come on sweetheart.” He scooped her up into his arms. “I’m taking you to school.”
“I’m already late.”
“I know.”
“Might as well skip.”
Wes chuckled. “Not today.” He looked around the room. “Where’s your book bag?”
“Upstairs.”
