Beneath a Southern Sky - By Deborah Raney Page 0,69
screamed the entire way home, and when Cole had parked the car in the garage, he told Daria in a stern voice, “I’ll deal with her.”
That was where she drew the line. “No! You leave her alone,” she shouted, furious, jumping out of the car before he could beat her to it. Cole got out and came around to where Natalie was kicking wildly at Daria, her little face mottled and purple with rage.
“Daria, I understand you’re angry with me, but this is between Natalie and me. Please let me handle it.”
She ignored him and went on trying to hold down her daughter’s flailing limbs and to undo the restraining harnesses at the same time.
Cole put his arms firmly on Daria’s shoulders. “Daria, come on. You’re as mad as she is. Please, let me take her.”
“Get your hands off of me!” she hissed. The venom in her voice terrified even herself. What’s happening to us? Defeated, she ducked her head and got out, then sagged against the side of the car in tears.
Cole leaned inside the backseat and calmly muscled Natalie out of her restraints. Without looking back at Daria, he cradled Natalie in his arms and carried her into the house. The door slammed behind them.
Daria waited several minutes, standing motionless beside the car. Finally an urgency to know what was happening drove her inside. Natalie’s fresh screams met her in the hallway. Cole had apparently put her in her crib, and he was heading down the hallway.
“What are you doing? She’s not tired, Cole. You’re just going to dump her in bed and walk away?” she accused.
“She can’t be reasoned with right now, Daria. She has herself so worked up she just needs to cool off. She’s safe in her crib. It won’t hurt her to cry it out.”
The fact that he had stayed so calm and rational throughout Natalie’s entire tantrum infuriated Daria. He seemed completely cold to her daughter’s feelings, to the emotional state she’d worked herself into because of his rash discipline. Didn’t he have feelings?
“I’m going to go get her and try to calm her down,” she said, brushing past him in the hallway, being careful that their skin didn’t touch.
“Daria, please don’t. You’ll just set her off again.”
“Set her off! In case you hadn’t noticed she’s still going strong, Cole. She doesn’t understand one thing that’s going on. All she knows is that you denied her what she’s been looking forward to all day, and now you’ve thrown her in bed and left her all alone!”
“I didn’t throw her in bed, Daria.” Still that calm, unperturbed manner. “I explained exactly why she was being put to bed, I gave her a hug and a kiss, and I told her I loved her.”
Daria snorted. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
She saw the first glimpse of anger manifest itself in the flare of his nostrils. “Daria, I’m sorry, but this isn’t about making you feel better. This is about getting control of our daughter. She has to learn that when we say something we mean it. She has to learn to accept our discipline, or we are going to have a completely out-of-control little brat on our hands. I will not be part of that, Daria. I know you think I’m being cruel, and I know you don’t like to hear your daughter cry. I don’t either. But sometimes that’s what it takes.”
“What makes you such an expert, Dr. Hunter?”
He reeled visibly at the contempt in her voice. “I don’t claim to be an expert, Daria, but I do know that what we’ve been doing isn’t working.” He turned away from her and started back down the hallway.
“Don’t walk out on me, Cole!”
He kept going.
She stormed past him, out the kitchen door, and slumped onto the bottom step in the garage. For several minutes, she sat there with her head in her hands, not knowing what to do. It was stifling, and the acrid odor of the car’s exhaust lingered in the air. She sniffed away the stinging sensation it left in her nostrils.
Her mind swirled with an alarming muddle of emotions. Rage at Cole that he had ripped this decision from her without even listening to her input. Horror that she had felt such deep hatred for a man she loved. Dismay that Cole had allowed this sickening spectacle to play out in front of Jack and Vera Camfield. And under it all, contempt for herself that she had allowed Natalie to