of a man to get married.” She smiled, smoothing her hand over the subtle purple throw draped over her chair. “Besides, look how well it turned out for you. I’d rather save myself all that hassle.”
“Truer words have never been spoken.” I sighed and tried not to pay too much attention to the tight spot that had formed in my chest when I’d dropped Adi off earlier. “Speaking of my greatest mistake, Craig is spending the day with Adi.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that when you called earlier.” Her green eyes clouded over with worry. “I won’t pretend to understand why you agreed to let him have her.”
“He’s still her father.” I brushed my hair out of my face. “It’s only for a couple of hours. He’s been reaching out more and more to spend a little time with her. I can’t keep refusing him. She wants to get to know him.”
“Why?” She sniffed. “He’s never been interested before. After all the shit he put you through, I can’t even believe he’d reach out. The audacity to think he can walk back into your lives and everything will be fine is just another example of what a bastard he is. A dangerous one, too.”
I nodded but raised my shoulders. “I told him he could only have her if they stay at his mother’s house. That way, there’s someone else supervising too.”
“Good idea,” she said, but her teeth sank into her lip. “Has he told you why he suddenly wants more time with her?”
“Nope.” I sat back against the plush sofa. “I asked, but he just smirked and told me it wasn’t any of my business.”
The worry in her expression intensified, her brows pulling together as her eyes became even darker. “Maybe it’s time to get the courts involved. Just for safety’s sake, it might be better to have a court order stating the terms of their visits.”
“I don’t think we need to do that. I’ve thought about it, but he doesn’t want too much time with her, and I’m pretty sure it’s just a phase. Sooner or later, he’ll get bored with having to spend a few of his precious hours with a child, and then he’ll disappear on us again.”
The thought made me livid, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Craig wanted to get to know Adi, and more importantly, she wanted the same thing. If she hadn’t begged me to say yes, I would have turned him down.
Unfortunately, he’d waited for us outside of her school one day and told me, in front of her, that he wanted to spend some time with her. It had placed me between the proverbial rock and a hard place since I would be the bad guy if I said no, even if it would only have been to protect her.
Adi was everything to me. I would go to the ends of the earth to keep her from getting hurt, but Craig had always been a master manipulator. He’d known to approach me while Adi was there and he’d played into the whole “I miss my baby” thing so well, even I would have believed him if I didn’t know him better.
But even so, I only wanted what was best for my daughter. If Craig had somehow turned over a new leaf where she was concerned, I wouldn’t be the alienating witch who kept them apart. As long as I knew Adi was safe while she was with him, which was why I’d insisted on them visiting at his mother’s for the time being, it was fine.
Katie made a humming noise of disagreement at the back of her throat, but before she could say anything else, my phone rang again. When I pulled it out and saw it was the hospital calling, I silenced it and tossed it down beside me.
“They’re probably short-staffed again,” I said. “I’ll call back when we’re done. Maybe I’ll pop in for an hour or so later before I collect Adi.”
The phone started ringing again immediately. It was the hospital again, which made me frown at my phone. They never called twice unless it was a real emergency.
“Hello?” I said when I answered. “It’s my day off. How badly do you need me to come in?”
A throat cleared before a voice I didn’t recognize came over the line. “April? This is Hunter Holmes calling. I’m afraid I have some bad news. We’re in the process of admitting your daughter. Doctor Matthews is with her now. There’s