Take the Chance (Top Shelf Romance #9) - Brittainy Cherry Page 0,190

sleep in her own bed.”

I pressed my lips together. The poor woman sounded tired and more than a little sad, though she tried to hide it. I was caught between wanting to comfort her and wanting to chew her out.

“Come over,” I said. “I think I can get a key from Elena.”

“Thank you, Darlene,” Alice said, and I heard Olivia’s plaintive cry in the background. “Thank you so much.”

Elena gave me Sawyer’s spare key, and I waited in his place. I scattered a few of Olivia’s blocks out on the floor in case she wanted to play with them.

Twenty minutes later, the door buzzed and I limped over to let them up. I left the door ajar, then started the journey back to the sofa. Footsteps, voices, and Olivia’s little cries stopped me. She pushed the door open first and my heart broke at her distraught expression and tear-stained cheeks.

“Where Daddy?” she cried, looking around her home. Her blue eyes, shining with tears, found mine. “Dareen. Where Daddy? Where Daddy?”

“Oh, honey, come here.”

She hurried to me, bypassing the blocks on the floor, and I picked her up and held her close. Her little body shuddered with sobs, and I glared daggers at the Abbotts coming in the door behind her.

But my anger burnt out with one glance at their kind faces. They both looked exhausted and worn out; identical defeated expressions of the best intentions gone awry.

“We didn’t know what else to do,” Alice said, and Gerald put his arm around her.

“She’s very…astute for such a young child,” Gerald said. “None of the diversions our supervisor told us to try have worked.”

“She doesn’t want a diversion,” I said in a low voice. “She wants her daddy.”

I limped to Sawyer’s chair at his desk and sat with Olivia against my chest.

“Where Daddy?” she sniffled against my neck. “Wan’ Daddy.”

“I know you do. He’ll be home soon, sweat pea. Soon.”

I rubbed her back and rocked her as best I could. The Abbotts sat at the kitchen table, watching me as if I were a lion-tamer or magician. Olivia’s crying tapered away to hiccupping sobs, and then she fell asleep.

“Should I put her down in her bed?” Alice whispered, rising from her chair.

“No, I want to hold her,” I said. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to.”

Gerald and Alice both stiffened, looking both chagrined and defensive at the same time. Alice sat back down.

“I’m just being honest,” I said. “I know you’re doing what you think is right, but it’s hurting people I love.”

“I know,” Alice said tiredly. “We’re the bad guys, aren’t we? But Molly…she was our only daughter. And Olivia is our last tie to her. She’s our family.”

“She’s Sawyer’s family too,” I said.

“Are you sure about that?” Gerald asked.

I didn’t answer. I held and comforted Olivia for long moments in the strange silence between the four of us, until my arm—already sore from massaging all day, began to complain.

“My arm’s getting numb,” I said. “I’m going to put her down after all.”

With effort, I hauled myself out of the chair and carried Olivia to her bed. I set her down and she whimpered and stirred like she was going to wake up. But within moments, her little chest rose and fell, and the splotchy red of her cheeks from crying had faded.

I limped back to the kitchen and sat down at Sawyer’s table, with the Abbotts. The air between us was thin and tight, and I, who usually burst out the first words that came to mind, knew that I had to choose them carefully. To help Sawyer if I could.

Don’t fuck this up, don’t fuck this up, don’t fuck this up…

“How did you injure your foot?” Alice asked.

“It wasn’t from chasing my next high,” I said, and inwardly winced.

Good start, Dar. That should do the trick.

Gerald bristled. “Our attorney suggested we find out precisely who is living in the same house as our only granddaughter.”

“You have to understand,” Alice said. “We hadn’t seen her in two years. Her calls and texts became more sporadic and then stopped altogether. We lived in fear of one of those visits from the highway patrol, or the phone call in the middle of the night.”

“And then we got one,” Gerald said. “Our baby was gone, but her friend told us she’d had one of her own.”

Alice’s eyes filled with tears. “I’ve never been so scared and…lost. Our only child was gone and her baby—a helpless, little baby—was in the hands