My Three Girls (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Floyd, Susan

  “Important papers?”

  “Maybe.” He smiled at her and touched her cheek. “You’re marvelous.”

  She smiled and looked at her watch. She gave him a devilish grin. “We have a whole hour without the girls.”

  “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “We have a whole hour without the girls,” she repeated.

  “And?”

  “I’ve never necked in the back seat of a car. I’ve never made windows steamy.”

  “It’s not as comfortable as you might think.”

  She raised an eyebrow and reached out a hand to touch him. “I’m not thinking about comfort. Don’t you know any good places to park?”

  Fortunately, Brady did.

  BRADY STARED at the documents in front of him. If it was possible to feel both head-rushing excitement and true regret at the same time, then that was what he was experiencing. There was definitely evidence that Carson was innocent.

  He glanced at the clock. Dana would be back with the girls in a little over an hour. He didn’t know how he was going to tell her. His brother’s lawyer had been so incompetent that he’d allowed Carson to take a plea rather than go to court. Brady felt awful. He should have helped his brother find a lawyer. Even the guilty deserved decent representation.

  Brady got up and fixed dinner absently. Dana and the girls arrived home, but he remained distracted.

  “Are you okay?” Dana asked from across the table where she was helping Jean cut her pork chop into little pieces.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “You’re pretty quiet.”

  “I have good news about Carson.”

  Dana smiled with genuine pleasure. “Really!

  That’s wonderful! What happened?”

  He tilted his head toward Karen and said, “There’s still a few things to look into, before I can talk about it.”

  Dana understood the reason for his vagueness and didn’t ask anything more.

  “Is this about us?” Karen asked, her voice concerned.

  “No, honey,” he lied. “Finish your potatoes. Do you have a lot of homework?”

  “No. I finished it in class today.”

  Brady looked to Dana for confirmation. “I’m afraid she did. Maybe I should give her more.”

  “Not fair,” protested Karen. “I want to watch a show on the Disney Channel.”

  “Well, I think that can be arranged,” Dana said.

  “It goes until ten,” Karen put in slyly.

  “You know the rule. You can watch until nine and then we’ll tape the rest so you can see it tomorrow.”

  Karen pushed her bottom lip out. “It’s not the same as watching it all the way through.”

  “We could tape the whole thing, then, watch it tomorrow. That way tonight you can start on the report that’s due next week,” Dana reminded her.

  Karen jumped up with her empty plate. “That’s okay. I’ll set the VCR to tape after nine.”

  DANA WATCHED BRADY from the kitchen table where she was working on her lesson plans. He chuckled at Ollie’s knock-knock jokes, but his mind wasn’t there. After dinner, he’d gone right back to the card table he’d set up in the corner just for the documents he needed to work on Carson’s case. She’d been disconcerted by his news. What did good news for Carson mean for her?

  Finally, at nine o’clock Karen popped the tape in and after one more plea to stay up, she went to bed, joining her sisters who’d been there for an hour. After Dana had tucked her in, she went into the living room to find Brady sitting on the couch. His face was pensive, and Dana felt her heart thud under her ribs.

  “Hi,” she said as she moved to sit next to him. He looked up at her, a small smile on his face. “We need to talk.”

  She studied the lines on the face that had be come so dear to her. “That doesn’t sound so good.”

  “Dana, it’s not really bad news, depending on how you look at it.”

  “That sounds even worse,” she observed. Then she took a deep breath. “Okay, hit me with it.”

  “It’s about Carson.”

  Dana sat straighter, feeling his eyes search her face. She nodded and reached for his hand, surprised at how cold it was. She asked, “Does this have anything to do with that?” She gestured to ward the card table.

  He sighed. “Everything.”

  Dana thought her heart would jump out of her chest.

  BRADY STARED at the wall where the girls had hung their latest artwork. Then he gathered his courage and looked Dana right in the eye. She was afraid, and he didn’t blame her. What he had to say was going to hurt her.

  “Just tell me, Brady. Just tell me.”

  “He didn’t do it.”

  “Didn’t do what?”

  “He didn’t do what he was convicted of.”

  “But I thought you said the evidence was there.”

  “I know. But he has documentation that proves otherwise. It was all Bev. She wanted more money than Carson was making, so she found another way to make it. To cover herself, she forged Carson’s signature. If his lawyer had even bothered to read the documents, he would have realized that what was in the computer didn’t match what was in Carson’s books.”

  Dana sat very still. “And?”

  “And when I started to dig into one thing, other things began popping up.”

  “Like what?” Her voice was very low.

  “Like Bev had enough money while Carson was working. Money she didn’t get from him. And once he was arrested, the money dried up. She must have been the one doing the laundering. Without a legitimate business to use as a front, she wasn’t any use to them.”

  “So that explains the debt.”

  Brady nodded. “If you go back over her credit record, you’ll see how she continued living at the same standard until she had to sell the house. I’m sure the girls were being neglected before that, but after moving, Bev must have gone completely downhill. She’d spend more and have less and less for food.”

  There was a long silence. “So what does this mean?” Dana asked eventually.

  “It means that Carson didn’t do it.”

  Dana furrowed her forehead, her breathing rapid. “But if he had all this evidence, why didn’t he just turn it over instead of going to prison?”

  Brady was silent. “Dana. He did that. But because he had an inexperienced public defender who preferred to plea rather than expose his inadequacies in court, this stuff was ignored.”

  “But shouldn’t Carson have known what to do?”

  “He was an accountant, and he thought he’d done what he could by giving this information to his lawyer. But that wasn’t all. He asked me for help. I didn’t give it to him.” Guilt tore at him. The whole situation was his fault. He turned to Dana praying that she would know what he was trying to do. “So I need you to understand that’s why I’m going to pursue this.”

  “How? What are you saying?”

  “I’m going to see if I can get Carson exonerated. There’s enough evidence—”

  “To free him?” Dana’s eyes went wide.

  “I can’t say for sure, but I think so. I think it will get him out pretty quickly.”

  “Quickly. As in a year?”

  Brady shook his head. “As in weeks.”

  “Weeks?” Her voice raised an octave.

  “Believe it or not, the state frowns upon incarcerating innocent men.” Brady was serious.

  “If I present this to the right people, they would make it a priority, especially since this also implicates a lot of other people they’ve been trying to catch.”

  DANA SAT BACK and put her hands into her lap, the consequences of what Brady was saying washing through her like freezing water.

  “Well,” she managed to say. “That’s good news, isn’t it?” She didn’t know why she was ready to cry.

  Brady shifted closer to her. “Yes, it is good news, but—”

  “We’ll still have custody, right?” Dana said with desperate hope, even though
she thought she knew the answer. “At least until Carson can find a job. He’s going to be returning to a different world from the one he left. He went in a family man. Now he won’t have the family.”

  “He does have a family,” Brady said gently.

  Dana shook her head in denial. “No. We have the family. Remember, we’re their family.”

  “Carson doesn’t deserve to be in prison and he doesn’t deserve not to have custody of his children.”

  Dana’s head was spinning. She couldn’t believe that this was happening again. She’d given her heart to children whose parents wouldn’t, and now those kids were going to be taken away. And Brady was going to be the one who did it.

  “You didn’t think he was innocent five years ago.” She leaped to her feet, releasing Brady’s hand. Just as quickly, he reached out and put his hand on her forearm.

  “Don’t do this,” Brady pleaded as he pulled her back to the sofa.

  “Don’t do what? Don’t care? Don’t think about what’s going to happen to those girls when their father gets out of prison? You see Karen every day. She’s just beginning to really settle in here. She’s finally learning how to be a kid. And you want to turn things upside down again.”

  He nodded in sympathy. “It’s going to be hard. They are just getting settled in with us. But they are Carson’s kids, and he deserves the chance to look after them…to love them.”

  “If he’d loved them, he would have tried to keep in touch.”

  “He’s been in prison, Dana.” Brady’s words were sharp. “He couldn’t chase after Bev when she moved. He couldn’t demand that Bev bring the girls to see him. Please, Dana.” He pulled her into his arms, but Dana didn’t want to be held by him. She knew what he was saying was right, but her pain and anger superseded that. She hadn’t wanted to care for these girls, hadn’t wanted to love them. But Brady had insisted and now he was planning to snatch them away again.

  “You knew this wasn’t permanent. You knew that.”

  “Three months ago, I knew that,” she said. “And I knew then that our marriage would end when our custody arrangement did. So I guess you’re telling me it’s over, too.”

  BRADY FELT THE BLOOD DRAIN from his face. He’d known she wasn’t going to take losing the girls well, but after everything they’d gone through, he hadn’t thought she still believed the girls were the only reason they were married. “Why would I say that?” He was surprised by how stiff his voice sounded.

  “Wasn’t that the bargain? When I wasn’t needed anymore, we’d get an annulment? Isn’t that what you promised?”

  “I didn’t promise anything like that,” Brady denied. “I didn’t know what to expect. You know how hard that time was.”

  “So when the girls go back to their father, then we’re done. Right?”

  Brady felt his world begin to fall apart. He didn’t want the marriage to end, but he didn’t want Dana to stay in a relationship when she believed he’d betrayed her.

  “Is that what you want?”

  She was silent for a long time.

  “Dana?” he prompted.

  She shrugged and wouldn’t look at him.

  “Dana, you need to talk to me.”

  When she finally turned, her eyes were red. “My mind says that I shouldn’t. That you are the most incredible man who has ever graced my life. But my heart says that if you can take away these girls, then you can take away anything.”

  He didn’t understand how she could think he was doing this because he wanted to hurt her. “I’m not taking the girls from you. They were never yours.”

  “Don’t say that. They were mine.” Her voice held a note of true hysteria. “They were my three girls. You gave them to me. Don’t you remember?” Brady wanted to hug her, but she shoved his hands away. “Don’t you remember I told you I couldn’t take the girls? I did that once before and this time is worse because—”

  “Because why?” He cocked his head at her.

  “Forget I said that.”

  “Say it—” Brady demanded

  “No.”

  “Because you and I fell in love? Because you finally had a real family?” He raised his hands in the air. “Well, gee. Next time I become responsible for three abandoned girls and persuade a beautiful, caring woman to help me with them, I’ll make sure I don’t fall in love with her.” Brady stretched out his hands to her. “Don’t you see, Dana? Don’t you see how ridiculous you’re being? It’s not like the children will go very far. I can find Carson a place around here. The girls could even continue to attend your school. We’d see them all the time. We were given a gift. We were given the gift of love. And now you’re throwing it away.”

  “No.” Dana took a deep breath. “I’m not throwing it away. You did that.”

  DANA COULDN’T TALK to Brady anymore. The hurt in his eyes was more than she could bear. “I’m going to bed. We can discuss it later.”

  “No,” Brady said. “You can’t run away from this. Closing yourself off won’t lessen the pain. Love and loss are part of the same thing, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t love. Do you think it won’t hurt me to see those girls go? It’s going to hurt like hell. But Dana, I know that Carson is a good father. I know that those girls belong to him.”

  Dana shook her head, the tears spilling over. “No! They belong to us. We have custody. You’re just doing this because you think you have to.”

  Brady looked sad. “That’s where you’re wrong, Dana. They are Carson’s daughters. But if you want, you can still have me.”

  Dana couldn’t look at him. She said distantly, “I’d prefer if you slept out here tonight.”

  “Dana, don’t do this to us.”

  “You do realize that you’re the one who has to tell the girls that they’re going to live with a stranger. I won’t.”

  “Dana, that’s not fair to Carson. We were strangers and they’ve thrived under our care. Carson’s their father. You have to believe this is the right thing. This isn’t going to finish for them the way it did for Adam. Carson isn’t going to go off the deep end. He has three precious beings to live for. The same ones who helped us.”

  “Helped us do what?”

  “Helped us learn how to live.”

  Dana shook her head. “All this has done is remind me why I didn’t want to get involved. You know, I’m sorry I ever met you.”

  Brady shuttered his expression, and she knew she’d finally gone too far. “Fine,” he said. “When this is over, it will be like you never met me.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  TIME SEEMED TO BE against Dana. By Thanksgiving, Brady informed her that there’d been a special hearing and Carson had been exonerated. He was expected to be released in two short weeks. Rather than perpetrate a farce, Dana stiffly requested that she, alone, take the girls to her parents for Thanksgiving. She pretended not to see the hurt on Brady’s face when he agreed to stay behind. Usually a favorite holiday, the whole day was miserable. She felt terrible when she’d had to answer her parents’ questions about Brady. She didn’t want to say he was at home eating a frozen dinner, so she said he was working. Fortunately, only Karen seemed to realize something wasn’t right.

  After that day, Brady kept his distance from her, which made it easy for Dana to justify her behavior. It proved that the reason for their marriage had been the girls alone. She hadn’t been wrong, she told herself. However, when it came time to tell the girls they would be going back to their father, Dana sat right next to him, a tight smile glued to her face.

  “What are you saying?” Karen asked, her eyes swiveling back and forth between the two adults.

  “The authorities came to realize your dad was innocent all along, so he’s being released.”

  “Released?”

  “What does that mean?” Ollie asked impatiently.

  “It means that he’s going to get out of prison.” Karen’s eyes glowed. “That’s great. We can see him whenever we want. Or maybe he can move in here.”

>   Dana looked at Brady, who cleared his throat.

  “No, Karen,” Brady started.

  “No?” Her voice became very suspicious. “Where is he going to live?”

  “We found him a nice house not far from where you used to live. It’s got four bedrooms.”

  Karen furrowed her forehead. “Why would he need a place so big?”

  Dana inhaled deeply and spoke for the first time. “He wants each of you to have your own room.”

  “For when we visit?” Karen asked. Her voice was hopeful, but her gray eyes were worried.

  “No, for when you go live with him,” Dana said softly.

  There were three seconds of silence before the whole room felt like an eruption had taken place.

  “You’re getting rid of us!” Karen accused.

  “No, no. It’s not like that at all. He’s your father, honey,” Dana tried to explain, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in her ears.

  “I have a father. Uncle Brady.” She turned to him. “You’re my father now. Remember, you got custody. Remember? We don’t belong to my father. We belong to you and Aunt Dana.”

  Almost the exact words that Dana had said to Brady, but he didn’t look as if he’d relent now any more than he had then.

  “I know it’s going to be hard.”

  “What are they saying, Karen?” Ollie asked, tugging on her sister’s shirt, ready to cry.

  “They’re saying that they want to get rid of us and give us to our father.”

  Jean and Ollie began to cry, and Dana did what she could to comfort them. She couldn’t look at Brady. She just knew that she would never be able to forgive him.

  Later, after she’d dried the girls’ tears and tucked them into bed, Brady stopped her in the hall. “You may not agree, Dana, but doing this now is easier than it would be next year.”

  He might have been right, but she didn’t want to believe him. She couldn’t imagine much worse than this.

  TO HELP THE TENSION that bristled every time he and Dana were in the same room, Brady switched to the night shift so she didn’t have to ignore him while he was there. He found an apartment for himself and spent his free time at Carson’s new house, working with a contractor to remodel it to Carson’s specs.