“Go for it.”
“Fine. We will. You wait. Now, give us the kid.”
“No.”
“Huh? What do you mean, no? It’s our baby. If you’re not going to pay, you don’t get to keep it.”
Sissy looked up then. She darted a nervous glance at her hopped-up boyfriend. “Jet…”
“Quiet, babe,” he told her. “I’m handling this.” Charlene rose to her feet as he took a threatening step toward her. “Gimme that baby.”
“No.” Charlene backed around the end of the coffee table as Jet advanced from the other side. “No,” she repeated. Softly. Clearly.
Jet pounced—too late. Charlene whirled and raced away, clutching Mia close. Behind her, she heard Jet swear. There was a sharp cry from Sissy. Mia let out a wail of frightened surprise.
Irma shouted, “You leave her alone, young man!”
Charlene reached the bathroom, darted in, shoved the door shut and engaged the privacy lock.
“Bitch! Let me in.” Jet pounded on the door.
Mia wailed louder. Charlene rocked her and whispered gentle lies, “It’s okay, honey. Okay. Okay…” as the SOB on the other side of the door pounded harder and called her more names.
The pounding stopped. Mia kept crying. Frantic, Charlene turned for the small window over the tub.
No way. It was too high up. She’d never get out with a baby in her arms.
Right then, something hit the door really hard. Charlene whirled on a gasp. She heard a hinge crack.
She backed up—all the way into the tub. Jet yelled more obscenities—and threw himself against the door again.
That time the flimsy lock gave way. The door burst open and Jet burst in with it, the momentum carrying him so he banged the side wall along with the door.
Charlene cradled the sobbing baby close and wondered what in the world she was going to do next.
Jet righted himself and braced his skinny legs apart. He fisted those big-knuckled hands. “Gimme that baby. Now.”
Charlene rocked the wailing Mia, pressed her lips hard together and shook her head.
Jet loomed toward her, fists raised—just as Sissy came flying in and grabbed his arm.
Tears streamed down her face. “Stop it, okay? Stop it, Jet. You just stop it now. This was a bad, bad idea. I don’t want to go through with it. You leave my sister alone.”
He tried to shake her off. “Lemme go. We’re takin’ that baby. She wants it, she can pay.”
But Sissy held on tight. She shouted at him over Mia’s wails of terror. “She’s not your baby and you know she’s not. Just forget it. I changed my mind. We’re not doing this, after all.”
He backhanded her.
She cried out as she fell against the sink, bringing up one hand to her flame-red cheek. “You bastard…”
He raised his arm to hit her again and she cowered back, wedging herself between the toilet and the sink.
Charlene shouted, “Stop!” as Irma appeared in the doorway clutching the big saucepan full of steaming hot water and green beans that Charlene had left on the stove.
“Stand back,” said Irma, stepping between Sissy and Jet. Sticking an arm out to keep Sissy well behind her, she threw the contents of the saucepan at Jet.
He let out a yelp as beans and hot water went flying—landing mostly on him. Charlene whirled to face the far wall, using her body to shield the screaming, frightened baby.
Jet yelped some more, falling back against the door again, brushing wildly at his arms and chest and shoulders. “You burned me. You burned me!”
Charlene dared to turn back toward the crowded bathroom just as the front door across the small entry hall flew open.
It was Brand. Three long strides and he had her aunt gently by the shoulders. “Step back now, Irma. I’ll take it from here.”
Chapter Nineteen
Luckily for Jet, Irma had turned off the heat under the beans when he and Sissy arrived. He was burned but not seriously.
To be on the safe side, Brand called Brett after he talked to the sheriff’s office. Brett and a deputy arrived at the same time. Brett did a little doctoring as the deputy started taking statements. An hour later, Jet sat in the back of the deputy’s SUV on his way to the sheriff’s station, where he’d be booked for assault and battery.
Brett left. And then Brand got up to go. Charlene had a million things to say to him. Too bad she didn’t know how to begin.
So she thanked him. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
He smiled the smile that broke her heart. “Looks to me like Irma pretty much had things handled.”
“Oh, yeah. She did great.”
Irma had not only been real handy with that pan of beans, she’d also been the one who called Brand. She’d had the presence of mind to slide the cordless extension into her purse and duck out of sight to make the call.
“Lucky you had me on autodial,” he said.
I love you. Oh, please. Give me one more chance. Let’s try again. “Yeah,” she said. “True. So lucky…”
“Good night, Charlene.”
“Good night.” She stood in the doorway and watched him get into his Jeep and drive away.
As she was shutting the door, Irma said tartly from behind her, “I can’t believe you let him just leave like that.”
Charlene turned around and grabbed her aunt in a tight hug. “You are amazing, you know that? Just flat-out, downright amazing.”
Irma hugged her back. “Well, honey. I’d have to say the same for you.”
Irma spent the night. Nobody slept until long after midnight. The three women had a lot of talking to do—a lot of plans to make.
Sissy cried a lot. No, she told them, Jet really wasn’t Mia’s dad. Sissy hadn’t even known him when she got pregnant—she’d only met him a couple of months ago, after she’d left Mia with Charlene. She admitted she didn’t know who Mia’s father was.
“There were…several guys, after I left town last year. It could have been any one of them. I was actin’ up, goin’ wild. But I promise you, I took good care of myself while I was pregnant. No drugs. No alcohol. I stayed at a women’s shelter in the city until a couple of weeks after Mia was born. I was…proud, you know? That I was a responsible pregnant person, that Mia was born full term and healthy. But after a few weeks on my own with her…oh, I knew I wasn’t makin’ it. So I brought her to you, Charlene. I knew you’d take care of her. I knew you could give her the love and attention she needed….”
Sissy admitted she just wasn’t sure about anything anymore. “I’ve made a mess of everything. I just don’t know what to do. Everything I touch just seems to turn to crap.”
Charlene grabbed her and hugged her and whispered that she should take it one day at a time, that nothing was so bad it couldn’t be worked out.
Irma hugged her next. Sissy even hugged her aunt back. Strangely, she seemed to accept the change in Irma more easily than Charlene had been able to.
There was hope for her, for Sissy.
And as she watched her aunt comfort her sister, Charlene just knew things were going to be better. Finally, her baby sister had opened up, let her hurt and confusion show. She had a long way to go, but she’d taken the first all-important step.
They began to talk of the future. Of how Sissy might begin to make a life she was proud of.
Irma revealed the truth about Uncle Larry. “That man ran my life,” she said. “I never had time for you, Sissy, because all my energy was devoted to him. He wanted everything perfect and I worked so hard to make sure he got what he wanted.” She touched Sissy fondly on the shoulder. And Sissy allowed the touch. “He agreed with me that it was our ‘duty’ to fight for custody of you—and then, when we won, he found you very inconvenient, a real person with needs and ideas of your own. I think he was actually happy that he and I had never had kids. And when you came along, he resented you right from the first. You were troubled and angry. You needed love and attention, and La
rry never had much time for anyone but himself.
“And none of this, the hard truth about Larry, in any way excuses my own behavior toward you. I was a bad parent and I know it. I was living a big lie and all my energy went into keeping that lie alive.” She spoke to Charlene. “Then, the day after I was so cruel to you on the phone, I dropped in at Larry’s office unexpectedly—and found him with his pants down around his ankles.”
“Oh. My. God,” said Sissy. “He was doing that assistant of his, right? The cute one with the red hair?”
“Oh, was he ever. It was one of those moments a woman never forgets. I saw his bare bottom and that little redhead’s legs wrapped around him and I thought, I’ve given up everything, destroyed my family, earned the hatred of both of my nieces, for this? I knew then I had to change, I had to do what I could to make up for the mess I’d made.”
Charlene said, “You are doing one very fine job of it.”
“Well, I’m working on it,” Irma replied with a modest little smile.
At about 3:00 a.m., they finally called it a night. Sissy took the day bed in Mia’s room, and Irma got a blanket and a pillow and fell asleep on the sofa.
Charlene lay in her own bed, wide awake, thinking of all that had happened—and longing for Brand. At quarter of four, she finally realized what she had to do. She got up and got dressed.
She was sneaking out the front door when Irma spoke from the darkness of the living room. “Going to see Brand?”
Sheesh. And she’d thought she was being so quiet. “Yes, I am.”
“Good.” Irma sounded more than satisfied.
“Go ahead and use my bed,” Charlene suggested. “It’s a lot more comfy than that cramped old sofa.”
“Don’t you worry about me, honey. Just go. He’s one of the good ones. A real hero. You go to him. Now.”
At Brand’s house the entryway light was on.
He must have been awake, because she only had to ring the bell once and he was there, wearing red pajama bottoms and nothing else, looking like a dream walking—her dream.
The man she loved. The man she needed. The only man for her.
She whispered, “Couldn’t sleep, either, huh?”
And he reached out and took her hand and pulled her over the threshold. He pushed the door shut and reeled her in.
Oh, it was the best place to be. The very best. Wrapped tight in Brand Bravo’s embrace, his fine, warm mouth descending.
She raised her face to his kiss—a kiss as deep and sweet and arousing as any they’d ever shared.
When he lifted his head, she said, “I love you. I trust you. Tell me it isn’t too late.”
He said, “I love you. Always. Marry me.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes. I will.”
“Forever?” He looked down at her, hazel eyes gleaming, kind of holding his breath.
As if he didn’t quite dare to believe that they’d come this far. Together. The two of them. From young lovers, through heartbreak—to be enemies for so many years. And finally, to be friends again. Friends and more.
So much more.
“Charlene,” he whispered. “Can you say it? Can you believe it at last? You and me. From now on…”
What a glorious moment. She’d never known the like. It was four in the morning on the sixth of July and they stood on the brink of the rest of their lives.
She said, “I’ve had a long talk with Sissy—and with Aunt Irma. Sissy wants to get her GED. She’ll be living with Irma, taking it a day at a time. We agreed that Mia needs stability in her life and Sissy says she thinks it’s for the best if I become Mia’s legal guardian. Sissy will always be her mother, but this way she knows and I know that while she’s finding her way in life, her baby will be safe. At least, that’s what she said a few hours ago. You know how she is. I hope she doesn’t change her mind.”
“One day at a time,” he said.
“Yeah. Right. Gotta remember that. And the thing with Jet does seem to have gotten to her. I think she really does want to change.”
“You think she’d maybe consider a joint guardianship?”
It was just what she’d hoped he’d suggest. “You mean, you and I would be Mia’s guardians, together?”
“Yeah.” He framed her face, brushed her cheek with a tender kiss. “You and I…”
Funny how things worked out sometimes. Sissy had lied and named him as Mia’s father. And now, in a sense, he would be.
“Oh, Brand. I think she might. I think she really wants to make things right, wants Mia to have the stability and love that Sissy lost when our parents died.”
“Good, then. We’ll talk to her.”
“Yes. Okay. We will…”
“Say it, Charlene.”
And she did. Proudly. Clearly. Looking right into his beautiful hazel eyes. “Absolutely. Forever. From this day forward, Brand. Oh, yes.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0120-4
FROM HERE TO PATERNITY
Copyright © 2007 by Christine Rimmer
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
Coming Next Month
If you enjoyed the eBook you just read, then you’ll love what we have for you next month! Check out new titles from Silhouette Special Edition, Harlequin Everlasting Love, and Harlequin Romance, available at your favorite eRetailer. New titles are published on the first of the month.
From Here to Paternity Page 16