Page 83 of Breaking Emily's Rules
Dylan moved toward the couch. “This isn’t a good idea if you’re going to leave again.”
Molly clenched and unclenched her fists. “I’m not. I made a mistake before.”
He grunted. “Some mistake.”
If only he’d had a clue of what she’d been through in those first few months. How tired she’d been every day. “You want to punish me for that, don’t you?”
“You have no idea what I want to do.” His voice was so cold the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees.
But then he walked right over to Sierra and picked her up gently then brought her to Molly. “Sierra, this is your mommy.”
Molly expected he would want them to ease into the situation so as not to confuse Sierra. But the truth could never stop being the truth. Whether he liked it or not, she was Sierra’s mother.
And so they were diving in, feet first. “Hi, Sierra.”
Sierra wasn’t impressed as she glanced at her and then laid her head on Dylan’s shoulder. Apparently, the words, the moment, hadn’t carried the same significance to Sierra.
“You realize she probably doesn’t understand,” Dylan said as though he thought he had to defend Sierra.
“Did she ever call someone else Mommy?” Finally, the question she’d been so afraid to voice for fear she’d rip Dylan to shreds when she heard the answer.
“Never,” Dylan said hotly. “She tried to call my mother Mama once, but now it’s Nana. Mommy is a brand new name for her. But it might as well be ‘Molly’ or any other name for all she knows.”
“Right.” Molly let that settle in her stomach, currently residing at her feet. Her baby had no association with the wordmommy.
Sierra wiggled out of Dylan’s arms and toddled back to her play kitchen. Molly walked slowly to Sierra and dropped to her knees beside her, picked up a pot and spoon and started stirring. Sierra ignored her as she put a picture book in the oven and turned knobs willy-nilly.
But in the next moment, Sierra stared at Molly, as if she’d just noticed a shiny new object, then took out the picture book and offered it to her.
“Cake.”
“Thank you.” Molly said.
Dylan still hovered, like he thought she might steal Sierra.
Molly narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not going to take her, you know.”
Dylan scowled. “I know because I won’t let you.”
Maybe she deserved that, but she didn’t like it when Dylan got all Alpha-man. “She’s my baby, too, and don’t you forget it.”
“You gave birth to her.”
Molly’s throat burned with the words she held back. It probably wasn’t good to cuss around babies. “I did a lot more than that. I took care of her the first few months, while you were out—”
“Earning a living?” he interrupted.
“You don’t know how hard it was for me. I cried every day. She cried every day and I couldn’t do anything to make her stop. I couldn’t do anything right.”
“So leaving? That was doing something right?”
“No.” She bit her lower lip. “You were right when you said Daddy spoiled me. And the thing is…the problem is I never could figure out how to fix anything on my own. So I left it up to you. I knew you’d both be fine without me.”
Sierra handed Molly a spoon and smiled. “Need ’poon.”
Just like that they were both reoriented to their daughter. The reason they were here. The best thing they’d ever done together.
“Here,” Dylan said, picking up another picture book. “She likes this story.”
