Page 73 of Rescued Dreams
“I’ll go throw this out.” He headed for the door.
Amelia eyed the twins. “College is expensive these days, and saving for something you really want is a good thing.” Sure, it was generic advice that not many people would argue with. But that was why she was comfortable saying it.
Amelia assumed that was what Ridge had been steering them toward, and she didn’t want to contradict his wishes for the twins. He was every bit their father as well as their much older brother, and she loved seeing the side of him that showed paternal care.
She had learned more about what a father should be in those moments than she’d ever learned from her own father.
And it made her fall for him a little bit more. As if she needed another reason to know he was an amazing guy. She wondered if he had any flaws she would discover the more they got to know each other.
Amelia had spent so long pushing to get people to believe her, respect her, or value her. It wasn’t so surprising she felt as if she didn’t measure up to a great guy like Ridge. He’d told her to take herself to God and ask for forgiveness—as if the past could be washed away. Gone.
Sure, it was tempting to believe it. But was it true?
Maddie turned the screen of her cell phone to show Amelia.
“A pair of jeans?”
Ella giggled.
“I tried them on at the store.” Maddie sighed. “They’re two hundred dollars, but when you put them on…they feel like butter. They’resosoft.”
“Two-hundred-dollar jeans?” Amelia hadn’t been aware such things existed.
Ella laughed aloud. “That’s what Ridge said.”
Amelia smiled, the teen’s laughter infectious.
Maddie pouted, lifting her phone to take a picture of herself and her sister. Did she want to capture the light in her twin’s eyes when she laughed? Amelia figured the picture turned out amazingly.
She was about to ask to see it when the doorbell rang through the house.
Kane came back in, his phone out. “It’s the cops. I got the motion alert while I was in the kitchen.”
“The cops?” Amelia stood, brushing her hands on the legs of her non-buttery jeans.
Kane lifted his chin. “Let’s go see what they want.”
Because he was the kind of guy who had nothing to fear from local cops. Even when they could have called to ask any question they might have rather than driving all the way out here.
He opened the front door, and Amelia introduced PD Lieutenant Alex Basuto and Detective Jessica Cartwright to Ridge’s cousin, who shook both of their hands.
See? He had no fear of the police.
She knew better than to assume she would be considered innocent. Amelia didn’t invite them in. “What can we help you with?”
Jessica deferred to her superior even though she was likely the investigating detective. Basuto was only a little taller than Amelia, with dark, handsome features and a stocky build. His wife was scary—but less so these days when she had a brood of kids running around her.
Kind of like Jessica, whose husband had been a troubled teen hacker but, after working for the police department for years, now worked for a private agency.
People who had come through difficult circumstances and suffered hard times and now got to live out their happily ever after. But things like that didn’t happen to people like Amelia. They happened to folks like Ridge and his family. Bryce and Penny. Kane and Maria.
Lieutenant Basuto said, “Amelia Patterson? Or is it Amelia Hilden?”
Her stomach clenched. “It’s always been Patterson. I don’t know why you’d think I go by Hilden.”
“Seems like a wise choice. If you’re looking to create distance between you and a man who terrorized this town.”
“Yeah? Just the town?” Amelia wasn’t going to roll over and get stepped on just because her biological father had been an evil tyrant. These people didn’t know her, and they mightthinkthey knew her father, but they only knew what he’d done. Not who he’d been when no one else was around.
