Page 20 of Off-Limits Love
So what had Brad done?
He’d given Emi the gift just from him and told Emi it was only from him because her mother didn’t want her to have it. Emi had played with the toy nonstop and ignored the gifts Mak had wrapped from them both. All the while, Brad smirked and basked in Emi’s praise.
Emi had tears running down her face as she stomped up the porch steps. And while she might only be four, Emi glared at Makayla with the fiery look of a hateful teenager the entire time.
Once the springed screen door slammed shut behind Emi, Mak forced her feet to move. She could hear Emi wailing from inside and the sound of Sam asking her what was wrong.
The pain of it ripped through Mak like someone stabbed her with a knife. “You do not have the right to come here and say things like that.”
“All I did was ask you to spend some time together as a family since I had to work and miss my Wednesday evening with her. You’re the one who upset her.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “Were you working? Or at the dealership buyingthat? Should I go look at the temporary tag and check the date?”
A huff left her when his expression tightened, telling her she was right, and that was exactly where he’d been. “Brad, you can’t do this to a child. We are over. You know we are over. You can’t use your daughter to try to get back at me.”
Brad ran his hand through his hair but then tousled it in a practiced move to make sure it landed just right. The man was so two-faced. He pretended to be the nice guy, the guy who didn’t care about looks or what have you, but in reality, he was all about his ego, his image and how people perceived him. And when she’d divorced him?
She’d damaged that image as though she’d taken spray paint to the side of his precious new car. He didn’t mind cheating on her, but he didn’t want to be labeled as a cheater, a liar, a thief, or any other word of truth.
“I’m trying to get you back, not get back at you,” he drawled in that tone of his.
The one he reserved for when he tried to get his way, even when he was in the wrong and knew it.
“Would you listen to yourself? You sound crazy, Mak. I just want to spend time with you. Both of you.”
“Yeah, tell the woman you just gaslighted that she’s crazy. That’ll win me over for sure,” she shot back, struggling to keep her voice low. “I’m only crazy because I won’t let you manipulate me through our daughter. Not anymore.”
“There you go again,” Brad said, shaking his head. “You hurt me when you say things like that. How is wanting to spend time with you manipulation?”
He gave her that practiced look of his, the one that used to make her feel guilty and relent on the topic regardless of the fact she was right in being upset about whatever it was.
Now that look only made her cringe because she’d ever fallen for it in the first place.
Brad wasn’t the best-looking guy in the world. He wasn’t ugly by any means, but what he lacked in looks he made up for with golden boy charm and charisma. It had drawn her in before she knew what hit her, and by the time the mask fell away, it was too late to escape unharmed. She was five years into a marriage with a baby on the way, and desperate to make things work. “Since you can’t take her in your car, you should leave. I’ll make an excuse to Emi this time, and next time you can pick her up in something child friendly.”
“You’re really going to keep me from my daughter?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at him. “Do not make this my fault when you knew buying that car meant not being able to take her with you. Stop playing games, Brad. Enough is enough.”
“Here I thought you’d be happy for me. You know I’ve always wanted one. But of course, you’re not. You can’t be happy for me at all, can you? I was excited to drive it here to show you, to spend time with my girls but?—”
Brad broke off, his gaze shifting to something behind her, and Mak turned to see Finn Blackwell straddling a horse as he headed their way. In front of him was the tiniest donkey she’d ever seen.
“Oh, my gosh, Emi! Emi, come outside!”
“Who is that?”
Brad’s low tone revealed his upset, and while Mak inwardly cringed at the bite and the anger she saw on Brad’s face as he watched Finn’s approach, she chose to ignore her ex after the way he’d tried to manipulate her. “Emi!”
She turned to go to the house, and Brad’s hand shot out and grasped her arm in a bruising, too-tight grip. She gasped and turned back to glare at him right as Emi burst through the door and shrieked when she saw their visitors.
Finn ambled closer and closer and drew the horse to a halt.
She could feel Finn’s gaze taking in the scene, and her face heated when she discreetly tugged on her arm once more and Brad still wouldn’t let go.
Emi hopped up and down in place and then ran toward the steps but skidded to a halt at the top. Finn swung down from the saddle, the leather creaking as he dismounted and gathered the reins over the horse’s head.
Given that the animal had to be calm and docile for the many different riders it carried on a daily basis for the horseback riding excursions Finn hosted, Mak wasn’t surprised when the horse’s ears merely flicked toward Emi’s squeal and movement but showed no other sign of interest or distress.
