Forever's Promise by Farrah Rochon

Author:Farrah Rochon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Shayla brought both hands up and massaged her temples. Third-grade math could not have been this hard back when she was in school.

“If you can’t figure it out in your head, you can use your fingers,” she told Cassidy.

Her niece looked at her with abject horror. “Everybody will laugh.”

“I’ll bet your classmates are counting on their fingers. They’re just sneakier about it.”

Cassidy delivered the kind of eye roll only an eight-year-old could pull off. “Maybe I’ll just wait until Mommy gets out of the shower.”

“No,” Shayla quickly said. “I can do this. I mean we can do this. Let’s put our thinking caps on and figure this out.”

Despite the long division–induced headache mushrooming inside her head, Shayla wouldn’t give up this quality time with Cassidy for anything. A precious ache squeezed her chest at the thought of how her niece had come to her, that shy, fragile look on her face. When she’d asked for help with homework, Shayla had had to squelch the urge to hug her.

This was what she’d wanted all along. She wanted to be the kind of aunt the girls could call on when they needed help with their homework. She wanted to take them shopping and have slumber parties and bake cookies together. She wanted the kind of relationship that would have her nieces jumping up and down in excitement when Auntie Shayla came over.

She wasn’t there yet, but things were slowly starting to come together.

Now, if only she could get her sister-in-law to warm up to her.

Shayla couldn’t shake the feeling that Leslie blamed her for Braylon’s death. When she’d shared her feelings with Paxton, her friend had told her she was being ridiculous. Maybe she didn’t blame her entirely, but there was something in the way Leslie treated her that caused Shayla to believe her sister-in-law held her at least partly responsible.

And why wouldn’t she? Leslie had firsthand knowledge of how Shayla had ignored Braylon’s many attempts to connect. She couldn’t fault her for being wary.

She’d made the bed she was now uncomfortably resting in, but that only made each small victory sweeter. With Leslie’s new promotion at work, she’d had to call on Shayla for help more in the past month than she had in the past eight months combined. She would take whatever her sister-in-law was willing to give.

The thought conjured similar words Xavier had spoken to her Friday night, when he’d kissed her stupid on her front porch. He’d told her that he was willing to accept whatever she was willing to give him, too.

Not the time. Her mind should be on long division, not on that man and his incredibly talented mouth.

Cassidy tossed her pencil on the table and pouted. “This is stupid.”

“What’s stupid?” Leslie asked, picking that moment to return to the kitchen. She had on the ratty blue bathrobe Braylon had worn in high school. It was so old and threadbare; it should have been thrown out years ago. Shayla was happy her sister-in-law had kept it.

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