The Sweetheart Rules by Shirley Jump

Author:Shirley Jump
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Mike loaded the bright orange cart with supplies, checking each item off on his list as he made his way through the congested aisles of the home improvement store, while Jackson trailed along behind him. The girls had stayed with Diana, ostensibly to help with the chores around the shelter, but Mike would bet a thousand dollars they never left the animal adoption area.

Mostly, he suspected Diana wanted to avoid him. Ever since that day at her house, the two of them hadn’t exchanged more than a few words when he dropped off the girls. Their minimal conversations were stiff, awkward, cold.

He should be glad, because it kept him focused on the reason he was here—building a relationship with his daughters—but his mind kept conspiring against his better intentions and returning to thoughts of Diana over and over again.

Things on the father-daughter front weren’t much better. Jenny talked about that little dog they’d dubbed Cinderella nonstop. Well, truth was she talked nonstop about the dog with everyone but Mike. A week and a half of living with his daughters, and the oldest one didn’t trade much more than an occasional question or disapproving frown with him.

As soon as Jenny got around anyone else—Diana, Olivia, the other workers at the shelter—she was as much of a chatterbox as Ellie. That told Mike the problem wasn’t Jenny.

It was him.

He had no idea how to change that, how to build that repartee with his own flesh and blood. Luke had made it sound so easy back in the ice-cream shop. Loosen up a little and the rest would come. Yeah, in real life, not so much. Maybe he needed to skim more of those newsstand magazines. Though he doubted any of them had an article titled “Do Your Kids Hate You? How to Undo Years of Damage in 30 Days or Less.”

Jackson hadn’t said much since he’d gotten in the car this morning, unlike the kid Mike had gotten to know six months ago. Back then, Jackson had taken a while to warm up to him, but after that, he’d been a chatty, affable kid, with a good sense of humor and a knack for quick learning. In a few months, he’d changed into a sullen, withdrawn boy.

Mike recognized that boy. He’d seen him in his own mirror for years, before Mike walked into a recruiter’s office and signed on the dotted line to join the Coast Guard. He’d been the same as Jackson, angry at his father, his mother, his stepfather, pretty much angry at anyone who inhabited the world. Then he’d joined the military, and by the time he finished boot camp, he’d had the anger beaten out of him by thousands of miles of running and hundreds of push-ups. Along with that came a newfound respect for authority that he carried with him to this day. He’d become part of a team in those weeks in boot.

Part of a family.

Even now, almost fifteen years later, he still felt like the Coast Guard was more of his family than his real family, or at least what was left of it.

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