Corporate Daddy by Arlene James

Author:Arlene James [James, Arlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2012-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

Nine

Emily sat dejectedly on the bed in the waning twilight. Goody sprawled next to her, meticulously cleaning her paws, but Emily could not find the energy to raise her hand and stroke the tigerish fur. This was ridiculous. She’d always loved lazy weekends, lounging around with her cat, a good book and a cup of coffee or hot cocoa, snug in her little apartment despite the cold rain pouring down outside. She hoped the rain wouldn’t cause problems for Logan and Amanda Sue on their drive up from the ranch, but then, that was precisely the problem. She just couldn’t get those two our of her mind, couldn’t seem to get interested in anything else.

She looked at the clock on the bedside table. Four minutes of five. Oh, would this weekend never end? If only Cathy hadn’t been too busy to come over. She’d sensed during their two brief telephone conversations that Cathy needed the break in her busy schedule even more than she, Emily, needed distraction from the monotony of a solitary weekend.

Monotony. Who was she kidding? She was missing Logan and Amanda Sue as if they were her arms and legs. She felt incapacitated by their absence, however temporary, and she knew with awful certainty that it was just a taste of her life to come. How was it that the future had seemed so safe, so acceptable, so normal, only a few weeks ago?

When the telephone rang, she very nearly didn’t pick it up, but then she thought about cold rain falling on slick roads and unexpected panic had her grabbing for the receiver before the answering machine could switch on.

“Hello?”

“Em? Is that you? Are you okay?”

Logan. Relief swept through her, and another emotion that scared her half to death welled up, pushing a lump into her throat. She closed her eyes and tried to sound relaxed. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Tired,” he said, “and hungry. We just got in.”

“You’re home.” She couldn’t prevent the relief from creeping into her voice.

“Safe and sound.” She heard insistent little-girl babble in the background. Then, “Hold on a sec. Amanda Sue wants to talk to you. Say ‘hi’ to Emily,” he coached, sounding far away.

“Hi-i-i, Mimy.”

Emily smiled, tears building behind her eyelids. “Hello, darling. How was your weekend at the ranch?”

“Traz n Awya run-run n gibby-ub Guhmama gimme num-num un eed iggle tummy.”

“She’s patting her tummy, whatever that means,” Logan supplied. “I think she’s telling you about her cousins Travis and Sawyer.”

“Yeah,” Amanda Sue confirmed, “Traz n Awya.”

She went off on another tangent, babbling away as if totally confident every word was understood. “Guhmama” came up several times.

“I think she’s talking about her grandmother now,” Logan interpreted. “She’s nodding.”

Finally Amanda Sue’s babble came to an end with, “Mon, Mimy. Mon bing Gooey hom.”

Logan chuckled. “She’s telling you to come on home and bring Goody with you.”

Emily smiled, wanting nothing more than to do just that, but she had no justification for such unwise action, none at all. She swallowed against the lump in her throat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.