She couldn’t be upset with her sister because Davida was just concerned about her. Yet Davida didn’t understand how her attitude just made life harder on everybody.
Enough of trying to distract herself. Daniela opened her laptop. She was due to go to work in two days, but she was a temporary employee doing part-time work and always had to be checking on her shifts. Sure enough, her shift had been canceled. That was both good and bad right now. She needed the time with Weston, but it meant a smaller paycheck. She was building a sideline business with an online store, like an Etsy, but not quite. She was looking at the big vendors, trying to see if she could do something like that, but she was running a tea shop, growing her own tea herbs. It was small and fairly minor, more of a hobby than anything really successful. But it was something that made her smile. Something that put a sense of pride back into her spine. Maybe down the road she’d do more with it, but, right now, it was all about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. The last thing she wanted was any more of this emotional upset.
When she opened up her email, she realized how unlikely that last thought would be because she found an email from Angel. Daniela shut her eyes, just at seeing the name. Forcing herself to click on it and open it, she read the short missive with horror. Hope Sari’s well. I’d like to come see her. I miss her and want her in my life. Maybe permanently.
And that was it. But the fact that Angel had even contacted her and then said she wanted Sari in her life was terrifying. They were both things Daniela didn’t want to deal with. But the phrase, maybe permanently, that undid her. She glanced at Sari, feeling her heart tighten, as if somebody had squeezed all the life out of it. She could barely catch her breath.
Sitting back from the laptop, she looked at her shaking fingers, clenching them into fists. She wanted to run across the room and snatch up her daughter and race to the other side of the world, where no one would ever find her. Even if she picked her up gently, Daniela would surely hug her daughter so tight that she would frighten Sari, and yet it still wouldn’t be enough for Daniela. She wanted to absorb her daughter into her very essence, so she could never lose her. Because Angel came with that threat of loss. Threat that the birth mother would try to take her daughter back again. Daniela didn’t know where she stood on that legally.
They had a contract and paperwork, saying she had adopted Sari, but almost any judge would have to consider the birth mother’s request to get back into her daughter’s life, and it didn’t seem to matter what Daniela wanted. Or what was best for Sari. It wasn’t fair.
As she sat here shaking, her phone rang. Afraid it was Angel, she didn’t want to even look at it. When it didn’t stop, she finally nudged her phone and saw it was Weston. She snatched up the phone. “Hello?”
“What’s wrong?” Weston asked, his voice instantly alert. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
She took a deep, slow breath. “We’re both fine,” she said. “Sorry, your call surprised me.”
“That didn’t sound like surprise,” he said, not giving an inch.
She shook her head. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it when you get home.”
“Fine,” he said, “but we need to get to the bottom of it.”
“Why?” she asked. “What’s happened?”
“A lot of things have happened, but I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m just calling to say I won’t be home probably for at least an hour and a half.”
She checked the clock. “Okay, it’s about four now, so we can tentatively plan dinner for sixish, if that works for you. I’m sorry but I forgot to pick up steaks for dinner.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “But I don’t know if I’ll make it to the grocery store to pick them up either.”
She laughed. “If you’ll be late, then chicken breasts would be easier.”
“I’d rather have a steak,” he said with a more amused tone, “but we can have that tomorrow night. Anyway, I’m just checking in,” he said, then he hung up.
She stared down at the phone with a smile. “Maybe you were just checking in, but it’s nice nonetheless,” she murmured. And it was nice. Nice to know somebody out there cared enough to let her know when he was coming. And who she cared enough about to be thrilled to know he was staying until tomorrow.
She didn’t have a relationship with him, not in the way most people defined a relationship, but she really liked the man. Something was just so damn special about him. His bond to Sari made her pause and worry, but she didn’t want to go there. No, all any of it did was emphasize how lonely Daniela was, and how lonely she’d been for a very long time. Sari filled the gaping wound in her heart, but a child wasn’t a substitute for an adult relationship.
Daniela hadn’t even considered moving forward with another relationship in the past year, though certainly men had been interested. Even though she still wore her wedding ring in an attempt to keep most men away.
But Sari had come first. And now somehow Sari’s father had made himself a spot in her home as well. Sure, she’d asked him to come into
