The fingers resting on her back slid away. “He’s the new vet, hon, filling in for Dr. Wright for six weeks so she can be home for a spell after the baby comes.”
“Veterinarian?” Shock weighted her body down as the cheerful colors of the room blended together to form a depressing blue, green, and yellow haze. Like a three-day-old bruise. “He’s a vet?”
Unimaginable.
Yet strangely comforting. Warmth poked through a tiny spot deep in her belly. He’d actually done it. Then coldness slammed back into place as Lee Ann registered the other words her mother had spoken.
Six weeks?
In Sugar Springs?
Lee Ann rubbed her temples. How was she going to handle this? There was no way he wouldn’t at least ask about the girls. Heck, half the population would tell him all about them, none the wiser that they were talking to the kids’ actual father. Thankfully, only her mother and best friend knew that he’d even been with Stephanie that way.
The big question, though, was would he want anything to do with them? Or would he merely be curious?
And honestly, she didn’t know which answer she wanted to be correct.
Reba used her thumb to wipe flour off Lee Ann’s cheek, veiled hope leaking out of her now. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. Maybe he’s finally grown up. The girls will get the dad they’ve always needed.”
“No!” Lee Ann stood, dumping her chair over. She backed away until her head cracked against the cuckoo clock hanging on the wall. She righted the heirloom, then rubbed the sore spot on the back of her head as she eyed her mother. The woman may have still harbored resentment over the mess Cody had left their family in years ago, but she also managed to always hold on to that ridiculous thread of optimism that had once gotten her nothing but two kids—one not even hers—to raise on her own, and not one dollar of child support anywhere to be found. If anyone should know better, it was her.
No, they weren’t going to do this. They would not hunt him down and beg him to finally be a father. As far as Lee Ann was concerned, Cody Dalton had already walked out on his responsibilities once, and he wouldn’t get a second opportunity.
“Don’t you dare tell him a word about them, Mother.” She made it clear this was not a subject open for discussion. She’d made all decisions for Candy and Kendra since their births, just as she’d taken the lead so many times with her mother and sister as she’d been growing up. She’d had to, otherwise her mother—whose head seemed to stay in the happy clouds more often than not—would forget to make sure they had clean clothes for school or, worse, forget to pay the electric bill. It hadn’t been lack of money, simply lack of concern to remember the silly details. “It will all work out” had always been her motto.
No, Lee Ann wouldn’t stand for her mother closing her eyes to reality now and getting in the way of her kids’ stability.
“He walked out on them, Mom. He doesn’t deserve to know them. Plus, he’ll be gone soon.” She shook her head at the argument she could see forming. “We’ll simply keep our distance while he’s in town, and the kids will remain as happy and well adjusted as they’ve always been. I will not let him walk in here and hurt them.”
She ignored the voice in the back of her head that asked if she wasn’t also afraid he would walk in and hurt her. That wasn’t a valid question. Doing it again wasn’t possible.
“No matter what he did, sweetheart, he is their father,” her mother said quietly as she bent over and righted the fallen chair. “He deserves to know them if he wants to.” Reba had always believed the best in people and it galled Lee Ann every time her gullibility rose to the surface. Did she never learn from her mistakes? Then her mother’s words made Lee Ann realize that even after her father had walked away when she was four, Reba would have let him back in their lives if he’d shown so much as an ounce of interest. Thank goodness for small blessings. After he’d walked out the door, he’d never glanced back.
She didn’t need people who’d already turned their backs on her once. That meant she didn’t need Cody.
And she refused to let him hurt her children.
After a pause, Lee Ann had herself back under control and decided to point out the likely truth, hoping that would get the point across to her mother. She softened her voice. “What if he doesn’t actually want to get to know them, Mom? What then? He could be here purely for the job. And more importantly, what makes you think, given the kind of person he was when he left, that he is anyone we’d ever want around them?”