Always Read Free

reached over both of us to open the
glove compartment. “Here,” he said, tossing a box in my lap. “I was
going to save your Mother’s Day gift for later, but maybe it will
convince you to be on your best behavior.”
    I tore off the wrapping paper, trying my
best to conceal my disappointment when I saw that the box was red
instead of an all too familiar bird’s egg blue. I suppose Roger had
gotten me a little spoiled with his indulgence of my penchant for
all things Tiffany’s.
    “Thank you,” I smiled up at him, hesitating
over my fear to open the tacky red box.
    “Go on and open it up,” he said.
    I laughed nervously and yanked a shred of
paper from Amalie’s mouth. “Eyes on the road.”
    All too quickly he pulled into the
restaurant parking lot and turned to me with the engine still
running. “I hope you like them.”
    There was no putting it off, I popped the
lid off the box and was pleasantly surprised by a lovely pair of
pearl earrings.
    “I found them when I was out diving and then
took them to have them set just for you.”
    “I love them.” And I really did. “If you’ll
just hold your daughter a moment.”
    He took Amalie from me and I removed my
current earrings, huge chunky almost too large to look real diamond
studs, a gift from Roger of course, and carefully swapped them for
the much classier delicate pearls.
    His eyes lingered on the diamonds. “Do you
really like them?”
    “They’re gorgeous.” I snapped the lid closed
and casually tossed the box into the diaper bag. “Much nicer than
those gaudy faux diamonds,” I lied, knowing good and well that
Roger had spent an arm and a leg on them because I had taken then
to a jewelry store to have them appraised the very day he’d dumped
me back in 1963. I’d considered selling them, but… I sighed… I
loved those rocks.
    Graham got out of the car and came around to
open the door for me. I reached for his hand and felt a stab of
guilt that seared all the way through my gut. I had no right to get
that emotional over a stupid pair of earrings when I had a man as
incredible as Graham who loved me enough to introduce his bastard
daughter to a mother who believed her oldest son had hung the
moon.
    “Wait a minute.” I took off my pentacle
pendant and dug into my purse for the pearl necklace. I found the
pearls and dangled them in my hand. “Could you fasten these for
me?”
    His face lit up, those amazing dimples of
his popping when he smiled.
    “Here, let me hold her,” Graham’s mother
said, reaching out to take Amalie.
    The kid who normally shrieks like a banshee
when being handed off to anyone other than her Da Da or my best
friend, Carmella, giggled happily and hugged onto her grandma like
she’d known her since the day she was born.
    “I’ll go on and get us a table,” she said,
already taking off without us.
    Graham worked the clasp around my neck and
whispered in my ear, “Try to behave yourself.”
    I handed him the ridiculously pink diaper
bag and casually patted his butt before taking his arm. “Me,
behave?”

Graham
     
     
    No matter how often it happened, Graham
didn’t think he’d ever get over the thrill of walking into a room
with Dess on his arm. He’d gotten used to being recognized on his
own a long time ago. When Dess was with him it was an entirely
different level of celebrity. There wasn’t a man with a functional
dick who didn’t take notice of Odessa’s striking beauty. There was
nothing normal about her with that red hair, long legs, and the way
she just commanded attention without even realizing what she was
doing.
    He pulled out her chair knowing that no
matter how they looked at her, she was his. There wasn’t a man in
Florida with enough nerve to try him on that fact. No, make that
anywhere, unless that prick Roger Rohde happened to be in town. He
looked over at his daughter smiling happily in his mom’s arms and
realized that little girl was the one thing he shared with Dess
that Rohde would