Baby, It's You Read Free

be. “Uh…okay.” He turned to Angela’s roommate. “It was nice to meet you.”
    “Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Cordero,” the girl said with a smile, but her eyes said, Now go away.
    Marc and Angela walked back to the elevator lobby. The elevator doors opened, and three boys got off. As they passed by, one of them eyed Angela with too much interest, a hulking jock type who looked as if he was itching for another notch on his bedpost.
    “What are you looking at?” Marc growled.
    The kid stopped. Swallowed hard. “Uh…nothing, sir.”
    “That’s right. You’re looking at nothing. And nothing is over there . My daughter is over here , and she’s not nothing. So if you’re looking at nothing, you’re not looking at her. Are we clear on that?”
    The kid’s eyes went big as searchlights. “Yes, sir.”
    “Now, beat it,” Marc snapped.
    As the kid hurried off with his buddies, Angela spun on Marc, looking horrified. “Dad! Why did you do that?”
    “Nothing’s changed just because you’re here and I’m in Rainbow Valley,” he said, striding onto the elevator. “No dumb jock just looking to get laid is going to mess with you.”
    “So what are you going to do?” Angela said, following him onto the elevator. “Drive an hour so you can kick his ass?”
    “Don’t think I won’t.”
    She stabbed the down button on the elevator panel. “I can’t believe you don’t trust me.”
    “I trust you. It’s guys like him I don’t trust.”
    “Could you embarrass me any more, Dad?” she said, throwing her arms into the air. “Huh? Is it even possible ?”
    Didn’t she get it by now? He just wanted her to be safe. That was all. But in this place…good God. He saw danger around every corner. Why didn’t she?
    Right about then, their tiny town seemed like a 1950s sitcom set in comparison. Everybody knew everybody else in Rainbow Valley, so kids knew if they got out of line, word would eventually get back to somebody who would shove them back in. Marc had always been able to intimidate Angela’s boyfriends with a frown, a gruff voice, and a few subtle words of warning. In fact, there had been times when he swore he was smiling, but Angela told him he still looked pissed, which meant he scared her boyfriends to death. That was fine with him if it meant they kept their distance. But what was he supposed to do now? Could he make sure they didn’t mess with his daughter when he was an hour away in Rainbow Valley?
    The problem was that he knew what teenage boys were like because he’d been one. Things could happen you never expected and certainly weren’t ready to deal with. It was funny how after all these years he could barely remember what Nicole looked like, only that he’d been crazy in love with her and teenage sex had seemed like a wondrous gift from God.
    Then came Angela.
    A month later, Nicole was gone. Couldn’t handle being a mother. As if Marc had been any more prepared to be a father.
    In the years that followed, he’d felt as if he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Angela’s childhood seemed like nothing but a blur in his mind right now. Then came the god-awful early teenage years, with hormones running rampant and all that shouting and door slamming, making him feel as if he was doing everything wrong and she’d be rolling her eyes at him for the rest of their lives.
    But the older she got, the more things leveled out, until it looked as if the sleepless nights and the constant worry and the occasional heartache were giving way to the kind of warm, comfortable relationship he’d always wanted them to have. And as he looked at his daughter now, skimpy shirt and all, he thought maybe he’d done a pretty damned good job of raising her.
    “You’re right,” Marc said as the elevator doors opened on the first floor. “I shouldn’t have embarrassed you. You’re not a kid anymore. I know you can take care of yourself.”
    Those words came harder to him than anything else, because