Silent Run - Barbara Freethy [117]
He hadn’t asked her permission. He’d just started making a list of what he would need to take care of Caitlyn once he got home. Then he’d headed out to the store to pick up supplies. Those supplies were now packed in his car, and he was waiting on the sidewalk for Sarah to bring Caitlyn to him.
Everything was changing. One chapter of her life was over and another was beginning. She’d done this before, started over, but she hated having to do it again. This time she really had no choice. She wasn’t the only one making the decisions.
She moved slowly down the porch steps, dread and worry weighting each step. She knew she had to let Jake take Caitlyn home. He deserved time alone with his daughter, and Caitlyn needed to be somewhere settled and safe. Sarah also knew she had to go to LA and finish cleaning up the mess she’d made eight years ago. Those were the facts. The facts
sucked.
How on earth could she let Caitlyn go?
Aside from the past few days, they’d never been apart. And having been apart had only made Sarah want to keep her daughter at her side for every second of the rest of her life.
Caitlyn played with Sarah’s hair as she walked down the path to the sidewalk. She liked to twist her fingers in the curls, a happy little game that always made her smile.
Sarah paused by the car and turned back around so Caitlyn could see Teresa and Catherine on the porch. “Say bye-bye,” she told Caitlyn.
“Bye-bye,” Caitlyn said with a cheery smile, mimicking her mother’s wave.
Sarah would have liked to play the moment out, but Jake was waiting. As she turned to him, he held out his arms.
“I’ll take her now.” His tone was quiet and determined, as if he were afraid she was going to make a scene.
She hesitated for a long moment, her arms instinctively tightening around Caitlyn’s small body. For seven months it had been her and Caitlyn against the world. But for those same months Jake had sweated out the nights alone in fear and worry.
She had to let him take Caitlyn. He was a good man. He was a good father.
She was the one who had screwed up. She was the one who had brought danger to their lives. She’d made one mistake after another. And now it was time to do the right thing—the only thing. Still, she stalled. “She likes to sleep with her blanket at night, and if she’s fussy, you can read her a story. She likes the butterfly book or the book with the pink bears on the front.”
“I got it.”
“Oh, and if she gets really cranky, she likes the sound of the vacuum cleaner.”
Jake nodded. “Vacuum cleaner, right.”
“Applesauce. That’s her favorite after-dinner snack.”
“You wrote it all down, Sarah.”
Sarah kissed Caitlyn on the cheek, tears welling in her eyes and streaming down her face as she said, “I love you, baby. But you need to go with your daddy.”
Caitlyn’s tiny hands cupped Sarah’s face. Her daughter had no idea what was happening.
“Mama cry,” Caitlyn said, wiping her hand across Sarah’s wet face. “Mama sad.”
“I’m okay. I’ll see you soon, baby,” Sarah said, her heart breaking in two. With one last tight squeeze, she handed Caitlyn over to Jake.
Caitlyn, God bless her, gave Jake a happy, trusting smile, not realizing that he was about to take her away from her mother.
Jake stroked Caitlyn’s curls as he looked at Sarah. The pulse in his neck was beating fast. “You’ll see her tomorrow, you know. I’m not going to keep you out of her life. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I know. It’s just difficult. We still