Falling for the Babysitter

“Bullshit. Sam would never do that,” I say. If there was one person I know Sam hates more than anyone else, it’s Karen. She was horrible to him from day one.

She smiles smugly. “I pretended I was an insurance provider on the phone and he spilled all your personal info me. Someone should tell that guy he has a big mouth.”

Believe me, I have. He never learns. I plan to give him an earful about it next time we talk.

It makes perfect sense. Karen and her schemes. Some things never change. I would really love to slam the door in her face right now and go back to making love to my beautiful girlfriend who doesn’t deserve to be put through any of this. I can tell Remy doesn’t want to stay, but she does because she wants to be here for me. I don’t want to put her through this anymore.

“Babe, could you make sure I blew out that candle in the room?” I say to her.

She lets out a long sigh of relief and gives me a sympathetic smile. “Sure.”

When she’s gone, I turn back to Karen who watches Remy walk away. “Jesus, Deacon, what is she, twelve?”

more mature than you ever were,” I snap. “Why

says it all. She thinks she can come

look on her face is a mixture between shock and rage. “I’m here to get my daughter.” She spits the words out like they’re poison

a punch in the

says. I look behind me where she’s standing at the entrance of the hall. She must’ve been eavesdropping. She looks terrified. “You can’t come back here after being gone for months and just take her. You have no right.” Her voice is high-pitched, frightened. She’s practically in tears. She and Bailey had formed an instant bond. Remy’s the only mother Bailey has ever

mother,” Karen says, her lip curling into a vaudevillian

anywhere near

new family apart. Destroy everything I’ve built. Everything I will fight to death for. I’ve never raised my hand to a woman. Never even entertained the idea. But seeing that look on her face and knowing

ever hand Bailey over to

I’m her mother. Children belong with their mothers and any judge will see that. I have a full time job and an apartment of my own. There’s nothing you can do to stop

times in the past. Like a fool, I always took her back because of my dreams of having the perfect family. Things would be good between us for a while. She would do wifely things: make dinners, do laundry, go shopping. But then she’d always get that itch to