His Secret Daughter. Lisa Carter
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Название: His Secret Daughter
Автор: Lisa Carter
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Love Inspired
isbn: 9781474094856
isbn:
“Maisie isn’t a thing to be possessed, Jake. She doesn’t know you. If you leave now she’s going to be scared. You could damage your relationship with her for good.”
He went completely still. This man was a soldier. He could be dangerous, especially to anyone he perceived as a threat. But she couldn’t stop now, not when Maisie’s well-being hung in the balance.
“We could visit you in Houston over Christmas. Let Maisie learn to trust you—love you—in her own way and time. Please, I’m begging you to do the right thing.”
Sucking in a breath, he crossed his arms over his well-muscled chest. “The right thing?”
At the anger lacing their raised voices, Maisie let out a whimper.
His jaw jutted. “How dare you lecture me on the right thing. How long have you known I was Maisie’s father?”
She dropped her eyes, not able to meet his gaze. “Since Tiff filled out the birth certificate.”
He loomed over Maisie, getting in Callie’s space. “And how hard did you try to convince Tiffany to do the right thing by me?” He was so close his breath fanned her face.
She stood her ground, not giving an inch. Maisie’s future was at stake. And everyone’s happiness. Everyone, except Jake? She hardened her heart. She couldn’t let him take Maisie.
“Tiff wouldn’t listen.”
He gave a short bark of a laugh. More bitter disillusionment than mirth. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Maisie’s big blue eyes ping-ponged between them. “Cawee?” Her bottom lip trembled.
“You’re already scaring her.” She placed her hand on Maisie’s shoulder and curled her lip. “What kind of father does that, Jake McAbee?”
Something flashed across his face, something raw, evoking a reluctant compassion in her tender heart. But she mustn’t weaken. “I won’t let you take her.” She gritted her teeth.
“You can’t stop me,” he growled. “I’m within my parental rights, and you know it.” In a swift, unexpected move, he lifted Maisie out of the booster seat.
Maisie and Callie cried out at the same time.
“I’ll figure everything out as I go.” Clasping the squirming child close, he strode toward the hall. “We’re leaving.”
“No, Jake. Stop.” Callie ran after him. “Don’t leave this way. She won’t understand.”
Maisie’s little arms grasped the air over his shoulder, stretching toward Callie. “Cawee! Cawee!”
He flung open the door. Leaning against the porch railing, her father startled at the commotion.
Callie’s chest heaved. “Dad, don’t let him take her.”
Her father’s features sagged. “She’s his child, Callie. Not ours.”
Jake rushed down the steps. Like a wild thing, Maisie thrashed in his arms.
Callie plunged after them. But catching her around the waist, her father held Callie on the porch. “Don’t make this worse, honey.”
She didn’t see how this could be much worse. She strained against her father’s grasp. “Maisie!”
How had it come to this? How had this escalated so far out of control? God, where are You?
Somehow Jake managed to wrangle his daughter into the car seat Nash had secured in the truck cab.
“Cawee!” she shrieked. “Cawee!”
He flinched but made sure the buckles clicked in place. Rounding the hood, he slid behind the wheel and cranked the engine. Nausea roiled in his stomach.
This wasn’t the way he’d wanted things to go, but Callie’s words had touched a nerve. He would show them all. He would be the best dad Maisie never had. He wouldn’t desert her or belittle her like his father—
Jake threw the truck into gear, glancing at the house in the rearview mirror. Seeing Nash Jackson’s arm draped around her, Callie weeping, almost broke Jake. He’d never wanted to hurt her. This was killing her. He was killing her.
Tears streaming across her cheeks, she sank onto the porch step. And the last thing he glimpsed before the truck sped over the rise was Callie burying her face in her hands.
Gritting his teeth, he barreled past the shuttered country store and set his face forward toward the road beyond the crossbars of the farm. In the seat behind him, Maisie’s cries had subsided into heart-wrenching, hopeless sobs.
“No, D-Daddy,” she hiccupped. “Bad, bad Daddy.”
Jake slammed on the brakes, spinning gravel. Bad daddy. Like his father. Though he’d promised himself he’d never do anything to hurt his child.
He pressed his forehead against the wheel. What was he doing? What had he done to his daughter except terrify her? Callie was right.
No matter how much he wanted to be her dad, he couldn’t tear Maisie away from the only home she’d ever known. From everything that made her feel safe. From everyone who loved her. He didn’t have it in him to put his rights over Maisie’s happiness. Not if he truly loved Maisie...
Jake loved her more than himself, loved her the way no one in his life had ever loved him. A soul-deep kind of love, impossible to ever find. But that had never stopped him from hungering for it anyway.
He couldn’t do this to Maisie. Not this way. Not now.
For the second time that day, he turned the truck around. He parked once more beside the blue Chevy sedan. The Jacksons hadn’t moved from the porch. They stared at him, mute and motionless. Shoulders hunched, he stepped out and rounded the hood. Opening the truck door, he leaned in, but Maisie shrank from him.
And his heart broke.
He steeled himself to do the hard thing, the right thing, for Maisie. She was the only one who mattered in this situation. As for him? Like always, he’d do his mourning in private.
Jake made short work of the buckles. Maisie stiffened when he lifted her out of the seat. Nevertheless, with his daughter cradled in his arms, like an old man, he stumbled toward the Jacksons. When he reached the steps, Callie rose, and he gave his daughter to her.
His child—no, Callie’s child—burrowed into her. With small, sniffling noises, Maisie pressed her face into the hollow of Callie’s shoulder.
“Oh, Maisie, sweetheart. Callie’s here. Don’t cry.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken her like that.” His voice guttural, he kept СКАЧАТЬ