No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(75)

Fortunately, Jayden didn’t object. He tried to push away so he could see into her face, but she was hugging him too fiercely. “I’m going to play with you and sing to you and push you on the tire swing,” she told him. “And I won’t let you get near the pond. The pond’s not safe.” For a moment, her voice took on the qualities of an adult voice, an echo of what she’d probably been told so many times herself. “I just love you,” she added.

When she squeezed him even harder, Jayden looked to Sadie as if to say, “Get me out of here.” But Dawson tossed aside the present he had bought her—a child’s camera—and moved first.

“He’s going to be staying with us for a while, but you don’t get to keep him,” he told his sister. “And you have to stop hugging him so tight, or he won’t want you to touch him. Remember the puppy? How I taught you to hold the puppy?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll be careful, Dawson. I just forgot. That’s all.” Although she ducked away from her brother so that he couldn’t take Jayden away from her, she did loosen her grip. “I won’t never hurt you,” she told Jayden. “I’ll be so careful, just like the puppy. I never hurt the puppy. My mom was allergic, that’s all. So the puppy had to live with someone else.”

“Angela.”

She was so engrossed in Jayden that Dawson had to say her name twice before he could get her to look up.

“Don’t you want to know who this is?” Dawson indicated Sadie.

“The lady who’s going to let me come home?” Angela guessed.

“You mean from the state? No. Robin Strauss is coming to check the house on Wednesday. This is Jayden’s mother, Sadie. She’s going to be staying with us and helping to take care of you—the way Megan does here.”

“Oh. No.” She shook her head. “I don’t need her, Dawson. Megan’s coming home with me. She’ll take care of me, and I’ll take care of Jayden.”

“Angela, I have to stay here,” Megan said, trying to keep the humor from her voice. “I have other people to care for, remember? What about Scotty, down the hall? And Mary? What would they do without me? You now have Sadie. She’ll love you just as much as I do.”

“And if she can’t stay, neither can Jayden,” Dawson pointed out.

That seemed to get through. “Oh, I didn’t mean she couldn’t stay,” Angela said, quickly retrenching. “You can stay, Sadie, and I’ll help you take care of your little boy.”

“I appreciate that,” Sadie said. “We can all help each other.”

“So you’re not mad at me?” Angela peered closely at her.

Sadie smiled to reassure her. “No. Of course not.”

They gave Angela her camera, which she liked, but she was too preoccupied with Jayden to visit with them for long. Even her beloved brother couldn’t distract her. She took picture after picture of Jayden. Then she “read” him a book she’d obviously memorized and helped him make a bracelet with her bead set.

After about ten minutes, Megan had to leave to see to other responsibilities, which left Sadie alone with Dawson while Angela and Jayden played.

“What do you think?” he asked when the door closed softly behind Megan.

“About...” Sadie responded.

“Angela. Will you be able to cope with her?”

“We should be fine. She seems sweet.”

“She can be a little...determined.”

“She must not be too difficult. Megan seems fond of her.”

“Fortunately, to know her is to love her, but, like anyone, she has her moments.”

“So does Jayden. Everything will be okay.” Sadie averted her gaze, hoping there’d be something to distract them, but Angela and Jayden were still happily engaged in the jewelry-making endeavor—and when she glanced back, Dawson was still watching her.

“I’m sorry if you regret last night,” he said.

The memories she’d been trying to forget, or at least force into the back of her mind, flooded over her with just that simple statement. “Let’s not talk about it. I was the one who started everything, and I’m embarrassed I came on so strong.”

“Believe me, I didn’t mind.”

She felt her cheeks grow warm at the inflection of his voice. The way he’d said that meant more than the words conveyed.

“Still, you have no reason to apologize for anything.”

He lowered his voice even though Angela and Jayden weren’t paying any attention. “But you do regret it. Is that it? Is that what’s wrong? I hope not, because the fact that we chose to be together won’t change the way I treat you, whether or not you can live at the farm or whether or not you have a job. Sex isn’t a requirement. And I’m not like Sly. You can back away from me at any time, because I’m only interested in what you want to give. Nothing else holds any meaning for me. In case that’s the problem,” he added.

Now he was beginning to guess at what was going on in her head, and he was imagining all the wrong things. She knew he wasn’t like Sly. And she didn’t regret last night—not in the way he assumed. “It’s not that,” she said.

“Then what is it?”

Fear. She was beginning to feel something for him, and she couldn’t allow it. “I can’t afford to build a new relationship here, Dawson, can’t afford to let myself care about anyone or anything. Sly will never leave this place. He was born here. His mother lives here. He loves his job because it makes him feel like a big shot. That alone would be enough to keep him in Silver Springs. Which means I have to go.”