NICE GIRL TO LOVE (THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK COLLECTION)(112)

She swung her betrayed gaze over to him, and held the keys in her hand like a weapon. “Don’t pretend like you care about my dad! You’re here stealing Abby away from him behind his back.”

Abby approached her slowly. “Sweetie, that’s not what’s happening here.”

“No?” she shot back bitterly. “So you’re not here dreaming up a new family when dad and I have been doing everything we can to show you how much we want you to be a part of ours?” She backed up, eyeing them like a caged animal. “Becky’s sister drove me back home because I forgot my overnight bag and I saw him. He was outside drunk and sad and breaking beer bottles in the orchid shade house we built for you. Because we love you. But here you are with Uncle Connor, cheating on my dad and dreaming up a new kid.”

Her voice broke and Abby felt her heart breaking as well.

“Why don’t you want us, Abby? Aren’t we good enough for you? I thought you loved my dad…” A shattered sob racked her tiny frame. “I thought you loved me.”

“Skylar, of course I do. I love both you and your father so much.”

“Liar!” Skylar was shaking uncontrollably now and Abby was on the verge of losing it. Something wasn’t right.

“You’re a lying bitch who just wants Uncle Connor now. You don’t want us! You don’t want to be my mom! I hate you! I wish you’d never butted into our lives!”

Before they could stop her, she turned and ran off down the driveway.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


SHE WAS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

Skylar had ducked into a neighbor’s yard and disappeared into the night. Abby and Connor had scoured the neighborhood first by foot and then by car. They’d called Becky’s parents and when they found she hadn’t returned there either, they’d picked up Brian and immediately went to all of the girls’ favorite hangout spots.

Abby was a wreck.

After four hours of searching, the police regrouped everyone who’d joined the search party and advised them to check their phone messages and their homes once again. Abby refused to stop looking. She tossed Connor her house keys and took a flashlight out to go search every nook and cranny of the houses in the area, waking up every single neighbor in a one-mile radius.

She’d just begun pounding on the door of a neighbor she hadn’t yet spoken to personally when she heard Connor’s Dodge Charger come rumbling down and screeching to a stop in the driveway beside her.

“We found her, sweetheart,” he left the car running and sprinted toward her. “She was curled up—safe and sound asleep—in your guestroom.”

Abby dropped to her knees on the graveled ground and simply broke down, crying gibberish and clenching the gravel so hard her hands bled.

When Connor could finally get her to stand, he drove her straight back to her house.

Only, Becky’s parents had picked up Skylar and taken her and Brian back home before Abby got a chance to see her. To see for herself that she was okay.

Once inside her home, she ran straight to the guestroom and ran her hand over the comforter.

“Was she still upset when you found her?”

Connor shook his head. “I didn’t think I was the first one she’d want to see so I waited in the living room and Brian was the one who woke her up.”

She nodded and dropped onto the ground at the foot of the bed.

He asked quietly, “Do you want me to stay here with you tonight?”

Abby no longer knew what she wanted. No longer cared what she wanted. Skylar had been hurt beyond measure tonight and Abby had only herself to blame. “I think you should go, Connor.”

“None of this was your fault, sweetheart.”

She turned away from the words of comfort.

She didn’t deserve them.

All night, Abby sat on the guestroom bed and stared at the clock, listening to the ticking to make sure her own heart was still beating.

At five o’clock sharp, the dam in her heart burst, and galvanized her to action.

She pulled into Brian’s driveway minutes later, reckless speed a definite factor.

Brian opened the door before she could knock and dragged her into the hug they both needed.

“Brian, this was all my fault.”

“No, honey. Irrational, compulsive behavior like this is a classic pre-symptom of Juvenile Huntington’s. I’ve already talked to her doctors and we’ll be starting the process of genetic testing as soon as she’s gone through some therapy.”

“No!” Abby backed away from Brian. “No. It’s not a symptom. It’s me. It’s me, Brian. She can’t—” Gasping for air, suddenly her lungs felt too small, the world too big. “She doesn’t have JHD. This isn’t a symptom. This is my fault. She just hates me is all. My fault. Just my fault.”

The whole world shifted on its axis and Abby found herself on the ground, the tiled floor ice cold against her cheek.

“Please… Please…”

Brian dropped to the floor beside her and pulled her into his lap, holding her until the words stopped spilling from her lips, until her breathing calmed and the tremors ceased. “Abby, none of this is your fault. And believe me, if I could wish it away, I would too. But we can’t ignore it anymore, we all have to face the reality that Skylar may have JHD.”