“Are you planning on spending the day with this Edward, Renny?” Mom asked, her careful tone telling me that she’d heard some of the sadness those thoughts brought up in my voice. “Because if that’s not what you want to do, you know you don’t have to, honey. Just because you call him ‘Daddy,’ that doesn’t mean he has the right to tell you what to—”
“No, Ido,” I interrupted quickly, my heart racing in panic at the thought of missing out on a single second that Edward was still willing to spend with me. “I want to. I do, Mom. Today is… it’s my last chance. OfcourseI want to.”
“Your last chance for what?” Edward asked, his voice sounding frowny.
I squeezed my eyes closed and stayed tucked safely against his chest, shaking my head. I wasn’t going to tell him and sound clingy. Besides, Mom was still talking in my ear.
“You’re not telling me something,” she said, her voice rising as she spoke. “What happened? Is he still right there with you? Can you speak freely? What’s wrong, Renny? Is he coercing you? Do I need to call the front desk and have them send—”
“Mom,no,” I cut in, clutching the receiver tightly. “No, everything’s, everything’sfine.”
Edward tipped my chin up so I had to look at him after all, frowning at me hard. “You arenotfine, sweetheart. What’s wrong? What did your Mom just say?”
Oh God, they were ganging up on me.
I tried to smile. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Not until tomorrow morning, anyway.
“Don’t lie to me,” said… both my mom and Edward at the same time.
I blinked, a little thrown by how in sync they suddenly were. Well, my mom had sounded a little panicky and Edward had sort of growled it, but still, it had basically been like being yelled at by the same person.
Okay, maybe not “yelled at,” but… but cared about by.
It made my eyes sting, and I did my best to blink away the hot prick of tears before any of them could fall.
Edward held out his hand and gave me the kind of stern, Daddy’s-in-charge look that would have made something shivery and delicious roll through me… if it hadn’t meant that he wasn’t a hundred percent happy with me right now.
Well, that and the fact that all the about-to-lose-him sadness that was bubbling up inside me made sexy shivers impossible.
“Give me the phone, Rene,” Edward said firmly.
I handed it over, only shaking a little bit, and he wrapped his free arm around me and pulled me so close, holding me so tightly against him, that the air whooshed out of my lungs.
“Odette?” he said, which meant Mom must have introduced herself when he’d first answered. “It’s Edward again.” Then, his voice going all growly and protective, he said, “What did you just tell him that made him sad?”
My eyes went wide. “No,” I said, shaking my head as I pushed against his chest. “It wasn’t Mom.”
He hadn’texactlyaccused her of it being her fault, but still, my mom wouldnottake well to someone thinking she’d been mean to me.
Which she wasn’t, not ever.
I tugged at Edward’s arm, trying to get the phone back.
“Shh, baby,” Edward said a little absently, holding it away from me and keeping me right where he wanted me with his other arm—still locked tight around me—as immovable as a steel bar.
The muffled, high-pitched sound of my mom’s voice filtered through the receiver, not clear enough for me to make out the words.
Then, obviously speaking to her, not me, Edward said, “No, not at all… he did… yes?… No, I wasn’t aware… okay. No, I’ll take care of it… mmhmmm… mmhmmm… mmhmmm… I saw it. No, that’smyjob.”
Whatever she said next made him smile, the arm he had around me finally relaxing enough that I could finally wiggle free.
Or I could have, if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t.
I squished myself even closer to him, and he pressed a kiss against my forehead. “That sounds perfect, Odette. I look forward to meeting you in person, too. Here’s Rene.”
He looked forward to doing… what?
