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  Since he wasn’t all that polite to her when he came for his weekend visits, Ryla really couldn’t say that she’d miss him that much. But still she said, “That’s too bad, Noel. But I’m sure Jaylen will understand as long as you let her know what’s going on.”

  The smirk on Noel’s face couldn’t be disguised as he said, “Actually, it’s too bad for you. Because since today is Jaylen’s last day of school and she is now officially on summer break, I intend to spend as many days as possible with my daughter this summer.”

  “What are you saying, Noel? You just told me that you’ll need to be in Dallas, so I don’t see how you’ll be able to spend the summer with Jaylen.”

  He held up his paternity test, so Ryla could get a real good look at the 99.99999 percentage points that proclaimed him as Jaylen’s father. “This little paper, and the fact that you kept my child from me for years, ensures that Jaylen will be able to spend the summer with me.”

  From his comment, Ryla figured that Noel was thinking about taking her to court, so she said, “I thought we agreed to leave lawyers out of this?”

  “Woman, you must think I’m a fool,” he said as he towered over her. “Why shouldn’t I get my lawyer involved when I’m dealing with someone like you?”

  Ryla started chewing her fingers as she tried to come up with something that would get Noel to see reason. He had accused her of trying to put him in a trick bag, but now she realized that he had put her in one. Noel had wanted that DNA test so he’d have proof that he was Jaylen’s father. Then no one could deny him his rights, and she had fallen in line and gave him all the ammunition he needed to fight her in court. “Noel, can you just tell me what you want? Maybe we can work this out without involving outside parties.”

  “You just know that you’re in the wrong. That’s why you don’t want to involve anyone else.”

  She held up a hand, trying to halt his incoming tirade. “I understand why you would see it that way.”

  “Ha.” He laughed. “Me and the entire world would be able to see how wrong you are.”

  “Okay,” she said calmly. She didn’t want to argue with Noel. She wanted to try to work with him, so he could get out of his angry, win-at-all-cost mode. Ryla knew that an angry Noel was also a determined Noel. And when Noel set his mind to something, he would be dead set on finishing it. “I understand that you’re upset, Noel. But can you please tell me what you want so we can work something out?”

  “I want Jaylen in Dallas with me for the summer.”

  She got in negotiation mode. “Why don’t we start with a weekend or even a week? I could bring her up and then you could bring her back to me. Or I could even come back and get her if your schedule is too busy.”

  “No.”

  She backed up, stared at him for a moment. “What do you mean, no? I’m trying to work with you. So, you need to work with me also.”

  “No,” he said again. “You’ve had Jaylen for seven years, and I want her for the entire summer. That’s the beginning and end of my negotiation.”

  When she didn’t readily respond, he said, “What’s your answer?”

  “Dang, even your opponents on the court were able to at least dribble before they took a shot. Just hold on, I’m thinking.”

  Noel took out his cell phone.

  “Who are you calling?” Ryla asked as he unlocked his phone and searched through his contacts.

  “I’m looking for my attorney’s number. If you and I can’t settle this, then I’m going to pursue other options.”

  “Okay, okay,” Ryla said. “She can come with you for the summer. I just have one stipulation.”

  “And that is?” Noel asked while putting his phone away.

  “I have to come with her.”

  “Oh, heck no. I am not about to spend my summer with you,” Noel raged.

  “I could think of better things to do than spend my summer with a grouch, too. For one thing, I have a new business to get off the ground. But we need to think about Jaylen, Noel. She needs her mother. And you’re going to be busy with the campaign, so you won’t be able to watch out for her all the time. You’ll need me there, as well.”

  Relenting, because he knew she was right, Noel said, “Okay, you can come, but I have a stipulation myself.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Stay out of the way.”

  With that, Noel entered his SUV and backed out of the driveway, leaving her with no doubt that fun had just been canceled for the summer. Noel wanted nothing to do with her. Even though she had been the one to leave, Ryla had not been able to purge Noel from her heart and mind. She was still in love with the man. Ryla ached every time she saw him. She only wished she could go back in time and change what had happened.... She would have stayed and fought for their love. But to accomplish that she would actually have to send that time machine back in time to when her father divorced her mother for his twenty-one-year-old girlfriend. Or go back to when her mother’s new boyfriend tried to make a move on her, or when her mother went through divorce number two, because, big surprise, the mongrel cheated on her.

  After what she watched her mom go through, Ryla swore she would never let a man cheat on her. Every one of her friends had warned her about dating Noel. They said that a big-time alpha dog like Noel Carter would never be anything but a player. But Ryla didn’t want to believe them. Noel loved her and she loved him. Then she caught him kissing Cathy O’Dell after the play-off game. That happened to be the same day that Ryla had planned to tell Noel about the baby. But then she had visions of Noel walking out on her and her baby, refusing to have anything to do with his own child, just as her father had done. She then dropped out of college and ran from Noel and every man who would surely be another heartache. But now Noel was back, and her heart was aching for him in ways it hadn’t in seven long years.

  Ryla went into the garage to grab her and Jaylen’s suitcases. She would need to start packing.

  After bringing their luggage into the house, she sat down on her sofa and called her mother. Every bit of Ryla’s event-planning skills had been garnered from Juanita Evans-Berkley. The woman had style and grace and decorating skills that were second to none. Her mother had also just taken an early retirement from the publicity coordinator position she’d held with the government for twenty years. Juanita had big plans of traveling around the world and finding husband number three, but Ryla needed to put those plans on hold for a little while. “Hey, Mama,” she said when Juanita picked up the phone.

  “Hey, yourself. What are you and my wonderful granddaughter doing today?”

  Ryla sighed. “It looks like we’re going to be packing.”

  “Oh, really, where are you going?”

  “Noel now has the DNA evidence to prove that he’s Jaylen’s father, and he has informed me that he simply can’t live without his daughter being in Dallas with him this summer.”

  “Oh, I’m so thankful that he wants to spend time with Jaylen,” Juanita excitedly said.

  Ryla knew her mother was thinking about how Ryla’s own father basically discarded her when he began his new life with his teenage bride. And at that moment, she had to admit that it felt good to know that Noel wanted to include his child in his life no matter how busy he was. “I’m glad you’re happy about this, Mom, because I’m going to need your help.”

  “Tell me what you need. I’m all ears.”

  Ryla hesitated for a moment, but just a moment. She needed to be in Dallas with her child, so she needed help from her mom. “I know you wanted to travel this summer, but I was hoping that you would stay around for a little while and help me with my new business so I can go to Dallas with Jaylen.”

  Juanita was silent.

  “Come on, Mom, I need your help.” Ryla was prepared to go to her mother’s house and get down on her hands and knees an
d beg if she had to.

  “Well, I did have plans for this summer,” Juanita began.

  Ryla rolled her eyes, but held her tongue.

  “But I don’t want you to be without Jaylen for the summer, so I can help you out for a month or two.”

  “Thanks, Mom, I really appreciate this.”

  As she hung up with her mother, Ryla felt better about the situation. She would get everything in order and be prepared when Noel came back for Jaylen. The last thing Ryla wanted was for Noel to think she was jerking him around again. Ryla knew that judges frowned on parents who tried to keep the children away from the other parent. If she pushed Noel, he could end up with sole custody of Jaylen, with her begging for visitation. And that just couldn’t happen.

  * * *

  Although Noel thought he came up with the perfect solution for spending time with his daughter, the idea wasn’t going over so well at his campaign headquarters.

  “Are you insane?” Ian Walters, Noel’s longtime friend and campaign manager, asked after Noel told him what was going on.

  “Why does the fact that I want to be with my daughter while I’m campaigning sound like such a bad idea?” Noel demanded as he sat behind his desk with his leg propped on the table.

  “Do you realize how much bad press I have already had to deflect from this campaign?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Noel waved away the problem. “I’ve heard it all before. The bad boy turned politician is the way they like to paint me. But I’m not just some former bad boy. I care about this community and I want to make a difference. I’m not doing this for fame or fortune—I clearly already have both of those.”

  With a frustrated sigh, Ian tried again. “I know that your reasons for running for office are honorable. But Dan Bridges believes that he is honorable also, and he thinks he has just as much right to claim that empty seat as you do. Dan Bridges is a family man with no skeletons in his closet that I’ve been able to find. But you have just pulled out a closet full, and now you want to bring her on the campaign trail.” He lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m telling you, my friend, this is suicide.”

  Noel took his feet down from the top of his desk. Then he stretched and leaned back in his chair as he studied Ian a moment. They had been friends since high school, so Noel was willing to give him a pass this one time. But he wasn’t about to let anyone speak negatively about his daughter. She was a part of him; he’d been denied access to her for too long as it was. He had no plans of waiting until the campaign was over to build a relationship with the most important girl in the world to him. “I’m going to say this once and once only, Ian. I will not be denied my daughter. I would rather lose this election than spend another day without her. Is that understood?”

  Ian threw up his hands again. “You’re the boss,” he said as he walked out of the office, shaking his head and mumbling something about the press and a field day.

  Chapter 6

  The first time Ryla walked into Noel’s campaign office in Dallas, Texas, she wanted to turn around and walk right back out. But Jaylen was pulling her toward her father’s office with a great big grin on her face. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” Jaylen called out as she ran toward Noel.

  As the people in the campaign office turned and gawked at the little girl screaming for her daddy, Noel picked her up and hugged her to him. “Hey, baby girl. I’m so glad that you’re finally here. I was missing you.”

  “Mmph,” Ryla said.

  Noel put Jaylen down and turned to Ryla. “How was the drive up?”

  “Fine,” she answered too quickly.

  “Did you have a hard time finding the place?” Noel asked.

  Ryla began to look around the small office so she wouldn’t have to look Noel in the face, and then said, “I do have a GPS, you know.”

  Noel turned to his campaign manager. “Ian, do you mind sitting out here with Jaylen? I need to speak with Ryla for a moment.”

  Ian turned to Jaylen and asked, “Would you like me to show you around the office, so you can see what your Daddy does all day?”

  “I sure would.” Jaylen grabbed Ian’s hand and skipped down the hall beside him.

  Noel walked into his private office and held the door open until Ryla stepped in. The moment he closed the door, he swung around and faced off with her. “Thank you for bringing my daughter to me. Now please feel free to leave at any moment.”

  Ryla harrumphed and folded her arms. “I wish I would leave my daughter to you and Cathy O’Dell.”

  With a lifted eyebrow he asked, “What does Cathy have to do with anything?”

  Oh, now he’s going to play dumb, Ryla thought. But she had his Cheaters for Dummies handbook in the palm of her hand and was seconds away from hitting him upside the head with it. “I know what you and Cathy had going on when we were in college.”

  Noel stepped back, the look of confusion apparent on his face. “What are you talking about? Cathy and I never had anything going on, as you put it.”

  Waving his comment away, she got in his face. “Stop lying, Noel. Because I saw you and Cathy kissing after the play-off game.”

  His eyes took on a faraway look for a moment and when he turned back to Ryla, he said, “You left college right after the play-offs.”

  She stepped away from him and walked over to the big window in his office and looked out at the staff through wooden venetian blinds. Ryla starred straight at Cathy O’Dell, wondering why she alone hadn’t been enough for Noel. Why he had to go and ruin everything they had by cheating on her. If he had spit in her face, it would have hurt her less than how she ended up feeling after walking into that locker room and seeing Noel with another woman.

  From the day Ryla’s father walked out so he could start a new family, she swore that she’d never marry a man like her father. The day she discovered that she was pregnant was supposed to be a happy day. Not wanting to throw Noel’s concentration off, she decided to wait until after the big play-off game to tell him about the baby. Ryla had been so excited that his team had won. And as she walked into the locker room to tell him her news, she just knew that he would feel as if he had won twice that night.

  “Was Cathy the reason you left without as much as a goodbye to me?”

  She heard the anger in his voice. But as far as she was concerned, all her sympathy for him went out the door the moment she saw Cathy behind that desk, taking calls and barking out orders as if she was working hard to help her man see all his dreams come true. Ryla should have been the one standing by his side, helping him get to the finish line, as the first lady did for the president. With a bit of her own anger, she turned to him. “You were the reason I left.”

  He stood there, visibly trying to rein in his fury. “I don’t know how I could have been the reason you left. You never even gave me a chance.”

  “You squandered the chance I gave you—” Ryla pointed out toward the office staff “—with Ms. Phone Girl out there.”

  “Go home, Ryla. Jaylen and I don’t need you here.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” She stepped to him again. “I am not about to leave my daughter here so you can flaunt your women in her face.”

  Noel laughed.

  “I’m not playing with you, Noel Carter.” She was shaking a finger in his face. “You are not going to parade your women around my daughter. I won’t allow that.”

  “Whoa,” he said, lifting his hands. “You’re being a bit overdramatic, don’t you think?”

  As Ryla realized that she was acting like someone off her meds, she dialed it back a bit. “All I’m asking is that you keep Cathy away from Jaylen.”

  “That’s going to be a little difficult, since we have a small office of about fifteen people and everyone is running on top of each other as it is.”

  “Well, aren’t there other camp
aigns that she can go work for?”

  He stared at her for a moment. “Are you serious?”

  Ryla knew she was being unreasonable, but she just couldn’t back down. She felt violated by Cathy just as she would have felt violated by any thief that kicked in her front door and stole something from her. She put her hands on her hips and declared, “Either she goes or I’m taking Jaylen back home.”

  “Then I call my lawyer,” Noel volleyed back as he walked over to his desk and picked up the telephone.

  “You said you wouldn’t do that,” Ryla protested, wondering if she had overplayed her hand.

  “That was before you came to my campaign office and started making unreasonable demands.” He pushed a few buttons on the telephone.

  Ryla pushed the disconnect button on the phone. “Don’t do this Noel. We don’t need to get lawyers involved.”

  Still holding the receiver, Noel’s voice elevated. “If you think you’re going to come in here and make demands after keeping my child from me for seven years, then I think we need a third party to straighten this out. Because I’m not letting you take another minute of my time with Jaylen away from me.”

  Ryla surrendered. “Okay, okay, you win. Jaylen stays.... Just keep her away from your little girlfriend.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Whatever.” Ryla waved his comment off.

  The door to Noel’s office opened and Ian quickly stepped in and closed it behind him. “You might want to bring it down a few notches. And in case you were wondering, if they didn’t figure it out when Jaylen ran through the office screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ you two have now informed the entire staff that Jaylen is your daughter.” Ian was glaring at Noel as he leaned against the wall. “Oh.” He held up a finger as if he needed to add one more thing. “They also know that Ryla kept her away from you for seven years.”

  “I don’t see why this is an issue. I was going to tell them all anyway,” Noel said.