I hobbled along, stopping at the door for them to move in front of me. My eyes locked with Paxton’s and he smiled. A show for the girls, I thought, and then I understood. His expression chilled over like icy fog on a windowpane. As soon as they were ahead of us, he stuck his leg right in front of me. The pain instantly shot up my ribs, knocking the breath right out of me when my body was forced to bend at the waist.
Paxton assisted me with a hand to my back when the look on my face changed, expressing the pain from the sudden jolt. For a quick second I thought maybe I saw remorse in his eyes. His words were in a mocking tone, lips close to mine. “Her name is Ophelia. Remember? She was named after my grandmother. Ophelia Pierce. Ring any bells? The Mayflower? She was a passenger on the Mayflower? Came with a widowed man.”
“Come on, Daddy,” Rowan called.
I peered over his shoulder to get a glimpse of them, my girls. They both stared back at us in anticipation.
“If your grandmother came over here on the Mayflower you would be at least three hundred years old. I highly doubt it was the Mayflower. Although you could be a vampire. That would explain it.”
“This mouth is going to get you in trouble. Brings back old memories, huh?” His lips met mine and his tongue dove in. One moan and a quick kiss and he let me pass him.
“Troll,” I mumbled to myself.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing.”
He was like a troll. A troll who told me when I could cross the bridge, what bridge I was allowed to cross, and for how long. I must have been insane when I agreed to marry this man. Maybe I’d had a brain injury back then, too.
“Look, it’s your favorite, Mom,” Rowan exclaimed, dramatically opening her hand and making a sweeping gesture across the table of food. A salad in the middle and three covered dishes surrounded the main course.
“Hmmm, I love salad,” I said with a smile and a stroke down her long blond hair.
Rowan snorted, showing me her Colgate smile. Not perfect, but white. The tooth that twisted a bit above her upper left lip insured braces. My tongue glided over my own teeth in search of the same trait. Nope. Straight as straight could be.
“That’s not your favorite. It’s under there, silly,” she explained with a point to the third covered dish.
Paxton lifted the lid from the middle pan, wearing his own smile. His was not as sweet as Rowan’s. Ugh. I hated chicken.
Wait. I did?
“My favorite is chicken?” I questioned as Paxton pulled my chair out and took my crutches. I eased my way into the seat, using the edge of the table for support, feeling the pain shoot down my leg.
“Dad cooked it on the grill,” Ophelia offered. I pressed my lips together, trying not to snarl my nose. I didn’t like chicken. That was a damn fact. It appeared Paxton knew that detail, too. Either that, or the man wore a constant smug.
I ate around the chicken, and I nibbled on my salad, rice, and steamed asparagus, listening to the girls tell me stories about their lives during my time away. I’d missed a lot. Rowan had lost her first tooth. Bottom front. She’d scored a touchdown in tee-ball, and she’d skinned her knee. She even showed me the proof. Ophelia had been just as busy. She too had a boo-boo on her elbow. She didn’t get a touchdown because she had fallen, and she insisted she was going to lose her tooth when she turned six, too.
My bottom lip sucked in several times and I bit down to keep from laughing. Paxton did correct them on the touchdown, trying to hide his own laughter behind a bite of chicken, straight off the bone. Yuck. As hungry as I was, I couldn’t eat it. I didn’t even touch it.
“We’re going to show you a book. It’s a picture book so you can benember,” Rowan explained.
Paxton slid her drink away from her plate and corrected her with the right way to say remember. I personally liked benember better.
“What a great idea,” I replied. Maybe that would help. I mean, who could forget their own kids, right?
Wrong. Paxton saw to baths while I sat on the sofa and waited for them. Even though I felt better, I couldn’t do much more than that. Walk a few steps and sit down. That quickly became my new life.
“You think you can at least brush out their hair?” Paxton asked with the tone that I didn’t get. The guy hated me.
“Are you like a full-blooded misogynist, or is it just me you hate?”
Paxton appeared beside me on the sofa in the blink of an eye. His hand went around my throat, expression matching the anger. He squeezed my jaw and told me how it was. Again…
“You’re pushing it. I don’t buy this shit for one second. You’re full of shit. You think I didn’t catch the look in your eyes? The expression on your face when you saw how different they were? I saw it, Gabriella. You suck. Show biz is not one of your strong points. Why don’t you be a good little slut and tell me where you were. Why were you that far from home?”