Read Online Always With You: Part One by M. Leighton - Free Book Online

the picture. You don’t have to…”
    That just seems to make him laugh that much harder.  
    “You’d better go get your shit before I start giving you details then.”
    He doesn’t have to tell me twice. 
    I round the desk and knock on the door at the back of the office, the one that leads into my apartment.  There’s no response at first, but then the door eases open and a pair of sparkling black eyes peek up at me from the crack.
    “Can I speak to your mom?” I ask, not knowing whether to ask her if I can come in or…
    She nods and opens the door wider.  When I step through, she turns away, calling out to her mother before resuming her place on the bed facing the television.  “Momma!”
    Within seconds, the bathroom door swings open and a freshly showered Sophie walks out.  Her eyes round when she sees me and mine round when I see her.  Hers in surprise; mine in anger.
    She’s wearing a shirt.  Only a shirt.  And the damn thing is mine.

 
    CHAPTER SIXTEEN
     
    Cash
     
    “W hat the hell are you doing?” is what I want to ask.  Or more like growl.  The way it sounds in my head is nothing so nice as a polite “asking.”
    Sophie’s familiarity, like we’re still two high school kids who are banging in the back seat of my car every chance we get, annoys the shit out of me.  She’s up to something. I can feel it.  I just don’t have a damn clue what it is.  And as much as I want to bark questions at her and demand that she take off my shirt, I don’t.  I’m too aware of the big brown eyes peeking up at me from Isabella’s perch on the bed.  When I glance at her, she looks quickly away, pretending to be absorbed in her cartoons again.
    I turn back to Sophie. 
    “What are you doing here?  How’s Olivia’s father?” she asks, raising her hands above her head to fluff her wet hair.  She shakes and twists an inordinate amount, enough to make her hard nipples strain against the material of my shirt. I’m sure she’s doing it on purpose.
    “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I ask mildly, reaching for her upper arm and wheeling her around toward the bathroom before she can even answer me.  I keep my calm until the door is shut, trapping us in the steamy room together.  Keeping my voice low, I curl my fingers around Sophie’s other arm and jerk her up against my chest.  “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
    I don’t want the little girl to hear me, but I want Sophie to know just how much she’s pissed me off. If she can’t hear it in my voice, she can damn sure see it in my furious face, glaring at hers from less than a foot away.
    “I…I needed a shower. I thought…I thought we were going to be staying here.  And you’d be at the hospital all day.  If I’d known you were coming back, I’d have waited. I’m sorry, I just…”
    She actually looks bewildered, which cools my temper a little. Maybe I’m overreacting.  She really wouldn’t have known I was coming so soon.  Maybe the shower thing was purely coincidental.  But wearing my shirt…that’s got to stop.
    I release her arms and step back. “No, you can make yourself at home.  For a while at least.  But what’s up with you wearing my clothes?”
    She looks down at herself and then back up at me. “Oh, God!  I know how this must look. I’m so sorry, Cash!  I hadn’t brought the rest of our luggage in yet and I didn’t want to wake Izzy, so I just grabbed something from the closet and hopped in the shower.  I assumed since it wasn’t packed that it would be okay.”
    “Olivia was a little distracted when she left, as I’m sure you can imagine,” I snap defensively.
    “I’m sure.  I mean…her father…Oh God!  I guess I…I just assumed that maybe the remaining clothes were things you planned on donating to Goodwill or something. I’m really sorry. I’ll wash it as soon as I get dressed and put it back where I found it.  I just…I…” she stammers nervously.  She tucks