Read Online In Broad Daylight by Marie Ferrarella - Free Book Online

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    task because up until now, she's been such a lousy mother?" With every word, her anger
    grew. "I went to see her once to discuss Annie's shyness with her and she fluffed me
    off—this after breaking I don't know how many appointments." She straggled to calm
    herself down. "Rebecca Allen-Tyler is not my candidate for mother of the year."

    "What about her father?" When he'd left the house, Simon Tyler hadn't returned yet.

    Brenda waved her hand in dismissal. "Worse than her mother." It struck her as such a
    tragedy. And it all could have been avoided. "Annie worships the ground they both walk on
    and they just keep walking on it, not bothering to look down, not seeing the wonderful little
    human being they're ignoring."

    He couldn't help notice that the color had returned to her cheeks. And that it made her
    even more attractive. "You sound pretty passionate about this."

    She blew out a breath as she sighed. "Maybe because I am. I hate seeing a kid get a raw
    deal." The printer had stopped. She hit the appropriate button again. The machine began
    spitting out fresh flyers. "They've got such a very short time to be innocent, they should
    be allowed to enjoy it."

    "Did you?"

    Brenda raised her head, caught off guard by the question. "What?"

    "Did you?" he repeated. When she continued to look at him quizzically, he elaborated on the reason for his question. "I get the feeling you're speaking from firsthand experience."
    In response, she got up and crossed to the printer, her back to him. He'd struck a nerve,
    he thought. "What was your childhood like?"

    She lifted her shoulder in a vague, noncommittal shrug. She'd talked too much. That was
    her problem, she thought. She always shared herself too quickly. You would have thought
    that she would have learned not to by now. That having a mother who abandoned her and a
    father who took out every failure in his life on her would have taught her to keep her own
    council. Even Wade had been closemouthed and had cut her off more than once when she
    tried to talk to him, to get him to share his feelings with her.

    All of her life, there had been nothing but emotional disappointment after emotional
    disappointment. Except for the children.

    "I don't remember," she murmured, putting more paper into the printer's tray. "It was a long time ago."

    She was putting him off. But he had a feeling she needed to talk, so he pressed. "Not that
    long ago, you're what, twenty-two?"

    "Twenty-six."

    Because she continued to keep her back to him, Dax rounded the printer and faced her.
    "I'm impressed, you preserve well."

    She laughed then and it was like the breeze weaving its way through wind chimes. Not the
    annoying ones like his neighbor had that clanged, but the small ones, the ones that sounded
    like music.

    "That's nice," he told her softly. "You should do that more often."

    She stopped stacking the finished flyers beside the printer. "Do what?"

    "Laugh."

    Her thoughts returned to Annie. "I guess there isn't that much to laugh about right now."

    He curbed the urge to put his hand on her shoulder, to make some sort of contact that
    could convey comfort far better than any words that might come out of his mouth. "There
    will be. We'll find her."

    Her mouth curved slightly. Sadly. She wished she could believe him. But she knew what
    the world was like. "You sound so certain."

    "Only way to go."

    She looked at him for a long moment, gazed into his eyes. He truly believed that, she
    realized. It gave her a measure of comfort to have the man in charge of the investigation
    so sure of the results. She wouldn't have thought that a cop could be this optimistic.

    "You must have had a very good childhood."

    "As a matter of fact, I did."

    With little effort, she could almost see him as a child. Bright, gregarious, taking over any
    room he walked into. "Apple of your mother's eye?"

    More like the source of most of her gray hair. "I don't know about that. There were too
    many of us