A Hickory Ridge Christmas by Dana Corbit Read Free Book Online Page A

been around for the last few years. That’s more than you can say.”
    Todd tilted his chin up. “I’m here now.”
    â€œFor how long?”
    Grant posed the question, but Hannah was dying to know the answer to it.
    â€œNot that it’s any of your business, but I start a job at GM Proving Grounds tomorrow. I’m here in town. To stay.”
    â€œWhat if she doesn’t want you here? What if no one wants you here?”
    Todd raised his hands in surrender. “Resent me all you want. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m Rebecca’s father, and I intend to have some kind of relationship with her no matter what you think.”
    Hannah gasped and closed her eyes. Please God. Please God. Tell me she didn’t hear. But when she opened her eyes again, the expressions on both men’s faces told her the bad news before she could eventurn toward the living room. In the doorway, Rebecca stared at Todd, her eyes wide with amazement. Finally, she turned back to Hannah.
    â€œIs it true, Mommy? Is Mr. McBride my dad?”
    Â 
    Todd let the phone ring four times, waiting for the answering machine to pick up as it had each time he’d called Monday night and again since he’d been home from work that day. This time the machine didn’t answer, which could only mean that Hannah had returned from work and had shut it off.
    Too bad he couldn’t turn off his guilt over last evening’s events as easily as she’d switched off the power. If he continued to be as distracted at work as he’d been on his first day at the Proving Grounds, then he wouldn’t have to worry about having a job for too long.
    With the phone continuing to ring, Todd switched the handset from one ear to the other, as he shed his maroon-and-white pin-striped dress shirt. He was already sitting on the edge of the bed in his undershirt and trousers when something clicked on the other end of the line.
    â€œHello,” a small voice said.
    His breath caught, but he forced words anyway. “Hi, Rebecca. This is your— This is Mr. McBride.”
    â€œHi,” she said automatically. Then she added an uncomfortable “oh.”
    He frowned. After Hannah had insisted that both he and Grant leave, she had probably initiated a heart-to-heart talk with their daughter. What a four-year-old would be able to understand from this impossible mess, he hadn’t a clue. He barely understood parts of it himself. Whatever else Hannah had told his daughter, he guessed from Rebecca’s surprised reaction that her mother had also said they wouldn’t be seeing him anymore.
    That’s where she was wrong. He hadn’t just found out he was a father and then faced his parents’ extreme disappointment when he’d told them know they were grandparents, only to be shut out of his daughter’s life.
    He was still coming up with something to say to Rebecca when he heard another voice in the background.
    â€œSweetie, do you remember that I told you not to answer the phone?” Hannah said.
    â€œBut it’s…Mr. McBride.”
    After some muffled voices and footsteps, Hannah’s voice came on the line. “Would you please stop calling here? I had to unplug the machine.”
    â€œI’m sorry about yesterday.”
    â€œYou and Grant—what you did was unforgivable. This time you hurt my child.”
    â€œ Our child,” he corrected, though he couldn’t argue with the rest of what Hannah had said. “I didn’t want Rebecca to find out that way any more than you did.”
    â€œSo why’d you tell her?”
    â€œYou were there. You know I didn’t intentionally—”
    â€œAnyone who knows the first thing about parenting knows that children hear and see everything that’s going on around them.”
    â€œWhose fault is it I don’t know—” He managed to stop his retort before he said, “How to be