Daddy's Little Angel by Shani Petroff Read Free Book Online

always have.”
    I don’t know why, but my eyes actually filled up with tears. It was stupid. It wasn’t like I even really knew him. There was no reason for me to care. But I did.
    “I don’t know.”
    Lou grabbed onto my hand. “Isn’t this what you used to wish for?” he whispered.
    “That was before.”
    “But I’m here now. Let me be a part of your life.”
    I was completely torn. Part of me wanted to scream, “No way. I want nothing to do with you.” But the other part had a harder time saying no. I just thought about how envious I’ve always been of Gabi’s relationship with her dad. Mr. G helped her with her math homework after dinner every night, and was always telling anyone that would listen how amazing his daughters were. Every year they went to some supercorny father-daughter square dance. Gabi pretended like it was all lame, but I knew she loved it. And last year when she took her bow at the end of Oliver! , her dad screamed her name and whistled so loudly, it was almost embarrassing. But it wasn’t. Because it was so sweet.
    “Please?” Lou said again.
    “I’m sorry,” I spit out really fast. “I gotta go. My mom’s probably freaking out right now.”
    “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice softer. “She has no idea you were at the concert. I took care of everything.” I opened up my mouth to protest, but he held up his hands before I could speak. “Relax . . . I did nothing to harm her. I’d never hurt your mom. Not intentionally. She was my wife, after all, and she’s the mother of my child. I just gave her a very nice, long nap. She thinks you’re still upstairs.”
    That meant I got to skip out on the rant about going to the concert without an adult. “Thanks.”
    “I’m looking out for you,” he told me. “And I’m not giving up on us.”
    I turned the doorknob and went inside. I had to get away before I did something I regretted—like inviting him to dinner or a square dance. There was no way I could let him be my dad.

chapter 13
    “Everybody’s staring at me,” I said to Gabi as we walked into school.
    “I told ya.”
    She had. All weekend, Gabi babbled away about how getting to perform with Mara’s Daughters was going to help my popularity. Or more accurately, my lack of popularity. I thought everyone would forget by Monday, but from the constant whispers around me, it was pretty obvious that they remembered.
    I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to smile, wave, look them in the eye, and say hi? I wasn’t used to this kind of attention. I wasn’t used to any attention, unless you counted Max. I didn’t want to blow my chances, so I focused on the tiles on the floor. That way no one would see the ginormous grin on my face. If there was one thing I did know, it was that I couldn’t come off as overeager.
    A pair of leather ankle boots stopped right in front of me. I saw some celebrity wearing the exact same ones in last month’s Teen Vogue . Totally cute. I waited for the boots to start moving again, but they seemed planted. I didn’t need to look up to know who they belonged to: Lana Perkins, aka Courtney Lourde’s second best friend and obedient pit bull. She always had the best clothes and accessories. I peeked up to see why she wasn’t moving. My mouth dropped open, but I closed it quickly. She was looking right at me.
    “Hi, Angel,” Lana said. I couldn’t believe she knew my name. I said hello and then looked over at Gabi. Her jaw was practically grazing her heels. Even she didn’t expect Lana to be one of my fans.
    “Saw you at the concert,” Lana said.
    She was really talking to me. For a split second, I thought maybe it was all in my head or an illusion that Lou rigged up. So I just stood there gawking. That is until Gabi elbowed me—hard. “Yeah. I love Mara’s Daughters.” Ughh. Why couldn’t my brain have come up with something funny and cool to say? I love Mara’s Daughters . Was I competing for an Obvious Award?
    “How do