Shift (The Disciples' Daughters #2) by Drew Elyse Read Free Book Online

me back. I could have come home with Emmy years ago and the brothers would have taken us in. They would have helped us. She could have had this for years.
    It wasn’t just the room. The physical gifts were only the smallest piece of what I was mourning. What really hurt were the relationships she missed out on. I grew up with a dozen uncles and now she would know what that was like. We were barely in the door and even Daz was sunk by her.
    I kept that from her.
    But I couldn’t have come back home, could I? I was forgetting the big issue, but I wouldn’t be able to for long. We would have to see each other at some point.
    “You okay, Ash?” Roadrunner asked from behind me.
    I turned back toward the room, trying to keep the emotions that felt like they were exploding inside of me from my face. “Just a bit overwhelmed,” I answered.
    “We wanted her to have a room she was going to be comfortable in,” he explained. “We had to get furniture either way, there was nothing in here.”
    Now Roadrunner was going to try to downplay the enormity of what they had just given my daughter, as if it meant nothing. It wasn’t nothing.
    “Thank you,” I said, too overwhelmed to find any words that would come close to what I was feeling.
    “Momma?” Emmy called just before her blonde curls popped around the doorframe. “You gotta see! You got a room, too!”
    I tried to hide the mortification at what she was saying. Kids said crazy things. I could play it off, but only if I didn’t give the truth away.
    “Yeah, baby,” I said in as even a tone as I could.
    “There’s even a bed! A big one! So you can sleeps in one, too!” she kept right on with her excitement.
    “Yeah, baby. Why don’t you keep unpacking? Uncle Daz probably doesn’t want to unpack your stuffies himself.”
    Luckily, she followed my suggestion right away. Unfortunately, I knew the damaged had already been done.
    “What’s she talking about?” Roadrunner asked.
    Crap.
    “It’s nothing.”
    “Ashlynn Mae,” he said in warning.
    With a deep breath, I looked up at him. “I couldn’t afford a two bedroom apartment,” I said, hoping that would suffice.
    “So you two shared that room?” he asked, but he knew the answer. He’d seen Emmy’s bedroom.
    “Not exactly.”
    Roadrunner simply raised his eyebrows, his waning patience obvious.
    “She’s getting older. I thought it was important that she have a space she could identify as her own as she grew up. She needed to get used to doing some things alone, like sleeping.”
    “And where did you sleep?”
    “The living room.”
    “ Where in the living room? I was there, Ash. I didn’t see a bed.”
    “The couch,” I said, giving him the answer he already knew.
    Roadrunner rubbed at his eyes like he had a headache setting in. “At least tell me it was a fuckin’ pull-out.”
    I wanted to lie. So much of me wanted to tell him it was. Would he ever know otherwise? Probably not. I just couldn’t lie to Roadrunner, though. “It wasn’t.”
    “Goddammit, Ash.” He started pacing while gripping the sides of his head. He was pissed. Seriously pissed. Pissed to the point where a casual observer would question my sanity at being in a little hall with him. But Roadrunner would never hurt me. He’d never lay a hand on any woman, but it was more than that. He hated the very idea of me hurting in any way. That was what had him so upset. “Why didn’t you call? Come home? We would’ve taken care of you.”
    It was the same question that had been beating around my brain just minutes before.
    “I know, but I couldn’t.” My eyes moved to the bedroom door where Emmy had disappeared again.
    Coming back to the club was never something I’d intended to do, especially not with Emmy in tow. There were too many questions I couldn’t answer where she was concerned. I had no idea how we were going to do this as it was.
    Roadrunner shook his head in a frustrated way. I knew he understood I was keeping