AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s easy for someone like you to say. Someone perfect.”
Her brows lifted at that, and she opened and closed her mouth before she narrowed her eyes.
It was the first time she had shown herself to be anything more than easygoing since he’d practically run her off of his property. Had he made her angry again?
“I suppose it’s true that I’ve never walked in your shoes. But I have been insulted and belittled, and my son has heard that. And I can tell you, from the time he was young, I taught him that being unkind to people was wrong. And I try to model that in my life.” She lifted her shoulder. “I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t live that out in his own life, but there comes a point in time where I’m going to have to let my actions speak for themselves and give him the choice. But until he leaves my home, he’s going to be kind to people, no matter what they look like.”
Bryce pressed his lips together, his fork suspended in midair.
He wasn’t entirely sure she was right, but what she said made a lot of sense. Wasn’t it the job of parents to direct how their children thought? He wasn’t just supposed to lie back and let his daughter develop her ideas from what the rest of the world said. He was to be proactive.
But his was a special case. There weren’t a whole lot of people who looked the way he did, and his daughter shouldn’t have to live with that.
“I’m doing this for her own good. She’s getting good instruction from Aunt Carol, and Paisley is an excellent nanny. She came highly recommended. I know they’re teaching my daughter everything she needs to know.”
“Okay,” Peyton said, shrugging her shoulders. Like it didn’t matter whether he agreed with her or not.
“Okay, but?” he said, figuring he probably was asking for trouble, but it was weird that she just agreed.
“But I don’t want to argue.”
“We’re not arguing, we’re discussing it.”
“I just don’t like to.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You mean, you don’t like to give your opinion?”
“I just did, but you don’t have to agree with me.”
“So, you’d rather keep the peace than put your opinion out there, even though it might be the right one.”
“I hope it’s biblical, but yeah, I guess sometimes I would just rather everything goes smoothly than for us to have a big argument about it. She’s your daughter, and you get to do what you want to with her. Even if I don’t agree.”
“So you don’t agree?”
“No. She’s yours. God didn’t give her to Aunt Carol. He didn’t give her to Paisley. And I’m not saying that you can’t have a nanny. If your job takes you away and you don’t have someone to help you, you might need her. But what are you doing that you can’t take care of your daughter?” She lifted her face and looked him in the eye with that last question, and it hit him right between the eyebrows.
She was right. What was he doing? Nothing. He wasn’t doing anything that he couldn’t have his daughter here taking care of her himself.
“The weather in South Carolina is a lot nicer than it is in North Dakota.”
“Are you serious? You’re going to use the weather as an excuse?” She sounded incredulous. And then she laughed. “But you’re right. The weather in South Carolina is a lot nicer, in the winter anyway. It gets pretty hot in the summer.”
He couldn’t disagree with her.
“And if you think the weather is so much nicer in South Carolina, why don’t you move down there?”
He wanted to tell her to keep her nose in her own business, but he was the one who brought the subject up. Just because she was making too much sense and he didn’t like it didn’t mean that he could shut her down now. Since he was the one who’d invited her to speak. Even if he hadn’t, surely he could take a little disagreement? His decision should hold up under scrutiny.
But he found he didn’t have a good argument, other than he wanted to live in North Dakota. So, he should bring his daughter here.
“I don’t know,” he finally said, because there wasn’t anything else to say.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“No. I was the one who wanted to know what your argument was.” When he talked to Peyton, he forgot he looked terrible, forgot about the scars, and forgot that he wasn’t normal. She just acted like he was a regular person.
“You don’t know who I am?” he asked, realizing she didn’t seem to.
