These Ties That Bind. Mary Sullivan

if you can’t do this for me, do it for Ma. She has a right to know Finn. I’m going to tell her.”

      “Don’t,” Sara rasped. “Just don’t.”

      “It’s no longer your choice to make.”

      Beneath the defiance and fear on her face, he saw devastation. Her world was about to change.

      Too bad. Rem needed everyone to know that he was Finn’s father.

      He stalked out of the emergency room.

      It was long past time to be a father.

      SARA PRESSED A HAND AGAINST her stomach.

      The controlled, defined, safe world she’d struggled to build since her son’s birth was about to crumble. She’d worked so hard and Rem could rip it all apart with a few words.

      Don’t hurt my baby.

      Rem was a master at finding chinks in her armor.

      He didn’t understand the chance he took. His decision didn’t affect only her. Didn’t he know how hurt Finn could be if Rem let him down, if he couldn’t carry through as a father? Once he started, there was no turning back.

      She listened to the familiar sounds of the hospital, her home away from home, but saw only the small recovery room she’d been in after Finn’s birth. She’d thought things were going to work out for her. She’d been so wrong.

      It hurt to remember how excited she’d been and then how devastated after Rem had rejected both of them.

      After she’d buried her emotions and thought things through rationally, she’d realized that she and Finn could survive just fine without Rem. And they had.

      That day, she’d decided that she’d work her butt off for independence, to support herself and Finn, and the hell with Rem. She didn’t need him. She and Finn were on their own and that’s how they would stay.

      Sara and her son had been a team—until lately, at any rate.

      Now Rem was changing his mind and he expected her to fall into line.

      That wasn’t going to happen.

      Sara still stood in the small, curtained emergency room with the familiar equipment that could mend broken bodies, that could take blood and mess and dirt and transform the chaos into the order she craved.

      She brushed off the past.

      She would get through this. She always did.

      Taking an antiseptic wipe from a container, she ran it across the small counter and into every corner and cranny.

      She replaced the sheet of protective paper on the bed.

      Rem had disappointed her before and there wasn’t a speck of doubt in her mind that he would do so again. She just didn’t want him pulling his old tricks on Finn.

      No matter what it took, she’d make sure Finn didn’t get hurt. She’d bet her last dollar that Rem had gone up to visit Nell. She was going to march up there right now to lay down a few parameters, rules that Rem had to follow.

      She would see Nell then, too. Rem had hit a nerve when he’d talked about his mom—a problem she’d been aware of since Finn’s birth.

      Sara had loved Nell ever since she was a child and running everywhere with Timm and Rem. Nell had treated her as her own daughter. Over the years, Sara had worried about keeping Finn away from Nell, about how it would affect Nell if she ever found out. Nell didn’t know she was a grandmother and the guilt ate away at Sara.

      Nell had had three strokes and now Rem was talking about the very real possibility of her death. It was hard to think of Nell dying without ever learning the truth. Rem was right.

      Fine, Nell could get to know her grandson, but Sara would have to make sure she understood that Finn wasn’t to know whose mother she was. No way would Sara let Finn find out that Rem was his father.

      Sara would keep as much control of the situation as she could.

      Finished with her straightening of the room, Sara stopped and gripped the counter, overwhelmed by Rem’s threat. She squeezed her eyes shut, but still saw his face and that body she wanted to hold despite his past betrayals.

      She snapped her eyes open.

      Mixed in with all of that desire was a backwash of emotion too toxic for her to sort out—guilt, anger, tenderness and even love. And that terrible and unrelenting darkness.

      Her head had to rule. Experience had taught her that Rem could cost her pieces of herself that she didn’t want to give. But she was faced with the same old struggle between desire and reality.

      Over the years, she’d grown so good at quashing her dreams of Rem, of suppressing memories and desires. But today, at this moment, Sara Franck still wanted Remington Caldwell.

      You poor unfortunate fool.

      REM TOOK THE ELEVATOR to Ma’s floor, to make sure she was all right and to let her know he’d made the arrangements for her homecoming.

      At least he’d had the chance to tell Sara what he wanted with Finn. She was dead set against him getting to know his son. Surprise, surprise.

      Calming himself before entering Ma’s room, he put aside all thoughts of Sara.

      When he approached the bed, Ma’s eyes followed him, but her head remained still. This latest stroke had immobilized her so much and it hurt to see her like this.

      “What?” she asked, glancing at his bandaged hands. Her speech had been affected and her words clipped short. “What happen?”

      He raised his hands so she could see them better. “It isn’t as bad as it looks. I pulled a girl out of a car fire.”

      “Fire?” He didn’t miss the flicker of fear in her eyes. “You okay?”

      “Yeah, Ma, I’m good.” Blinking rapidly, he kissed her forehead, unsure whether she could even feel it.

      Get your shit together. Get over all of this stupid emotion.

      “She okay?”

      “I don’t know how she’s doing. She had burns on her head, but I haven’t seen her since we got here. I hope so.”

      “How old?”

      “I think maybe nine.”

      “Poor girl.”

      With her good hand, she pointed at the scrub shirt he wore. “Where’s…own…shirt?”

      “The accident was at the end of our lane. It woke me up and I rushed out to see if everyone was all right. Only got as far as pulling on my pants ’cause the car was on fire.”

      Ma smiled but it looked bizarre with that one side drooping.

      Ma’s eyes flickered to the doorway and her expression softened. Rem turned to see who had entered. Sara.

      His gaze flickered to check out her conservative shirt and blue jeans. He remembered her tight body as though it were tattooed on his eyelids.

      Sara approached the bed and gave Ma the kind of warm smile he hadn’t seen from her in years.

      He’d always wanted a piece of that, of the soft, affectionate side of Sara’s character she reserved for everyone but him.

      “How are you feeling?” Sara asked.

      “Good.”

      “When are you going to the convalescent home?”

      Nell glanced at Rem.

      “She leaves here tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve already arranged everything. She’s coming home with me.”

      She turned to him with a frown. “May I talk to you out in the hall?”

      He