Better for Us Read Online Free Page B

she finished.” She tried to shoo him off the porch. “So, can you just come back in about an hour or two?”
    Noel’s feet were firmly planted. “I’m not leaving until I meet Jaylen, so I hope you’ve fixed enough breakfast for me.”
    “Why do you have to be such a bully? Can’t you understand that I need to break this to Jaylen gently?” Ryla knew that denying Jaylen the access to her father was wrong, even though her reason for doing so was to save her daughter from heartache later down the line. Ryla needed to clean up her own mess. She needed to make sure she didn’t do any further harm to her daughter.
    “I thought you said that she’s been asking to meet me for a year now.” He looked at her as if they were having a “duh” moment. “The simplest thing to do would be for both of us to go in there, sit down with Jaylen and tell her how you kept her from me all these years.”
    Ryla’s mouth fell open. “You wouldn’t dare do something like that.”
    “You don’t think so...? Watch me.” Noel stepped away from Ryla and put his hand on the doorknob.
    Ryla grabbed his arm. “Okay, okay, you win.”
    He turned back around. “And what exactly have I won, Ryla?”
    “You don’t have to leave. I’ll go inside and talk to Jaylen right now, just go back to your car for a minute.”
    With a raised eyebrow he asked, “How long?”
    “Give me ten minutes.” As he got ready to step off the porch, Ryla grabbed his arm again. “You won’t say anything bad about me to Jaylen, will you?”
    “That depends,” Noel said with a devilish grin. “Have you been saying anything bad about me in all these years that you’ve had her to yourself?”
    Shaking her head at the notion, Ryla said, “That’s ridiculous, Noel. I’ve never said a bad word about you to Jaylen!”
    “Oh, you haven’t said anything bad about me to Jaylen, so just who have you been running me down to?”
    Before Ryla could think of a way to avoid telling Noel that she had indeed been talking about him to her two closest friends, Danetta and Surry, the front door opened. Ryla swung around and, as if in slow motion, she watched Jaylen look up at Noel and make the connection.
    Ryla panicked. “Go back in the house for a minute, Jaylen. Mommy is talking to someone right now,” Ryla said breathlessly.
    But Jaylen swung open the screen door and jumped into Noel’s arms and kissed his face. “Daddy! I’m so glad you came. I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you.” She kissed him again as she said, “Now I know why Mommy fixed my favorite breakfast. This is a special day.”

Chapter 4
    N oel had experienced a lot of things in his thirty years on earth. He’d been a superstar on the basketball court since grade school, graduated college with honors, was a first-round draft pick, had earned a championship ring his second year in the NBA and had become a millionaire several times over. But he’d never experienced anything like the joy he was now feeling as Jaylen hugged and kissed him. He gave her a tight never-want-to-let-you-go kind of hug. And then Noel put her down and stepped back. He had to be mindful that the DNA test had yet to be done, and as far as he knew, Jaylen could belong to another man. It could’ve been Ryla’s sick, twisted mind that decided it would be a good thing to give another man’s child his middle name. Not knowing what else to do, Noel stuck his hand out and said, “Hi, I’m Noel Carter.”
    Jaylen giggled as she shook her father’s hand. “Silly. I know who you are.”
    That’s right, Noel reminded himself, Ryla did tell him that Jaylen kept an old photo of him and Ryla on her nightstand. “I wasn’t sure that you would recognize me from an old photo. I have aged a bit since then,” Noel said in a deeper, older man’s tone.
    Jaylen laughed again as she told him, “I saw you on the TV, too. You look the same.”
    Noel turned to Ryla for clarification on this. Had Jaylen been watching one of