Babycakes Read Online Free PDF Page A

disorganized chaos surrounding him. “Somewhere.”
    She just stood there expectantly, so he began to dig.
    “Aha!” He unearthed the folder Gabe had given him during their first meeting and started to hand her the fund-raising brochure right on top of the pile, which featured a big loggerhead photo on the front. Thankfully, he saw the sickly and diseased loggerheads on the back before she took it from his hand. Not exactly appropriate for five-year-olds, he tucked it back into the folder. “Uh, wait, let me find the perfect one,” he said, flipping through the rest of the folder. He finally settled on carefully tearing the front cover off the first brochure and handing it to her. “Looks like they’re kind of green, maybe a little brown.”
    She studied the photo with great intent, then looked up. “Thank you, Uncle Moggy.”
    He smiled. She might behave too excruciatingly proper at times, but other times her politeness was simply too sweet for words. “You’re welcome, sweetheart. Let me know when I can come see it.”
    He watched her go back to the kitchen table, which he could see through the open archway of the den-turned-office. She was such an odd little mix. A lot of the quiet reserve was from the tumult that had so recently occurred in her life, turning her world and that of everyone around her upside down. But she had always been something of an observer, at least in the times they’d spent together. She’d always had a smile and a giggle for him, and early on in uncle-hood, he’d made it his mission to make her laugh as often as possible.
    She’d always struck him as a pretty normal kid, naturally curious, smart as a whip—too smart for her own good sometimes—all wrapped up inside the perfectly poised and groomed little Westlake clone his mother was determinedly turning her into, much as she had with Asher, and again, with his young wife Delilah. Morgan had been her only great failure—at least, to her way of thinking.
    It was precisely that way of thinking Morgan had been determined to get little Lilly away from as quickly as possible. When Delilah had been alive, she’d been able to run only a little interference, given Olivia had long since cowed her into submission. With Delilah and his brother gone, his mother would have been left with unfettered access to Lilly. No way was Morgan letting that happen.
    He loved his mother in his own way, understood she was a product of her upbringing and a way of life that had worked well for the Westlakes for centuries. He understood her determination to stick with the program as set forth by their ancestors.
    Morgan saw things differently—for himself and now for Lilly. His mother was, and would continue to be, an important part of Lilly’s life. But she wasn’t going to be Lilly’s whole life. Exactly what that life would have been like under Olivia’s control became immediately apparent, even as the funerals were being conducted. It was one of the main reasons he’d moved away from the family estate as quickly as feasibly possible.
    With such a devastating loss, Lilly’s life was in complete flux, so he’d thought it best to make the move sooner rather than later. Even so, it had taken the better part of a year to get them out the door.
    Morgan might not know anything about raising a kid, but he had been a kid once himself. Specifically a Westlake kid, as was Lilly. He knew there was much more to do and see, to understand and learn, than the restrictive and suffocating boundaries their family environment would allow—not to mention how much more there was to feel. Morgan wanted to show Lilly all of that and provide her with access to the whole wide world, while hopefully keeping the bridges back to Atlanta intact.
    A tall order, for sure, but having goals was a good thing.
    He didn’t want to take anything else away from her; he only wanted to add to her life. Worried about his decisions, his choices, where she was concerned, he had decided