Fighting For Her Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

scent of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup hit her senses, making her stomach growl. Sydney’s giggle said they’d heard her coming. Sam’s smile as Emma crossed the threshold told her they’d also heard her hunger pangs.
    They ate in companionable silence while Emma tried to decide how to apologize for her earlier behavior. She still wanted to be alone, but she’d been a real bitch to her friends and that just wasn’t cool.
    “You really don’t need to say sorry,” Sydney mumbled while shoving a huge piece of sandwich into her mouth.
    “What did you say?” Emma asked a little louder than she’d planned and almost fell off her chair while spinning to look at the little girl.
    Holding up her index finger in the universal ‘wait’ signal, Sydney quickly chewed her food before responding. “I said you don’t need to say sorry. You were thinking that you needed to ‘pologize for being grumpy .” The little girl looked at Emma and winked before continuing; confirming she’d heard everything Emma had been thinking. “ You know , when we got here. but you don’t have to. You’re heart hurts and it’s hard to be nice and smiley when your heart hurts. You liked that old Andrew. I liked him too. Did you know he bought me ice cream once? It was before Mom was my mom and Dad was my dad. We were at the hospital. He was really nice to me. He wasn’t the bad old dragon they all thought he was. He was just confused…mad. I think he needed a time out.”
    The pain hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had just shifted a little while she’d showered and eaten. But at the mention of his name, it pushed to the forefront once again. It was compounded by Syd’s story. To know that he’d been nice to someone besides her confirmed what she already knew…there had been hope. With time, Andrew would’ve changed, or at least been repentant for what he’d done. Maybe even tried to make amends.
    If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas. 
    She had no idea where that saying came from but it summed up how she felt. No amount of ifs and buts were going to bring him back, and therefore, she would live with a huge ‘what if’ hanging over her head. Holding in the tears while pretending to eat the rest of her lunch, Emma mumbled, “Thanks, Syd.”
    They finished in silence. Sam shooed both Emma and Sydney to the living room, instructing them to find a good movie to watch while she did the dishes. Emma told the child where to find her DVDs and sat down in her favorite chair, trying to come up with an excuse that would get the mother and daughter tag team to leave.
    “This looks good. It’s not Christmas right now but it looks funny.” Sydney held up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
    “Yeah, it’s pretty funny. We can watch it if you want. Doesn’t matter what time of year it is,” Emma answered as Sam entered the room, making her way to her daughter and helping to get the movie started before taking a seat on the couch.
    Emma was shocked when Sydney climbed up in the oversized recliner with her, dragging her favorite afghan, and cuddled up to her side. It wasn’t long before the child had taken her hand and squeezed. The affection was almost Emma’s undoing. She really needed them to leave so she could go back to bed and cry herself to sleep.
    “Emma, can you hear me?”
    “Syd? You can mindspeak…to me?”
    “I think I can to everybody. I know I can hear everybody if they don’t put up their shields. Mom and Dad have been teaching me how to keep mine up pretty much all the time. That way I don’t hear the grown up stuff, ya know?”
    “Yeah, I know. But I guess what I should’ve asked was how are you talking to me this way. Andrew was the only person I’d ever heard in my mind.”
    “I think it’s because you are his mate. I heard Ms Siobhan call Andrew the Special One . I don’t know what that means, but Mom and Dad said Kyra’s magic is stronger,