Safe Love (Love Brothers #4) by Liz Crowe Page A

to marry Rosie and she is a
    really great lady. She’ll make a super stepmom for you.”
    “Oh, I know you’re into him. I can tell. Besides,” AliceLynn
    tossed her long red hair over one shoulder, then yanked it up and stuck it
    through a band. “Rosie likes my Uncle Aiden. Y’all are so…so…oh never mind.”
    She stood, still sniffling. “Thanks, by the way.” She pointed to her purse.
    “Well, I’m going to assume you have a good reason for having
    a knife in your bag. Just tell me one thing.” She patted the couch next to her
    since the girl still remained standing.
    “What,” AliceLynn said, not taking the hint.
    “Are you cutting yourself?”
    Her face flushed bright red as she bit her lower lip and
    started backing away.
    “It’s not uncommon you know. But it’s also not a good thing
    so I want you to do me a favor in exchange for me not telling your dad about
    it,” Margot said as she rose, a strange, protective feeling surging through
    her. “It’s all right. You can tell me.”
    “I, um, well…” The girl shook her head. “What of it? I
    haven’t in a … while. Not since I met Jason.”
    “Replacing cutting with sex isn’t a solution. You are on the
    pill I assume?” Margot heard the berating tone creeping into her voice and
    quashed it. She grabbed the girl’s thin wrist and turned it over, noting the
    telltale scars all up and down the inside of her pale skin. How in the hell
    Antony hadn’t seen this she had no idea. AliceLynn tugged at her arm but Margot
    held tight. “You’re having protected sex, right? He wears a condom?” Even as
    she said it she nearly choked on the words, recalling her lack of one with the
    girl’s father not a few hours before.
    “Yeah. I’m not stupid.” She glared at Margot. “And I’m gonna
    just say that whatever you are doin’ with him—”
    “Is over,” Margot said, dropping her wrist. “I want you to
    promise me that anytime you want to cut yourself, you’ll call me.” She pressed
    her business card into the girl’s hand. “Sometimes, all you need is someone to
    talk to. And if you talk to me first, before you hurt yourself, we can keep you
    from doing it, okay?”
    AliceLynn opened her mouth but Margot pressed her fingers
    over the girl’s lips. “I know what I did with your dad was wrong. It’s why I’m
    moving home and leaving him to his life with Rosie. And I’m sure you’re
    imagining things about her and your Uncle Aiden.”
    “Whatever,” the girl said, stuffing Margot’s card into her
    bag. “You don’t have to leave you know. I won’t tell on y’all.” She looked down
    at her feet and spoke to them but her words lifted Margot’s saggy spirits. “I
    like…talking in here, with you.”
    “Thanks. I have a referral for you. You’ll have a new
    therapist but you can call me anytime, for any reason, okay?”
    To her complete surprise, AliceLynn launched at her and
    wrapped her arms around her neck, resuming her crying. Margot sighed and patted
    the girl’s shoulder, having all sorts of inappropriate, motherly thoughts.
    Finally, without saying another word, AliceLynn retreated and slunk out the
    door.
    Margot dropped onto the couch, shaking and confused, wishing
    she could wind back the clock to that moment she met Antony’s mother so she
    could say ‘no thanks’ to the woman’s plan of action for Antony and his
    daughter. But even as she wished it she knew it wouldn’t go down that way.
    Lindsay Love was the sort of woman impossible to refuse.
     
    Six Weeks Later
    Margot eased through the cardboard labyrinth that was her
    life now, cursing when she stubbed her toe for the millionth time on some box
    or another. She was already running late for her doctor’s appointment and had
    spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get past the fact that it was the
    week before Thanksgiving and she was, in essence, alone for the first time in
    her life. At least last year she’d gone home and celebrated the