His Reason, Her Choice by Teona Bell Page A

head. Water cascaded over her shoulders, and she sighed. Isaac wasn’t a bad guy, and he deserved a girlfriend who really wanted him. She knew she was being selfish. Hell, she lectured herself on a daily basis about it. Then he gave her a check for the center where she dropped off the girls. There was just no way in the world she could do it alone.
    Banging started on the door, and slapped a hand against the back of the shower. Solitude over. With her hair dripping after she’d meant to keep it from getting wet, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She didn’t unlock the door until she had toweled dry and had slipped into clean panties and a bra, which she had placed in the bathroom the night before. Isaac jerked it open and ran past to the toilet.
    “Why didn’t you use the girls’ bathroom?”
    “Have you seen their bathroom? I think there’s stuff alive that shouldn’t be in there.”
    “You’re not serious.” She frowned at him. “They’re girls. Sure they get their toys everywhere and don’t like picking up after themselves, but they’ll grow out of it.”
    “You don’t change from being a slob.”
    “I know you’re not calling my daughters slobs!”
    He let go of his junk, halfway through, and she cringed. “Hey, ease up, Joy. I was only joking. You know I love the girls, and they love me.”
    She refused to disabuse him of the delusion. Isaac was decent to the girls, and in turn they were respectful of him, but that didn’t constitute love on either side. “It’s not like you’re that clean.”
    He glanced down. “Oh, I’m going to clean that up.”
    She rolled her eyes and left the bathroom. He would. Isaac missed like many men did, but he wasn’t nasty. There were a few habits she hated with a passion, but the fact was she was with him for all the wrong reasons.
    “I’m not ready to do anything about it,” she whispered as she walked across the hall to her daughters’ room. “So suck it up, Joy. Life goes on.”

Chapter Two
    N icolette’s chubby feet stuck out from beneath her covers, and Joy tickled them. Her baby girl wiggled and curled both knees toward her chest. “Oh no you don’t, little miss.” Joy grabbed the covers, but Nicolette held on with a death grip.
    “No, Mommy, I’m sleepy.”
    Joy’s heart stirred. She kissed the rounded cheek. “I told you to turn off the movie and go to sleep. Now you’re paying for it. Wake up.”
    “Don’t wanna,” came the muffled reply beneath the covers.
    “Three seconds.”
    Nicolette groaned, but her upper body popped into view. She scrubbed fists against her eyes and sat up yawning. Joy straightened and stood on tiptoe to see into the top bunk. Denita, her six-year-old, was wrapped so tight in the covers, they might as well be her night clothes. Even still, they added little bulk to her long, slender frame.
    Rather than wake her right away, Joy spent time staring into Denita’s peaceful face. From the moment Denita woke until the time she went to bed, she never shut up. Joy got so many calls from school, it wasn’t funny, and she wondered how Denita could learn anything with her lips always flapping. That didn’t change the fact that her older daughter was smart as a whip.
    Joy touched the tip of her nose. “Denny,” she whispered, “time to get up.”
    Denita’s eyes opened, and she frowned. “Mommy, don’t call me Denny. It’s gross.”
    “It’s cute.”
    “It’s not my name.”
    “Watch your mouth.”
    Denita sighed dramatically. “Yes, ma’am.” She rolled to the edge of the bed. “Is Nico out of the bathroom? She’s slow. Can’t you wake me up after she’s already finished, Mommy? Or wake me up first?”
    “You don’t like Denny, and I don’t like Nico,” Nicolette complained. “I’m not a boy, and Carlos said Nico is a boy’s name.”
    “Carlos is stupid,” Denita said, and she jumped nimbly to the floor, her nightgown sliding off her shoulder. Joy wondered for a moment