Tempting Love - Haley & Eddie by Melanie Shawn Page A

differently.
    Luckily, he didn’t have to force himself to concentrate on Emily’s performance. From the second his talented daughter came on stage, he was so busy filming the show on his iPhone and trying to see as much as he could live, that he didn’t have time to obsess about the beautiful woman sitting to his right.
    Emily was doing a great job. She nailed her solo “Tomorrow” and was so believable when she was talking to her dog Sandy that Eddie almost forgot it was a stuffed animal.
    As the play ended, he was out of his chair and on his feet giving her a well-deserved standing ovation. Haley stood as well and was cheering loudly. The kids and Mrs. Simon all took their bows, and Eddie turned to see where Riley was. Eddie had asked Riley to pick something up for him. While he was looking for his friend, he noticed that the entire crowd was on its feet.
    Eddie’s chest filled with pride. Sure, he knew that they were all supporting whichever child they were here to see, and he might be biased (he was definitely biased), but Emily had killed it. Her performance had blown everyone else’s out of the water.
    He heard a sniffing sound and looked down to see that Haley had tears pooled in her vibrant blue eyes. Alarm rushed through his body.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “She did so good,” Haley said through a choppy breath as she wiped her fingers beneath her shimmering eyes.
    He knew in that moment that he wasn’t just in trouble when it came to this girl. He was in way over his head. Because seeing how emotional Haley was over Em’s performance caused the walls he had constructed around his heart when Lacey had walked out of their lives, to crack and begin crumbling.
    Shit .
    “Hey, man.” He felt a slap on his shoulder. “She was incredible.”
    He turned to see Riley and Chelle standing behind him. Riley handed him the package he’d asked him to pick up. “Thanks.”
    Chelle was shaking her head with a huge smile on her face. “I had no idea she could sing like that! Where does she get that from? You don’t sing, I don’t remember Mom and Dad singing, and I can’t carry a tune to save my life.”
    Lacey . Eddie remembered hearing Lacey singing in the shower, and as teenagers she would always sing when the radio came on. Most of the time, she had been better than whichever artist was playing through the speakers.
    “Daddy!” His daughter’s voice cut through his short walk down memory lane. Little arms flew around him and he lifted her up with his right arm. After she squeezed his neck tight, she leaned back and asked, eyeing the bouquet of flowers he held in his left hand, “Are those for me?”
    “No,” he answered with a straight face.
    She looked at him suspiciously as she tilted her head. “Then who are they for?”
    “Me,” he said.
    “Daddy.” She playfully swatted his arm as he set her down and handed her the flower’s wrapped in cellophane.
    “You were incredible,” he said as Emily dipped her nose into the arrangement and took a deep breath of the fragrant bouquet. Em had always loved the smell of flowers—another trait she’d inherited from her mom.
    Everyone started talking at once, telling Emily what great job she had done and what a great singer she was. His daughter was eating it all up.
    But he noticed that when she looked up at Haley her eyes changed. It was so subtle that he was sure no one else picked up on it, but he knew Emily, and the only other time he’d seen her look like that was when she was looking at him.
    “Did I really do good?” she asked Haley.
    “Oh my gosh! Yes!” Haley exclaimed. “You were so good I was crying. You were amazing!”
    Happiness flooded Em’s face as she smiled from ear to ear. Haley’s opinion meant the world to his baby girl. It was obvious.
    He needed to remember that, among other things, when it came to Haley. His daughter and her happiness came first.
    Emily had already had her mom leave, although she was too young to remember.