Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
23
She couldn’t give in, though. She had surrendered too
much already.
“No. It’s fine. I’ll use my old room.”
“Lena—”
“Mama, I’m fine. I’m not kicking you out of your bed.”
“It’s no trouble for me. Do you not think it would be
best?”
If Viviana had the strength, Maggie had no doubt her
mother would have picked her up and carried her the
short way off the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom.
This was one of the reasons she hadn’t wanted her
mother in Washington, D.C., through her painful
recovery, through the various surgeries and the hours of
physical therapy.
It was also one of her biggest worries about
coming home.
Viviana would want to coddle. It was who she was,
what she did. And though part of Maggie wanted to lean
into that comforting embrace, to soak it up, she knew
she would find it too easy to surrender to it, to let that
tender care surround her, smother her.
She couldn’t. She had to be tough if she was going
to figure out how to go on with the rest of her life.
Climbing these steps was a small thing, but it
suddenly seemed of vital importance.
“No, Mama. I’m sleeping upstairs.”
Viviana shook her head at her stubborn tone. “You
are your father’s daughter, niña.”
She smiled, though she could feel how strained her
mouth felt around the edges.
“I will take your things up,” Viviana said, her firm