“I’m glad. But I don’t mean like a stepdaughter. I knew Mom wasn’t right for you. And she didn’t deserve you. But I would be so good for you. I’d do anything you want. I’d be the best possible wife, and—”

“Wife?” He stepped back, disentangling himself from her arms. “Helen, listen to yourself. You are my ex-stepdaughter, and that’s all our relationship is. I care about you, but I have no romantic feelings here. I know you have a need for stability, and to have a strong father image in your life permanently. But this isn’t the way.”

“No, I want you. It has nothing to do with any of that other stuff.”

“Don’t keep pushing this, Helen. It’s never going to happen and if you persist, it will destroy the relationship we do have.”

She frowned, her eyes glittering in anger. “And yet you’ll fuck that tramp Ashley. Who is exactly the same age as me.” Her eyes flared with rage.

“That’s not the same.”

“Really? I don’t see the difference.” She planted her hands on her hips. “So will she wind up being my new stepmother?”

“The relationship between Ashley and me is none of your business.”

Helen huffed out a loud sigh. “So you don’t really care about me. And you never have.”

“That’s not true.”

But he was talking to her back as she stormed across the room and then down the hall. He heard her door slam behind her.

He clenched his fists. Damn it. He was tempted to just throw his exasperating ex-stepdaughter out the door and lock it behind her. He’d faced a lot of challenges in his life, but trying to help Helen seemed to be a losing battle and he wondered if it was worth continuing the fight.

He raked his hand through his hair. He’d given up Ashley because of Helen’s intrusion into his life again, and his desire to help her.

Had he been a fucking idiot?

*   *   *

Adam was hungry and he had no idea if Ashley had eaten yet, so he decided to grab some Chinese food to take over with him. He arrived at the entrance to her apartment building and went into the atrium, then buzzed her apartment.

Moments later, he was riding the elevator up to her ninth-floor apartment. He walked down the hall then tapped on the door. He heard her call to come in and he opened it. She was rushing across the living room toward him, wearing a colorful fleece robe.