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most important girl in the world to him. “I’m going to say this once and once only, Ian. I will not be denied my daughter. I would rather lose this election than spend another day without her. Is that understood?”
    Ian threw up his hands again. “You’re the boss,” he said as he walked out of the office, shaking his head and mumbling something about the press and a field day.

Chapter 6
    T he first time Ryla walked into Noel’s campaign office in Dallas, Texas, she wanted to turn around and walk right back out. But Jaylen was pulling her toward her father’s office with a great big grin on her face. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” Jaylen called out as she ran toward Noel.
    As the people in the campaign office turned and gawked at the little girl screaming for her daddy, Noel picked her up and hugged her to him. “Hey, baby girl. I’m so glad that you’re finally here. I was missing you.”
    “Mmph,” Ryla said.
    Noel put Jaylen down and turned to Ryla. “How was the drive up?”
    “Fine,” she answered too quickly.
    “Did you have a hard time finding the place?” Noel asked.
    Ryla began to look around the small office so she wouldn’t have to look Noel in the face, and then said, “I do have a GPS, you know.”
    Noel turned to his campaign manager. “Ian, do you mind sitting out here with Jaylen? I need to speak with Ryla for a moment.”
    Ian turned to Jaylen and asked, “Would you like me to show you around the office, so you can see what your Daddy does all day?”
    “I sure would.” Jaylen grabbed Ian’s hand and skipped down the hall beside him.
    Noel walked into his private office and held the door open until Ryla stepped in. The moment he closed the door, he swung around and faced off with her. “Thank you for bringing my daughter to me. Now please feel free to leave at any moment.”
    Ryla harrumphed and folded her arms. “I wish I would leave my daughter to you and Cathy O’Dell.”
    With a lifted eyebrow he asked, “What does Cathy have to do with anything?”
    Oh, now he’s going to play dumb, Ryla thought. But she had his Cheaters for Dummies handbook in the palm of her hand and was seconds away from hitting him upside the head with it. “I know what you and Cathy had going on when we were in college.”
    Noel stepped back, the look of confusion apparent on his face. “What are you talking about? Cathy and I never had anything going on , as you put it.”
    Waving his comment away, she got in his face. “Stop lying, Noel. Because I saw you and Cathy kissing after the play-off game.”
    His eyes took on a faraway look for a moment and when he turned back to Ryla, he said, “You left college right after the play-offs.”
    She stepped away from him and walked over to the big window in his office and looked out at the staff through wooden venetian blinds. Ryla starred straight at Cathy O’Dell, wondering why she alone hadn’t been enough for Noel. Why he had to go and ruin everything they had by cheating on her. If he had spit in her face, it would have hurt her less than how she ended up feeling after walking into that locker room and seeing Noel with another woman.
    From the day Ryla’s father walked out so he could start a new family, she swore that she’d never marry a man like her father. The day she discovered that she was pregnant was supposed to be a happy day. Not wanting to throw Noel’s concentration off, she decided to wait until after the big play-off game to tell him about the baby. Ryla had been so excited that his team had won. And as she walked into the locker room to tell him her news, she just knew that he would feel as if he had won twice that night.
    “Was Cathy the reason you left without as much as a goodbye to me?”
    She heard the anger in his voice. But as far as she was concerned, all her sympathy for him went out the door the moment she saw Cathy behind that desk, taking calls and barking out orders as if she was working hard to help her man see all his