Marrying the Single Dad by Melinda Curtis

Author:Melinda Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

SAM RACED TO the truck almost the instant after the bell rang, flipping up her hood as she ran.

“How was your day?” Joe asked when she’d slammed the door.

“I didn’t die.”

“Sam,” Joe said wearily.

“Can we just not talk about school?” She gave him the once-over. “You smell like you’ve been to a gym and mowed the lawn.”

Eau de Women Repellant. It hadn’t worked on Brittany. If anything, it’d jimmied the locks he had on his past. “I trimmed the blackberry bushes by the road.”

“Why?”

Here was a conversation he wanted to avoid. Any time he told his daughter he was helping a woman, she got ideas. He put the truck in gear and headed home. “Do you have homework?”

“Math. Vocabulary. Reading in my science book.” Sam slumped in her seat. “I can’t wait to be done with school.”

“You’ve got about ten to twelve years left.”

“How do you figure? I’ve got seven years to graduation.” Leave it to Sam to have counted out her time as if it was a jail sentence.

“College. You’re going to college.”

“You didn’t go to college. Mom didn’t go to college. And Uncle Turo—”

“Should have gone to college. We all should have gone.” Maybe then Uncle Turo would have learned his letters—the letters of the law.

A few minutes later, Joe turned onto their street.

“Is that Brit’s truck?”

“Yes.” Gray body filler had been used to smooth damage to the fender, but had been left unpainted. It was the gray color of Brittany’s skin when he’d fished her out of the water. Since then he’d been doing all the wrong things—giving her a glimpse into his past, letting himself smile.

And where had that gotten him? Nowhere. There were still no customers at the garage. Irwin’s small white sedan and Rex’s golf cart were exactly where they’d left them in the parking lot. He hadn’t gotten Agent Haas the answers he was looking for. And the cars in the field were still a potential, if questionable, source of income waiting to be dealt with.

Sam was still fixated on Brittany. “Is that a car in the bushes?”

“Yes.”

“So...those are the bushes you trimmed?” A smile split her cheeks. “I want to say hello.”

More likely, she wanted to arrange a date. “Go sit behind the desk and do your homework. If you have any questions, you can ask Irwin or Rex.”

“Dad, you left Irwin in charge of the garage?” Her smile vanished. “I don’t think he’s qualified to handle clients.”

“Luckily, he’s been the only client all day.”

“Oh.” He could see her realizing she wasn’t going to get new clothes. She tugged her hood forward.

“Run along and get your homework done. Take my things so I won’t lose them in the bushes.” He handed her his wallet, keys and phone. He waited for her to go inside and then sat in the truck, watching Brittany, delaying the inevitable.

She was clipping a path through the brush behind the car. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail. The lock he’d had to cut

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