Discovered: Daddy by Pappano Marilyn

Author:Pappano, Marilyn [Pappano, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-11-12T05:43:01+00:00

Faith was sitting at the desk behind the counter when the bell over the door chimed. Swallowing a sigh, she glanced automatically at her watch. It was 5:25, and she had already started working on the bank deposit in preparation for going home. It had been a long day, and she was tired, and no matter how nice she always was to customers, she didn’t want to sell one more thing today. Still, she put down the stack of bills she’d been counting and got to her feet, resigning herself to an additional fifteen or twenty minutes’ work.

By the time she’d turned, the customer had reached the counter. He was standing there, arms resting on the rosehued countertop, hair a little windblown, expression more than a little belligerent. He was prepared for the coldest of welcomes, and she wished she was prepared to give it, but she was too surprised. Too pleasantly surprised, she realized with dismay.

After a long, still moment passed, she finally spoke. “I didn’t expect to see you again.” But that wasn’t true. She had known that he would come back on the pretext of a family visit but really to check up on Amelia Rose. She’d known that he felt the responsibility too deeply to stay away completely. She just hadn’t expected his return so soon. She had figured that he would wait a while—that, in a week or two, he would call some family member and, in the course of the conversation, casually ask if Faith had had her baby yet. Then eventually duty, mixed with curiosity, would draw him back, and eventually she would have been ready to deal with him.

But she wasn’t ready today, not after having cried because of him Saturday, not after having spent all day Sunday doing exactly what he had once suggested—curling up on the chaise in Amelia Rose’s room with her giant teddy bear, occasionally drifting off and constantly feeling sorry for herself. It had taken a real effort today to pretend that things were normal, to force her life and herself back into some semblance of normalcy. Now here he was again, upsetting the tenuous balance she’d achieved, threatening to topple it completely.

“I’m harder to get rid of than that.” Drumming his fingers on the counter, he glanced around the shop, then nodded toward the money spread out behind her. “Go ahead and finish that. We’ll take it by the bank on our way to dinner.”

She didn’t move. “It’s customary to ask someone to have dinner with you, not just assume that she will.”

“Will you have dinner with me?”

She shook her head.

“That’s why I didn’t ask. That’s why I’m not giving you a choice.” Once again he gestured toward the desk. “Go on. Finish up there before some customer comes in. I’m hungry.”

For a long time she continued to study him warily, then she glanced at the deposit. The work had to be done, whether he was here or not, whether she went out with him or home alone.

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