Substitute Daddy by Kate Welsh

Author:Kate Welsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Melissa woke from her nap to a popping, scraping sound coming from somewhere in the distant reaches of the house. She sat up blinking and trying to shake free of the lethargy long afternoon naps always left behind.

What’s Brett up to now? She wondered and was soon following the undefined noise down the stairs and along the hall toward the back of the house. It sounded as if someone was tearing apart her grandparents’ bathroom. It was funny how she still thought of it as theirs, considering they’d both died back in the eighties.

When she reached the bathroom, the dust and grime floating into the hall told Melissa all she needed to know. But still she found herself asking what he was doing.

Brett turned. “Oh. You’re awake. I tried to be quiet. Sorry if I woke you.”

“What’s going on?” she asked again.

“Demolition,” he said, as if taking a crowbar to a bathroom was a normal daily activity for him.

Melissa just stared at him for a long moment wondering why he looked so sensual and masculine with dust on his shoulders and a heavy tool in his hands. Then the import of what she was seeing began to sharpen.

“Doesn’t demolishing something usually mean it’s going to need putting back together?”

“It will be. I talked to Jerry, the kitchen and bath guy you hired over at my place. He gave me a terrific price.”

“Brett, you wouldn’t know a terrific price if it walked up and bit you on the—”

“Uh uh uh.” He grinned and waved his index finger left and right in front of her face. “No bad words in front of the baby.” He glanced down at her stomach and did a double take. “Wow! You’re finally starting to look pregnant.”

“We had this conversation before. I haven’t had a waist in weeks. And stop changing the subject. What do you think you’re doing? I never agreed to your redoing the bathrooms.”

“You can’t tell me you have sentimental attachment to either one of them. The porcelain’s eaten nearly through to the iron on every fixture in this room. Since the bathtub upstairs has claw feet and it’s in good shape we can use it. It’s a lucky break. Jerry says tubs like that are worth a fortune. We decided it’s perfect for the upstairs bathroom.”

That had been exactly her plan, along with a tongue-and-groove wainscoting on the walls in both rooms and adding a garden tub downstairs. But enough thinking about wild dreams. “I know the bathrooms look bad but—”

He pointed to the rust-stained tub. “You can’t give the baby a bath in that tub. It can’t be sanitary as porous as it is and the sides on the claw foot are too high to lean over comfortably. I promise, we didn’t decide on anything too extravagant. He has this program on his laptop. We worked it all out together. Go look at the printouts on the kitchen table.”

“This is too much, Brett. I’ll never be able to repay you with decorating advice.

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