The Single Dad's Second Chance by Brenda Harlen

Author:Brenda Harlen [Harlen, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: AcM
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Maura had a secret.

A big secret. So big it felt like it filled up everything inside of her until she might burst if she didn’t tell somebody.

She decided to tell Kristy, because she was her best friend and best friends told each other everything. When the bell rang to indicate the start of recess, they grabbed their coats and headed out to the playground. They were only halfway across the field when the secret burst out of her.

“My dad has a girlfriend.”

Kristy stopped dead, her eyes big. “Really?”

Maura nodded. “Her name’s Rachel, and she has brown hair and blue eyes and she smells like vanilla cupcakes.”

“Are they gonna get married?”

The question dimmed her excitement, just a little. “I don’t know.”

Kristy continued toward the monkey bars, and Maura fell into step beside her. “My mom’s getting married to her boyfriend and I get to be a flower girl in the wedding and then I’m gonna get a baby brother or sister.”

Maura already knew all of that because Kristy told her the same thing almost every day. Except the baby part. She thought that might be new.

“Maybe my daddy and Rachel will have a baby, and then I can be a flower girl, too.”

“They hafta get married before they have the baby,” Kristy said as she swung herself up onto the top of the structure.

Maura sat down on top of the steps her friend had just climbed. “How come?”

Kristy hooked her feet through the bars and let herself fall back, so she was hanging upside down, her arms dangling toward the ground. Maura could do the same thing, but Mrs. Patterson said it was dangerous. If the teacher caught her, she’d get in trouble. Kristy didn’t care about getting in trouble.

“’Cuz that’s how it works,” her friend explained.

Maura wished she knew half the stuff that Kristy did.

“Oh—and they hafta kiss,” Kristy said, as if she’d just remembered that part.

“’Cuz kissing means they really like each other.”

Kristy looked funny nodding while she was upside down.

“I think my daddy kissed Rachel.”

“Didya see it?”

She shook her head.

“You hafta see it to know for sure.” The bell rang to signal the end of recess, and Kristy dropped down from the bars.

Maura decided that she would watch more closely the next time Rachel came over.

* * *

When Andrew and Rachel started dating, it had occurred to him that Maura might be resistant to him spending time with another woman. For more than three years, it had been just the two of them. She spent time with each set of grandparents, of course, and with his brothers and various cousins, but no one else—aside from Sharlene—had been part of their day-to-day ritual. As a result, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d balked at any change in that routine.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that his concerns were completely unfounded. Not only did Maura not mind when he included Rachel in their plans, she was disappointed if a day went by that she didn’t see her.

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