Buch lesen: «Do You Take This Daddy?»

Chapter One

It definitely wasn’t the worst honeymoon on record, Noah James decided. That honor belonged to the unhappily married couple behind him, who had already argued about everything from who got the window seat to where to make dinner reservations when they landed. Sure, he might be flying solo on the way to what should have been his honeymoon, but there were some good points of being jilted practically at the altar. Like two weeks in Paradise, Florida, stretching out in front of him, with no one to answer to other than himself. Unlike the newlyweds in the next row, he could eat when he wanted, go where he wanted, and do his own thing.

It wasn’t as if his heart had been broken, although his ego had taken a pretty good beating. Dating Angela had been a mistake from the beginning. But breaking up with her wasn’t an option, not after she’d shown him the test with the two pink lines. In that instant, his stomach had dropped and his world had turned upside down. Just like that, Angela went from a fling to a fiancée. She might not have been what he’d hoped for in a bride, but there was no way he was going to miss out on raising his child.

He’d been there to hear the heartbeat, chugging along. He’d squinted at the ultrasound pictures, unable to understand any of it but overwhelmed all the same. And he’d been there to feel the first kicks, the first tiny movements of his unborn son. Except it hadn’t been his son at all.

Two days ago, Angela had disappeared, leaving her ring and a note after helping herself to a good portion of his available cash. Her written apology had been brief, as if she’d eaten the last cookie rather than torn apart his life. Some other guy was the father-to-be, and he’d been nothing but an easy mark for yet another gold digger.

He probably should have been embarrassed, but more than anything he just felt empty inside. Not that he missed Angela. The spoiled socialite had seemed fun at first, but her true colors had eventually come out and he was nothing but grateful to have avoided being legally bound to her. But losing his son, or what he thought was his son, had left him aimless and confused.

Finding out it was too late to get refunds on anything had given him the excuse he needed to get out of town, and away from prying eyes. He’d turned what should have been their honeymoon into a bachelor’s vacation. He’d get his head on straight and come back to Atlanta ready to focus on his work. His art had suffered during the constant storm of his relationship, and it was time to recommit to it, while the name Noah James still meant something in the art world. Otherwise he’d have an ex-career to go with his ex-fiancée.

“Sir, would you care for a cocktail?” The flight attendant waited expectantly, a bevy of liquor bottles and mixers on her cart.

“I don’t think so. Water will be fine.” He’d never been a drinker, and ten thousand feet in the air seemed like a poor place to take up the practice. The pretty attendant started to hand him a plastic bottle, but had to move aside to let a mother carrying a fussy baby past. The child stared at him with big blue eyes while chewing intently on a drool covered fist, and Noah’s gut clenched.

“I’m so sorry,” the frazzled mother apologized. “He’s teething, and walking the aisles is the only thing that seems to calm him.”

Noah forced a smile. “It’s fine.” He even waved at the little guy as the mom turned to go back the way she came, and was rewarded with a gummy grin that cut right to his heart, stirring up the pain he’d tried to bury.

Maybe he’d have that cocktail after all. “Miss, could you switch that to a whiskey and coke?”

* * *

Noah meant to have one drink, just to take the edge off. He certainly hadn’t planned on getting drunk. But seeing that baby had reminded him a bit too much of the mess his life had turned into, and before he knew it he had an impressive collection of tiny liquor bottles covering his seat tray. Which meant he was most definitely drunk. Or whatever came after that. Snookered? Wasn’t that what the British called it? He was pretty sure he’d heard that on Sherlock once. Whatever you wanted to call it, it felt pretty amazing. The only problem was he was finding it just a wee bit difficult to walk. Also, he’d planned on renting a car while at the airport, but driving was most definitely out of the question. Luckily, a very nice security guard had been on hand to pour him into a cab.

Now that car was stopped in a gravel driveway fronting a three-story wood-framed building. Hanging from the wraparound porch was a sign, identifying it as the historic Sandpiper Inn. The perfect location for a destination wedding or honeymoon, at least according to the brochure he’d memorized. Hopefully it was also a decent place to sleep off a binge.

The driver unloaded Noah’s suitcase from the trunk, and happily accepted the crush of bills he gave him for a tip. It was probably too much, but he was in no shape to do the math, and it wasn’t like money was an issue.

No, his issues were far more complicated.

The most pressing being the way the ground kept shifting under his feet. Clutching his bag, he tried to navigate the wide, whitewashed stairs leading to the front door.

Tried, and failed.

Two steps up, and he was on his butt. At least, with all the liquid courage he’d imbibed, it didn’t hurt. In fact, everything felt a bit numb. Maybe he should just stay put until he sobered up a bit. He’d planned on relaxing and might as well start now.

“Hey, are you all right down there?”

He looked around. No one. Man, was he starting to hallucinate?

“Do you need some help?”

This time, he managed to focus his not-so-steady vision in the direction of the voice. Up on the porch, sitting on a cushioned bench, was the most amazing woman he’d ever seen. She had short, close-cropped brown hair framing an elfin face. Her large brown eyes were too big for the rest of her, and were currently zeroed in on him, and his not-so-stable perch on the steps.

“You’re gorgeous.” Oops. He was pretty sure he just said that out loud.

Her laugh confirmed that yes, he had. Stupid alcohol.

“Are you drunk?” She stood up and started down the stairs towards him. Her legs were long and lean, sprinkled with the same freckles that dotted her nose. She stopped beside him, and he nearly toppled over trying to look directly up at her.

“Could you not be so tall?” he asked, politely, he thought.

“Sure.” She chuckled again and sat down on the steps next to him. “You are drunk, aren’t you?”

“I guess so.” He might as well admit it. “See, the thing is, I don’t drink.”

She eyed him skeptically. “Right.”

“I mean, I don’t normally drink. But today I did. A lot, I think.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a safe guess.” She smirked. “Well, you’ll sober up, I imagine, but you can’t do it here. Jillian sent me to keep an eye out for some guests who booked the honeymoon suite, so she could give them a special welcome. And I don’t think a drunk guy collapsed on the steps is quite the welcome she had in mind.”

“No worries,” he reassured her. “That’s me. I’m the couple you’re looking for.” He stuck out a hand for her to shake. She took it, eyeing him curiously. “Noah James.”

“Mollie Post, nice to meet you.” She looked past him onto the path below. “But where’s your wife? Is she taking a walk on the beach or something?”

“She’s not coming.” The buzz must be wearing off, because that sounded pathetic even to him.

“What do you mean, she’s not coming? You can’t have a honeymoon without the bride.”

She probably thought he was confused because of the whole drunk thing. But on this particular point he was perfectly clear. “Then call this a first. No bride. No wedding, for that matter. She took off before the rehearsal dinner.” The pleasant numbness from earlier was replaced by a pounding in his head.

Her mouth dropped open. “Wow, that sucks.”

Her frank acknowledgment did more than all the softly worded platitudes he’d heard in the past week. “Yeah, it does suck. But I figured it could suck back home, where everyone kept asking me if I was okay every two minutes. Or it could suck here, on the beach, with a margarita in my hand.” His stomach lurched. “Although, I think I’ll skip the margaritas.”

* * *

Mollie watched the newcomer with fascination. She didn’t care much for alcohol herself, but she wasn’t bothered by his blatant drunkenness. He seemed harmless enough, and Nic and Jillian were right inside. Besides, he looked like he needed a friend. So she sat on the sun warmed steps with him, watching a flock of white ibises pick their way across the lawn.

He was certainly nice enough to look at, a long, lean body and slightly curly brown hair that was just a shade too long. His face was almost beautiful, with high cheekbones. But it was his eyes that really got to her, dark and hooded; they were the kind of eyes that saw things other people didn’t. The eyes of an old soul, her Granny would have said. She wondered what his story was.

“You’re staring.”

“So? You’re interesting to look at.”

He blinked, and then let out a hoot of laughter. “Do you always say just what you’re thinking?”

“Pretty much. I’m told I have no filter.” She shrugged. “I tried, for a while, to learn to say the right things. But it never really stuck.”

“I’m glad it didn’t. Not many people are willing, or able, to be that honest. It’s a good thing.”

“Most people don’t think so. My fifth grade catechism teacher found it particularly upsetting.” She winked conspiratorially. “She smelled funny.”

He winced. “You told her that?”

“I thought she’d want to know. Turns out, not so much. People are funny that way. Most of the time, they don’t want the truth.”

“Yeah, well sometimes the truth is painful.” He stretched, sprawling his lanky legs in front of him.

“Oops. Sorry. Yeah, I guess you’ve had your share of truth for the time being, huh?”

“You have no idea.”

“So tell me.” She stood up. “We can get some dinner, get you some water to flush out the booze, and you can tell me how you ended up on your non-honeymoon.” Gossip usually wasn’t her thing, but he looked like he could use someone to talk to. And she never had been able to turn her back on a stray.

His boyish grin was a startling contrast to his soulful eyes. “Did you just ask me out on a date?”

She hadn’t, had she? “No, I don’t date. But I’m hungry, you need to eat something to soak up the rest of the alcohol and I want to hear your story. New friends having dinner, not a date.”

“You don’t date at all?” He squinted at her, as if he expected to see some kind of physical sign to explain her celibacy.

“It’s a long story, and I’m starving. Ask me again later.”

“Shouldn’t I get checked in first?”

“That depends. Can you make it up the steps yet?”

He looked up and shook his head. “Good point. Dinner it is. Where’s your car?”

She wasn’t one to let common sense interfere with an adventure, but even she had limits. “No car—we’re going to walk. There’s a place just down the beach path.” A popular place for an evening stroll, with plenty of people around just in case her instincts about him were wrong.

“Afraid to be alone with me?”

Caution was part of it. Her parents might think she was naive, but she knew not to get into a car with someone she’d just met, even if she was the one driving. But there was another, more pressing reason.

“I’m just afraid you might puke in my car.”

* * *

Noah would have laughed, but she looked pretty serious. And who could blame her? Luckily, he wasn’t feeling nauseated, just weak and dehydrated. And more than a little foolish. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had more than a single beer. And yet he here was, too messed up to drive, being led around like a child. In other circumstances, he would have been humiliated. But even after seeing him at his weakest, Mollie hadn’t given him a hard time. Sure, she’d laughed at him, but in a teasing way that had him laughing along with her.

She’d walked down those steps and treated him like a friend, not a stranger. He’d grown up always being the new kid, and even as an adult he usually felt like an outsider. His art had opened some doors, but having new money wasn’t the same as fitting in. If anything, he felt even more awkward now, shoved into a rarified world, than he had when he was an army brat, bouncing from place to place. People might be more polite to his face now that he’d made something of himself, but celebrity hadn’t bought him any true friends. Being welcomed and accepted right off the bat, that was something new.

They walked for about fifteen minutes along a gravel path that started behind the Sandpiper and ran alongside the dunes, and although they’d passed plenty of other walkers he hadn’t seen anything that looked like a restaurant. “Where are you taking me, anyway?”

She winked. “Afraid I’m going to kidnap you?”

“Afraid, no. Hoping, yes.”

She grinned. “Sorry, no such luck. But how do you feel about Cuban food?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried it, but I’m hungry enough to eat anything.” His stomach growled as if to emphasize his point.

“Well, then, you’re in luck. We’re almost there.”

Another minute of walking brought them to their destination, which was more of a roadside stand than a real restaurant. A simple wooden structure, the walls were covered in a brightly colored mural, except for right above the order window where a menu board advertised the specials. There were a few tables scattered in front, topped with brightly colored umbrellas, and wafting on the breeze was the most amazing smell. “I think I’m about to start drooling.”

She smiled. “Best Cuban food for miles, and coffee that will make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

Looking at her had him thinking he was already there. She’d blown him away from the beginning and it wasn’t a case of beer goggles. In fact, the more he sobered up, the better she looked. She was tiny, at least eight inches shorter than his own six feet, with a slender, birdlike build. But it was her face that captivated him, the bone structure so fine it looked like she’d been sculpted by an artist’s hand.

“I’ll have the ropa vieja, and he needs a medianoche with a side of maduros. Oh, and a colada and a bottle of water.” The man behind the window nodded, writing down the order.

He nudged her to the side, and got out his wallet. “Let me buy, please.”

She motioned him forward. “Be my guest.”

He paid what seemed like way too little and accepted a bag stuffed with food and the bottle of water in exchange. Mollie grabbed a full Styrofoam cup and two smaller, empty plastic ones. They picked a table farther back from the path and sat down facing each other.

‘Okay, so tell me what I just paid for.”

“My company?” At his pointed look, she took pity on him and started opening packages. “I got the ropa vieja. It’s shredded beef, and it comes with rice. Your medianoche is a pork sandwich on a soft, sweet bread.” She unwrapped it for him while she talked. “The name means midnight, because it’s usually eaten when you are out partying and drinking. I figured it would be perfect for soaking up the last of the alcohol. The maduros are fried sweet plantains, and the colada is kind of like espresso, but with sugar.”

Coffee sounded amazing. He reached for it, only to have her block him, putting her hand over the cup.

“First some food and water, then coffee.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re kind of bossy?”

“All the time.” She dug into her food, closing her eyes in bliss. “This is so good. How’s your sandwich?”

He took an experimental bite. The salty pork and pickles vied with the cheese and mustard for top billing in his mouth. “Amazing.” He took another bite, considering. “The bread’s a bit like the challah my grandmother used to make. I like it.”

“Challah? Are you Jewish, then?”

“My bubbe was, and my mom. My dad’s Catholic. One item on a long list of things they disagreed on. I’m the only person I know that had to go to both confirmation classes and Hebrew school. Religion was just one more way to fight with each other without actually getting divorced.”

“Wow. That’s kind of crazy.” She snagged another plantain from the bag. “The weirdest thing my parents ever did was putting up the Christmas tree the day before Thanksgiving one year, instead of the day after.”

“They sound very...sane.”

“If by sane, you mean utterly normal and conforming, yes. I’m definitely the black sheep of the family.”

“That sounds better than the constant fighting at my house. Maybe we should trade.”

Finishing his sandwich, he tentatively tried one of the plantains. Slightly crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and sweeter than he’d expected. He quickly grabbed another before Mollie could finish off the container.

When he couldn’t fit in another bite, he stretched and looked around. The haze of his earlier imbibing was gone, and he realized that although the restaurant itself was modest, the scenery was spectacular. Dunes stretched for what seemed like miles, and beyond them he could see the deep blue of the ocean. Sprawling trees dotted the landscape, with huge green leaves the size of dinner plates. “What are those trees with the giant leaves? The ones growing right in the sand?”

“They’re called sea grapes. Those big leaves help block any light from the town that might disturb nesting sea turtles. In the summer they grow these berries that look almost like grapes that the birds go nuts for. And of course the roots help stabilize the dunes, so they don’t just blow away.” She poured coffee into the two small cups. “It’s beautiful, but there’s a lot of strength there, too.”

Somehow, he had a feeling the same could be said about her.

* * *

Mollie wasn’t blind; she’d noticed the way he looked at her. She just wasn’t sure what to do about it. She should probably just walk him back to the Sandpiper, then go home and clean her house or something. That would be the practical thing to do. Of course, as the black sheep of he family, practical wasn’t really her speed. Despite her mother’s best efforts to the contrary. No, Mollie believed in going with her gut, and her gut was saying it was way to early to say good night. “How do you feel about a swim?”

He looked down at his faded T-shirt and jeans. “Now? I’m not exactly dressed for it.”

“Not here, back at the Sandpiper. I’m assuming you packed a bathing suit?”

He grinned. “What, no skinny-dipping on the first date?”

Oh, boy. He was cute and he had a sense of humor. And was totally on the rebound. She was in deep trouble. But in for a penny, in for a pound. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ve got one in the car, so while you get checked in I can duck into Jillian’s room and change.”

“Jillian?”

“Jillian Caruso. She and her husband, Nic, own the Sandpiper. They have a private suite on the first floor.”

“Ah, when I made the reservations, Nic mentioned he’d gotten married recently.” He stood and collected their trash, disposing of it in the labeled bin. “I don’t think I would want to live where I worked, with the public just a few doors away all the time.”

“Yeah, it’s not ideal. But they’re building a separate house on the property, so they can have some privacy. Plus, with the baby coming, they’ll need the space.”

His smile faded at the mention of a child.

“What, don’t you like kids?”

“Actually, I do. Up until a few days ago, I thought I was having one.”

She sat back down on the picnic bench. “Excuse me?”

He rubbed a hand across the stubble on his jaw. “My ex-fiancée is pregnant—she’s due in a month.”

“But it’s not your baby?”

He shook his head. “When she ran out on me, she left me a note. It said she couldn’t go through with the wedding and that I shouldn’t try to find her. Of course, she might have said that last part because of the money she took out of my account before she left.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, he started back towards the Sandpiper. “She also admitted the baby wasn’t mine.”

Shell-shocked, Mollie just sat there for a minute, watching him walk away. Getting dumped was bad enough, but this was like something out of a daytime talk show. Belatedly getting to her feet, she ran to catch up with him.

What did you say after an admission like that? Maybe it was better not to say anything. He was a stranger and probably didn’t need some random girl poking into his life. On the other hand, sometimes it was easier to talk about the hard things with someone you didn’t know. And she wasn’t good at keeping quiet anyway. “Do you believe her?”

He sighed, looking out over the water as if the answer to her question could be found along the horizon. “I don’t know. I guess I have to. I don’t even know where she went, and I don’t know why she’d lie about it. Not that I understand much about why she did what she did. We never should have been together in the first place. She was a friend of a friend, no one I knew well, and it didn’t take long to figure out we had nothing in common. But by then she was pregnant, and in the shock of it all I made a bad situation worse and proposed.” A harsh laugh escaped. “It seemed like the honorable thing to do, you know? But the more I got to know her, the less I could picture us married. We spent the last several months living mostly separate lives. At least she had the guts to realize it wouldn’t work. I was too stubborn to admit it.”

“Because you thought she was pregnant with your child.”

“Exactly. As much as I wasn’t in love with her, I wanted to be there for my son.” He stopped, and a hint of a smile touched his lips. “I was there when they did the ultrasound. It’s a boy.”

“So what do you do now?”

“There’s not much I can do. I hired an investigator. If he finds her, I’ll get a court order for a DNA test. But he doesn’t sound very hopeful.”

“That sucks.”

He rubbed a hand through his hair, shoving it back in a burst of frustration. “Yeah, it does. But I couldn’t just sit around my apartment, feeling sorry for myself. I was going to go crazy.”

“So you came here.”

He shrugged. “I still had the tickets and it was too late to get a refund.”

She walked beside him in silence, feeling his betrayal and confusion. Maybe she’d only known him a couple of hours, but there had been an instant connection as soon as she’d seen him on the stairs at the inn. He was like a wild animal that’d been abused, beautiful and proud but hurting inside. She couldn’t fix his life, but maybe she could help him forget a bit, at least while he was here. Sometimes a distraction was almost as good as a cure.

At the Sandpiper, she stopped in the gravel lot to retrieve her bathing suit. She unlocked the trunk and swung her backpack over her shoulder before taking the path to the front door.

“Does everyone in Florida keep an emergency bathing suit in their car? The way people up north keep blankets in theirs?”

“Not everyone. But I do, in case I want to go for a swim after work or on my lunch break.”

Noah’s single suitcase was on the covered porch where the cab driver had left it. He grabbed it with one hand and held the door for her with the other. “Wait, you go to the beach on your lunch break?”

“Sure, it’s only five minutes from the clinic I work at. I can change, have a half-hour swim, then eat a sandwich in the car on the way back to work.”

He shook his head and smiled. “No wonder they call this place Paradise.”

* * *

Mollie left Noah at the front desk with Jillian while she went to change into her suit. Ducking into the master suite, she noticed the new hardwood flooring in the halls and fresh paint on the walls. Nic was doing a great job restoring the old inn. Of course, she was happy that Jillian had such an incredible place to live, but the whole idea of marriage and babies seemed so grown-up and responsible. She wasn’t ready for all that yet. She’d seen what raising a family had done to her mother’s dreams—her professional dance career had ended before it really began—and Mollie wasn’t going to let that happen to her.

Which was why she didn’t date. Dating led to relationships—first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Mollie with a baby carriage. No, thank you. She had things she wanted to accomplish, and getting sucked into the mommy track wasn’t in the plans.

Jillian poked her head around the door. “Hey, I just checked in a Noah James. He said you two are heading to the beach?”

“Yeah, we’re going to get in a swim before dark.”

Jillian’s eyebrows rose. “You know he was supposed to be here on his honeymoon, right? He’s on the rebound, hard-core.”

Mollie rolled her eyes. “I’m not sleeping with the guy—we’re just going swimming. I found him on the front steps earlier, and we ended up getting a bite to eat at Rolando’s. He seemed like he could use some cheering up.” She reached back to adjust the tie of her bikini top, torn between sharing his story with her friend and protecting his privacy.

Jillian’s expression softened. “Yeah, I guess he does. I don’t know very much about him—he dealt with Nic when he made the reservations. They know each other, though, from some welding project he worked on for Caruso Hotels. Nic says he’s a good guy, but still, be careful, okay? I know you never turn away a stray, but you don’t want to get wrapped up in that level of drama.”

Be careful. Safety first. Look before you leap. Why did everyone feel the need to say things like that to her? She was twenty-six, not twelve. She was getting tired of everyone she knew treating her like she couldn’t handle herself just because she led her life a little differently. So what if she ate sushi for breakfast sometimes or preferred thrift-store T-shirts to business casual? And yeah, she had daydreamed and doodled her way through high school, but not everyone could be the straight-A student her sister was. She’d graduated just the same, and if her choice to focus on the arts rather than something practical was a risk, it was one she was willing to take. Her goal was to live life without regrets, to follow whatever adventure came along.

Maybe that’s why she’d been so ready to take a chance and invite Noah to dinner. A small rebellion against all the caution signs surrounding her. Or maybe he was just that intriguing. Whatever it was, she wasn’t backing off. Her gut told her he needed a friend right now, and despite what everyone seemed to think, her gut was usually right.

“We’re going for a swim, not robbing a bank. I’ll only be a stone’s throw from your back door. Heck, you can send Nic to find us if we aren’t back in a few hours.” She threw the backpack on her shoulder and headed for the door.

“I might just do that.” She grinned. “But in the meantime, he’s lucky to have you to introduce him to Paradise Isle. He couldn’t ask for a better tour guide.”