CHAPTER ONE
NICK
"Dad?"
Nick Stone was a man that most shied away from. He was almost six foot six and a few hundred pounds of muscle and bone. People gave him a wide berth and didn't always meet his eyes.
His daughter's dance teacher was one of those people. At first.
He could have left it alone, but his daughter loved dancing, it didn't matter what kind of dancing. She wanted to learn it. So, he made more than his normal effort when it came to her dancing. That meant reaching out and trying to get people to relax around him so it wouldn't put a crimp in his daughter's education.
His daughter didn't have such reservations around him.
She was currently crowding into his space and looked at him with the kind of self-possessed self-assurance that came easily to his daughter, Katherine.
"Yes, Katie?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I have a favor to ask you."
He turned in his chair and looked at his darling daughter.
He wasn't used to her sounding so... unsure of herself.
And he didn't like it.
"You know that if I can do it, I will, sweetie. What's going on?"
She was still in her dance clothes, a cardigan loosely wrapped around her body. He recognized it as her mother's and the pang that he felt in his chest was marked, but it didn't ache like it once had. Katie's mom had passed on almost five years before but there were still traces of her in their home to go with the memories that they held onto in their hearts.
"Today at our rehearsal Miss Novak said that her mother, who always puts together the Sugarplum Tea that we have after our performances broke some bones in her foot and can't do it this year."
Nick gave his daughter a side-eye look. She knew his limits in the kitchen.
There was no way that she would think that he could help with-
"I was wondering if you could ask Miss Baker if she'd consider helping us organize it."
Miss Baker, he mused.
She meant Miss Baker, the woman who'd bought the house next door about six months before.
Miss Baker who he'd been kind of watching for the last six months, Miss Baker.
Miss Ruth Baker who looked like a dream.
And he could say that with complete conviction because Ruth had been a constant in his dreams for the last six months.
"Dad?"
Crap!
He shook himself free of his musings and gave his daughter a self-conscious smile, glad beyond belief that she probably had no idea how much he'd been thinking about Ruth since she moved in next door.
"You want me to ask her to help?"
"Yeah."
Katie folded her arms across her middle, a gesture he knew well.
