For a fresh start.
No more partners with sticky fingers and roving eyes. No more covering other people’s shifts while Lucy went to bed with a babysitter tucking her in.
“Daddy!”
Lucy’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. She sat at one of theempty tables with a rainbow of markers spread around her like treasure, her dark braids bouncing as she waved a piece of paper in the air. He’d left her there, drawing to her heart’s content, when he’d gone out to check the car for their overnight bags.
Which he’d forgotten in his conversation with... their neighbor.
“Daddy, I made you a special picture!” She greeted him with that toothless, barely crooked grin on full display.
His heart gave the familiar twist it always did at the sound of her voice. Herssounds slurred slightly thanks to her repaired cleft lip and palate, but after two years of speech therapy, they’d improved dramatically, along with several of her other sounds. One more surgery—a quick one this time—would help close the tiny fistula in the roof of her mouth and improve her clarity even more.
His little warrior.
The slight scars, barely noticeable above her lip and tracing to the bottom of her button nose, made her upper lip a little crooked—and all the more adorable.
“Daddy!” She held up the paper proudly. “It’s for your new restaurant!”
“Is it?” He swooped her up, settling her on his lap as he examined the colorful artwork. For a six-year-old, it wasn’t bad at all. He tilted his head. “Is that you?”
The plaits were his only clue. That and the pink dress. She always insisted on pink. Finn inwardly winced at the memory of Miss Tea Shop.
“Mm-hmm.” She tapped the taller stick figure. “Dat’s you wif your fish slice turning burgers.” Her little finger traced the drawing until it stopped near the door of a building on the page where a tiny creature—perhaps a dog?—waited. “And right der, dat’s our puppy!”
His lips twitched, trying not to smile. Clever. Very clever. “I didn’t know we had a puppy.”
Her wide green eyes—a perfect match to her mother’s—sparkled. “Oh, but we will have a puppy, Daddy.”
The way she said “Daddy” always warmed his heart and often got him agreeing to things he shouldn’t. “Will we?”
“You said so! Since I had to leave all my friends.” Her bottom lip quivered, the most dangerous weapon in her six-year-old arsenal.
Finn exhaled. He’d always liked dogs.
“We’ll see, lamb. Let’s settle into our new apartment first.” He kissed her forehead. “Then we’ll talk about a puppy.”
“Oh yes!” She grabbed his face in her tiny hands and planted a kiss on his nose—her favorite form of affection. “And I will name her Princess.”
“Her?” He chuckled, setting her back on the floor. “So you think we need another girl around the house?”
“I should like dat very much, Daddy.” Her eyes turned impish—a gleam that should have warned him. “A puppy and a mummy and a sister.”
All warmth fled him. A mummy?Absolutely not.“Let’s start with the puppy.”
Adding the drama of another woman into his or his daughter’s life? Not on his list.
Especially if all they ended up doing was hurting his little family or leaving them.
Or both.
A blessed knock on the door cut off any further planning, and Finn silently thanked his rescuer. Through the frosted glass of the front door, he made out an unfamiliar silhouette.
Harry Coleman, long-time friend of Finn’s late father and current owner of the Wisteria Manor, a historical estate-house-turned-event-center, had warned Finn about the Southern culture when he’d encouraged Finn to start his business in this small North Carolina town.
Unexpected visitors being one.
Busybodies being another.
