Teresa Southwick - Paging Dr. Daddy

Good God, he felt like a selfish, shallow jerk. He’d thought he’d had it rough, had given his parents a pile of grief growing up because of it. This woman had become a caretaker to her father when she should have been playing with dolls.

“And did you? Go to college, I mean?” Starting out in college had definitely not been his finest hour, but the life lesson was one he’d never forget.

“Yeah. I was doing pretty well, until—” She looked down, and a muscle in her delicate jaw jerked.

“What?”

“I got pregnant with Janie and had to drop out.” She met his gaze with the same fiercely defensive look he’d seen when she’d watched over her child. “My only regret is not graduating, but I could never be sorry about having Janie. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Reading between the lines he figured she regretted other things. But what she’d revealed explained something of why she was reluctant to accept help. When you couldn’t count on the two people you’d trusted most in the world, leaning on strangers wouldn’t come easily.

He reached across the table and took her hand in his own. “You are a remarkable woman, Courtney Albright.”

“Not really.”

He didn’t argue with her because he didn’t like what he was feeling. Respect for her was a no-brainer. Against the odds, this woman had made a life for herself, welcomed a child into it, lost her husband and now carried the burden of raising her daughter all alone. Of course he respected her.

What troubled him was the possibility that he felt something more than admiration. Attraction was an A-word too, and it was growing stronger every time he saw her. If he was as smart as everyone told him, he’d get on that plane she’d been trying to get him on. He’d get out of Walnut River before this turned into something that got him into the same kind of trouble he’d found in college.

He’d fallen for a girl and she’d needed his help. When the dust settled, he’d been the one in hot water, and she’d walked away unscathed. Then she’d dumped him. That trouble had cost him more than time, money and his innocence.

That trouble had messed up his life.

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