Carol Voss - Instant Daddy

Peter shut his eyes as Jessie scooped up the toddler. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off him.”

Jessie’s heart ached for Peter. “I should have warned you he likes to jump.”

What had she been thinking? She’d been selfish and smug trying to show Peter he couldn’t be a parent. He was a parent. A parent who wanted to know his son and for his son to know him. Didn’t every child deserve to know his daddy?

She’d die before she’d give Jake up. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t share him, did it?

“He could have gotten seriously hurt,” Peter said miserably. She saw defeat in his eyes, defeat she’d wanted.

She felt terrible. Peter didn’t deserve this. She’d been wrong.

“He won’t get hurt, Peter. Not if I teach you.”

Always an avid reader with a vivid imagination, Carol grew up in Smalltown, Wisconsin, with church ice-cream socials, Fourth of July parades, summer carnivals and people knowing and caring about everybody else. What better backdrop for heroes and heroines to fall in love?

In the years between business college and a liberal arts degree, Carol worked in a variety of businesses, married, raised two sons and a daughter and did volunteer work for church, school, Scouts, 4-H and hospice. An award-winning author of family stories, Carol couldn’t be happier that Instant Daddy found a home with Love Inspired Books.

Carol lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her creative husband, her sweet, vibrating border collie and her supervisory cat. Besides writing, she loves reading, walking her dog, biking, flower gardening, traveling and, most of all, God, home and family. She loves to hear from readers at carol@carolvoss.com.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When I am afraid, I will trust in you.

—Psalms 56:3

To Ann and Gil

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

When I am afraid, I will trust in you

—Psalms 56:3

Why Peter had assumed Jessie Chandler would enjoy the limelight as much as her twin sister had, he didn’t know.

She stood as still as the lectern beside her, with her focus frozen on Peter’s lower jaw, the toddler she’d been holding when Peter had called her to the stage asleep in her arms.

Stage fright. Great.

He glanced at the red-robed graduates sitting in front of the makeshift stage. Beyond, a sea of relatives and friends lined the football-field bleachers. Watching. Waiting.

Jessie’s parents perched in the first row, seemingly holding their breaths right along with him. He was sure sitting through the memorial to Clarissa was tough enough for the Chandler family. She was killed in the New York lab fire only a year ago. The grief over losing Jessie’s twin still had to be raw. And now by calling Jessie up on stage to present the scholarship in Clarissa’s name, Peter had made everything worse.

Just another reminder that he understood equations and hypotheses a whole lot better than he understood people. He sure never understood Clarissa.

He brought his attention back to Jessie.

Her gaze was still locked on his lower jaw, her eyes even bluer up close. And behind her stage fright, he sensed a compelling sadness that made him want to take her in his arms and comfort her. The breeze whipped her shiny golden hair around her face. She adjusted the sleeping toddler in her arms.

Why had she carried the boy to the stage with her? What if the kid woke up and started screaming or something? Wasn’t Peter just thinking things couldn’t get more awkward for the family? A screaming child would probably do it.

He needed to get this over with. Quickly. He placed his hand over the microphone to prevent pickup. “If you want, I can read the name for you.”

She set her chin and drew in a shaky breath, still not meeting his eyes. “I can do it.”

He set the envelopes on the lectern. “Okay, the top envelope contains the recipient’s name. Can you announce it and give the second envelope to the graduate?”

“I’d like to say a few words first.”

He blinked. Apparently, she didn’t own that determined chin for nothing. He lowered the microphone for her and moved out of her way. “Go for it.”

She stepped forward, the crowd hushing to listen. “My sister would be so proud that every year a scholarship in her name will help students who love chemistry as much as she did.”

Peter let out a fascinated breath. She was pulling herself together like a champ—without her twin’s flare for drama, but with a vulnerability that tugged at him.

“Our family thanks Trenton Research Laboratories for their generous scholarship and Dr. Peter Sheridan for driving all the way from Madison to present it.” Her soft voice ringing clear and unpretentious, she took the sheet of paper from the envelope, her face crumpling as she struggled with her emotions.

Tensing, Peter took a step toward her to help her out.

But a teary smile broke free. “I’m thrilled to announce the first recipient of the Clarissa Chandler Scholarship is Stacy Meyers.”

The crowd erupted in a cheer. Several beach balls took to the humid air to be carried away by the breeze. Apparently, high school graduation in Noah’s Crossing, Wisconsin was a different animal from the quiet ceremony that liberated him from boarding school twelve years ago.

The sturdy boy in Jessie’s arms burrowed his face deeper into her neck.

Luckily, the kid seemed to be a resolute napper. Peter began to relax a little, the tension in his shoulders easing.

A tall, thin girl ran across the stage to the lectern, her face wreathed in smiles. She accepted the envelope from Jessie and hugged her without squashing the little guy in Jessie’s arms.

“I’m so proud of you, Stacy.” Jessie guided the excited teenager to the microphone, then stepped back alongside Peter.

Peter caught a breath of her scent. Fresh citrus. Very nice. He noted the same fair skin, patrician nose and high cheekbones as her twin, but Jessie let her hair hang free. Everything about her seemed gentler, warmer, less driven than her sister with the killer ambition and single-minded purpose. And Clarissa lovingly moving her hand over the child the way Jessie did? He couldn’t imagine it.

Stacy Meyers held the envelope aloft to give everybody a good view. “I promise to work hard and make Jess and her family and everybody in Noah’s Crossing proud of me.” She gave Jessie another hug, shook Peter’s hand as she thanked him, then ran off the stage and down the steps.

Peter finally breathed a relieved sigh. All was well that ended well, right? He’d done what he came to do and could soon get back to his research.

The little guy Jessie held shifted and turned his head, the breeze tousling his reddish-brown curls.

Jessie stroked his back. He was a cute kid.

Peter studied the baby’s high forehead, his wide-set eyes, his prominent nose…and the small, diamond-shaped birthmark on the baby’s lower left jaw.

A birthmark exactly like his own.