Patricia Knoll - Another Chance for Daddy

“Son, that sounds like a great idea.” “Son, that sounds like a great idea.” “What does?” Becca stared at Clay in astonishment. “For me to come live with you again,” Clay said with an air of decisiveness. Becca held her hands up as if she was trying to stop a speeding bus. “No, Clay. No. First of all, I can’t imagine that you’d want to....” “Then you imagined wrong. I’d love to. Thanks for the invitation.” “No, Clay.” She hardened her voice. “We’ll find someone to take care of you, and...” “But Mom,” Jimmy piped up, “don’t you want Dad to come stay with us?” Becca looked down at her son’s puzzled face. Clay reached out and drew Jimmy to him. “Yeah, Mom, don’t you want me to come stay with you?” Letter to Reader Dear Reader, I’ve always been fascinated by strong women, which is one of the reasons I love romance novels. MARRIAGE TIES is a series about a family of such women: a mother, her stepdaughter and two daughters. To test their strength, I teamed them up with men who are anything but tame. The Kelleher women are strong, though they don’t always know how their strength will be tested. But then, none of us knows until it happens. In Another Chance for Daddy, Rebecca Kelleher Saunders thinks she’s sending her six-year-old son off to spend a week with his father, Clay, but fate intervenes. Clay, the husband she thought was out of her life—the man she knew so well—is back. He’s not going anywhere, and has he ever changed! Wedding Bells, to be published in November (#3530). and Bachelor Cowboy, due in 1999, tell the stories of Rebecca’s sisters, Brittnie and Shannon, and the men who attract these remarkable women. Late in ’99, look for Resolution: Marriage, the story of Mary Jane Kelleher, the mother to these three women, who is reunited with her high school sweetheart and must come to terms with a secret she’s kept for more than twenty-five years. Be prepared to enjoy the strength and resourcefulness, the fun and the tears, of Rebecca, Brittnie, Shannon and Mary Jane. Happy Reading! Title Page Another Chance For Daddy Patricia Knoll www.millsandboon.co.uk CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN Copyright

“Son, that sounds like a great idea.”

“What does?” Becca stared at Clay in astonishment.

“For me to come live with you again,” Clay said with an air of decisiveness.

Becca held her hands up as if she was trying to stop a speeding bus. “No, Clay. No. First of all, I can’t imagine that you’d want to....”

“Then you imagined wrong. I’d love to. Thanks for the invitation.”

“No, Clay.” She hardened her voice. “We’ll find someone to take care of you, and...”

“But Mom,” Jimmy piped up, “don’t you want Dad to come stay with us?”

Becca looked down at her son’s puzzled face.

Clay reached out and drew Jimmy to him. “Yeah, Mom, don’t you want me to come stay with you?”

Dear Reader,

I’ve always been fascinated by strong women, which is one of the reasons I love romance novels. MARRIAGE TIES is a series about a family of such women: a mother, her stepdaughter and two daughters. To test their strength, I teamed them up with men who are anything but tame. The Kelleher women are strong, though they don’t always know how their strength will be tested. But then, none of us knows until it happens.

In Another Chance for Daddy, Rebecca Kelleher Saunders thinks she’s sending her six-year-old son off to spend a week with his father, Clay, but fate intervenes. Clay, the husband she thought was out of her life—the man she knew so well—is back. He’s not going anywhere, and has he ever changed!

Wedding Bells, to be published in November (#3530). and Bachelor Cowboy, due in 1999, tell the stories of Rebecca’s sisters, Brittnie and Shannon, and the men who attract these remarkable women. Late in ’99, look for Resolution: Marriage, the story of Mary Jane Kelleher, the mother to these three women, who is reunited with her high school sweetheart and must come to terms with a secret she’s kept for more than twenty-five years.

Be prepared to enjoy the strength and resourcefulness, the fun and the tears, of Rebecca, Brittnie, Shannon and Mary Jane.

Happy Reading!

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

TROUBLE was coming up Rebecca Saunders’s front walk. As she looked out the window, she pressed her hands against her stomach, took a deep breath and held it until her nerves steadied.

Trouble was her ex-husband, Clay.

He drove a midnight-blue, four-wheel-drive Ford Explorer that had scattered gravel in all directions when it swept into her driveway and parked behind her little green Honda. He had a way of stepping down from the vehicle, stretching a six foot two inch frame until every chest and shoulder muscle rippled beneath a black snap-front shirt, placing a cowboy hat on a head of deep auburn hair and examining the neighborhood through dark green eyes. She knew he had taken in everything at one glance, judged it, and probably found it wanting.

This was not the kind of neighborhood they had ever lived in together. Their apartments had all been in modern buildings lacking in uniqueness, whether they had been located in Louisiana, Texas, or Mexico.

This home and this neighborhood were unique; each house was different, from her own small three-bedroom bungalow to the Emerson’s sprawling two-story whose trim had recently been painted hot pink. This was the kind of neighborhood where she had always wanted to live, but Clay hadn’t. He had never wanted the responsibility and upkeep of a home. Besides, he had said, a house would be too hard to sell when they moved on to his next job—a statement that had always made Becca’s heart sink to her toes because she had feared his attitude would never change—and it hadn’t.

As she watched, he walked down the driveway to her front gate, then strolled along the brick sidewalk with a leisurely pace.

He looked over her yard, at the brown grass that would turn green in a few weeks, the forsythia and rosebushes that rattled dry branches against the picket fence, and the flower beds where crocuses were poking their first tentative green shoots through the rich brown soil as if sending up scouts to see if winter truly was finished.

Even as she berated herself for doing it, she searched Clay’s face for signs of approval, but saw only mild interest.

Then she studied his face because in the past it had given her so much pleasure to do so. It was a strikingly handsome face with deep-set eyes, a long, straight nose, and a rarely-seen grin. She used to love that grin. It had always seemed like a gift when it appeared. At one time it meant laughter, fun, good times. She didn’t see that grin now. In fact, she never saw it. There was nothing of laughter, fun, and good times between them now.

Becca stood behind her lace curtains, knowing that she was acting cowardly, that she should throw the door open and invite him right in. After all, he had called ahead, made all the necessary arrangements. This visit wasn’t a surprise. She had thought she was prepared; she had been up cleaning house since six that morning to work off her nervousness, but it plagued her with butterflies beating frantically inside her.

Becca had moved out almost a year and a half ago. Their divorce had been final for six months. She wondered how much longer it would be before she stopped having this physical reaction to him—this burning sensation that swept up from her stomach to her throat and then her face. True, she was still attracted to him. What red-blooded woman wouldn’t be? But that wasn’t the reaction she was having now. It almost felt like embarrassment, but she had nothing to be embarrassed about. She had done what was best for herself and Jimmy, who was then barely five years old. She had moved the two of them back to her hometown of Tarrant, Colorado.