Desperately Seeking Daddy Read online

  “C-c-cash!”

  It was all Jack could do not to laugh. She looked so comical standing there in that ridiculous outfit, her bleached hair fluffed out around a bright green headband, orange mouth gaping.

  “It has to be soon,” Heller explained. “We’re getting married in five days.”

  “Four,” Jack corrected her.

  She smiled at him. “Four.”

  Fanny’s legs seemed to collapse. She plopped onto the floor in shock. “You’re serious!”

  Jack rolled onto his side, folding an arm beneath his head and groping with the other for Heller’s hand. He found it, laid it on his hip and covered it with his own. “I told you once before,” he said, looking down at Fanny, “you underestimate your daughter. Any man would be glad to make her his wife. I’m just the lucky one who’s going to do it.”

  Fanny switched her incredulous gaze to Heller. “What about Carmody?”

  Heller shrugged. “What about him? He has no say in my life anymore.”

  “No one’s saying that he can’t see the kids,” Jack said. “They’re his children, after all. However, he’ll call and make arrangements first, or he’ll be turned away at the door. Do us all a favor and make sure he understands that. He was too drunk last night to get it, and in future, that had better not happen again, either.”

  “That goes for you, too, Mother,” Heller said firmly. “From now on you’ll call first, and I don’t want to smell liquor on your breath when you get here.”

  “And no smoking around the kids,” Jack added, “or me.”

  “Or me,” Heller echoed.

  Fanny looked around as if expecting rescue, then she shook her head and threw up her hands. Sighing, she got to her feet, a process Jack hoped never to see repeated. “You two are just alike,” she said, “stick-in-the-muds, no fun at all.”

  Jack smiled and rolled onto his back, looking at Heller. “Guess us stick-in-the-muds just belong together.”

  Heller nodded and stretched out beside him on her belly, her arms sliding over his chest. “I don’t know about us not having any fun, though. I suspect we’ve got lots of good times ahead of us.”

  Jack chuckled and pulled her up onto his chest, his arms holding her there. “Lots of good times,” he promised.

  “I love you,” Heller said softly.

  “I’m a lucky man,” he told her, “even if it’s just half as much as I love you.”

  She stretched upward to brush her mouth against his.

  “Close the door behind you, Fanny,” he said, his eyes promising Heller much more than fun. They would have joy. It was their destiny, a destiny drawn, happily, in crayon.

  * * * * *

  eISBN: 978-14592-8020-5

  DESPERATELY SEEKING DADDY

  Copyright © 1996 by Deborah A. Rather

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Printed In U.S.A.

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Dear Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Arlene James

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Copyright