Delinquent Daddy (6 page)

"I think you'll live if we do things out of order for one night."

"But—"

"Right now, young lady," Ellie cut in.

Cassie glared at her mother a moment in protest before she caved and flung her long black hair over her shoulder as she spun away to stomp from the room.

Boston watched her disappear from sight. His eyes felt glued opened as he stared at the spot where he'd last seen 52

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

her. His daughter. He'd just met his nine-year-old daughter.

And all he'd said was, "I'm Boston."

God.

His legs gave out and his body sagged. He hadn't realized he'd backed himself against Ellie's cupboards until he reached behind him and caught hold of her countertop for support.

"Boston?"

He looked up, but the closer Ellie stepped, the further away she seemed to get. She reached out like she might comfort him. But she pulled her hand back at the last moment as if realizing what she was about to do.

For a split second, he wished she'd touch him. He ached for some of her sympathy. Hell, he wanted to wrap her in his arms and smell nothing but her hair, soaking up all the comfort he could get. Did she still use that lavender-scented shampoo?

Boston laughed bitterly and wiped at mist that had gotten caught in his eye. There were more important things to ponder here. His daughter was just down the hall, taking a bath.

"She looks just like my mom," was all he could think to say.

Instead of replying, Ellie pulled out a chair and motioned to it. He sat and lifted his face, but she turned away before he was ready for her to leave. She returned seconds later with a glass of ice water. He realized the drink was for him when she set it next to him on the table. Automatically, he drank.

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Delinquent Daddy

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The water cleared his head as much as it did his throat. He gulped every last drop and closed his eyes when he finally had to lower the glass.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, moving another foot away as if he might be contagious. "You look like you're going to throw up."

He kind of felt like he might.

"I..." He tried to tell her he was fine. But the words that came out sounded a lot more like, "I didn't think it'd be like this."

He touched his chest, wondering if he was having a heart attack. "To see her for the first time," he added. "I didn't think I'd feel so...I can't breathe." He tugged frantically at the top button of his collar only to realize it was already unbuttoned.

"What do you say to a nine-year-old?" He didn't know the first thing about kids, especially nine-year-old girls. Sure he had nieces and nephews, but this was totally different. This was
his
child.

Automatically, he looked to Ellie for help. But as much as he wanted to beg for her comfort, he wanted to keep yelling at her too. She'd lied to him and purposefully kept his daughter from him.

"I need to put the cold food in the refrigerator," she blurted out, snagging his empty cup and moving toward the sink to wash it and set it back in the cupboard.

Boston sat back in his chair, watching her stash her groceries. She'd just turned to a pantry to put away her canned goods when the back door opened. He glanced over 54

Delinquent Daddy

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and blinked when a small blond-haired boy strolled inside like he owned the place. Ellie didn't notice him at first, but Boston couldn't take his eyes off the kid.

Who the hell was this? Was he another child of hers, a younger son or something? The idea of Ellie having more children didn't sit well with him, and he wasn't about to explore why. He scowled as he watched the scrawny kid in the thick glasses meander toward the fridge and lug out a gallon of milk.

Ellie finally noticed the boy a second later, or rather she noticed Boston watching him. She turned and jumped half out of her skin.

"Keller!" she yelped. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm...getting...a drink...Mama Ellie." The boy panted, out of breath because the milk was too heavy for him.

Ellie hurried forward and took the carton from his grasp.

"Well, I'm sure you have milk at home, dear."

"But I'm here to see Cassie. We're going to play the new Pokemon game on her Xbox." He tipped his head back to stare up at her and send her a confused look. "Why should I go home to get a drink and then come all the way back, when I can just get it here?"

Ellie sighed. "Keller, Cassie can't play tonight." She glanced toward Boston. "She—"

But the boy had finally caught sight of him too. His eyes bugged. "Holy cow! Who's he?!" He spun toward Ellie. "Oh, wow. Is he Cassie's dad?"

Ellie's jaw began to fall open before she caught herself and snapped her teeth together. Then she groaned. "Of course,"

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she muttered to herself, shaking her head. "I should've known you were involved in writing that letter."

Keller grinned, proud. "Well, sure. I found his address."

Boston and Ellie exchanged a glance. Boston looked surprised. Ellie was merely bone weary. She turned back to the boy and set her hands on her hips, taking on the aggravated mother look. "
You
found Montgomery Kincaid's address?"

"It wasn't hard." Keller gave a no-nonsense shrug. "All you have to do is pay thirty-nine, ninety-nine on people finders dot com and they just
give
you the address."

Ellie's mouth fell open. "And how did you pay for that?"

Keller started to look a little uneasy. Dipping his head, he mumbled, "My dad has a credit card on his dresser for emergencies."

"Keller!" Ellie sputtered. "Oh, my God."

But the boy was quick to say, "This
was
an emergency, Mama Ellie. Cassie was this close to finding her dad." He held up two fingers, stretching them less than an inch apart.

"But— What...how..." Ellie snapped her mouth shut and gaped openly at the boy. "What even made you two think
Montgomery
Kincaid was her father?" How had they gotten so close?

"It was in the magazine," he answered.

"The...what? What magazine?"

With a roll of his eyes as if he couldn't believe she could be so ignorant, Keller let out a sigh and trudged across the kitchen. He stood on his tiptoes and reached for a pile of magazines sitting in a basket on the counter. After digging 56

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

through them a moment, he lifted
Vogue
and showed it to her. The cover read, "Shannon's Out-of-this-World Marriage to Astronaut's Son." Ellie frowned at the picture of the famous model on the cover.

"Shannon March," Keller said. "Right here it says she married the son of a real-life astronaut. And you told Cassidy her dad was the son of an astronaut. There's not a lot of actual astronauts out there, you know," he added as if he were an authority on the subject. "So, it was pretty much a given this could be her dad."

Mouth falling open, Ellie turned toward Boston. "You married
Shannon March
?"

"My brother did," he murmured, frowning as he eyed Keller.

"Oh," she said. Wow. Her daughter's biological uncle was married to a world-known model. How amazing was that?

Boston eyed the magazine as he pushed to his feet and strolled toward it. A bug-eyed Keller handed it over as soon he reached for it.

"We read the article about her marrying Montgomery Kincaid," the boy said. "And when it said he went to the same college as you, Mama Ellie, then we knew...we just knew this had to be her dad. Because you said...you said you met her dad in college and he was the son of a—"

"I know what I said," Ellie snapped, irritated her own words had come back to bite her in the butt. But she'd never thought her daughter would turn into a mini Sherlock Holmes and actually get so close to finding the truth. Then again, she 57

Delinquent Daddy

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should've known better with a genius savant like Keller as her best friend.

"Keller," she said on an exasperated sigh. "You need to go home now. And don't think I won't tell your mother about borrowing that credit card."

"But..." the boy sputtered as he was nudged toward the exit.

Ellie opened the door and ushered him out. "You can see Cassidy tomorrow."

"But is he Montgomery Kincaid or not?" he asked, peeking around her to get one last look at Boston.

"He's not," Ellie said and shut the door in his face.

She paused to press a hand to her aching temple. She would've liked to follow Keller out the door and escape too, but this had to be dealt with. Regulating her breathing and repeating a soothing monologue in her head as she turned, Ellie caught sight of Boston skimming through the article about his sister-in-law.

He glanced up and arched a non-impressed eyebrow. "I take it you told her about me but never gave her my name."

Ellie sighed. She'd had to give her daughter
something
.

Cassidy had been asking about her father a lot lately, and she was as stubborn as all get out. Once the girl wanted something, she worked to get it. And lately, she'd wanted to meet her father. Ellie should've known she'd start looking by herself. She'd definitely gained her sense of determination from Boston, that was for sure.

"If I'd known she was going to pull a Nancy Drew on me, I wouldn't have given her anything."

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Delinquent Daddy

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Boston's gaze iced over. His jaw tightened, but he didn't comment. The boy she'd known ten years ago wouldn't have kept silent. He'd have spat out something sharp and demeaning. But the aged, more polished version of that young man held his tongue.

Instead, he glanced out the window. "Who was that kid?"

Ellie cleared her throat. "Um...that was Keller Young," she answered in a slightly unsteady voice. She noticed a tremor in her hand as she reached for a box of cereal to put away. Not wanting him to see the fear clogging her system, she jerked her fingers behind her back and spun his way as if to check if he noted her anxiety.

She cleared her throat again when she realized his gaze was fixed on her arm tucked behind her back.

"He, ah, he lives next door," she continued, wondering why she was talking about Keller. She needed to get him out of here before Cassie was done with her bath. She needed him gone and as far away from her and her baby as he could possibly get.

But she just kept talking like an idiot. "He and Cass have been best friends since the moment we moved here six years ago."

Boston nodded as if soaking in every detail of his daughter's life he could uncover. "He seems pretty smart for his age."

"Oh, he's a whiz all right," Ellie said. "He could probably pass a high school G.E.D. if he wanted to. All his teachers keep trying to talk him into advancing into special gifted classes. They're always wanting to skip him a grade or two.

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But he refuses. He wants to stay in the same class as Cassidy."

Boston cocked his head curiously at that news. "He's the same age as Cassie? But she's probably a head taller than him."

Ellie couldn't help but smile. "Actually, he's a month older than her. Yet another reason he didn't want to skip any grades. He's already picked on enough for being so small.

Cassidy deflects a lot of teasing for him. I bet he'd come home with a bloody nose every day if it wasn't for her."

"She fights off his bullies, does she?" he asked, looking amused and a little proud.

Something hard and intense thumped into the base of her stomach. But seeing that pleased glint in Boston's eyes made her feel connected to him the way only a pair of proud parents could be. And she couldn't help but remember back to when he'd been her entire world and how much she'd adored him when they'd conceived their daughter together.

Feeling herself soften, she nodded yes. Boston's mouth curved slightly like he was remembering a happier time too.

But a split moment later, he paused as if realizing she was the enemy now. His face stiffened into a cool glare and he glanced away, stuffing his hands moodily into his pockets.

Ellie swallowed and dropped her eyes. "So, ah, anyway.

You probably need to get back to, ah..." Wherever the hell he'd come from.

Boston's gaze zipped accusingly to her face, eyes narrowed. She bit her lip.

"What about Cassie?" he asked.

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"What about her?"

His forehead wrinkled. "She still doesn't know who I am."

Ellie didn't think that was a problem. As if reading her thoughts, his scowl deepened. "I want her to know the truth."

Lifting her eyebrows, Ellie said, "Oh, you want her to know the truth, huh? Sure, I'll tell her exactly why we broke up."

An uneasy look filled his face, and he opened his mouth to comment. But Ellie kept talking. "I'll be happy to tell her exactly where things went wrong. And how you were so ashamed of being with me you would never let me meet your family, or—"

"I never—" he started, but she kept talking over him.

"Or how you thought I was just a gold-digging bitch who purposely trapped you into staying with me by getting knocked up."

"I apologized for that." His face turned gray as if remembering his own words made him physically ill. "As soon as I said it, I told you I was sorry."

Unable to watch the repentant features that looked so truly genuine, Ellie turned and crossed her arms over her chest.

"So you did," she murmured, though she was sure he could hear in her voice that she'd never forgiven or forgotten.

A tense moment of silence followed, and finally he murmured, "Is that why you told me you had a miscarriage?

Because I was such a jerk?" He sucked in a breath. "Jesus, Ellie, I was a stupid, immature kid who was scared out of my mind. How could you—"