Doorstep daddy (2 page)

_{"Poopies!" Mark announced again.}

_{The woman smiled. "Yes, dear, I know. You said it earlier, and what a good boy you are for telling us again."}

_{The kids giggled. Richard chuckled, admiring her aplomb with Mark. He'd met her only five minutes ago and he was admiring a heck of a lot about Callie Rossovich.}

_{Joey returned with treats for the kids. A woman re
sembling Callie came with him. Obviously this was Callie's sister, Gerri. She was more elegantly dressed than Callie, yet she lacked the vivaciousness. Callie's sister stared at him as if he'd grown three heads.}

_{"I can't believe you don't have Halloween candy, Gerri," Callie said to her sister as she doled out the treats.}

_{"Well, nobody comes around," Gerri replied defensively. "And we have that party for all the neighborhood children, so I buy for that."}

_{"Looks like you forgot a few here. Hercules, the goddess, Robin and Batman who live up the street."}

_{"But I wasn't in charge of the invitations!"}

_{Callie sniffed, obviously not accepting that explanation.}

_{"It's okay," Richard said. "I'm Richard Holiday. We moved into the development only a couple of months ago."}

_{"A couple of months!" Callie exclaimed. "Gerri!" "I didn't know," Gerri said.}

_{"It's okay," Richard began, feeling badly for the woman. He felt worse for his kids. Because he'd been too busy to introduce himself to people here, the children had missed out on a big party. And on Halloween.}

_{"No, it's not okay," Callie said. "I was about to take my niece and nephew out trick-or-treating in the old neighborhood. It's great for kids. Why don't you and your children come with us? I can vouch for every house we go to. Say you'll come."}

_{"I couldn't impose," he said, half wishing he could take her up on her offer. The kids had had little fun lately.}

_{"You're not imposing, so that's settled." "Yeah!" Jason shouted.}

_{"Joey, go finish getting ready," Callie said to her nephew. "And tell your sister to hurry up. She's got to be witchy enough by now."}

_{"Poopies!" Mark yelped.}

_{"I
better go change him," Richard said.}

_{"I
'll do it," Amanda offered, turning the stroller around.}

_{Richard gave her the keys to the house. Changing Mark was a chore at best. Amanda never offered before, but he wasn't about to question her. God forbid she should change her mind.}

_{"I
'll make sure the children get on the party list," Gerri told him. "We have a Christmas one and a summer pool party. All the families come."}

_{Richard smiled at her. "Thanks."}

_{"Come in," Callie said, opening the door wide. "We've never had Batman in the house before. Call your wife and tell her to come back with the kids."}

_{"I
'm not married," Richard said.}

_{"Oh," Callie said. She had a funny look on her face. "Well, come in, anyway."}

_{Jason skipped over the threshold. Richard stepped across it. The house was beautiful, but it felt cold, and not from the brisk autumn air wafting inside. Callie was the only warmth. From her smile and her green eyes, she exuded the emotion. And he responded to it.}

_{He liked that.}

_{Callie Rossovich
grinned at the wonder on the newcomers' faces. The three-hundred block of Walker Street had been the subject of several news stories over the years for its decorations. All the row houses joined in whatever was the current holiday fun. This time, orange and black streamers rippled over the
street. Ghoulish lights and swaying Frankenstein monsters highlighted picture windows. On porches and patios, scarecrows guarded speakers blasting moans of the undead. But best of all, children of every size and age paraded back and forth under the watchful eyes of parents. And half the adults were dressed in the spirit of the evening.}

_{"Wow," Richard said. "I've never seen anything like this before."}

_{"Oh, there're a few places like it in the city," Callie said, smiling affectionately at her childhood home. She'd grown up on this street. "The northeast is pretty close-knit, and south Philly even more so. But we're the only block like it in the Roxborough section. Everyone's lived here forever - "}

_{"Can we go, Aunt Callie?" her niece, Kristen, asked impatiently.}

_{Kristen and Jason, both the same age, stood together, treat bags at the ready. They had overcome any shyness after five seconds in each other's presence.}

_{"What are the rules?" Callie prompted Kristen.}

_{"We stay on this street only, and we play I spy," Kristen answered. "Which means I hafta be in sight of you all the time."}

_{"I spy you and you spy me," Callie said to Richard by way of explanation.}

_{"And we don't eat
any
candy unless you look at it first. If we mess up, we hafta walk with you."}

_{Callie grinned at her niece. "The kiss of death. Okay, you two can go."}

_{"Same rules for you, Jason," Richard called out.}

_{To her nephew she said, "Joey, why don't you take Amanda around with you? Then she won't be stuck with the young kids or the old you-know-whats."}

_{Joey glanced at Amanda, who looked as if she wanted the ground to open and swallow her. Callie hadn't missed the touch of lip gloss and enhanced eye shadow the girl had obviously put on while changing her brother.}

_{"Okay," Joey said, without whining. Usually he whined if asked to perform a task he didn't like. Gerri spoiled him, in Callie's opinion. But Gerri had always been the material girl in the family.}

_{The four kids vanished, leaving her with the cutest Robin and the sexiest Batman she'd ever seen. Robin was easy to handle. She just pushed his stroller. Batman was another story.}

_{Tall and blond, Richard Holiday reminded her of Val Kilmer in looks, as well as choice of clothing. His features were clean-cut all-American good-looking male, and he had golden brown eyes. Like a lion's, she thought. The bodysuit made her wonder what he had underneath. His legs and arms in the clinging tights looked muscular. Nothing overly so, but worthy.
Very
worthy. And when he smiled...he lit her bat light every time.}

_{He'd looked so helpless when she'd answered her sister's door. She'd felt badly that his niece and nephews had missed out on the party. Leave it to the airheads in Gerri's neighborhood to goof up on the invitations, Callie thought. She wondered what he thought of her invitation. No doubt he felt he was slumming. She hoped so; she needed something to smother her attraction to him, and snobbery would help.}

_{What had she been thinking, so impulsively giving a man an invitation? No matter how innocent, she'd been foolish. She was being nurturing again, and she had to stop. Now.}

_{"You sure the kids will be okay?" Richard asked as
they strolled along with Mark's stroller. Richard pushed, yet he hardly looked domestic, despite the Halloween costume. His voice was deep and disturbing, like water over a stone.}

_{"Sure," she said, pointing to both sets of kids. "See? We spy them and they spy us. Of course, we do the majority of the spying, but it works."}

_{He chuckled. "It does so far. I don't exactly know what I'm doing yet, so I get nervous about the kids."}

_{"Hey, nieces and nephews are great," she said. "You take them out occasionally, enjoy them, then send them back to their parents for the tough stuff. I know I do."}

_{"Actually I'm raising them," he replied. "My brother and his wife died in a car wreck and I'm the children's guardian."}

_{"I'm so sorry," she said, laying a hand on his arm as sympathy welled up inside her.}

_{His body, however, was hot and strong, eliciting much more than sympathy for him. A shiver of awareness ran through her veins. The sensation was so strong she awkwardly dropped her hand away.}

_{"Thanks," he said, smiling as if unaffected by her touch. Now there was a downer, Callie thought. He added, "It hasn't been easy for the kids. I'm a lousy substitute parent. We went through a couple of idiot au pairs and a Nurse Ratchet-type nanny or two. My midtown apartment was not the place to raise kids, either. They've been good about it all, but it's not helping matters."}

_{Oh, God, she thought. This man could have her wrapped around his little finger in a heartbeat. Who
couldn't
respond to that story? Not her. Definitely not her.}

_{She cleared her throat of the suspicious lump of emo
tion that lodged there and got practical. "You'll find your way. Raising kids is more about organization than anything else. I'm the oldest of six, and I had to help out a
lot"}

_{The truth was, she practically raised her younger siblings. Both her parents worked and worked hard. They'd always been a poor family, and she'd done what she had to do. Now she was free and finally getting on with her life. She intended it to stay that way - provided she stopped responding to a sexy Batman with a heartrending story.}

_{"Help me," she muttered. More loudly she said, "Come on. We'll go to my parents' house first and see if they recognize me."}

_{"But you're not dressed up for Halloween," he said, frowning.}

_{"Don't bet on it."}

_{"I take it you don't live here with your parents," he said as she led him up the steps of a row house.}

_{She laughed. "I've been out for about a year, ever since my younger brother graduated from high school. I have an apartment in Jersey. Not far from you and Gerri, actually."}

_{That proximity sounded more promising than a casual throwaway. She pushed the disturbing thought aside.}

_{Her parents' house looked no different from the others on the block. But she knew every brick, every crack of the place. She'd grown up here. Or rather, she'd been a grown-up here when she should have been a kid. She'd spent many a Halloween giving out candy or taking her younger siblings around, instead of dressing up and going with her own friends.}

_{Grinning away the twinge of resentment, she knocked. When the door opened, she said, "Trick or treat!"}

_{Her father, rail thin as always, laughed at her. "And what are you supposed to be, kid?"}

_{"A lady nearing thirty with a couple of friends in tow," she replied, opening the door wider to reach into the candy bowl. "This is Richard Holiday and his nephew, Mark. Richard, this is my father, Ellis Rossovich"}

_{"Friends, eh?" Her dad peered around her. "Hell,
I
thought you were Batman and Robin. You Callie's new boyfriend? About time she got one."}

_{"No, he's not my boyfriend, so don't embarrass him with any crazy ideas," Callie said matter-of-factly, knowing that would be her father's conclusion. She dropped some candy into Mark's plastic pumpkin bag, then tweaked his nose, much to the toddler's delight. She added, "Richard is Gerri's new neighbor. He was taking his kids around there, which is useless, so I brought him here with Kristen and Joey."}

_{"Where are my grandbabies?" Ellis asked.}

_{"Taking Richard's niece and nephew around. Don't worry. They'll get here eventually. You know they love to make you guess who they are."}

_{Her father cackled. "I can't tell half the time, either. Give me a hint."}

_{"No way. Put your glasses on for once."}

_{"I hate those things. Well, come in. You're letting in the cold and I ain't no rich man."}

_{The lament never changed, Callie thought in amusement. "Maybe later when the kids are finished, I'll bring them in for cocoa. We've got to take Mark around first. He shouldn't miss all the fun."}

_{Her father turned and called out, "Steph! Callie's here, but she's taking some guy and his kid around the block!"}