Detective Daddy

by Jane Toombs

  Since Hank was partly to blame and since, to Dan’s own personal knowledge, Fay did tend to take risks, Dan couldn’t disagree.

  “She was never a gal to hold a grudge forever, though,” Hank said. “So I got a chance.” He gave Dan a long look. “Seems like you and Fay got to be pretty good friends.”

  Dan heard a father’s eternal question in Hank’s words, the “what-are-your-intentions-toward-my-daughter” one.

  “Just friends, yes.” The truth. He might want more, but that hadn’t happened yet and maybe never would.

  “Hmm. Too bad. She could do worse.”

  Dan hid his surprise. Her father had decided he was okay? Better not tell him that marriage wasn’t for Dan Sorenson. That was definitely not the right response at the moment. “She’s pretty caught up in her work,” he said finally.

  “Her mother was always after her to get ahead and Fay listened to her. Luella was a wonderful woman and I guess I disappointed her by not wanting to get ahead any more than I was.” Hank spread his hands. “A man’s what he is. Luella could never understand that.”

  Dan did. Unwilling to face any more revelations, he switched the topic to sports and Hank seemed more than willing to go there with him.

  The pizza arrived, Hank insisted on paying for it, and together they finished it off. The box, empty of all but crumbs, was sitting in the middle of the kitchen table when Fay arrived home.

  She stood in the archway to the kitchen staring from one man to the other in total disbelief. Her father and Dan sharing a pizza? Talking amicably?

  Hank rose. “I came by to apologize,” he said. “You were right and I was wrong. If I call you, will you let me come again?”

  “I—I guess so,” she stammered, unused to hearing her father ever apologize for anything.

  “We’ll talk things over then.” He reached out as if to hug her, but then drew back. “You’re looking real good, honey,” he said. “Bye for now.”

  Fay watched him let himself out, still feeling stunned. “How did all this come about?” she asked Dan, gesturing toward the empty pizza box.

  “You mean why did your father admit he was wrong? Grandpa Hank fell in love with his granddaughter when she spit up on him.”

  “Because she spit up on him? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Apparently as a baby you used to spit up on him all the time.”

  It did make a crazy kind of sense, but she knew Dan must be leaving out quite a bit of what had gone on.

  “Sorry we didn’t save you any pizza.”

  “That’s okay, the boss had sandwiches and soft drinks sent in. What did my dad have to say to you?”

  “He wanted to know why I was here and how come we were friends. I told him some of it.”

  “Some of it?”

  “You think I’m going to tell a father that I’m trying to seduce his daughter?”

  Fay smiled. “Is that why you called me this morning?”

  “I intended to ask you very politely if I could darken your door long enough to put on the chain.”

  “Is that all?”

  “A guy always hopes for more.”

  “Instead you wound up baby-sitting and having to entertain my father.” She chuckled. “Poor Dan.”

  “The chain still needs to be put on. I’ll take care of that now.”

  Fay was still smiling when she entered her bedroom to change into something more casual. Though jeans and a T-shirt were her usual choice, she opted for an olive-green cotton skirt with a pale green shirt. Before redressing, since she’d gone over four hours without nursing, she unfastened her bra and used the breast pump, filling a bottle half full of milk to relieve her breast fullness. Once dressed again, she peeked in the nursery to check on Danny Marie and found her sleeping, then placed the bottle in the refrigerator. Back in the living room, she saw her front door now boasted a chain. Dan was just putting his tools away.

  “Did you have some reason for believing you could seduce me?” she asked.

  He left the tools in a canvas holder on the floor and rose to face her, nodding toward the cradle containing the stuffed animals. “Saw that.”

  “I moved it when I discovered the baby seemed to like the crib.”

  He took a step toward her. “Should I believe that?”

  “I certainly wouldn’t have taken her out of the cradle if she hadn’t adjusted so quickly to the crib.”

  He took another step toward her. “And that was your only reason for shifting the cradle’s location from your bedroom to the living room?”

  “Um…” she began, broke off and covered her mouth with one hand.

  He grinned at her and took two more steps, now near enough to touch her if he put out a hand. “Give it up. We both know what the move means.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “What?”

  “You sort of stormed out of here last Tuesday.”

  “Still mad about that? Your father tells me you don’t hold grudges.”

  True. She had no trouble at all flaring up about something, but found it hard to hang on to anger very long. Still, she wasn’t sure she was ready to forgive her father. The hurt had gone too deep.

  “Tell you what,” Dan said. “We’ll put on a CD and dance.”

  The idea appealed to her.

  “I think I saw a waltz among your CDs,” he added. “Something about Vienna.” He took her hand and led her toward the player.

  “Vienna Nights,” she murmured as he shuffled through the CDs, picked one out, slid it in and turned on the machine. The music began.

  “I don’t have a uniform on so this will have to do.” He bowed. “May I have the honor?”

  “My skirt is rather short for a ball gown, but I’ll follow suit.” She curtsied. “It will be my pleasure, sir.”

  Putting an arm around her, he whirled her into the dance. “Did I happen to mention that the color of your gown changes your eyes to the deep green of summer leaves?”

  She swallowed, touched by his words. Unlike other men she’d known, Dan didn’t spout idle compliments. But, determined to keep things light, she said, “I feared you might compare them to a pond where algae grew.”

  Dan chuckled, drawing her closer. “Your eyes are nowhere near pond-scum green.”

  She laughed and leaned against him as he spun her around the room, the addictive familiarity of his scent taking her back to the cabin, to the tinny sound of a wind-up phonograph, to the waltz where he’d first kissed her.

  “Dan,” she murmured, “do you remember?”

  “Everything,” he whispered into her ear.

  The warmth of his breath was transformed into a sizzle along her nerves. She raised her head to look into his face. “Ocean blue,” she murmured.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Your eyes. The color of the ocean where it’s deep.”

  “Thanks for not suggesting they remind you of, well, cyanosis.”

  A giggle escaped her lips. “You cops pick up strange words. I bet that’s what you thought about me when you saw me standing on your cabin porch in the storm.”

  He shook his head. “You were only on the verge of turning blue.” He whirled her around the room again before adding, “There’s a lot to be said for 78 rpm records.”

  “There is?”

  “They’re short. I get the feeling this CD is never going to end. So, there’s no choice but trying to waltz while—” He broke off and lowered his mouth to hers.

  Warm and insistent, his lips coaxed her to respond. Since she’d been anticipating the kiss for what seemed like ages, she did. The kiss quickly escalated until they were forced to abandon any pretense of dancing.

  The press of his arousal against her body turned her insides to liquid. Any doubts she might have had about allowing their relationship to intensify burned to ashes in the heat of her desire.

  Making love with Dan was what she wanted. Why else had she shifted the baby to the crib and moved the cradle from her bedroom? To be hones
t, she’d wanted him ever since that first kiss in the cabin.

  Chapter Eleven

  With the waltz music drifting after them, Dan lifted Fay into his arms and carried her into her bedroom. He eased her down until she sat on the edge of the bed, bent and removed the sandals she wore. Then he sat beside her and took off his own shoes and socks before tumbling them both onto the bed.

  How habits learned in childhood stuck, he thought bemusedly as he pulled her into his arms. Even in the fierce grip of desire. He couldn’t recall ever wanting a woman as intensely as he wanted Fay, yet he’d paused to obey the Sorenson house rule of never climbing into bed with shoes on. He’d even taken hers off—which was a lot more erotic than removing his own.

  His lips claimed hers and her eager response blocked out the surroundings until there was only the two of them. As his tongue invaded her mouth he realized his need to claim her so thoroughly she wouldn’t be able to tell where she ended and he began. A corner of his mind sent up a red flag, but he ignored the warning. Nothing mattered but to hold and caress her, to ignite her passion to match his.

  Clothes—both his and hers—were in the way. With her help, he removed everything until they lay naked together. He controlled his body’s urgent demand for immediate satisfaction. He’d waited for this a long time and so had she. And he’d damn well do everything in his power to make it as perfect as he could.

  He ran his hand over the curve of her hip to cup her bottom, pressing her against his arousal, her pleasure moan heating his blood.

  “Dan,” she whispered. “Oh, Dan…”

  Reaching between her thighs with his fingers, he found her ready, but he delayed entering her and continued stroking her until she was gasping. He started to reach into his pant pocket for protection, but Fay stopped him, murmuring she was on the Pill.

  When he finally rose over her, she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him into her welcoming warmth. As they began the age-old waltz of passion, he was overcome by a wave of pleasure combined with need so intense that everything else blurred. Just when he could no longer hold back, he felt her contract around him, heard her cry out. Dan then thrust harder and faster until he joined her in a shattering release.

  Afterward, they lay on their sides, still in each other’s arms, savoring the afterglow. Finally, he rose up on one elbow, looked down at her and said, “You know, that wasn’t the first time I undressed you.”

  “In the cabin,” she said. “I only vaguely remember. I must have been a sight to see, nearly cyanotic.”

  He stroked his hand over her belly. “I have to say your shape was a lot different.”

  “What did you think, seeing me then?”

  “Lust was not on my mind. Worry was, verging on panic when you told me the baby was coming.”

  “You seemed so calm.”

  “I didn’t want to scare you.”

  “You didn’t. I knew you’d help me.”

  He lifted his hand to her face, holding his palm against her cheek, then leaned down and kissed her, gently at first, then with increasing enthusiasm.

  A sound, one he didn’t at first recognize, penetrated his haze of rising desire. Not music. That must have ended long ago. Then he knew. The baby.

  He drew back, but when she started to sit up, he said, “No, stay here, let me bring her to you.”

  Padding barefoot into the nursery, he picked up the now wailing baby, changed her diaper and carried her into the bedroom. Fay had thrown back the coverlet and had the sheet drawn up to her waist, propping herself up on pillows.

  She took a long look at him at he approached the bed and smiled. “Unlike you with me, I never had the chance to see you naked before. I really never expected to be looking at a naked man carrying a baby.”

  “Like what you see?”

  “My lips are sealed.”

  “Wait ’til Marie’s fed. I’ve got a sure-fire method for unsealing lips.” He handed her the baby, climbed under the sheet and lay back on a pillow.

  “You’re not going to run off and hide while I nurse?” she asked as she arranged the baby at her breast. “You didn’t in the beginning, but then you changed.”

  “Something changed between us.”

  “And now?”

  He didn’t know what his reaction would be, but he figured now he could manage to handle whatever emotion emerged.

  “Now is different.” After a moment he added, “I was afraid to touch your breasts when we made love. I didn’t know if I might—well, damage the milk supply or something.”

  She chuckled. “You might have gotten milk on your fingers, but you wouldn’t have hurt me.”

  Her breasts were full and beautiful, the nipple he could see, large and erect. On impulse, he ran his forefinger over the nipple and drew it back wet with milk. Lifting the finger to his mouth, he licked it off. The taste was unremarkable, but it wasn’t the taste that rocked him, it was the emotion thrilling through him. What was it? Not lust. Not desire. Not a longing to be like the baby, sucking milk from a mother’s breast. It was as though he’d shared an intimate part of Fay.

  A red flag waved wildly. What was he getting into here? He’d wanted to make love to her, sure, and what had happened between them was more than he’d ever expected. But sex was sex. He didn’t need other emotions, whatever they might be, cluttering up his mind.

  Get out of here, Sorenson, he told himself.

  “What’s the matter?” Fay asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You had the strangest look on your face for a minute there.”

  Tell her you have to leave, he urged himself. Invent a meeting or something. Instead, he closed his eyes, shutting off the picture of Fay, flushed and lovely, nursing the baby.

  “Did my dad talk about this woman he’s involved with?” Fay asked after a time.

  “No.”

  “I know he wants me to meet her. She’s a widow with a grown daughter. But I’m not sure I care to.”

  Surprised, Dan opened his eyes. “Why not?”

  “I realize Mom’s been dead for years, but I—well, seeing another woman with Dad seems wrong, somehow.”

  “Dog in the manger,” he muttered.

  She frowned. “No, not that. Dad has every right to choose a companion. But I’m not even sure yet that I can forgive him enough for a reconciliation. Even if I was sure, to do that, I’d have to meet this Nell Yates.”

  “Right.”

  She sighed and he closed his eyes again as though to shut out the fact he was still naked in bed with Fay instead of on his way out of here. If he had any sense, he’d be halfway home by now. But he couldn’t make himself move. He must have dozed off briefly, because when he opened his eyes again, Marie was lying on the bed between them with Fay, the sheet pulled up above her breasts, jiggling the red rattle over her. The baby made excited passes at the rattle, none of which connected.

  “I got red,” he said, “because a TV show I caught while channel surfing claimed babies see primary colors best.”

  “She does like it.” Glancing at him, Fay added, “Doesn’t this seem sort of weird to you?”

  “The rattle?”

  “No. Did you ever imagine the three of us would be in bed together?”

  “Two of us, maybe. Peanut’s an extra.”

  Fond as he was of the baby, that’s what she was at the moment. Extra. He leaped out of bed, picked up Marie and returned her to the crib. He got back into bed and reached for Fay.

  Fay snuggled into his arms, where she was beginning to feel she belonged. Making love with Dan had exceeded her most heated imaginings and one time was definitely not enough.

  He pulled down the sheet so there was nothing between them. His mouth next to her ear, he whispered, “I told you once you were beautiful and you didn’t believe me.”

  “That was in the cabin. I wasn’t.”

  “You were and you are. I like to look at you.” His hand slid over to caress her breast and then ease down over her hip. “Even
better, I like to touch you.”

  “Mmmm,” she murmured, rubbing against him. She slipped her hand between them and ran it along his belly, feeling his muscles contract under her fingers. She let her hand drift down until she felt his arousal. “Thought so,” she said.

  “What else, considering I’m in bed with my favorite naked woman?”

  Favorite for the moment anyway, she tried to tell herself as his words and his touch tingled along her spine. “And here I thought this Tuesday was going to be a total loss,” she said. “I—”

  His kiss stopped her words, her thoughts and her breath. How could a kiss be so powerful as to render her helpless, a victim of her own desire? She wanted to feel him inside her again. And again and again. Maybe that’s why she’d kept backing away from making love with Dan. Because she’d feared the strength of her own feelings. For someone who prided herself on always being in control of any situation, this was scary. But too wonderful to miss.

  Didn’t every woman deserve one wild love affair in her life, however hopeless its permanence might be? Who needed permanence anyway?

  Giving in to the pleasure of his caresses, Fay caressed him in turn, reveling in the feel of his skin under her fingers, thrilling to the wordless sounds that told her how much he enjoyed her touch.

  She was more than ready when they finally came together and took each other up and up until they reached the peak. They held each other on the way down and afterward. She was drifting off to sleep when his beeper went off.

  Dan jumped from the bed, scrambling among his discarded clothes on the floor until he reached the beeper and shut it off. She heard him swearing. “Got to call the office,” he muttered.

  She sat up, realizing the day had drifted into evening. “Whatever it is, I’ll have to go,” Dan said. “They don’t call me when I’m off duty unless it’s important.” He leaned to her, gave her a quick kiss, swept up his clothes and left the bedroom.

  She stayed where she was until he called, “Put the chain on,” and she heard the front door close behind him.