Storybook Dad (Harlequin American Romance)

by Bradford, Laura

  “Emily, it doesn’t have to be like that.”

  “The fact that it might be is enough for me.” She tried to resist when Mark pulled her close, but she couldn’t. More than anything she wanted to savor the feel of his arms one more time, to find whatever comfort she could in knowing that her dream could have come true.

  All too soon, though, he stepped back, his hand reaching for hers in the process. “Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.”

  * * *

  HE HELD HER HAND all the way to the front door, a wave of second thoughts accompanying him. While there was a part of him that liked the idea of Seth being present when Mark asked Emily to marry him, there was another part that was just plain scared. Scared she wouldn’t see things the way he saw them.

  “You can open your eyes now,” he prompted. “Just don’t look around too much out here, okay?”

  “Don’t look around too much?”

  “Humor me.” He wasn’t entirely sure she would remember the house, considering the heightened stress level they’d been under when they’d pulled up the driveway the first time. But he didn’t want to take any chances. Her focus was needed inside.

  “Where are we?” she asked as he gave a quick knock and opened the door for her to enter.

  “You’ll see.” He knew he was being cryptic, but he wanted her to see reality with her own two eyes. With any luck, it would have more impact than any picture he could try to paint with his words.

  Step by step, he led her down the main hallway, his slow, careful gait designed to give her time to soak up the various degrees and awards that were displayed on the walls.

  “Rose Reynolds?” Emily read as they passed. “Who is that?”

  The sound of his son’s happy chatter saved Mark from having to verbalize an answer. “Do I hear my little man?” he called.

  “I’m in here, Daddy. With Gam.”

  Emily tugged him to a stop. “You brought me to your mother’s house?” she whispered. “Mark, what on earth are you doing?”

  His only response was to guide her the rest of the way down the hall and into the hearth room. When they rounded the corner, he released her hand and stopped beside the card table he’d erected before leaving for Kate’s that afternoon. “Mom? I brought someone special I’d like you to meet.”

  Rose Reynolds craned her neck around in greeting, but it was Seth’s voice that dominated the room. “Emily! Emily! You’re here!” Jumping down from his chair beside his grandmother, he ran to Emily and wrapped his arms around her legs. “Gam and I are building a castle with my blocks. You wanna see?”

  “Uh, sure, sweetheart. I’d love to see it.” Without glancing in Mark’s direction, Emily followed Seth around the table, stopping beside Mark’s mother and extending her hand. “Hi. I’m Emily Todd. I’m a friend of—”

  His mom’s eyes twinkled in the reflection of the overhead light. “I’m Rose and I know who you are. My grandson has talked nonstop about you since the other night at the beach.”

  At the first hint of a blush on Emily’s face, the woman laughed. “In fact, this room right here—” she pointed toward the elaborate block castle’s second story “—is yours.”

  “Mine?” Emily repeated.

  “Yupper doodles,” Seth exclaimed. “It’s big enough for you and Daddy!”

  The corner of Rose’s mouth twitched just before a sly smile broke out across her gently lined face. “Emily, would you like something to drink? I have wine, lemonade, water, tea....”

  At Emily’s questioning glance, Mark nodded.

  “I’d love a glass of water if it’s not too much trouble.”

  “No trouble at all.”

  Seth’s finger shot up into the air. “I’ll be right back, Emily. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” Then, in a flash, he was around the table and climbing up onto his grandmother’s lap as she wheeled herself from the table and into the kitchen.

  Mark watched as his mother transported his son across the kitchen and then went about the task of filling Emily’s drink order. After a moment, he looked back at Emily.

  “Your mom…she’s in a wh-wheelchair,” Emily stammered.

  “Yup.” He pointed toward the card table between them. “Doesn’t stop her from building a castle with her grandson, now, does it?”

  When Emily said nothing, he nodded toward the kitchen. “And Seth? He’s just as happy to ride around the house on his grandmother’s lap as he would be to walk by her side. It’s his grandma and that’s all that matters.”

  When Emily finally spoke, her voice was quiet and unsure. “But what about when he gets too big to ride in her lap?”

  “He’ll push her…just like I did.”

  Emily’s lower lip trembled ever so slightly. “She was in that when you were a kid?”

  “She’s been in it since she was a kid. Mom lost her leg in a fire. She’s got an artificial one, but that’s mostly for vanity, as she’s fond of saying. Which means—” he looked closely at Emily “—she was in it when she married my dad.”

  Mark watched as Emily peered around the room.

  “He’s not here anymore, unfortunately.”

  “Oh? Did he pack up and leave when he realized how much work she was going to be?”

  “He died just before Seth was born. Mom cared for him right up until the end.”

  Emily’s face turned crimson. “Mark, I’m sorry. That was out of line.”

  He shrugged. “I imagine a first glance at the two of them would have had lots of people assuming he cared for her. But by the second glance, anyone with half a brain in their head would realize they were as much a partnership as any other marriage out there. The only difference was the fact that Mom did most everything from a seated position.”

  “But she has all those awards and degrees,” Emily mused.

  “You’re right, she does.” Mark knew it was premature to get his hopes up, but things were looking good. Emily was getting a taste of a reality she needed to see. “And knowing Mom, she’s likely to add a few more to her collection before she gets around to admitting she’s old. Heck, she’d probably remarry one day if she could find someone to keep up with her.”

  Even as he spoke, he could tell Emily wasn’t absorbing what he said. Instead, her eyes were focused to the side, as if she was trying to remember something.

  “Wait. One of those degrees we passed was for…” Her words trailed off as she headed along the hallway, with Mark on her heels. When she reached the row of framed certificates, she stopped in front of the one that was dead center. Tapping her hand on the glass, she looked from the official document to Mark and back again, the confusion in her face making him chuckle. “This says she’s scuba qualified.”

  “Because she is.”

  “But how?”

  “When she and Dad were in Australia on vacation fifteen years ago, she came across a place that offered scuba classes to people like her.”

  “But you can’t scuba dive in a chair, Mark,” Emily protested.

  “And she didn’t. They removed her artificial leg, attached an extra-big flipper to her good foot and away she went, compliments of—”

  “The water’s buoyancy,” Emily finished. “Wow. I had no idea.”

  “It’s been like that with my mom for as long as I can remember. Everything she’s done in life, everything she’s ever accomplished, she’s done in spite of her chair.” Seeing in Emily’s eyes the emotion he’d hoped to stimulate, he took her hand
and led her back to the living room. Then, with determination, he pulled her close, his shoulder quickly growing damp from her quiet tears. “Which is how I’ve always loved her. And how Seth has always loved her, too. Why I didn’t look at things that way from the start is beyond me, but I guess I just needed to step back and take in the big picture. And you do, too.”

  “I can’t make any promises,” Emily whispered.

  “Neither can I. Not about that kind of stuff, anyway. But there is one promise I know I can make if you’ll let me.”

  “What’s that?” She stepped back and peered up at him.

  “Seth? Can you come here a second?” Mark called. “I need your help with something.”

  “Sure, Daddy.” The boy rode across the kitchen on his grandmother’s lap, then climbed down carefully with the water glass in his hand. “Here you go, Emily. I hope it’s really yummy.”

  Taking his son by the hand, Mark knelt on the floor at Emily’s feet and whispered to Seth to do the same. Then, looking up, he met and held her gaze. “I promise, from this day forward, to sweep you off your feet and carry you in my arms only if you ask. With one caveat, of course.”

  The smile he’d grown to love in such a short period of time slowly made its way across her face in spite of the tears that streamed down her cheeks. “What’s that?” she asked quietly.

  “That I don’t have to ask permission to carry you over the threshold of our home on our wedding night.”

  Epilogue

  Thirteen months later

  Trish looked up from her desk the second they walked in, the smile on her face surely a reflection of the one Emily felt spreading across her own.

  “Hey, boss. Hey, Seth. Ready for the big day?” Spinning around in her desk chair, Emily’s assistant yanked open her top drawer, pulled out a bouquet of lollipops and held it out for Seth to see. “They taste just like vanilla ice cream, only not so cold.”

  Emily shook her head and laughed, releasing Seth’s hand as she did. “Now, wait a minute, Trish. Are you my assistant or Seth’s?”

  “I got a cherry one for you, boss.”

  “Good answer,” she joked before reaching for the series of pink sticky notes lined up across the desk. “So everything’s all set for noon?”

  “Everything is all set. I even gave a call to that reporter from Winoka Magazine who did that article on you last spring. Told her what’s going on, and she said she’d send a photographer by to snap some pictures of the ribbon cutting for the next issue.”

  “Outstanding.” Emily flipped through the messages that had come into the office while she’d been away for her appointment. When she got to the fourth in the pile, she stole a peek in Trish’s direction. “Kate called?”

  Pulling an orange lollipop from her mouth, her assistant nodded, her expression giving nothing away where Kate’s call was concerned.

  “And? What did she say?”

  “She’s on her way over.”

  “Did she say why?” Emily prompted.

  Trish made a face. “We’re talking about Kate, aren’t we? Everyone around her is supposed to be an open book. But her? Not unless she’s in your face.”

  “True.” Emily smiled at Seth as he hopped across the main office and down the hall, a lollipop held tightly in his hand.

  Trish watched him go and then turned back with a questioning look. “Have I missed the memo about our little prince turning into a frog? Because if I did, might I remind you it usually happens the other way around. You know, first the frog, then the prince.”

  Glancing at the note containing nothing but Kate’s name, Emily shrugged. “He’s still a prince. He’s just a prince who’s learning about the letter B in his kindergarten class this week. Bunnies start with B, so there’s going to be a lot of hopping going on.”

  “Ah-h-h… I see.” Trish lowered her voice. “Everything go okay with your neurologist this morning?”

  “Nothing I didn’t anticipate.”

  At the sudden shift in her tone, Trish’s eyebrow shot upward once again. “You okay?’

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just found myself marveling once again at the psychic ability I appeared to have had when I was ten.”

  When she didn’t elaborate, Trish waved her down the hall. “And apparently you and Kate both excelled in whatever class you guys took on the art of being cryptic.”

  Emily made a face at her young friend before heading off to her office. She wasn’t trying to be cryptic. It just didn’t make much sense to talk about something that simply wasn’t going to happen. It was like strapping on her climbing gear, only to find herself standing in the middle of a flat desert. There was no point. Not in her eyes, anyway.

  Besides, if she shared the reason for her appointment aloud, it would seem as if she wasn’t happy with the life she had, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. She already had so much more than she’d thought she’d ever have.

  “Hiya, Memmy.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at the nickname the little boy had bestowed on her after the wedding, his creative merging of her name with the role she’d be playing in his life resulting in a moniker they both treasured.

  “Your bunny hop was very good, sweetheart.”

  Seth beamed around his lollipop. “Really?”

  She crossed the room to perch on the edge of her desk. “Actually, I’d say it was beautiful, brave and very believable.”

  His closed his lips around the sucker for a quick taste and then popped it out of his mouth. “That’s very good, Memmy. Miss Olson would be proud of how well you know your Bs.”

  “I’m pretty proud of Memmy, too. But for lots of other reasons, little man.”

  Hearing her husband’s voice coming down the hall, Emily turned toward the door, the sight of her real live prince making all her petty worries disappear. This man, whom she adored with everything she had, had given her back her dream. Life didn’t get much better, in her opinion.

  He opened his arms wide enough for both of them, his first kiss finding the top of Seth’s head and the second one lingering on Emily’s lips. “How’d it go today?” he whispered in her ear.

  “I asked those last few questions we discussed, and I think it’s best if we just stay the course.”

  When Seth wiggled free and returned to the reading corner Emily had set up for him behind her desk, she allowed Mark to pull her close, the comfort she found in his arms making her decision a little easier.

  “You know I’ll support whatever you decide.”

  She gestured over her shoulder at the fifth drawing, now framed and hung on the wall beside all the others, and lowered her voice to a near whisper. “I drew all of those because they represented my fondest dreams. And one by one, they’ve all come true. There are no other drawings to be framed, because I already have everything I ever wanted, Mark. To risk jeopardizing my ability to care for Seth just so I can complete a picture I never drew in the first place just isn’t worth it to me.”

  “I love you, Emily.”

  “I love—”

  The buzz of the intercom cut her off midsentence. “Boss? Are you ready?”

  She glanced from the clock over the door to Mark and then Seth’s face. All her life she’d been a go-getter, determined to make her dreams and the dreams of everyone around her come true. Ninteen months ago, an obstacle had been erected in her quest to reach her greatest dream of all. Thirteen months ago, Mark and Seth had stood beside her as she mad
e the choice to see that obstacle as an opportunity to grow.

  Now it was her turn to do the same for a man she’d only met over the phone.

  “We’re ready.” Holding her hands out to her two greatest gifts, Emily made her way back down the hallway with her big prince on one side and her little prince on the other. When she reached the end, she turned right instead of left, bypassing the front door in favor of the new, wider one that had been installed by the Folks Helping Folks Foundation.

  Pushing it open, she closed her eyes and lifted her face to the late August sun. “Mmm…”

  “Mrs. Reynolds?”

  Her lashes parted to reveal the man who, in many ways, was responsible for leading her back to Mark. A man who knew what it was to dream, and embodied the very spirit needed to make those dreams come true. She started to walk down the ramp to shake his hand, but stopped when he shook his head and wheeled himself up to her instead, the smile on his rugged face making her blink back tears.

  “Mr. Walker, I am honored to finally meet you. Our time on the phone together so many months ago made such a difference in my life. All I can do now is hope that what we’ve added here today will make a difference in yours, too.”

  “It’s a start, that’s for sure. At least now I can come here and learn about some of the things I put off doing until I wasn’t able to do them anymore.”

  Emily glanced up at Mark, saw him nod, and knew the moment she’d been researching and working toward was finally here. At least the first part, anyway.

  Pointing toward the door she’d just come through, she addressed Mr. Walker with what she hoped was a semidecent poker face. “Before we get started with the foundation’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, would you mind coming inside with me for a second? I’d like to show you something.”

  “Sure.” Jed rested his hands on the wheels of his chair and spun them forward, through the door Mark held open. Room by room, Emily guided him through the building, pausing to explain about the various on-site classes they held throughout the year, as well as a few details about the adventures that took them to various locations throughout Winoka and beyond.