Daddy's Best Friend: An Older Man Younger Woman Box Set

by Charlize Starr

  “I got a promotion last week,” Michael says, beaming proudly.

  “That’s wonderful,” Charlotte says, squeezing my hand.

  “Congratulations,” I say.

  “And I wanted you to know that I’m starting classes in the New Year to become a home health aide. You really inspired me,” Amanda says to Charlotte.

  “That’s amazing,” Charlotte says, beaming. “Let me know if you ever need any help.”

  “I will,” Amanda says. “We’re hoping by this time next year we can move into a bigger place and get Maria her own room.”

  “It sounds like you’re really on your way,” I say, impressed. I’m glad I was right about Michael. Despite making mistakes, he was only ever trying to provide for his family, and now he’s doing it the right away.

  “We have you to thank for it,” Michael says.

  “So we just wanted to thank you again, so much, and stop in to tell you Merry Christmas,” Amanda says.

  “Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” Charlotte says, pulling them both into hugs. “We’re so happy for you and your family.” I shake Michael’s hand and congratulate him again, and we wish them a Merry Christmas one more time before heading back into the ball.

  “I’m thrilled for them,” Charlotte says as we head back to the dance floor, beaming at me.

  “I am too,” I say. “I guess second chances really can go a long way.”

  “They certainly can,” Charlotte says, eyes fixed on me.

  “Their baby looks so healthy, so happy,” I say, thinking of little Maria in her stroller. I think of how I’d grown up, of the kids in my neighborhood and how we lived, and I think it’s clear that Michael and Amanda are already giving their daughter so much more of a head-start on life than that.

  “She does,” Charlotte says, seeming nervous all of a sudden. “Danny?”

  “Yes?” I ask, searching her face. She’s biting her lip and looking up at me like she sometimes does when there is news.

  “I wanted to wait for another week or two, but this seems like the perfect time to tell you. I found out last week that I’m pregnant.” I feel my heart leap at her words. “I know we weren’t planning on that yet but—” Charlotte says, stopping when I cut her off with a passionate, deliberate kiss.

  “We’re having a baby?” I say when I pull back from the kiss, feeling elated. Charlotte’s right—we hadn’t been planning it yet. We’re not getting married for almost a year, and I haven’t really thought about it in a real, concrete way until right now.

  “We are,” Charlotte says, beaming at me. I pull her in tight, feeling her heartbeat against mine. “Are you happy?”

  “Unbelievably happy,” I say, overwhelmed and thrilled all at once at the idea of being a father. “I love you, Charlotte.”

  “I love you too, Danny,” Charlotte says, sighing as she folds herself into me. We’re going to have a baby. Charlotte and me and a beautiful new child—we’re going to be a family. I never knew I wanted that, spent so many years trying to find happiness or at least something to distract me from how miserable I was, looking in all the wrong places. But standing here with Charlotte in my arms, feeling happier and prouder than I can ever remember feeling, I think maybe it’s all I ever wanted out of life after all.

  “Merry Christmas,” I say, kissing her forehead gently and placing a hand on her stomach, letting the weight sink in of this opportunity to be a better parent to my child than my own was to me, to start this new incredible chapter of my life with Charlotte by my side.

  “Merry Christmas,” Charlotte says. I kiss her again, holding her as close as I can on the dance floor. I thought last Christmas was the best holiday I’d ever had, but this one is already outshining it, and by next Christmas, we’ll have a baby. I wonder if every Christmas will continue to grow like this, to surprise me all over again.

  I know with Charlotte by my side, they will.

  I can’t wait for every Christmas, for every first our baby has, for every moment of my life with this amazing woman who has agreed to be my wife.

  *****

  THE END

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  The Boss's Surprise Baby

  Description

  A curvy girl who is out of luck PLUS a sexy billionaire looking for love PLUS an ex-wife with evil intentions!

  Kelly Taylor has no idea what she is getting herself into when she meets the famous billionaire Oscar Moretti chasing his daughter April down the street.

  She has been down on her luck, and after losing yet another job she is eager to find a new one. So when Oscar offers her one as a nanny to his daughter, she accepts without hesitation.

  What she isn’t ready for is the butterflies invading her stomach... He’s a player and she should stay away, but she can’t help but feel attracted to him. She does her best to stay focused, but her attraction to Oscar becomes more potent by the day. Soon, she must face the reality that a man like Oscar would never fall for a young girl like herself.

  But there is much more to a man than what you see on the outside...

  Oscar Moretti no longer believes in love. After strings of girlfriends and a fiancé who cheated on him, his only love is his daughter, April. But then he sees a dark-haired girl who brings joy into his heart again. He should stay away, because he is much too old for her. But he wants her, and there is no way he can let her go.

  He is used to getting what he wants.

  The attraction between Kelly and Oscar is obvious. But then Oscar’s ex-wife returns and Kelly must make a difficult choice.

  Will Oscar get back with his ex-wife? Or does he want Kelly? And should she tell him that she has a surprise for him? Find out now in this steamy billionaire romance!

  Chapter One

  Kelly closed her eyes and tried to focus on making it home. She had opted to stand the short way home, afraid that she would otherwise end up on the other side of town after missing her stop. It had been a hard day and all she wanted was to go home and get as much sleep as she could. Being in college with no money and a mediocre job, which she had just lost, had made her life more stressful than the life of any twenty-three-year-old needed to be. She had tried all her life to make both her parents proud but, as it was, she would be lucky if they still looked to her as a daughter after finding out she had lost her third job in two months. It wasn’t that she didn’t try. She had done everything in her power to please her employer, but she found that she did not love her job. The longer she had worked as secretary, telephone attendant, and then waitress, the more she had become resentful towards her jobs.

  The bus lurched to a stop and Kelly got off, deciding that she would run home and get started on a new job hunt before she told her parents. Just as she stepped off the bus a beautiful little girl with blonde pigtails and a scowl came bolting towards her from out of nowhere. Concern filled Kelly as she looked down at the little girl, who had clearly escaped her parents. She stepped forward and scooped her up before the girl could make her way on to the bus. She perched the girl on her hips and bounced her up and down as she began to lash out against Kelly. There was only one thing to do, and that was to find her parents.

  Just as Kelly was about to take her first step, a woman came running out of a building nearby. She looked young and Kelly assumed that she must be the mother. She ran straight towards Kelly and grabbed the child from her hands.

  “How could you do that to mommy?” the woman asked, obviously angry with the child.

  “Oh, I’m sure she only meant to be off for a few minutes,” Kelly tried to
joke. She had been an energetic child, so she knew what it was like for little girls to want to do a bit of exploring, even if that meant the parents would be worried crazy.

  The woman looked at her as if Kelly had lost her mind. Just then a man came out from the same store the woman had just left. He looked much older than her, but Kelly was impressed by how handsome he was. He wore a gray fitted suit and a scowl that made Kelly want to cringe. He walked with slow, long strides, taking his time to get to them. Kelly registered that the woman standing beside her was afraid of him, and she wondered why.

  “I’ve had it with you, Julianna,” he said, in a low, rumbling voice. “This is the second time you’ve lost our child this week. The judge said you could have supervised visits, but I frankly have had enough. I’m taking her.” Just like that, Kelly watched as he yanked the child from her mother’s hand. The little girl, who had previously quieted, now stretched out her hands and began crying to be returned to her mother.

  Kelly was about to speak when the strangest thing happened. Instead of reaching out for her child, the mother simply sucked her teeth and walked away, leaving the father holding the crying little girl.

  “Do I know you?” he asked.

  “Oh, um, no. I was just here to catch your daughter just now,” Kelly said, trying to step around him so she could flee the scene of what appeared to be the weirdest episode she’d ever seen.

  “Ah, so you caught little monkey here?” he asked affectionately. “I’m surprised you were able to. She usually gets a few blocks from us before we can catch up to her.”

  “She basically ran into my arms,” Kelly joked.

  “Did she?” he asked, looking down at his daughter. “You like this lady?” he asked his daughter, who was now sobbing quietly into his jacket.

  Kelly was thrown a bit off guard by the turn of the conversation, but it seemed the little girl understood clearly because she nodded and placed her head on her father’s shoulder.

  “Seems you’ve done what many have tried to do,” he said with a smile. “You’ve won over a Moretti.”

  Kelly didn’t register the name immediately, but after a second she began to recognize who he was.

  “You’re Oscar Moretti?” she asked, beginning to understand a bit better. The woman she had just met was his ex-wife, who he had caught cheating with his business partner. Or that’s what the gossip columns had reported. She had heard a lot of things about Oscar Moretti from the gossip columns. He had made a name for himself in college, turning his measly inheritance into a multibillion dollar hotel empire. He’d had relationships with various tall, thin models before marrying Julianna when she fell pregnant. Their split had been of great interest to Kelly’s circle of friends, and had been plastered on the covers of all the tabloids for months.

  “Yes, I am,” he replied. “And you are?”

  “I’m Kelly, Kelly Taylor,” she replied.

  Just then a car drove up, and a man dressed in a black suit and sunglasses stepped out.

  “It was nice to meet you, Kelly,” Oscar said, handing the little girl to the man in the suit. She reluctantly let go of her father, who then stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a card. “Give me a call, Kelly, I think I have a proposition for you,” he said, handing her the card. For a moment their hands touched and Kelly felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her that she had not felt since she was a love-struck teenager.

  Kelly was impressed, but she wanted to know what a man like him wanted with a girl like her. And she also wanted to go home and figure out why the simple brush of his hand against her made her feel as if butterflies had invaded her stomach.

  Chapter Two

  “You lost your job!” Kelly wasn’t surprised her mother had learned of her transgression before she had got home. Hoping she could get away with it was a big mistake.

  “I couldn’t help it, mom,” she said, walking past her mother, who was blocking the doorway to the kitchen.

  “You couldn’t help it!” her mother responded, walking right behind her as she headed to her room, “You have no space for error, Kelly. Having a job is the only way you’ll make it through this last stretch of school,”

  “I’ll find another job,” Kelly replied, when she finally made it to her room at the back of the house.

  “Who is going to hire you now, Kelly? You’ve been fired by everyone on the strip, and I’m sure word is going around about how irresponsible you are.”

  Kelly looked at her mother, who seemed to be a lot more distressed than she was. She thought of how hard her mother had worked to give her a better life and in that moment she remembered her encounter with the multi-millionaire.

  “I actually think I might have an interview,” she said.

  “An interview?” her mother asked.

  “Yes, I met someone today and he said I should call him. He gave me his card.”

  This made her mother pause. Kelly could tell that what she had said had done nothing to put her mother at ease.

  “You want to go and work for a strange man,” her mother said slowly and calmly. “Have we taught you nothing?”

  “He’s not technically a strange man,” she replied. “We know him. We just don’t know him know him.”

  Kelly felt as if she was a little girl all over again, trying to explain to her mother why she was eating peanut butter off the spoon.

  “What are you trying to say?” her mother asked, in obvious confusion.

  “I’m saying that we know this man, but we don’t know him like you know Mrs. Spence at the grocery store,” Kelly replied, sitting on her bed.

  “Well, then tell me who this man is,” her mother replied, crossing her arms.

  “He’s Oscar Moretti,” Kelly replied, under her breath.

  “Oscar who?” her mother asked.

  “Oscar Moretti,” Kelly replied, a bit louder this time.

  “The Oscar Moretti who owns the hotel I work in?” her mother asked, a skeptical look on her face.

  “Yes,” Kelly said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “And how did you meet this Oscar Moretti?” her mother asked, seemingly amused.

  “I met him today when I stopped his daughter from running into the street,” Kelly replied.

  “And then he hired you?” her mother asked.

  “Well, not really. He just told me to give him a call because he had a position for me. I was thinking I could call him and ask him if he needed someone to work at one of his hotels,” Kelly lied. She knew that saying ‘proposition’ to her mother would make her think something completely different.

  Her mother was silent for a moment.

  “If this works out, just make sure you don’t mess it up,” she said, before turning and sauntering back into the kitchen.

  Kelly rolled over on her bed and let out a sigh of relief. She had got her mother off her back for now, but she had no idea whether or not this man would give her a job. All she could think about was the intensity in his eyes and the way she had been drawn to him on that sidewalk. She picked up her phone and decided it wasn’t too late to call. She was only asking for an entry level job, and he shouldn’t find that too hard to supply, seen as she had practically saved his daughter’s life. She took the card from her pocket and dialed the number.

  “Hello,” she said, when he picked up.

  “Hello,” he replied. “Who might I be speaking to?”

  “Umm, it’s Kelly, the girl…”

  “Oh yes, I met you on the sidewalk today,” he said, before she could finish her sentence.

  “Oh yes, that’s me.” All the bravado she had mustered up before making the call had vanished.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “Well, not really,” she replied. “I actually wanted to call you to ask for a job.” She crossed her fingers and prayed he wouldn’t decline.

  “A job?” he asked skeptically.

  “Yes, I actually lost mine today. And since you gave me your card, I thought I may as
well cash in that favor you offered.”

  A chuckle came down the line. “Come into my office tomorrow bright and early,” he replied.

  “Really?” she asked, a bit surprised.

  “Yes, I think I have a job that would fit you well. And dress casually.”

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Moretti,” she said, a bit too loudly.

  “Please, I wish you would call me Oscar,” he replied.

  “Oh sure, no problem. Oscar,” Kelly said, doing a little dance in her head.

  “Well, if that’s all then, I must wish you a good day,” he said, before hanging up.

  Kelly stared at the phone, thanking her lucky stars that she had managed to wrangle a possible job.

  Chapter Three

  Kelly approached the Moretti building with reverence. She had skipped her morning class to attend this meeting, which had her on edge. Coupled with that, her mother had insisted she wore a suit which was two sizes too small for her. The last time she had worn this suit had been for her undergrad placement interview. Since then she had moved up at least three sizes, and the widening of her hips and the late development of what her mother jovially called her "coconuts" made everything more emphasized in the tiny suit. Her breasts were on display and no matter how much she adjusted the buttons, they would somehow come undone, revealing more cleavage than was recommended for any job interview. She had looked in the mirror at her butt and realised that it too was on display and arguably more noticeable in the tight fitting skirt. She had agreed to wear the suit just to get her mother off her back, but now, as she knocked on the door of Oscar’s private building, she was feeling a bit nervous. The hotel took up six large, tall buildings lining the beach side. In the middle was Oscar’s building and, as she had been told by her mother, the place where all interviews and hiring were done.