Designated Daddy

by Jane Toombs

  If only life were simple, Steve thought.

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Jane Toombs

  JANE TOOMBS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Copyright

  If only life were simple, Steve thought.

  Ordinarily he was a man of action, always on the road. At the moment, however, living on top of this mountain had an almost irresistible appeal.

  Of course, he had Victoria with him. And tiny Heidi...

  How had he, a loner by choice, managed to collect not only a baby but also the sexiest woman he’d ever set eyes on? And what was he going to do with them when this mountain idyll ended?

  A top-notch government agent, he’d always prided himself on keeping things under control. But now a woman and child had turned his well-ordered life into chaos.

  And for once, Steve found he didn’t want to plan or think about the future.

  Not when he was having the time of his life...

  Dear Reader,

  This September, you may find yourself caught up in the hustle and bustle of a new school year. But as a sensational stress buster, we have an enticing fall lineup for you to pamper yourself with. Each month, we offer six brand-new romances about people just like you—trying to find the perfect balance between life, career, family and love.

  For starters, check out Their Other Mother by Janis Reams Hudson—a feisty THAT SPECIAL WOMAN’ butts head with a gorgeous, ornery father of three. This also marks the debut of this author’s engaging new minuseries. WlLDERS OF WYATT COUNTY.

  Sherryl Woods continues her popular series AND BABY MAKES THREE: THE NEXT GENERATION with an entertaining story about a rodeo champ who becomes victims to his matchmaking daughter in Suddenly, Annie’s Father. And for those of you who treasure stories about best-friends-turned-lovers, don’t miss That First Special Kiss by Gina Wilkins, book two in her FAMILY FOUND SONS AND DAUGHTERS series.

  In Celebrate the Child by Amy Frazier, a military man becomes an integral part of his precious little girl’s life—as well as that of her sweet-natured adopted mom. And when a secret agent takes on the role of daddy, he discovers the family of his dreams in Jane Toombs’s Designated Daddy. Finally, watch for A Cowboy’s Code by talented newcomer Alama Starr, who spins a compelling love story set in the hard-driving West.

  I hope you enjoy these six emotional romances created by women like you, for women like you!

  Sincerely,

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S . 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: PO Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  JANE TOOMBS

  DESIGNATED DADDY

  Books by Jane Toombs

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Nobody’s Baby #1081

  Baby of Mine #1182

  Accidental Parents #1247

  Designated Daddy #1271

  Silhouette Shadows

  Return to Bloodstone House #5

  Dark Enchantment #12

  What Waits Below #16

  The Volan Curse #35

  The Woman in White #50

  The Abandoned Bride #56

  Previously published under the pseudonym Diana Stuart

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Out of a Dream #353

  The Moon Pool #671

  Silhouette Desire

  Prime Specimen #172

  Leader of the Pack #238

  The Shadow Between #257

  JANE TOOMBS

  was born in California, raised in the upper peninsula of Michigan and has moved from New York to Nevada as a result of falling in love with the state and a Nevadan. Jane has five children, two stepchildren and seven grandchildren. Her interests include gardening, reading and knitting.

  Chapter One

  The Capitol Beltway evening traffic was no worse than usual, but to Steve Henderson, who was coming off a tough case, coping with the rush of cars and trucks edged his tiredness into exhaustion. The strident buzz of his agency beeper was the last straw.

  He had a cell phone but for security reasons never took or made agency calls on it. The beeper signal meant he had to pull off and find a pay phone to find out why he was being paged. Whatever the emergency, he was too close to crashing to cope with it. Muttering a curse, he angled toward the nearest exit, knowing it might be miles before he could work his way off.

  When he finally made it, the first pay phone he located was outside. Ordinarily, outside open phone booths made him uptight, but he couldn’t muster up the energy tonight. With no more than a cursory glance to right and left, he punched in the agency number.

  “Fifty-one,” he said into the phone, giving his code number. “What’s up?”

  Steve listened to the reply, frowning. “Kinnikec Hospital? What the hell for?”

  Moments later, he hung up, shocked and more confused than he’d been in years. Before leaving, out of habit he put his back to the phone booth, scanning the area, but his mind wasn’t on what he was doing.

  The hospital. What in blue blazes had taken Kim to Kinnikec? Though it was in Maryland, the hospital was nowhere near where he thought she’d been living. They were divorced and he hadn’t set eyes on her in three years so why had she given the hospital his name and the Riggs and Robinson screening phone number that led to the agency? Surprising she’d even remembered it after so long. But why call him and not Malengo?

  Because she’d been Steve’s wife before she took up with that slimy scumbag, the agency made it their business to keep tabs on her. She’d still been with Malengo the last he heard.

  Dead. He had no choice but to go. Steve shook his head, strode to his nondescript black car and spun out of the parking area onto the access road, making his way to Kinnikec Hospital.

  Knowing from experience the emergency entrance to any hospital was usually the quickest way in, Steve waited for an ambulance, lights flashing, to pull in ahead of him. By the time he found a place to park and got to the door, the paramedics had already unloaded their patient and disappeared inside.

  The front desk receptionist was on the phone and finished the conversation before directing the man ahead of him to go to the hospital’s third floor.

  “I received a call asking me to come here,” Steve said, giving his name. “They said Francine Henderson was dead and I’m listed as the next of kin.”

  That was another thing, he thought, as he waited for the receptionist to shuffle through papers. Francine had started calling herself Kim shortly after they were married, saying she felt more like a Kim than a Francine and never permitted anyone to use her real first name again. But here, for some reason, she had.

  “If you’ll step into the waiting room for a moment I’ll have a nurse come for you,” the receptionist said, her attention already shifting to the person in line behind him.

  Aware that moments in hospitals often expanded into hours, he leaned against the wall in the crowded ER waiting room, fighting fatigue, scanning the room from habit. No one he recognized, certainly not Malengo.

  His mind couldn’t take in the fact that Kim was dead, so he shut it down and tried not to think at all.

  Eventua
lly a red-haired nurse opened the waiting room door and said his name. Steve pushed away from the wall. Walking toward her, he thought absently that she looked even more tired than he felt, if that was possible.

  “My name is Victoria,” she said. “Please come with me.”

  She led him into a small room that had the earmarks of a sanctuary for the telling of bad news.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Henderson,” Victoria said. “We did everything possible for your wife, but she died. The doctor is busy at the moment but he’ll be with you soon to explain....”

  Though he already knew Kim was dead, Steve was sandbagged by anguish so intense, it blotted out the nurse’s words as well as everything else. He’d laid aside any feeling for Kim aften the divorce or so he’d thought—but the shock of knowing she was irrevocably gone brought back the fact that he’d once thought he loved her. Whatever their differences, he’d never wished her dead.

  Poor Kim, an orphan with no siblings. At the end there was no one to take responsibility for her but him, the man she’d left behind years before.

  “I don’t care to wait for the doctor,” he said when he could speak. “Would he tell me anything you don’t know?”

  Victoria blinked, hesitating. “Not really,” she said after a moment. “I was there. One of the things he would have asked you to do is make a positive identification. If you feel able to, I’ll show you where to go.”

  Dazed, caught up in remembering Kim, he had enough awareness to nod. Identification? Yes, he could do that.

  Some time later, thankful to put that sad task behind him, again he followed Victoria, the image of Kim’s peaceful-at last face filling his mind. He assumed the nurse was bringing him to wherever Kim’s belongings had been stored. He supposed he had as much right to them as anyone, since Malengo had never married her.

  He’d neglected to tell the hospital that Kim was no longer his wife—on purpose. In the secrecy business you learn never to volunteer information. She’d had some reason for giving hospital personnel his name and, until he discovered what it was—if he ever did—he’d keep his mouth shut.

  “I was with her yesterday from the time they brought her into the ER from the accident,” Victoria was saying.

  Steve nodded, unable to respond.

  Victoria gave him a sympathetic look. “Maybe you’d rather not hear about that right now. When you want to know more, just ask me. Otherwise I’ll keep quiet.”

  Grateful he wouldn’t have to make a pretense of listening, he nodded again. He was tired to the bone and until he was able to emotionally grasp the fact of Kim’s death, he couldn’t process any more information.

  Up they went in an elevator. When the door opened, Steve trailed Victoria onto a ward, halted when she told him to wait and leaned against the wall again, eyes closed. Mixed with other hospital sounds, he thought he heard babies crying. A shame helpless babies had to have things wrong with them, he thought. Fortunately his niece and nephew were healthy kids.

  If only he could be relaxing with his sister and her family in Nevada....

  Steve came back to awareness when he heard Victoria’s voice. He must have fallen asleep on his feet.

  “Hold out your arms,” she said.

  Dazedly he did as she asked and jerked to astounded alertness when she deposited a swaddled infant in his arms.

  “I stayed with Francine throughout the delivery,” Victoria said. “We were all thrilled when the baby came out unharmed. A miracle.”

  It filtered through to him that what she’d handed him was Kim’s newborn baby, obviously believing he was the father.

  “No, impossible,” he muttered, handing the bundled infant back to her. “Impossible.”

  As she cradled the infant, Victoria’s sympathy for Steve Henderson made tears spring to her eyes. How overwhelmed he must feel, with his wife dead, at the thought of assuming responsibility for his newborn baby. He hadn’t yet had time to grieve—how could he be expected to rejoice?

  “I understand,” she said soothingly.

  Steve shook his head as though in doubt anyone could understand.

  The poor guy. Victoria blinked back tears. Though she tried to stay objective, sometimes she just couldn’t. Which was why she was in such desperate need of this vacation.

  Taking a deep breath, she said, “We’ve run the tests and kept her under observation for the required amount of time so you can take your baby home. Do you have anyone to take care of her?”

  He shook his head again, looking so confused that her heart went out to him. “The baby—” he began, hesitated and didn’t go on.

  Though she’d sworn never to act on impulse ever again, Victoria, remembering what she’d more or less promised the dead woman, found herself saying, “I’m on a three-month leave, starting tomorrow. If you like, I can come with you and be the baby’s nurse for a few days until you’re able to make other arrangements.”

  Steve stared at her, opening his mouth to refuse, to explain. Before the words left his lips, he changed his mind. Kim knew very well he couldn’t be the baby’s father yet she’d pretended to still be married to him, leading the hospital to assume the baby was his. For some reason she wanted him to protect this child of hers. From Malengo? Because odds were that scoundrel was the father.

  He had to honor what amounted to her last request. At least until he dug up enough facts to know why Kim had put him on the spot. It was still hard to accept that she was dead.

  “I don’t know your last name,” he said to the red-haired nurse.

  “Reynaud. Victoria Reynaud.”

  “I’ll take you up on your offer, Ms. Reynaud. And thank you.”

  “Victoria,” she said. “It’ll make things easier.”

  “Steve,” he told her.

  “Do you have baby supplies at home?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  She raised her eyebrows but said only, “We’ll have to stop and get some. A carrier-bed for safety, diapers, formula, bottles—”

  “Whatever.” She’d have to decide, he didn’t have a clue what babies needed.

  As it turned out, Steve had to make arrangements for a mortuary for Kim as well as fill out and sign forms. When he was through he accepted Kim’s belongings and followed Victoria, who was carrying the baby, out of the hospital. Ordinarily he preferred to lead but this was no ordinary occasion. Nothing in his life had prepared him to deal with Kim’s death, much less her newborn child. The strangest feeling had come over him when he’d briefly held that featherweight bundle. He attributed it to panic.

  His sister’s children had been older when he first had anything to do with them. Under a year, but alert, active and able to communicate. This one was totally helpless. Thank heaven for the redhead.

  “My car’s in the parking garage,” Victoria said to Steve, who didn’t seem to hear her. She repeated it, adding, “Do you have a car here?”

  He blinked at her as though he’d never seen her before, then nodded. “We’ll go together in mine. I’ll drive you back tomorrow to pick up yours.”

  Not is it all right if we do it this way? A statement rather than a question. She decided to give him the benefit of doubt and put it down to shock. Maybe he normally was mellower. She hoped so because she certainly didn’t need to hang out with some edictissuing jerk, even if it was for only a few days.

  She’d already had her share of those types, thank you.

  Considering how she’d counted the days until her much-needed leave began, she had to be a martyr for offering to help him out, she thought. The baby in her arms whimpered and Victoria sighed, cuddling her closer. No. way could she have abandoned this motherless little mite without making sure the baby would be well cared for.

  Steve paused beside a black sedan. She watched as his head swiveled from side to side. What was he looking for? Prowlers? The ER parking lot was safe enough. Apparently satisfied, he unlocked the passenger door and opened it for her

  As they pulled out of the lot, she ask
ed, “Could we swing by my apartment so I can pick up a few things I’ll need?”

  “Not now. Buy your necessities when you shop for the baby’s.”

  He could have spared an “okay.” Victoria clenched her teeth to keep back a barbed comment. Cool it, she ordered herself. Harsh words will only upset the baby. She’s the reason you’re here. Ignore him.

  “I’ll stop by the apartment tomorrow after I collect my car,” she told him, setting up her own boundary.

  He grunted. After a few minutes, he said, “You mentioned an accident. What happened to Kim?”

  “Kim?”

  “Francine. She liked to be called Kim.”

  “I heard it was a two-car collision. Francine was alone in her car. I think some of the people in the other car came into the ER as accident victims, too. I was so occupied with her that I didn’t pay much attention.” She glanced at him. “In addition to her injuries from the accident, she was also in labor when she arrived.”

  “I’ve been working out of town. Got the call as I was coming in on the Beltway.”

  Which explained why his wife had been driving herself to the hospital, she thought. But surely they’d known the baby was due to be born. How odd they hadn’t prepared for it.

  “You don’t even have a crib?” she blurted.

  He shook his head.

  Well, she wasn’t going to shop for a crib tonight. If she could find a carrier-type bed, that would do temporarily. Resting her head against the seat back, she closed her eyes and began a mental list of what she’d need for the baby.

  The next she knew, someone was touching her arm, calling her name. She jerked awake, suddenly fearful she’d dropped the baby. Reassured that she hadn’t, she said, “I must have dozed off.”