Date With a Single Dad

by Ally Blake

  Heat blossomed in her cheeks. Wyatt didn’t strike her as the kind of man who liked admitting weakness. The very fact that he was asking meant he was admitting he was over his head. But she wasn’t the solution. “I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a nanny for hire,” she replied, hearing the strain behind her voice and knowing the source.

  “Look, it’d only be temporary.”

  “I’m sure there must be services in town, or nearby. Someone more qualified.” Caring for a baby full-time? Oh, she could just imagine what her friends and family would have to say about that. They might even be right.

  “I can’t run the place and watch her at the same time. I need help. And if it’s you …” He coughed. Looked over at the car seat. “The fewer people that know about this—at least for now—the better. I can’t be sure someone else wouldn’t make that phone call. I just want to keep her safe and do the right thing.”

  “You trust me, then?”

  “Is there some reason I shouldn’t?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

  Wyatt took a sip of coffee. “At this point, you’re in as much hot water as I am. You’re an accessory.”

  The words came out as serious as a judge, but the tiny upward quirk of his lips was back. Was he teasing? He was, she was sure of it. Warmth seemed to spread through her as she realized it. Moreover, she liked it.

  Elli didn’t know if she should feel relieved or panic. Right now a little of both was running through her veins. This was all she’d ever wanted, in a sense. She’d never been keen on a career the way the other girls in school had been. She’d known all along she wanted to be a mother. To have a house full of children, a home.

  She thought once more of her friends and family. They would remind her that this wasn’t her home, and this wasn’t her family. They would be right. But maybe it was high time she confronted all those hurts. And Wyatt … she could tell he was a proud man, but not too proud to put Darcy’s needs ahead of his own. How could she say no to him when his motives were clearly honest?

  She looked around her. Lord knew the house needed a feminine touch and it was a sad business, cooking for one. She should know.

  “All right,” she replied. Considering her unemployed status, she’d be foolish to turn him down. But only for a little while, until he could get things sorted out. She couldn’t get attached. And it would be very easy to love the tiny pink slumbering bundle. Elli knew she could love Darcy without even trying. Yes, eyes wide open. That was how she had to look at it.

  His breath came out in a rush. “Thank you,” he said, his relief clear in each syllable. “You have no idea how grateful I am.”

  “We have two things to do, then,” she said quietly. “First, Darcy needs things. Diapers, formula, clothing. Is this really all her mother left her with?”

  Wyatt nodded.

  Elli sighed. If she were going to tackle her fears head-on, she might as well tackle them all. Perhaps it was finally time to let go. There was a whole room in Calgary filled with unused baby items. Why was she keeping them? As a shrine to William? It made her sad thinking about it. If she lent them to Wyatt, at least they would be of practical use. She could make a quick trip to Calgary and pick them up, and simply tell him that she’d borrowed them from someone who didn’t need them.

  “If you’re looking at short-term, I know where you could borrow some items. No need for you to buy things you may never use again. It does mean a trip to Calgary tomorrow …”

  “I can watch Darcy while you go. I don’t want to totally disrupt your life, Elli.”

  “Thank you, Wyatt.” She was glad to be able to go alone. It saved a lot of explaining at both ends. If she didn’t have Darcy with her, she could avoid the questions at her parents’ house, the probing, motherly kind. And if Wyatt stayed here, she needn’t explain why she was in possession of a complete layette.

  “Perhaps you can get a lead on Barbara in the meantime.”

  “I agree,” he said, rubbing his lower lip pensively with a finger. “I can’t help feeling she’s in some sort of trouble.”

  This wasn’t quite as easily solved as baby amenities. Wyatt pushed away from the table and went to the sink, putting his cup within it and bracing his hands on the counter.

  “I found her number, but she’s not picking up. The address didn’t have a street number. It appears to be a Red Deer number, though.”

  Red Deer. A spark of an idea lit, one that might be able to solve all their problems. Elli got up and retrieved the cordless phone from a dock. “May I? I might be able to find an address.”

  “By all means.”

  She dialed in a number, then pressed in more keys for an extension, hoping Joanne was working tonight.

  She was, but the query came up empty. Elli hit the end key and thought for a moment.

  “She didn’t have the baby in Red Deer,” Elli said, furrowing her brow. “If she had, there’d be a record of it at the hospital. Let’s try Calgary.”

  “I thought they wouldn’t give out patient information,” Wyatt said, leaning back against the counter. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving the ends of the nearly black strands slightly mussed, and very, very sexy. Elli swallowed. She was tired, that was all, and the dark outside made the cozy kitchen seem more intimate than it truly was. She could still feel the shape of him pressed against her back earlier and tried to ignore her body’s response at the memory.

  “They’re not supposed to.” She hit the talk button on the cordless phone once more. “I used to work in the emergency department. I have friends who will do me a favor, that’s all.”

  A smile creased his face and Elli’s breath caught. It was a slow, devilish sort of smile that she hadn’t seen up to this point. The kind of smile that could do strange and wonderful things to a woman’s intentions.

  “Are you breaking the rules, Ellison? Because I had you pegged as Miss Straight and Narrow.”

  The words stung even as she knew he was teasing. How often had she faced that criticism? His perusal of her sparked her self-conscious streak once more. Why couldn’t she have hit the treadmill more often? She crossed an arm around her middle, attempting to hide the flaws he must see. “You wouldn’t be far off,” she murmured. “But that particular title isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

  “Your secret is safe with me.”

  The phone grew slippery in her hand as her nervousness went up a notch. She hadn’t been this alone with a man since Tim. In fact, she’d gone to great lengths to avoid it. And now Wyatt was working some sort of spell around her.

  She was here for Darcy, that was all. She was being neighborly. There were all sorts of reasons she should have accepted his offer, beyond her cash-flow problem. It was the right thing to do. She might not know exactly what she was doing, but so far she and Wyatt had stumbled their way through the day, hadn’t they? Four hands were better than two, right?

  “Do you want me to make the call or not?” A note of annoyance crept into her voice. Annoyance at him, and annoyance at herself for worrying so much what Wyatt Black thought. Her mother always said if there was a wounded bird around, Elli wanted to nurse it to health. It had always frustrated her, both the teasing and the criticism inherent in the words. Was it so very wrong? So many times she’d felt her choices were looked down upon simply because they didn’t line up with others’ expectations. “If you have a better idea …”

  Wyatt’s smile faded. “Make the call.”

  She dialed the number she knew by heart.

  Five minutes later she hung up, the address jotted down on a notepad. “She had the baby in Calgary. I’ve got her address in Red Deer. Darcy is five weeks and three days old.”

  Wyatt’s dark eyes met hers. “I think we should go by Barb’s place before you go to Calgary, don’t you?”

  Elli nodded. “It doesn’t make much sense to stock up on baby things if she’s going to be going back home, right?”

  But even as sh
e said it, she got a heavy feeling in her stomach. Barbara wouldn’t be there. Looking into Wyatt’s face, she could see they both knew it. All tomorrow would be was confirming what they already guessed.

  “There’s something else,” Elli said, putting the paper down on the counter. “She listed you as her next of kin.”

  Wyatt’s mouth fell open and he pushed away from the cupboard. “She did?”

  “Either she’s telling the truth or she’s planned this from the beginning. Somehow …”

  “It doesn’t make sense, right? If she weren’t going to keep the baby, she would have come to me before. Or given it up for adoption.”

  His thinking was along the same line as hers. “I think so, too.”

  “Which means Darcy is, likely, truly my niece.”

  Elli fiddled with the pen. “How can you be so sure?”

  Wyatt’s brow wrinkled. “Without seeing Barbara, talking to her … I suppose I can’t. We both know we’re not expecting to find her tomorrow, are we? But Elli, I can’t see her making all this up.”

  Elli couldn’t either. Too many things fit together. “What if she’s simply gotten in over her head? She didn’t mention the baby’s father.”

  “I get the impression she’s doing this alone,” he replied, his voice sounding weary.

  “Me, too.”

  “Then the best thing is to find her and talk to her, right?” Wyatt went to the fridge, avoiding her gaze. “Did you have dinner? I haven’t eaten. I can make us a sandwich or …”

  Wyatt stood, the fridge door open, a packet of roast beef in his hand. The whole conversation felt surreal to Elli. This morning she had been working on an accounting assignment. Tonight she was contemplating sandwiches with Wyatt Black and trying to help him figure out what to do with a baby.

  He shut the door of the refrigerator, holding the meat, mustard, and a bag of lettuce. Elli eyed the roast beef, but declined once more as he held up his hand in invitation. She’d eaten already. And the last ten pounds she wanted to lose weren’t going to fall off on their own.

  “You haven’t mentioned any other family.”

  “That’s because there isn’t any.” He took a plate off a shelf and slapped two slices of bread on it.

  “So if Barbara is your sister as she claims …” She let the thought hang.

  “Then she’s the only family I’ve got,” Wyatt confirmed.

  Elli thought about that for a moment. As much as her mother’s meddling and worried phone calls drove her crazy, at least she wasn’t alone. She knew she could go home and her mom would make her homemade cabbage rolls and perogies and her dad would convince her to stay to watch the hockey game. She couldn’t imagine not having them there.

  “Can I ask you a question, Elli?” Wyatt went about building his sandwich, layering lettuce and meat on the bread.

  “I guess.” As long as it wasn’t a question she didn’t want to answer. There were lots of those.

  “Why did you agree to help me?”

  Ugh. She didn’t want to answer, simply because there were so many possible responses. Granted, he’d barged into the Camerons’ house today and demanded her help, but she’d come back tonight under her own power. It was a chance to feel as if it all hadn’t been for nothing. All the hope and loss should have a purpose. Wouldn’t this be a chance for something good to come out of all the bad?

  And if they were going to care for Darcy, shouldn’t she at least make an attempt at being friendly? Surely she could ignore the way her pulse seemed to leap when he was close and how her cheeks flushed when he touched her.

  “Look,” she said, “I’m going to be honest here. I’m housesitting for the Camerons because I’m at one of those places in my life. I lost my job in some recent streamlining and I …” She felt the words clog up her throat but forged on doggedly. “I got divorced not long ago as well, so I agreed to housesit to help make ends meet. I’ve been doing some courses online to upgrade my skill set. But for the most part I’m out here in the boonies with only myself for company and feeling fairly useless when all is said and done. When you came barging in today, I wanted to help. Because Darcy is innocent. And because at least I feel somewhat useful again. So you see, you’re kind of getting me out of a jam, too.”

  Wyatt had stopped chewing and put down his sandwich during her speech. Now that it was over, he masked his surprise, finished chewing the bite that was in his mouth, and swallowed.

  “I bet that felt good.”

  And his lips curved. His dark, scary scowls lost all their power when he smiled, replaced with something even more potent.

  “It did. Maybe I danced around stuff far too long today. I don’t make a habit of going around and spilling my life story.” She found herself smiling hesitantly in return. As the seconds drew out she realized they were standing there grinning openly at each other, another notch in familiarity gained. She turned away, embarrassed, shoving her hands into her pockets. Wyatt Black could be darned alluring when he wanted to. And she’d bet he didn’t even realize it.

  “I’m sorry about your marriage.”

  His words were sincere, and she sighed. “Me, too. We shouldn’t have married in the first place. We were very good at pretending we were what we wanted in each other. He’s not a bad man, he just wasn’t … the right man.” Losing William had been the final blow to a marriage already failing. That was the true grief, the part she wouldn’t share with Wyatt. Once William had died, there wasn’t any point in keeping up the charade any longer.

  “This isn’t my usual method of meeting people either,” Wyatt acknowledged. “In fact … I tend to keep to myself most of the time.”

  “I hadn’t noticed,” she returned, and then felt sorry she’d been sarcastic, even if it had been meant as teasing. It was a reaction to remembering their first meeting and the disapproval on his face as he had spoken so harshly to her. She hurried to cover the barb by turning the tables on him. “So … turnabout is fair play. Now it’s your turn to tell me about yourself.”

  He considered for a moment. “I don’t usually talk about myself.”

  “Me either, but I spilled. Now you owe me.” She raised an eyebrow and let a teasing smile touch her lips.

  The comfort level in the room rose. Now that Darcy was sleeping peacefully, some of the tension had dissolved and they were suddenly just a man and a woman. There were so many things she didn’t know about him, like where he came from and why he’d bought this run-down farm in the first place. He was a big question mark. She’d spent these past weeks all alone. Despite their rocky beginning, he was turning out not to be a bad sort. It was nice to have someone to talk to who didn’t know about her past, bringing her baggage to every single conversation. Someone who didn’t think of her as poor Elli.

  “The fact that I’m willing to believe that Barbara is my half sister tells you a bit about my home life, don’t you think?”

  “I take it your parents weren’t divorced, then.”

  Wyatt shook his head. “Nope. If Barbara’s my sister, then it’s because my dad had an affair with her mother.” As if he suddenly found the sandwich distasteful, he put the remainder on his plate and pushed it away. “I know Barbara’s mother had a rough time making ends meet. You can bet that my dad didn’t offer any support. If it’s true he was her father, he left them high and dry. My dad—”

  But then Wyatt broke off, took his plate to the garbage and dumped the sandwich into it.

  “I’m sorry.”

  They were the only words Elli could think of to say. Anything else would sound trite and forced.

  “Not your fault,” he replied. “And none of it helps us now.”

  He moved as if to leave the room, but paused beside her, close enough that if he shifted another inch their sleeves would be touching. He smelled like coffee and fresh air and leather—a manly combination that had her senses swimming. Her breath caught simply at the powerful nearness of him.

  “Nothing will change who my father was. H
e wasn’t a very good man. Even if he isn’t Barbara’s father, I know he could have been.”

  Elli turned her head and looked at Darcy, sleeping so peacefully, and felt her heart give a painful lurch. Her mother and father had somehow found the magic formula. They’d always had a good, strong marriage. It was another reason her own failure cut so deeply. She turned her head back again and found herself staring at Wyatt’s shoulder. Now here she was with Wyatt and his own dubious beginnings. Stuck in the middle of them both was Darcy.

  “What about you, Wyatt?” She found she wanted to know, for Darcy’s sake and for her own. She put her hand on his sleeve. “Are you a good man?”

  His head tilted sharply downward as he looked at where her fingers met his arm. Then his eyes, nearly black in the dim kitchen light, rose again and captured hers. Her chest thumped again, but for an entirely different reason. There was something edgy and mysterious about him, all mixed up with a sense of unsuitableness. And the package was wrapped very nicely. Surly or smiling, Wyatt Black was unlike any other man she’d ever known.

  “I doubt it,” he replied. “I suspected the rumors about my father were true but never asked. I ignored it instead. What does that say about me? I stuck my head in the sand, just like my mother.”

  Her heart softened at his confession. “You’re not like him, though,” she said gently. “You’re too good for that.”

  He pulled away from her grasp. “I wish I could be as sure of that as you.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  DARK CIRCLES SHADOWED Wyatt’s eyes when he answered the door the next morning. He looked less than stellar, in faded jeans and a T-shirt that had seen better days. A suspicious spot darkened one shoulder. His hair was mussed on one side, as if he’d crawled out of bed only moments before. The thought made Elli’s blood run a little bit warmer.

  Elli stepped inside, out of the frosty chill. The mornings this week had been cool enough that she could see her breath in clouds. Wyatt’s home, despite the run-down condition, was warm and cozy, and smelled deliciously of fresh coffee.