Daddy in Dress Blues

by Cathie Linz

  Courteous, courageous and commanding—these heroes lay it all on the line for the people they love in more than fifty stories about loyalty, bravery and romance.

  A Vow to Love by Sherryl Woods

  Serious Risks by Rachel Lee

  Who Do You Love? by Maggie Shayne and Marilyn Pappano

  Dear Maggie by Brenda Novak

  A Randall Returns by Judy Christenberry

  Informed Risk by Robyn Carr

  Five-Alarm Affair by Marie Ferrarella

  The Man from Texas by Rebecca York

  Mistaken Identity by Merline Lovelace

  Bad Moon Rising by Kathleen Eagle

  Moriah’s Mutiny by Elizabeth Bevarly

  Have Gown, Need Groom by Rita Herron

  Heart of the Tiger by Lindsay McKenna

  Landry’s Law by Kelsey Roberts

  Love at First Sight by B.J. Daniels

  The Sheriff of Shelter Valley by Tara Taylor Quinn

  A Match for Celia by Gina Wilkins

  That’s Our Baby! by Pamela Browning

  Baby, Our Baby! by Patricia Thayer

  Special Assignment: Baby by Debra Webb

  My Baby, My Love by Dani Sinclair

  The Sheriffs Proposal by Karen Rose Smith

  The Marriage Conspiracy by Christine Rimmer

  The Woman for Dusty Conrad by Tori Carrington

  The White Night by Stella Bagwell

  Code Name: Prince by Valerie Parv

  Same Place, Same Time by C.J. Carmichael

  One Last Chance by Justine Davis

  By Leaps and Bounds by Jacqueline Diamond

  Too Many Brothers by Roz Denny Fox

  Secretly Married by Allison Leigh

  Strangers When We Meet by Rebecca Winters

  Babe in the Woods by Caroline Burnes

  Serving Up Trouble by Jill Shalvis

  Deputy Daddy by Carla Cassidy

  The Major and the Librarian by Nikki Benjamin

  A Family Man by Mindy Neff

  The President’s Daughter by Annette Broadrick

  Return to Tomorrow by Marisa Carroll

  Remember My Touch by Gayle Wilson

  Return of the Lawman by Lisa Childs

  If You Don’t Know by Now by Teresa Southwick

  Surprise Inheritance by Charlotte Douglas

  Snowbound Bride by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  The Good Daughter by Jean Brashear

  The Hero’s Son by Amanda Stevens

  Secret Witness by Jessica Andersen

  On Pins and Needles by Victoria Pade

  Daddy in Dress Blues by Cathie Linz

  AKA: Marriage by Jule McBride

  Pregnant and Protected by Lilian Darcy

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  CATHIE

  LINZ

  DADDY IN DRESS BLUES

  CATHIE LINZ

  left her career in a university law library to become a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary romances. She is the recipient of a highly coveted Storyteller of the Year Award given by RT Book Reviews and was recently nominated for a Love and Laughter Career Achievement Award for the delightful humor in her books.

  Although Cathie loves to travel, she is always glad to get back home to her family, her various cats, her trusty computer and her hidden cache of Oreo cookies!

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to Sergeant Major Robin D. White, USMC, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines for his assistance with all things U.S. Marine. Semper fi!

  And per my marching orders, a very special thanks also to Susan and Jimmie.

  This book is dedicated to all the men and women who have so honorably protected their country by serving in the armed forces, including my father—U.S. Army, WWII—and my brother—U.S. Navy, Vietnam War.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  OUT OF ALL THE classrooms in all the preschools in Chicago, he had to walk into hers. Curt Blackwell. Even his name conjured up deep and dark memories.

  The years hadn’t been kind to him, Jessica Moore noted. But then kindness and Curt Blackwell had never had much in common.

  Twelve years. It had been twelve years since she’d seen him. They dropped away in an instant.

  Multiple images hit her as she stared at him with quiet dread. He was a study of contrasts. The rigidity of his cropped dark hair and crisp military attire were at war with the sensual fullness of his mouth and the heated intensity of his brown eyes. He’d always had the ability to consume her with a single glance.

  She was surprised by how much he’d changed and yet still remained the same. He’d obviously stayed in the Marine Corps and the dress blue uniform looked good on him. Better than good.

  There was a U.S. Marine Reserve Training Facility not far from here. She passed it on her way home every night, but she never dreamed that Curt would end up there. The last she’d heard, he’d been in some hot spot overseas.

  Her eyes sought out the little things she remembered about him, like the scar near his right temple—the result of a dispute between him on his motorbike and a tree. The tree had won, he’d once told her. But he wore new scars now, including a fairly recent one that formed a ragged line along his jaw.

  Despite the years that had passed, Jessica had recognized him immediately. But she saw no similar recognition on his part, which didn’t surprise her. Curt had a track record of not seeing her. Only a few weeks after sharing the most incredible night of her life with her, he’d acted as if she were invisible.

  Thrusting that humiliating memory out of her mind, she focused her attention on the little girl who stood nervously beside him, close enough to touch him but not doing so. Instead the little girl’s hand was clutching the hand of the preschool’s director, Sarah Connolly.

  “We’ve got a new student here at the Happy Days Preschool and Day Care center,” Sarah cheerfully announced. “This is Blue Blackwell, she’s three years old, and she’s just moved here from San Diego. And this is Curt, her father.”

  Curt’s daughter? In her class? The magnitude of the pain caught Jessica by surprise.

  Pull it together, idiot, she fiercely ordered herself. You can’t fall apart. Not here. Not now.

  Years of dealing with crises allowed Jessica to make a fairly smooth recovery as she leaned down to the little girl. “Hello, Blue. We’re glad you’ve joined us.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll leave her in your hands,” Curt said uncomfortably, clearly eager to follow Sarah as she left.

  Much as she wanted him to disappear, she had Blue’s welfare to think of. The little girl would be terrified if Curt just dumped her off in a strange environment.

  “You’ll be joining us too, Mr. Blackwell,” Jessica stated, using her best teacher voice, the one that said I mean business.

  Apparently it had little effect on a marine, because he just shrugged off her words and kept heading to the door. “I’ve got to get back to work,” he was saying. Was there an edge of desperation in his voice or was she imagining things?

  Jessica had no choice but to put her hand on his arm. By now she was so numb with shock that she didn’t even register the physical contact. All she noticed was that it stopped him. “This will only take a few minutes, but it is necessary and extremely important for your daughter’s comfort.”

  “Okay—” he shot an impatient look at his watch “—but I don’t have much time.”

  Satis
fied that he would stay, Jessica quickly dropped her hand from his arm and returned her attention to Blue. “My name is Jessica, and I’m going to be your teacher.”

  The little girl just nodded but didn’t say a word. Blue’s brown hair was tied up into two lopsided pigtails. Her blue jeans and white T-shirt were crisp with newly bought stiffness, and her black patent shoes shone. She wore a beat-up lime-green thin jacket better suited for San Diego than the chilliness of late March in the Midwest. She didn’t appear to have a backpack or any school supplies yet.

  After introducing Blue to the rest of the class as well as Jessica’s two teaching assistants, Lisa Yu and Tawanna Houston, Jessica teamed Blue up with another little girl, Susan, who was the most outgoing in class and had the biggest heart. “Why don’t you show Blue where she can put her coat?” Jessica suggested to Susan. “Then we’ll begin story hour, and Blue can sit next to you.”

  Once the two girls had moved away, Jessica spoke to Curt in a quick undertone. “You can’t just sneak out after leaving Blue in a new classroom. I want to make sure that she knows you’re coming back for her. You need to tell her that. If you sneak out, you’re breaking the trust she’s placed in you.” Just like you broke the trust I placed in you all those years ago. The thought streaked through Jessica’s mind before she shoved it aside. She refused to give in to the past. She had a job to do here. “It would have been best if her mother could have been here with you,” Jessica added.

  “Her mother is dead,” Curt said.

  She blinked at the terseness of his announcement and the lack of emotion with which it was delivered. “I’m sorry to hear that, but in that case it’s even more important that you don’t sneak out on Blue. You’re all she’s got, and she needs to know that even though you’re leaving now, you’ll be coming back for her later.”

  He shifted impatiently. “Why can’t you tell her that?”

  “Because I’m not her parent, you are.”

  The noise level in the room suddenly rose as the small group of preschoolers sensed their teacher’s distraction and decided to make the most of it. Grabbing the sheep off her desk, the one with a big brass bell around its furry neck, Jessica shook the sheep and made the bell ring.

  Recognizing her quiet signal, all the students made the universal shush signal. Except for the class hellion, four-year-old Brian, who rushed forward to tug on Curt’s sleeve. “Do you drive a tank? Are you stronger than Hercules?”

  Curt just stared at the boy as if he were an alien creature before saying, “I left my tank at work. And I need to get back to it now,” he added with a pointed look in Jessica’s direction.

  “Then we’ll leave you alone so you can talk to Blue for a minute,” Jessica replied with a look just as pointed. “Come along, Brian. Which book do you think we should read for storytelling today?”

  Although she stepped aside to give Curt and his daughter some privacy, her classroom wasn’t big enough, nor Curt’s voice soft enough to prevent her from hearing what he said to Blue. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll be leaving you at this facility and will return to pick you up at fifteen hundred hours.”

  It was as if Curt were speaking to one of his recruits, not a child. The man clearly didn’t have a clue how to deal with his daughter, who just stared at him while nervously nibbling her lower lip.

  Gathering her up into a hug as Curt made a hurried departure, Jessica said, “You’re going to be having lots of fun with us, and you’ll be seeing your daddy again before you know it.”

  “He don’t like me,” Blue whispered unsteadily.

  “Oh, honey, what makes you say that?”

  “He said so.”

  Curt was behind schedule and he hated it. He prided himself on getting the mission accomplished—whether it was a mission in Iraq or registering his kid in preschool.

  His kid. He still couldn’t get over the fact that he had a daughter.

  It had been a hell of a week. On Monday he’d gotten the final report from the medics informing him that the limp the sniper’s bullet had left him with would most likely be permanent and would result in his being reassigned to a desk job. Frustration at his reassignment gnawed at him. He was a doer, not a damn paper-pusher.

  And what had Fate done to help him out in his time of need? Delivered an almost-baby daughter he hadn’t even known he’d had on his doorstep. That had only been three days ago.

  The child welfare worker had filled in the blanks. It seems that Gloria, the earthy cocktail waitress he’d had a short interlude with in San Diego nearly four years ago before he’d been transferred and shipped overseas, had had his baby.

  Curt was no idiot. He’d known that Gloria had a thing for marines and that he hadn’t been the only man in her life. But it had only taken one look at the little girl to know she was his. The strawberry-colored birthmark just above her knee matched the one he had on his own leg.

  The kid was his. He had a daughter.

  Presto, he was a father.

  Curt knew he was totally unqualified for the job. He hadn’t known his own father, who’d taken off before he was born. But Curt wouldn’t take off on Blue. He wouldn’t desert her. He lived up to his responsibilities. He was a marine, by God.

  Not that his uniform had impressed Blue’s teacher. She’d looked at him as if he were pond scum. And ordered him around. Curt wasn’t used to taking orders from a civilian. And he hated feeling like a raw recruit who was incompetent.

  So he was no pro at this parenting stuff. How hard could it be? He was a member of the United States Marine Corps with a legacy of duty, strength, sacrifice, discipline and determination. He had a feeling he’d need all those things and more to measure up in that disapproving teacher’s book.

  The minute Jessica let herself into her Lincoln Square condo, she kicked off her shoes and grabbed her cell phone. She dumped her tote bag filled with school work on the floor before sitting on the denim couch. The blue corduroy jumper she wore was baggy enough that she had lots of room to curl her legs beneath her, a pose she resorted to whenever she was extremely nervous.

  Normally she’d change into comfortable sweats as soon as she got home, but today she needed to talk to her best friend, Amy Weissman, before doing anything else. She’d known Amy since they’d shared a freshman English class in high school.

  “You’ll never guess who walked into my classroom this morning,” Jessica said. “Curt Blackwell.”

  “Curt ‘Bad Boy’ Blackwell?” Amy’s voice reflected her disbelief. “From high school?”

  “The one and only.” And he’d been Jessica’s one and only in more ways than one. The only one who’d captured her heart with the total surrender of first love. The only one she’d given her virginity to. The only one who’d ever kicked her in the teeth afterward.

  She didn’t have to vocalize any of those things to her best friend. Amy already knew. “Tell me he’s come crawling back to you after all these years, and you shoved his tonsils down his throat,” Amy growled, never one to be docile in her defense of her friends.

  “Not exactly. He didn’t even recognize me. He came to register his daughter in my preschool class.”

  “Oh, Jessica, I’m so sorry.”

  Jessica closed her eyes and saw herself as a senior in high school, the nerdy brain and social misfit, the only girl in her class who didn’t have a date for the prom. And then there was Curt, the bad boy she’d had a crush on since her freshman year. When she’d run across a tipsy Curt behind the public library on prom night and he’d flashed his wicked smile at her, she’d finally given in to her feelings and they’d ended up making love in the back seat of his beat-up Mustang.

  She could still remember the smell of fresh-cut grass drifting through the open window of his car, the scratchy feel of the cracked vinyl of the seat against her bare thigh, the sound of her name on his lips and the heat of his hand on her skin—the forbidden passion and the incredible outcome. Her only thoughts had been of him, her only wish to be with him
.

  But the next day Curt was gone. The United States Marine Corps had a prior claim on him.

  Even though he’d left, Jessica had been sure that Curt would write to her from boot camp. He didn’t. She didn’t panic. Not until she skipped her period. Then she’d panicked.

  Curt had come home for a few days after completing boot camp, but she’d only found out he was back thanks to a chance meeting on the street. When he didn’t even speak to her…when he instead turned away from her with an embarrassed look on his face, her heart and her foolish dreams of a future with him had crumbled.

  Her period had started the next morning, the pregnancy scare over. She’d eventually gotten over the feeling of betrayal. But when he’d walked back into her life, the past had come rushing right at her. If she really had been pregnant all those years ago, she and Curt would have had a child together. A daughter maybe. Would she have looked like Blue?

  “What are you going to do?” Amy softly asked, bringing her back to the present.

  Jessica took a deep breath before replying. “I’m going to teach his daughter. I’m a professional. I won’t blame the child for the sins of the father. And that little girl really needs someone to help her. Curt is still in the marines, and he treats her like she’s a recruit instead of his daughter. And she’s such a sweet little girl.”

  “What happened to her mom?” Amy asked.

  “She’s passed away, that’s all I know. I can’t turn my back on Blue,” Jessica said firmly. “First and foremost she’s a person in her own right. And she deserves to have someone care about her, especially after what she’s been through. Curt only got to me today because I didn’t see him coming. There’s no way in the world that I’d ever let Curt Blackwell close enough to hurt me again.”

  “Do you need any help getting ready for bed?” Curt asked Blue. He’d already learned from experience that she was much better at undressing than dressing.

  She shook her head.

  “Okay, then I’ll be in your room for lights off in five minutes.”

  He sighed as she scurried from the room. He’d tried talking softly to her, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. He hated the possibility that she might be afraid of him, but had no idea how to rectify things.