Toni Dubois is a woman on a mission-or is she? Tim Caldwell is a man bent on seduction-or is he? The past clashes with the future as both of them learn you can never go back but you can go forward and forgiveness has its own kind of reward.
Tim climbed the stairs, pausing halfway up to give himself a pep talk. He could do this. He could handle it, and he wouldn't blow it. Somehow.
At her door, he quietly cleared his throat then knocked.
"What?"
"You decent?"
"Yeah."
He opened the door and leaned his head in. She sat cross-legged on the bed, now dressed in shorts and a dingy white T-shirt.
"Can I go see Aunt Delaney?" She didn't bother looking at him, just kept her eyes focused on the far wall.
"Not right now." He crossed the room and settled on her double bed. The pink eyelet spread and canopy didn't suit his tomboy daughter anymore than it did him. He should have noticed sooner and made a mental note to do something about her room. Whenever the hell he found the time. "We need to talk."
"Nurse Handy already gave me this talk, Daddy."
He sighed and leaned forward on his knees, his back to her. He could charm a bird from a tree, a smile from his orneriest filly, any woman into his bed, for that matter, but Rene always managed to make him feel inferior and awkward. And if he was honest, helpless. The sooner he said the words, the sooner he could escape, so Tim opted for the offensive. "You do realize what having a period means?"
"I'll have cramps and be grouchy every month forever."
Tim couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped as he sat up and faced his daughter. "And get pregnant. Don't," he added, the knot in his gut tightening enough to strangle him.
"Like that'd happen. Men are dogs," she sneered, her scornful tone taking him by surprise.
"You're a little young to be so jaded."
"I live with you." She threw herself back on the pillows, a smaller one clutched to her chest. "What did you expect?"
"Yeah, you do," he said solemnly. Nobody regretted more than him that this wasn't an ideal world where mama's never ran off and left their babies and families didn't get torn apart. "Just because I'm your dad doesn't mean I'm perfect, Rene."
She gave him a twisted, sarcastic smile. "No shit?"
He sighed. "Don't swear at me, and don't be lettin' me catch you rollin' around in anyone's pickup, young lady."
Unhappy with the way things had gone, he stood and headed for the door, wanting nothing more than to get away from his daughter. And end another failed conversation.
"Hey, Dad!"
Her cheerful tone brought him up short. Warning lights flashed in his head and his grip on the doorknob tightened. "Yeah."
"In three years, I'll be as old as Mom was when you knocked her up."
"Then for God's sake don't make the same mistake your mother and I did," he snapped, slamming the door behind him.
Shit! He'd just called his daughter a mistake.
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