Natural Born Daddy (23 page)

Blast it all, when was he going to learn that he couldn't just make unilateral decisions for the two of them and expect her to fall into line? He'd done it when he'd decided on marriage. She was determined he wouldn't get away with it when it came to electing to have a baby. They would not bring a child into this world until Jordan could say without reservations that he loved her.

She sighed at that and resigned herself to a long wait. He was as clueless now about what would really make her happy as he had been weeks ago.

“Mommy, where's Jordan?” Dani asked sleepily as she wandered into the kitchen, once again wearing her favorite Dallas Cowboys T-shirt.

“Cooling off,” she said dryly, gesturing in the direction in which he'd gone.

Dani blinked. “Outside? Isn't it hot out there?”

Not half as hot as it had been in the kitchen a few moments before, Kelly thought. “It is,” she said, and scooped her daughter up, tickling her until she convulsed with giggles. “That was just an expression.”

Dani seemed content with the explanation. She wound her arms around Kelly's neck and delivered several smacking kisses to her face. “I really, really missed you, Mommy.”

“Not half as much as I missed you.”

Her daughter frowned. “Do you think Jordan missed me?”

“I know he did.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he bought you a present every single day,” she said, thinking of the pile of stuffed animals and dolls that had accumulated in the room that would be Dani's for however long it took for Jordan to relocate the business.

“Where are they?” Dani demanded, scrambling down.

“Most of them are in your new room in Houston, but I think he did bring one thing back for you. As soon as you eat your breakfast, you can run outside and track him down. I know he's very anxious for you to see it.”

Dani headed for the door. “I want to see it now.”

Kelly blocked her way. “After you eat and get dressed, young lady.” She handed her a glass of orange juice. “Drink this, while I make pancakes.”

“Can't I have cereal?” Dani pleaded, bouncing up and down. “It's faster.”

“Okay, fine.” She poured a bowlful of corn flakes, added milk and slices of banana. “Here you go.”

As she spooned up the cereal, Dani tried speculating on what Jordan had brought her. “I'll bet it's a dollhouse,” she said, her gaze fixed on Kelly's face.

“I'm not saying,” Kelly said, forcing herself to remain expressionless. “It's Jordan's surprise.”

“Is it a new teddy bear, a great big one?”

Kelly grinned at her persistence. “I'm not saying,” she repeated.

“Please, Mommy, my tummy will get all inside out, if I don't know really, really soon.”

“Then you'd better stop asking so many questions and finish that cereal,” Kelly advised.

Dani fell silent and concentrated on her breakfast. The instant she'd spooned the last bite into her mouth, she climbed down from her chair and raced for the back door.

“Whoa! Clothes, remember?”

Dani managed to exchange her T-shirt for shorts and a top in record time. She waved as she ran past Kelly. “‘Bye, Mommy.”

On the other side of the screen door, though, she hesitated. “Mommy?”

“What?”

“Can I call Jordan
Daddy?
I know he said at the wedding that he was my new daddy, but he didn't say what I should call him.”

Kelly's heart swelled with emotion at the plaintive request. If only Jordan really were her daddy, she
thought with regret. “That's up to you and Jordan. Why don't you discuss it with him?”

“Will my real daddy be mad?”

Kelly doubted Paul Flint would much care one way or the other. Given how seldom he showed his face, it was doubtful he'd ever even know.

“I don't think so, munchkin. I think he'd want you to do whatever makes you happy.”

It was a blatant lie, but Kelly would do whatever it took to keep Dani from ever discovering that, at least not until she was old enough to judge her father's behavior for herself. She would have to be the one to put the labels—selfish and uncaring came to mind—on it.

“All right!” Dani enthused. “I can hardly wait to see Jordan. He's the very bestest daddy in the world.”

Maybe not the bestest quite yet, Kelly thought, smiling as she watched Dani go racing off in the direction of the barn. But he was working on it. By the time they had a baby of their own—
if
they had a baby of their own, she corrected—she was convinced he'd have it down pat.

First, though, he had to give some serious thought to his motivation for parenthood. Hopefully, he would come back from his walk with all the right words. If he didn't, if his reasons were as muddy as the ones behind his decision to marry her, she resolved that hell would freeze over before she would have his child.

And there would remain this huge empty space inside her, a space meant to be filled by all the love she had to share with Jordan's children.

* * *

Jordan heard Dani's shouts long before he spotted her. She was racing down the lane as fast as her churning little legs could carry her. He stooped down and held out his arms. She ran into them and flung her arms around his neck. Why hadn't he ever guessed how being a parent would make him feel?

“I was sleeping when you came to get me last night and I never, ever, woke up until this morning,” she said.

“I noticed,” he said, loving the way she smelled of bubble bath, loving even more the fierce protectiveness she aroused in him.

“Did you miss me?” she demanded.

“Every single minute,” he confirmed. “But I'll bet you didn't miss me and your mom at all.”

“Sure I did. I even drew you a picture. Want to see it?”

“Of course, I want to see it,” he said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had been folded and refolded into a small, rumpled square. Jordan took it and spread it open. Tears sprang to his eyes as he saw what she'd depicted.

There, drawn with the brightest crayons in the box, were Kelly and Dani, standing in front of a lopsided house that was recognizable as this one. He was standing between them. In case the drawing itself wasn't clear, she had labeled each of them in crooked letters—Mommy, Dani and Daddy. A fat black cat—or something that vaguely resembled one—was at their feet. A striped cat was clutched in Dani's arms. Kelly was also holding something.

“What's that?” he asked, though he had a pretty good idea.

“That's my baby sister,” she said. “See the pink blanket? That's how you know it's a girl.”

Jordan nodded solemnly, since he couldn't seem to squeeze a word past the lump lodged in his throat. Across the top Dani had written in large, tilting letters, My Family.

“Did you show this to your mom?”

“Not yet. I made it for you. Will you hang it in your office?”

“You bet I will,” he promised.

“Are we going to have a baby?” Dani asked worriedly. “I really, really want a sister.”

Jordan saw an opportunity to probe this pint-size genius's mind for an argument he could offer Kelly on the same topic. “Why?”

“So we can play with our doll's together,” she said at once. “I tried with Angela, but she's pretty little. She couldn't even hold the doll.”

“Babies generally start out pretty little,” he mused.

“Couldn't you and mommy have a big one?”

He chuckled. “I don't think it works that way. So, tell me why else you want a sister?”

Dani's face scrunched up as she gave serious thought to the question. “So we can love her to pieces. Mommy always says she loves me to pieces.” She looked up at him. “I think she loves you to pieces, too.”

An interesting tidbit of news, Jordan thought. “She does? What makes you think so?” he asked, pushing aside how pitiful it was to be pumping a five-year-old for information on his own wife.

Dani gave him a disgusted look. “Because she married you, silly.”

Realistically, Jordan supposed that was one explanation for Kelly's decision, even if she'd never flat-out said it. His spirits rose a fraction. “Anything else?”

“She thinks you're a saint.”

Jordan stared. “A saint? What makes you think that?”

“`Cause she always said the only way she'd ever get married again was if a saint came along. And we learned in Sunday school that you should love saints, right?”

He found the logic a little convoluted, but essentially correct. It was certainly a topic worth discussing with his wife.

“Jordan?”

“Yes, munchkin?” he said distractedly, his thoughts already leaping ahead to the conversation he would have with Kelly the instant he got back to the house.

“I been thinking.”

“Oh?”

“I think maybe I should call you Daddy,” she said, gazing at him soberly. “What do you think?”

He gave her a fierce hug. “I think there's nothing that would make me any happier.”

“Really?”

“Really, really,” he confirmed. He took her hand. “Why don't we go back to the house and I'll show you what I brought for you?”

“You brought me a present?” Dani asked, looking a little too innocent.

“I did, indeed,” he said. And in another nine months or so, he intended to see that another of her
dreams came true. She would have that baby sister—or a brother, if nature got the order mixed up.

As they reached his car he paused and opened the trunk, removing a huge box that had taken up every square inch of room. He watched in delight as Dani saw the picture on the side and a grin spread across her face.

“It's a baby buggy,” she said. “Hurry, Daddy. Open it up.”

The minute he had the small pink carriage out of the box, Dani grabbed the handle and began propelling it straight toward the barn. Jordan stared after her in bemusement.

“Where are you going?” he shouted.

“To get Francie and the kittens. I'm going to take them for a ride.”

“It's supposed to be for your dolls.”

“But I know that Francie really, really wants to go for a ride.”

Jordan had his doubts, but he let her go. He had more important things to settle.

He found Kelly inside doing laundry. She'd changed to a pair of incredibly provocative shorts and a halter top. The dryer had made the laundry room steamy. Her skin glistened with a sheen of dampness. With all of the noise from the washer and dryer, she didn't hear him approaching. He slipped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and sprinkled kisses across her bare shoulders.

“Nice,” she murmured, and turned in his loose embrace to claim a real kiss.

Her body fit snugly against his. Heat shot through his veins. On any other occasion the distraction would have worked. Today, though, Jordan had something
more than sex on his mind, even though he was relieved by the discovery that she no longer seemed to be quite so furious with him.

“Dani and I have been having quite a chat,” he told her.

“Really? How'd she like the carriage?”

“She's out in the barn even as we speak, gathering up Francie and the kittens for a ride.”

Kelly grimaced. “I'm sure Francie will love that. Maybe we should go rescue her.”

“Francie can take care of herself,” he said. “Right now, I want to talk about a picture Dani drew for me.” He showed her the folded paper.

“And this is?” Kelly inquired, pointing to the pink bundle in her arms.

“Her baby sister.”

Kelly's gaze shot to his. “Did you put her up to this?”

“No, but the picture got me to thinking. The one thing the family in this picture has that we haven't talked about is love.”

“Evidenced by all the hearts, I suppose?”

“Exactly.” He kept his gaze fixed on Kelly's face and thought he read something that might have been uncertainty in the depths of her eyes. As if he'd been struck by a bolt of lightning, the last piece of the puzzle suddenly came clear. Kelly did love him still, just as she once had and just as Dani had said. She'd just been waiting for him to wake up and discover that he loved her.

“I realized something when I saw this. I do love you,” he admitted, finally finding the right words to express all the things he'd been feeling over the past
weeks and months. As soon as the words were out, he realized exactly how right they were.

“That's why I want to fill this house with our children,” he explained, trying to make her see all that he'd discovered in his heart. “There are so many more reasons, too. Dani shouldn't be an only child. Any child who is a part of you will steal my heart.”

He grinned at the transformation he saw on her face. “Am I getting warm?” he asked, even though he could read the answer in her smile.

“I don't know about you, but I'm getting very warm.” She searched his face. “Are you sure this is what you want? If we have a child, there's no turning back.”

“There was never any chance of turning back,” he said with certainty. “To borrow a phrase from your daughter, I love you to pieces.” He gave her a lazy smile. “I may be slow, sweet pea, but once I get there, I never, ever, change my mind. Guaranteed.”

“I
think we should get the whole family together and go into town for dinner tonight,” Kelly announced on a Sunday in mid-June, almost ten months after their marriage. “I've already called Jessie. She and Luke will drive over this afternoon. Do you want to call your parents or should I?”

Jordan regarded his wife warily. “You never want to get together with my parents. You always say my mother gives you hives.”

“I can tolerate her criticism for one night. And I adore Harlan.”

He nodded. “So, what's the occasion? It's not your birthday.” She had turned thirty without mishap a few weeks before. “It's not mine. It's not our anniversary.”