Mad For The Dad. Terry Essig

beforehand. Someone who liked surprises had chosen a lovely but nonsexist pale lime tint for the walls. The woodwork was a crisp contrasting white.

      “This little piggy stayed home—” A border of rainbows hung up high where the walls met the ceiling. Did Daniel ever stop and point them out to Todd?

      “This little piggy had roast beef—” A big, fat, stuffed fabric rainbow splayed itself across the wall next to the crib. She’d used a similar theme in Mark’s nursery, Rachel remembered. Impossible as it seemed, it had been nineteen years ago when she’d decorated that nursery. Nineteen years. Rachel had been eighteen, practically a baby herself, she now realized.

      Rachel sighed. “This little piggy had none—” She reminded herself that she was done being melancholy as of that morning.

      “And this little piggy cried—”

      Daniel popped his head in the doorway. “All cleaned up. How’s it going in here?”

      “Wee, wee, wee all the way home.” Rachel brushed the bottom of Todd’s foot with a light ticklish motion and smiled when Todd grinned up at her and jerked his foot back. She picked up his other foot and blew a raspberry on the bottom of it. That got a laugh. Finally Rachel looked up. “Fine. I’m going to rock him for a minute to settle him down before I put him in the crib.”

      “Fine, great, whatever. You get me a couple of hours of peace and quiet and I’ll be your slave forever.”

      Rachel snorted at that. “Yeah, right.” But it was an interesting idea. A body like that, her slave? My, oh my. That certainly got the old heart valves pumping. She picked Todd up and noticed a framed birth announcement hung on the wall. Todd Michael Malone? Sarah and Michael Malone proudly announce the birth of their son, Todd Michael? “Daniel, who does Todd really belong to? Are you baby-sitting for a relative or something?” She’d just die if Eileen turned out right once again. But this Sarah and Michael must have been really hard up to leave their pride and joy with a man who knew next to nothing about children.

      But Daniel’s indulgent smile immediately disappeared. His face tightened. “Todd’s mother, Sarah, was my sister. Her husband won a cruise as a prize in a sales contest where he worked. It was the first time they’d ever left the baby.” Daniel sighed. “There was a fire on board the ship. Barely big enough to make the papers up here, but Sarah, Michael and a couple of other passengers died of smoke inhalation. Todd stayed with Mike’s parents while I got my own life straightened out, but they’re well into their seventies and in a retirement complex with no children allowed. My mother has Alzheimer’s. Caring for her takes up all my dad’s time. That leaves Todd and me as a team.”

      Rachel, gaped at him as she seated herself in the rocker. And she’d thought she’d had troubles. “Oh. I’m so sorry. How awful.”

      Daniel ran a hand back through his hair. “Yeah, well, it’s been a little rocky the past couple of days, I have to admit.” He eyed the picture Rachel made there in the rocker with Todd happily sucking his thumb while, resting his head on her shoulder. “But I think maybe God just opened a window.”

       Chapter Two

      Rachel continued to stare at him. “Excuse me?” she finally said while absently rubbing Todd’s little back. His body already felt half limp. Another minute or two and he’d be conked out cold.

      “I said—”

      “Shh, not so loud. He’s almost asleep.”

      It was comical how quickly Daniel lowered his voice. Now she could barely hear him. “You know the old saying about God always opening a window when he closes a door?” he whispered.

      Warily Rachel nodded.

      “Well, when Sarah and Michael died, that was a heavy-duty door to get slammed in poor Todd’s face.” Daniel leaned against the nursery door frame and raked his hand through his hair. “I’m sure not the open window. I’m trying as hard as I can, but all I remember of parenting is that my dad used to play ball with me. Todd’s too little to throw a baseball let alone catch one. It was a disaster when I tried the other day. The ball kept going right through his legs.”

      Rachel arched a brow at him in disbelief. He hadn’t really pitched a baseball ata toddler, had he?

      Daniel continued, “The thing is, right before this all happened I’d just quit the accounting firm I’d been with since graduating from college. I was all set to go out on a limb and out on my own. Do you know how much work that entails? The time commitment? I’ve got to get this thing set up and going—make it viable or Todd and I are cooked geese. There’ll be no income. I want to save the insurance money for his college fund. Even if I could take a crash course in child raising and was instantly expert at it, I haven’t got the time to lavish on him the way he needs and deserves, do you understand what I mean? I can’t stick him in day-care now. For crying out loud, as far as he’s concerned both his parents just deserted him. What does he understand about death? So what am I supposed to do? I’m no Mr. Mom.”

      Todd snored gently in her ear. Rachel slowly rose and walked quietly over to the crib. She eased the boy off her shoulder and laid him in his bed. She picked the blanket with the satin binding to lightly cover him and made sure he’d be able to feel that comforting edging against his cheek and hand while he slept. Daniel followed right behind as she crept from the room. He spoke his next words as softly as the rest, but he might as well have shouted, they jarred her so.

      “If God’s trying to open a window for Todd, it sure as all heck ain’t me. I barely constitute a crack in the glass or a missing piece of weather stripping. So I have to ask myself, Where’s the open window?” Then he sort of studied her out of the corner of his eye.

      Oh, no. Oh, no. The last time she’d let some fasttalking male open her window, it had been eighteen years before she’d managed to get it shut again, and even then it hadn’t been without a kick start from her supposed loving husband—the very one who’d insisted on opening the damn thing in the first place. Uh-uh. No way was she going to go through any of that again, although he was absolutely right about one thing, Rachel thought as she walked as quickly as possible back down the hallway. Daniel Van Scott was definitely cracked.

      Daniel followed her closely. “Don’t you think it’s a little bit odd you picked that exact moment to look out your window? You could have just as easily been, I don’t know, in the kitchen or the bathroom. Even in the living room, for crying out loud, but with your back to the window. You fit into this equation somehow, I just know it.”

      “No,” Rachel stated emphatically, knowing she needed to be firm here. She did not like the way this conversation was headed. She was done with being dutiful. It was now officially her turn to play in the sun. Being footloose and fancy-free was supposed to be one of the few advantages of the empty nest stage. “I hate to be the stereotypical female, but I was never much good at math. Especially quadratic equations. They always threw me for a loop.”

      Daniel caught Rachel’s arm and halted her flight. He thought fast. “All right. Okay. You probably work and can’t help me out yourself. But you’ve got a real way with little kids. Maybe you know somebody else with your knack?”

      Rachel stopped and looked up at him. Those blue eyes of his were killers, especially the way they appeared now, both serious and sincere. She was in big-time trouble here and she was just bright enough to know it. She was not about to disabuse him of his faulty notion that she worked. “Daniel, what is it that you want from me?”

      “Help,” he stated simply. “Either yours or somebody you could recommend. I know I haven’t known you long, but somehow I feel like I can trust you. I’m dying here.”

      Her arm tingled where he touched it. Rachel knew it without a shadow of a doubt. That spark she felt was plain old sexual attraction, no getting around it. You’d have