Wife and Mother Wanted. Nicola Marsh

o’clock tomorrow morning. It will give Molly a chance to meet and mingle with some new friends.’ And it might give you a reason to chuckle. Though, seeing the intense frown which deepened at her words, she doubted it.

      ‘I don’t know. I’m probably busy tomorrow.’

      For Pete’s sake—Ouch! Poor choice of P word. Would she ever get through to him?

      ‘Eleven o’clock. Fey For Fun. Molly will love it.’ She wanted to add be there or be square, but didn’t think he’d appreciate a bit of high-school frivolity. In fact, she had a feeling her brooding new neighbour wouldn’t go in for frivolous at all.

      ‘Now I need to find me an Easter Bunny. See you tomorrow.’ She sent him an airy wave and walked away, biting back a grin at the final glower he sent her way.

      So Brody Elliott was a grumpy grouch? She’d handled worse—like her adoptive father—and come away unscathed. She just hoped he’d do the right thing by Molly.

      Though she’d only just met the little girl, it looked as if Molly could do with some TLC—and she’d happily volunteer to inject some fun into her life.

      Now all she had to do was hope big, bad Brody would come to the party. Literally.

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘DAD! Wow, look at all the fairies and stuff. Isn’t this shop the coolest?’ Molly bounced through the front door of Fey For Fun and Brody followed reluctantly, wondering what on earth had prompted him to do this.

      He had enough to worry about without wasting time with a bunch of kids he’d never met. Maybe he should be using the time to figure out how to raise his own child rather than secretly enjoying the brief taste of freedom from responsibility that the day would bring.

      Glancing at his surroundings, he took in the filmy pink gauze draped around the shop, the silver stars spangling on a midnight ceiling and the staggering array of fairies, elves, goblins, wizards, frogs and princesses in every shape, texture and size.

      If he’d been a kid he wouldn’t have wanted to leave this place. As a grown-up, he was intrigued by the enigmatic woman who ran it—and already berating himself for it. His meeting with Carissa Lewis yesterday had been brief, and he’d been his usual prickly self, yet something about her had piqued his interest and he’d found himself spending far too many hours last night thinking about his nosy neighbour.

      He didn’t have the time or inclination to waste on another woman. Molly was the only female in his life these days, and he intended keeping it that way.

      He sighed and looked at Molly, who flitted from one item to another in the shop, her face alight with delight. His precious daughter was a bundle of energy and a constant source of amazement, consternation and worry in his otherwise drab life, and he loved her to bits. He knew he fell short as a parent, and his constant guilt at causing the death of her mother was a burden that manifested itself in many ways—most of them directed at his beautiful daughter.

      He’d turned into a taciturn grump, and as much as he’d like to change his ways he couldn’t. Guilt did that to a man—a terrible, all-consuming guilt that ripped at his soul on a daily basis, draining him till he had nothing left to give, no matter how much he wanted to.

      Poor Molly. He sure as hell wouldn’t win any Father of the Year contests.

      Now, to complicate matters, that interfering woman next door had practically challenged him to turn up here today and he’d jumped at it. How stupid could he be?

      Real stupid, if his gut reaction was any indication as he caught a glimpse of his neighbour through a rear window, smiling and chatting with a group of kids as they sat on giant toadstools.

      Carissa Lewis had a smile that could light up a room and, combined with the soft blonde curls framing her heart-shaped face, the guileless blue eyes and a cheeky dimple that could tempt a saint, she had him focussing on a woman in a way he hadn’t in a long time.

      He’d initially been annoyed that she’d befriended Molly. His daughter had suffered enough loss in her brief life without growing attached to a woman who obviously could only offer a day’s entertainment. However, when he’d confronted Carissa, he’d been totally unprepared for his own reaction to the woman.

      Awareness had flooded his body for the first time in years, making him more terse than usual. But instead of being scared off, as his abrupt manner made most people, she’d stood up to him with something akin to challenge in her fathomless blue eyes, and he’d been prompted to do all sorts of uncharacteristic things—like take her up on it. And here he was.

      And though that seemed stupid to him right now, it had nothing on the stupidest decision of them all—the one where he’d pulled over a speeding driver all those years ago and let the kid go with a warning, only to stare into that cocky face just months later, when the jerk had been charged with vehicular manslaughter for killing Jackie, his wife, in a head-on collision while speeding again.

      Yeah, that topped the list of dumbest things he’d ever done—and he’d been paying for it every day since.

      ‘Come on, Dad. I wanna meet the Easter Bunny, and Carissa’s calling us.’ His head snapped up as a loud tapping on the rear window brought him back to the present, and he ruffled Molly’s hair.

      ‘Sure thing, munchkin. Let’s go meet this bunny.’

      However, as he led Molly into the quaint cottage garden at the back of the shop, and saw Carissa’s expression as she took a call on her mobile, all his old cop instincts screamed that there was something wrong.

      ‘There’s Jessie,’ Molly squealed. ‘She’s in my class at school. Can I go play with her, Dad?’

      ‘Go ahead, munchkin,’ he said, his gaze riveted to the storm of emotions clouding Carissa’s expressive face.

      He shouldn’t get involved.

      He didn’t want to get involved.

      But it looked as if the matter might be taken out of his hands as Carissa hung up and turned to him with a stricken look on her face.

      ‘You came,’ she said, not looking particularly thrilled.

      ‘Yeah, it sounded like something Molly would like. Everything okay?’

      To his amazement, Carissa shook her head, collapsed into the nearest chair, and looked as if she’d burst into tears at any second.

      Oh-oh. Tears to him were like Kryptonite to Superman. He just couldn’t go there.

      ‘My stand-in bunny just pulled out. Old Mr Hill has a twisted bowel, or some such thing and won’t be here. Can you believe it? Those poor kids.’ She gazed out through the back window, looking so forlorn he wanted to pat her on the back and tell her everything would be okay.

      ‘Yeah, I guess they’ll be pretty disappointed.’ He knew Molly would be, and he hated that. His daughter had been let down enough in her lifetime.

      ‘Disappointed? They’ll be distraught!’ She jumped out of her chair and stalked to the window, staring out at the kids. ‘If only there was something I could do…’

      And in that instant, as she whirled to face him with a maniacal gleam in her wide blue eyes, he knew that she’d hatched some crazy scheme and that, somehow, it involved him.

      ‘You!’ She jumped up and down on the spot like Molly did when she was really excited about something. ‘You can do it! You’re big enough for the bunny suit, you’re here—it’s the perfect solution.’

      ‘No way.’ He held up his hands to ward her off and backed up a few steps, wondering briefly if it was too late to make a run for it.

      ‘Come on.’ She latched onto his arm and dragged him towards the back room, leaving him little option but to follow. ‘We don’t have much time. The natives are getting restless. And you wouldn’t want to