A Daddy for Her Daughter by Tina Beckett Page A

anything special for your birthday? Other than a night at home alone?”
    â€œAlone?” She glanced at him with a tilt of her head. “You make it sound like a bad thing. It’s not, you know. Sometimes it’s a luxury.”
    Not always. Not when you’d gone from having a healthy, active daughter and a happy marriage to being alone. Every day. Every night.
    Roxy came over moaning in despair, her poor tattered kite wilting in her hands. “It’s definitely ruined. Maybe you two will have better luck.”
    The kites were sent into the air according to assigned numbers. It didn’t matter if the entrant’s kite stayed up for hours and hours, but it had to go up and be stable for at least five minutes to be considered in the running for the grand prize. They still had another ten minutes before they were set to launch their cat. Chloe was bursting with excitement, jumping up and down.
    Roxy held out her hand. “Let’s go get a snow cone and burn off some of that energy until it’s time.”
    â€œJetta isn’t going up without us, is he?” Chloe gave her aunt a dubious glance.
    â€œWe’ll be back in plenty of time.” She shot Maddy a look. “You don’t mind, do you?”
    â€œMind?” She settled deeper into her chair. “I’ll just sit here and figure out what the city looks like from the Space Needle. Because we’re going to... Go! Fight! Win!”
    Kaleb couldn’t hold back a chuckle at the impromptu cheer. He had to admit, he liked seeing Maddy and her daughter this enthusiastic about the kite. He hadn’t felt this amalgamation of anticipation and dread in a long time. Probably not since Janice had left him.
    No. It would have been before Grace died. Because since then his life had been consumed with more dread than anticipation. Dreading sleep. Dreading wandering into the pediatric oncology wing—even when Brenda Marlin had spotted him in the hallway as he was coming out from the meeting and hugged him last week. He’d thought of transferring hospitals to get away from those memories, but by staying here, he felt he still had some type of connection with his daughter. His ex-wife, on the other hand, had wanted to move away immediately after Grace’s death. One of the things they’d clashed about during that last year. And then she’d cheated, and he’d been left totally alone.
    â€œWe’ve got about five minutes left. Is there anything we need to do to get ready?” Maddy’s voice forced him from his thoughts.
    He focused on her bright, shining face. This was the example Kaleb should follow. Despite everything that had happened with her ex-husband and that vicious attack, she’d maintained an inner glow that was undimmed.
    Then again, she hadn’t lost a child.
    He stopped himself right there. She’d lost a husband. But from what he’d seen, the man had been a bastard.
    How could anyone have wanted to hurt this woman?
    Not him. In fact, he was enjoying being here with her today. Maybe a little too much.
    And when the day was over?
    Kaleb didn’t want it to end. A thought came to him. It was her birthday. The perfect opportunity to prolong their time together. Not a wise choice, maybe, but it seemed a shame to let her go home to an empty house, despite her earlier words. It could be wishful thinking, but surely as a single parent she looked forward to indulging in adult conversation from time to time?
    His mind put a subtle emphasis on the word adult . An emphasis he carefully ignored. He focused on her question instead.
    â€œWe should be good to go.” He checked the rope sitting in its holder. “Do you want to let your sister know we’re just about ready?”
    â€œI just did.” She held up her phone, and even now Roxy and Chloe were waving in the distance, snow cones in hand.
    He was going to take her words about keeping his distance from Chloe to