Truly Daddy

By Cara Colter

TRULY A FAMILY?

What was it that made rugged mountain man Garret Boyd so irresistible to Toni Carlton? Could it be the tenderness she'd glimpsed in his blue eyes whenever he swept his orphaned niece into his strong, sheltering arms? Or was it the heat Toni saw simmering in his gaze from the moment she'd come to his cosy home?

In no time Toni had put a smile in Garret's heart and a burning need in his wounded soul. And suddenly the brooding loner knew the only way to give little Angie a family was to believe that a strong, silent daddy and his vivacious new nanny were truly meant to be .

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Jul 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781460862209

Cara Colter

Cara Colter shares ten acres in British Columbia with her real life hero Rob, ten horses, a dog and a cat.  She has three grown children and a grandson. Cara is a recipient of the Career Acheivement Award in the Love and Laughter category from Romantic Times BOOKreviews.  Cara invites you to visit her on Facebook!

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Chapter One

This is the greatest coup of my career, Toni Carlton said out loud, uncaring of the busy sidewalk she moved down. It was everything she could do not to hug herself and spin around in delight, Mary Tyler Moore-style.

Lady, I’ll coo in your ear anytime.

She flung a mass of red curly hair over her slender shoulder and narrowed her green eyes at the speaker, a complete stranger in an expensive three-piece suit.

Tall, dark and a jerk. Weren’t weirdos supposed to wear fatigue jackets and grotesque purple toques?

He must have gotten the message because he ducked his head, tucked his expensive leather briefcase under his arm and scurried hurriedly down the sidewalk.

She decided she loved Vancouver anyway. Loved Chinatown. And especially loved Martin Ying, who had just agreed to design an exclusive line of clothing for Madame Yeltsy’s, the quality clothing chain store that she was buyer for. This was her first solo trip, but Madame Yeltsy expected great things every time. The ordinary was not good enough.

Toni stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to the display window that had caught the corner of her eye. The humble storefront gave lie to the exotic Oriental pieces in jade decorating the front window.

They were absolutely original and took her breath away. What an incredible complement they could make to the Ying line!

She burst in the door. Her eyes had to adjust to the light.

A tiny Oriental man, who looked slightly older than her, perhaps in his late twenties, stood behind the counter, so focused on what he was seeing through the jeweler’s loupe he held to his right eye that he didn’t see her at first.

He glanced up at her in surprise, then tried to put the piece away. Closed, he said. Forgot sign. Closed. Out. Out.

With Madame Yeltsy’s expectations of greatness, Tom simply could not afford to be a woman easily intimidated. Besides, she stood five foot ten in her stocking feet and could woo a man with a blink of her thick, tangled lashes if she needed to.

Closed or not closed, she wanted some of that jewelry, and especially the piece he was trying to hide. She strode across the small tiled floor, took his hand firmly and pulled it back above the counter.

Closed, he said weakly, but he smiled, just a trifle hopefully as his dark eyes met her green ones.

A ring clattered from his clasp, and she scooped it up before he did.

She could not help but notice he was shaking slightly. She was used to a stir of male interest following in her wake, but she’d never made anyone shake before.

It’s beautiful, she breathed, rolling the ring over in her hand. She stated down at the ring. Exquisitely worked in silver and jade was a dragon pattern that matched that of the necklace in the window. She could look for another hundred years and not find accessories so completely compatible with Ying’s work.

The ring means good luck, great happiness. the little man offered, she could not help but notice, unhappily. His eyes slid to her bare ring finger. Husband. Babies.

Madame Yeltsy did not approve of women who made such matters a priority.

Oh, brother, Toni exclaimed in a tone that would have made her mentor proud, did you design this? I want it I want more like it. I want—

No, no, he squeaked. Not for sale.

She glanced up at her reluctant salesman. Little beads of perspiration were standing out on his forehead. He looked like he was about to faint.

Not a reaction even she had ever caused. In fact, he seemed to be looking uneasily past her left ear and out the window. She glanced over her shoulder. The street was absolutely thronged. But suddenly, among the bustle, her gaze was attracted to stillness. Three men were standing across the street, looking over at the shop. Were they noticeable because they were so large and Caucasian in a sea of people who were smaller and golden? Or was it because there was something vaguely menacing about them?

Take the ring, he said softly, folding his hand over hers. Go now.

I can’t take the ring. I want to buy several of them. And that necklace--

Go now, he said, his voice practically a whisper. Go.

You don’t understand. I need—

Leave card, he said firmly, almost ferociously. Come back later.

The man was going to jump out of his skin at any moment, so she slipped a card from her jacket pocket and scribbled her hotel and room number on it. She laid it on the counter.

He nodded. Go.

She started to leave the ring.

Take, he ordered.

She looked at him again and could almost smell his fear. Something was very wrong here, wrong enough to pierce her elation about Ying.

Can I help? she asked quietly. What’s the matter?

But whatever the matter was, she could see her persistence was making it worse. She thanked him uneasily, feeling his urgency, turned abruptly on her heel and left.

She moved into the throng and was jostled along for several yards. There was incredible energy on this crowded street, and she wished she had thought to bring her camera with her. Maybe she could get to her hotel room and come back before the light faded.

Though Madame Yeltsy frowned on hobbies and considered them frivolous, Toni knew her own tendency toward the artsy, her love of balance and her ability to pick out pleasing images, had helped to bring her to this position in the first place.

A noise made her glance back over her shoulder. The three men who had been on the other side of the street crossed, paused and then went hurriedly into the store she had just left.

A moment later she heard shouting. One of the men came back out of the store and was scanning the crowded street.

Intuitively, she knew, without a doubt, that he was looking for her. There was a flat, cold expression on his face that filled her with foreboding. The little shop proprietor came out, firmly in the grasp of a large thug. He was wailing. His eyes searched the crowded street, and then he pointed right at her!

All three men were on the sidewalk now, staring at her with dark menace in their eyes. Still holding the storekeeper firmly captive, the thug went back into the store while the other two men started pushing through the congested street toward her.

Her reaction was one of pure panic.

Instinct told her she had just become the hunted. What had she gotten herself into now, and how was she going to get out of it?

Crazy to think she could outrun them. She had on three-inch heels and a pencil-line skirt!

She had to outthink them. Her specialty.

First, she ducked. There was no sense being six inches taller than anyone else on the street. From behind her curtain of people, she thought frantically. She had only seconds.

She was crouched beside a car. She raised herself slightly and peered in the window. A child’s car seat was strapped in the back. An abandoned teddy bear leaned drunkenly on one ear.

Not even really thinking about it, she tried the handle.

The door whispered open.

She slithered onto the back floor, bemoaning only briefly the damage to her new gray skirt. She pulled the door gently shut behind her. There was a beautiful hand-quilted blanket on the floor.

She tugged it quickly over herself.

She could hear them approaching, calling out to each other.

She was here just a second ago, dammit!

Well, she’s a flippin’ amazon, so she shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Amazon! Under different circumstances she would have taken pleasure in setting him straight on that account.

The men seemed to have stopped right outside the vehicle. Her heart racing uncontrollably, she tugged one corner of the blanket down and peered up and out.

Her heart did stop then. A man who bore an unfortunate resemblance to a giant stood on the sidewalk, inches from the vehicle window.

But it never occurred to him to look in the car.

He moved on, face set in an angry scowl, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

She would wait five minutes. In fact, she would look at her watch right now and time it, because five minutes was going to seem like an eternity. She would wait five minutes, then sit up carefully, look around and, if the coast was clear, go back to her hotel and call the police.

And tell them what?

One thing at a time, she instructed herself tersely. She wasn’t anywhere near a phone yet.

She had to swallow a shriek when she suddenly heard the front door tested.

They’d found her!

She put her head back under the blanket.

Click. The door opened.

Make a run for it. No, wait.

A bag came tumbling over the back seat, followed by a second one. The springs of the front seat creaked as weight settled into them. A delicious aroma filled the vehicle—of sunshine and aftershave. A smell one hundred percent male.

What had she done? Jumped from the frying pan into the fire? He could be a serial killer. A rapist, a...

Calm yourself, she ordered silently. Surely fate would not put her squarely in the path of danger twice in one day.

Look at the car seat. And the teddy bear. This was somebody’s daddy going home after a hard day’s work to his wife and his baby. A serial killer wouldn’t smell quite so...heavealy.

The car purred to life.

With sudden relief, she realized she’d been given a better escape than she could have dreamed up herself. Daddy longlegs there in the front seat would drive her safely out to suburbia When he got out of the car and was safely in his house with his nice little wife and baby, she could make her exit. Find a phone booth, call a cab and be back at her hotel in no time. A call to the police and then, with a little luck on her side, she could probably make the red-eye flight back to San Diego tonight.

Luck. Wasn’t that what the ring was supposed to bring her?

The car pulled smoothly out into traffic.

A plump little man, she told herself firmly, in a slightly rumpled suit. Glasses, a few hairs combed over a bald spot

He turned on some music. A mournful voice sang about a renegade horse and a bad woman. He hummed absently along.

His voice reassured her, though it wasn’t a plump voice. It was definitely a daddy’s voice. Nice and deep and calm.

She noted the racing of her heart stilling somewhat. She pulled the blanket quietly back from her nose so it wouldn’t tickle. She tried to figure out where they were, but it was absolutely impossible, even if she had been familiar with the city, which she was not.

The minutes ticked by. She looked at her watch, reminding herself every minute would seem like an hour. But after an hour, she began to get a little nervous.

Large cities had traffic snarls, but where did he live? She couldn’t very well change her plan now. What was she going to do? Leap up from the back seat and say Boo? Surprise? She’d probably kill them both.

Half an hour more, she thought. That was it. Then she’d have to put plan B into action, if she had one by then.

She was exhausted even though the.tension continued to knot her shoulders as the car purred along, stopping and starting at lights, moving smoothly in and out of traffic.

It was bloody uncomfortable being crammed into that narrow space on the rear floorboard.

Her mother had always taught her to look for something to be thankful for, even in the bleakest moments. She felt quite bleak right now, being carried away to parts unknown, life suddenly wrested right out of her control.

Danger had been evaded. She shivered just thinking of those men, thinking of the little proprietor quaking in their grasp. She had escaped.

That was something to be grateful for.

That and the fact she didn’t have to sneeze. Or go to the bathroom.

She could have been trying to lie on the floor of a shrimpy little import car instead of this large and rather luxurious one.

Oh, her mother had taught her well. She felt a wonderful lassitude creeping through tense muscles. Daddy driver’s scent and his deep voice humming wrapped around her.

Please, God, she prayed silently, don’t let me go to sleep. Let us get to wherever we are going fast.

She absolutely could not go to sleep. Absolutely not... The last thing she remembered hearing was the radio announcer saying, And now, Garth Brooks with ‘Unanswered prayers.’

Garret Boyd resisted the impulse to honk at the little red sedan that cut him off.

It was the car seat in the back of the little car that made him curb the impulse to vent his temper with his horn.

He knew all about how small children could rattle a person. The harried mother driving that miniature car too fast was probably rushing to get to the day care.

Just like him,