Daddy Says, I Do!

by Stacy Connelly

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think she’s trying to show Nick and Darcy what a great older sis she’d be. She’s angling for a baby brother or—” Sam cut off his own words, and even in the faint glow of the shifting streetlights, Kara could see the regret written across the lines on his forehead.

  Reaching out, she covered his hand with hers. “It’s all right, Sam. I promise I won’t fall apart every time someone mentions having a baby.”

  “No, I know you won’t.” Turning his wrist, he linked their fingers together and gave a gentle squeeze. “You’re far too strong for that.”

  Kara shook her head. “I’m not strong.”

  “You survived a heartbreaking loss when you were only twenty years old.”

  “Eighteen,” she correctly softly. “I skipped a few grades in school.”

  “See? Smart and strong.”

  “If I’d been stronger, I would have stuck with my plans to teach kindergarten.” She’d given up on that dream long ago, but having Timmy in her life on a daily basis reminded her more and more of her old desire to open children’s eyes to their own hopes and dreams and futures where the possibility existed for them to do anything, to be anything....

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. After what you went through, no one would blame you for feeling that way or changing your plans.”

  “I know,” she whispered, “but that was a long time ago.”

  Maybe she was ready to try again.

  To be a kindergarten teacher—or to be a mother?

  The thought came out of nowhere, but what had once been an impossibility now no longer seemed so unthinkable. After losing Ella, the pain and emptiness inside was so great, she’d sworn she would never take that risk again.

  To lose another child...

  Reaching up, Kara touched the locket around her neck. Her love for Ella was still strong, still alive after all this time. She hadn’t lost that at all. And even though she’d only had her daughter for a short time, Kara realized she wouldn’t give those few, precious days up for anything.

  Taking a deep breath, she asked, “What do Nick and Darcy think of Maddie’s plan?”

  “Darcy seems intrigued, but Nick’s about to have a heart attack. He swore he’d never get married again, so I’m sure he thought Maddie would always be an only child.”

  What about Timmy? Kara wanted to ask. Would he always be an only child?

  But the very idea of having another child was still so new, so tender, she needed to let it grow, sheltered in her own mind, before exposing it to the world. And even though Timmy was already four, Sam was still very much a new father. Maybe he, like Nick, wouldn’t be ready to even think of having another child.

  And of course, there was more to having a child than simply thinking about it. Things like sex. A small shiver raced through Kara. She already knew what it was like to be kissed by Sam. To feel his lips move against her own. To taste his passion...and his control. Maybe it had to do with being mechanically inclined, but he seemed to know exactly how to speed things up and when to slow down. Not to mention all the buttons to push to turn her on.

  But it was hard for Kara to think in terms of doing the same for him. She knew he had far more experience with the opposite sex than she had, that he’d been with women who were far more beautiful, far more exciting. Women like...her sister.

  Sam had admitted his relationship with Marti was little more than a fling, but Marti had always had such confidence when it came to men. A confidence Kara had lacked in all of her relationships. Could she really expect that with Sam it would be any different?

  It is different. Sam is different.

  She trusted Sam. She trusted him with Timmy. She trusted him with her few precious memories of Ella. She could trust him with her heart.

  * * *

  “So, tell me about this house we’re going to look at tomorrow,” Kara said over her shoulder as she circled the small counter dividing the living area from the small kitchenette.

  Was it his imagination or was she nervous? She’d been quiet on the ride back to the hotel, but Sam had blamed that on his stupid mistake in bringing up Maddie’s desire for a younger sibling. Looking at Kara now, though, he didn’t see any signs of sorrow on her lovely face. But between the quick glances she was shooting his way and the four feet of counter space she’d used to separate the two of them, he knew something was up.

  Was it because of the kiss? Thanks to his lack of control earlier, did she think he was going to attack her now that they were alone?

  Resisting the urge to swear, he focused on Kara’s question instead and filled her in on the details of the house. “Technically, it belongs to Drew. When he’s not working on a custom house for a client, he’ll work on remodels to keep busy. Once the remodeling’s done, he sells the house to a buyer who’s looking for a walk-in-ready home. He had a couple interested in the place, but their loan fell through.”

  “It sounds great. Timmy’s so excited about the tree house, the dog, everything.”

  “Yeah, he is,” Sam said with enough emphasis to make Kara pause.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Maybe you can tell me.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you Kara. Maybe you can tell me what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling.”

  “About looking for a house? I told you, I think it’s great and Timmy—”

  “Will love it.” A muscle flexed in his jaw, and he felt as if he were forcing the words out. “You’re giving up so much—your friends, your family, your home, your career. Is it all for Timmy? Is any of this about you? About what you want? Is any of it about us?”

  Kara’s eyes widened at the rough demand. “I’m not giving up anything, Sam,” she whispered. “I’m getting everything I’ve ever wanted.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed hoarsely. “Timmy.”

  “Yes. And you.” With her gaze locked on his, she circled the counter and erased the distance between them. She didn’t stop until the silky material of her skirt brushed against his thighs. Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands. He could feel the faint tremor in her fingers against his jaw, but her words were steady as she said, “I want you to be my friend, my family, my home. I want you to be my husband. I want you. All of you.”

  Something broke loose inside of Sam at her words. The control—or was it the fear?—holding him back snapped, and he pulled Kara into his arms. His mouth captured hers in a hungry kiss, so unlike the others they’d shared, so unlike any kiss he’d given or received...ever. He wanted to lose himself just for a short while in a place where only the two of them existed. And then it happened. The outside world fell away, leaving only heat and softness as her mouth opened beneath his. He traced the fullness of her lips with his tongue before plunging inside.

  A small sound escaped her, and for a moment, Sam worried he’d pushed too hard, taken too much, too soon. But then her tongue circled his, pulling him deeper. For possibly the first time, he realized he wasn’t taking. He was giving, and Kara was accepting everything he had and offering herself back in return.

  And it still wasn’t enough. Sam slid one hand down Kara’s back while he buried the other in her hair. It flowed like warm silk through his fingers. He cupped the back of her head to hold her still, even as his palm grasped her bottom to urge her closer. He pressed her tight to his arousal, letting her feel the effect she had on him, and groaned when she arched even closer.

  Sam broke the kiss, filling his starving lungs with air and his starving soul with the knowledge that he’d fallen in love. He hadn’t expected to find someone like Kara in his small hometown. He hadn’t expected to find her at all. She was like no one he’d ever met before. So strong and yet so vulnerable. So caring and yet so fiercely protective. So beautiful, inside and out.

  He skimme
d his lips across her cheek to the curve of her jaw. Kara rolled her head to the side, offering full access to her throat. His kiss followed the enticing V-neck of the pale pink dress as it dipped between her breasts.

  Kara felt his breath bathing her skin, and her heart seemed to melt in the heat, pooling low in her belly without skipping a single, pulsating beat. Her nipples tightened even though he hadn’t touched her. But she wanted him to. Oh, how she wanted him to!

  “Sam.” She murmured his name in a throaty whisper, and he answered, lifting her into his arms and carrying her into the bedroom. Her dress slid away with the whisper of a zipper and the soft swish of material. Her bra and panties followed, disappearing into the room’s darkened corners. The light in Sam’s eyes as he looked at her banished the monsters of self-doubt, and she didn’t have to worry about not being pretty enough, sexy enough, shapely enough.

  “You are so beautiful,” he whispered roughly, and she believed him.

  He lowered her onto the silky softness of the bed and followed her down, but when she tried to touch him, tried to tug the shirt from his shoulders, he caught her hands in his. “My turn,” he murmured against her lips, and Kara remembered the night on the couch. The night when he’d let her touch and taste and feel...

  He molded her curves to his every kiss, every caress, until she couldn’t take any more. Until all she wanted was more. She teetered on the edge of a promised pleasure so profound, Kara already knew she would never be the same again, but she waited. Caught on the brink until Sam took them both over the edge. And when she landed back in the real world with the softness of the mattress beneath her and the hard strength of his body above her, she knew without a doubt that she’d fallen in love.

  * * *

  The ring of her cell phone jarred Kara from sleep. She squinted against the bright light filling the hotel room as two facts filtered through her fuzzy brain. She was naked and she was alone. Unease shifted through her stomach until she spotted the note on the bedside table next to her phone.

  You looked like Sleeping Beauty, but I wouldn’t have been able to stop at just one kiss.

  Relief slipped out on a sigh until her phone rang a second time and she caught sight of her parents’ number on the screen. Kara swallowed. This was not a conversation she wanted to have with her parents naked. But she’d only be delaying the inevitable and who knew when they might call back? Tucking the sheet beneath her breasts, she answered the call.

  “Honestly, Kara, you’ve left a good dozen messages over the past two days,” her mother said by way of greeting before she could even say hello.

  “Yes, well, I wanted to talk to you and Dad.” Something most parents would have figured out by, oh, say the fourth or fifth message.

  “Whatever it is, you have our attention. But only for the next fifteen minutes. We’ve both have speeches scheduled to start at ten.”

  “Right. Thanks for squeezing me in,” Kara said, more relieved than annoyed. As painful as the next few minutes might be, at least they would be over quickly. “I’m getting married.”

  There. That didn’t even use up fifteen seconds. Her parents would have plenty of time for coffee before heading to the auditorium.

  “You’re what?”

  “I’m staying here in Clearville and getting married.”

  Her father reacted to the news as predicted, bringing up her job, her chance to be chair of the department. “You’re throwing away years of hard work and for what?”

  “I don’t know, Dad. The chance to be happy?”

  “Happy.” He echoed the word as if it had no meaning. “Doing what?”

  “Doing what I’ve always wanted to do. Raising a family. Being a mother.” And maybe in a year or two, when Timmy was going to school all day, she’d look into going back to the classroom, too. Not as a teacher, but as a student. She wanted to go back to school and take the required classes needed for elementary education. She was ready now to fulfill her dream of teaching kindergarten.

  “Kara, you’re a college professor.” He stressed the words, making them sound so much bigger, so much more important than the ones she’d used. As if being a wife and mother was something any woman could do and not something she should waste her talents and intelligence pursuing.

  “This is what I want. If you can’t be happy for me, then at least...be quiet.”

  Her words, even softly spoken, were as close as she’d come to talking back in nearly two decades, and a stunned silence sounded in response before her mother’s voice came across the line. “Kara, I know how hard Marti’s death was on you. On all of us. But this rush into a marriage...are you sure you aren’t reacting out of grief?”

  “I’m not, Mom. Really. I won’t pretend I wasn’t devastated by Marti’s death or that I don’t miss her every day, but this isn’t a reaction. It’s what I want.”

  “All right then, if that’s true, fine. But why not come back home, finish out this semester. Then in five or six months, if you still feel so strongly, you can move back and go from there.”

  As much as Kara hated to admit it, her mother’s words chipped away at her confidence. Her father’s sledgehammer blows she could withstand, but her mother was like an ice pick—pointed, sharp and precise. Was she rushing things with Sam? He’d asked about all she was giving up to move to Clearville, but what about the sacrifice he was making? After all, he was the one who’d enjoyed a bachelor’s lifestyle while she’d barely gone on a handful of dates in the past few years. In time, would Sam regret giving up his freedom?

  Hating the cracks inching their way beneath the surface, Kara said her goodbyes to her parents as quickly as she could. She needed to go see Sam. One smile, one kiss, and he’d wipe away all her doubts.

  * * *

  “Hey, um, you got a minute, Sam?”

  Sam looked up to see Will lurking in the doorway to his office and wondered with a touch of embarrassment how long the kid had been standing there. It might have been only a few seconds or it could have inched into five or ten minutes. He couldn’t say for sure.

  Time had lost meaning as he’d leisurely replayed every moment from the previous night. He had to be crazy to leave Kara to come into work, but he’d already been away from the garage too much. He did have a business to run, although if he didn’t get his mind off the woman he loved, he could well end up running it into the ground.

  It wasn’t a thought that should make him smile, but he couldn’t seem to keep the grin off his face.

  “What’s up, Will?”

  “I was wondering...I mean, with all the time you’ve been spending with Timmy, I’ve been working here on my own this past week or so.”

  “You have, and if I haven’t told you, I appreciate it. It’s meant a lot to me to spend time with Tim, and I know the garage is in good hands even when I’m not around.”

  Will ducked his head but not before Sam saw the blush creeping up his neck. “Yeah, well, you’re welcome. I’m glad to help out, and I figure with you and Kara getting married soon, that maybe you’ll need even more help, you know. Like full-time help.”

  He had planned on hiring another part-time mechanic, but that had been when he still intended to hit every auction from the Northwest down to the South. Before he knew about Timmy and before he’d fallen in love with Kara.

  Before he’d sold the Corvette to Billy Cummings.

  Sam sighed over that, but only a little. Building a family meant more to him than fixing up a car ever could.

  “That’s great of you to offer, Will, but you’ve got school starting soon. It’s your senior year. I don’t want you missing out because you’re here every night. Working on the weekends and a few afternoons during the week will be enough.”

  “No,” Will muttered, his head downcast. “It won’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

 
Lifting his chin, the teenager met Sam’s gaze. “I need a full-time job. I’m dropping out of school.”

  * * *

  Sam still had the conversation with Will on his mind when his phone rang a few minutes later.

  “Sam Pirelli?”

  “You got him,” he said in response to the unfamiliar male voice on the other end of the line.

  “This is Doctor Marcus Starling.”

  Doctor Marcus Starling...Kara’s father. His soon-to-be father-in-law. Judging by the cool, almost impersonal greeting, Marcus Starling wouldn’t be asking Sam to call him Dad anytime soon. He was pretty sure this call could only mean one thing. Kara had finally gotten hold of her parents to share the good news. “Hello, sir. It’s good to finally talk to you.”

  “From what my daughter tells me, you and I have plenty to talk about.”

  Yeah, Sam could just imagine everything he and the heart surgeon would have in common. But he wasn’t about to be intimidated by the other man. “I suppose we do. The first thing you should know is that I love your daughter. She’s an amazing woman.”

  A brief hesitation on the other end of the line followed before Marcus questioned, “And Marti? I assume you must have found my younger daughter amazing, as well.”

  Sam gritted his teeth in an effort to hold back the words on the tip of his tongue. He deserved that. He might not like it, but he deserved it. And while he also didn’t like much about the other man, he could sympathize for the loss his family had experienced. First Marti’s death and now Kara’s decision to move away with their only grandchild.

  “Marti was a great girl, and I was sorry to hear about her death.”

  “And surprised to discover you’re a father, I imagine.”

  “Timmy’s a great kid, and I’m lucky to have him.”

  “And to have Kara, too? From the time Timmy was born, Kara was always there. Helping Marti when he was a baby any way she could. But the fact of the matter is that Timothy is not Kara’s responsibility.”

  “You’re right. He’s not her responsibility at all. He’s her nephew and she loves him.”