She turned the wedding picture toward her and studied it. “Mommy?”
Mallory loved being called that and wondered if it would ever get old. “Yes, love?”
“Do you think I’ll ever be able to wear my flower-girl dress again?”
Caleb grinned. “Seems like there’s a wedding in this town every other week, so I’d say you have a better than even chance. Until it doesn’t fit. The way you’re growing, young lady, that could be next week. In fact, I’ve been meaning to have a talk with you about staying my little girl just a bit longer.”
Ignoring the last part, Lily said, “When I get married—”
Caleb gently touched a finger to the little girl’s mouth, shutting off the rest of the statement. “That’s not going to happen until you’re at least thirty-five. Because you have to date first and—”
“We didn’t,” Mallory pointed out. “Not in the beginning.”
“That’s different.”
“How? We kept running into each other,” she reminded him. “And when the universe gives you a sign, it’s not wise to ignore it.”
“The universe better mind its own business. Lily is off-limits. No boys,” he said protectively.
“Ew. I don’t like boys.” Lily made a face, then smiled up at him. “Except you.”
“And that’s just the way I want to keep it.”
Lily rested her head against his shoulder and Mallory’s heart melted yet again. It always did at the sight of the big man, so gentle and loving with the little girl who’d stolen both of their hearts. Their daughter finally had a positive male influence, a man with all the wonderful qualities she would one day look for in a husband.
“Sorry I’m late.” Ben Dalton hurried into the room and sat in the big chair on the other side of the desk. “Got hung up on a property-line dispute.”
“Everything okay, Dad?”
“Fine. Just took longer than I expected.” He opened the adoption file on his desk. He looked at his son. “So your name was added to the adoption petition.”
Mallory hadn’t thought she could love Caleb more but when he’d said he wanted to adopt Lily, her heart had filled to overflowing. She couldn’t believe how happy that had made her. Sometimes she questioned it and Caleb kept her grounded in the moment. He reminded her to enjoy the good in each day and not borrow trouble.
“So, we just have to sign?” Mallory asked. “Shouldn’t there be a parade down Main Street and fireworks? This is big!”
“That’s all you have to do.” Ben grinned. “Then the papers get filed and it’s official.”
Mallory was first and wrote her name on the line indicated. Then Caleb set Lily down and did the same. The little girl looked over the paper, turned to them and grinned.
“Mommy, we both got to change our name to Dalton.”
“That’s right. We’re a family.” Mallory liked the sound of that.
“You do realize that anyone named Dalton has to show up for dinner on Sunday.” Ben’s eyes twinkled.
“That’s a real hardship,” she teased back.
“Give it time,” Caleb chimed in. “It’ll get old.”
“Not for me. I’ve always wanted a close family.”
“Me, too,” Lily added. “Does this mean that Lani and Lindsay are my aunts?”
“It does. Anderson and Travis are your uncles, with all the responsibilities and obligations that come along with the title. And you have grandparents.” Caleb was looking at his father, who smiled proudly.
Shyly, Lily looked at Ben. “What should I call you?”
He smiled down at her. “Grandpa has a nice ring to it.”
“And Mrs. Dalton is Grandma?”
“She’ll love that, Lily.” His voice was exceedingly gentle and filled with emotion.
“I’d like that, too.” Lily’s expression turned serious as she turned to Caleb. “Now that it’s legal, I can call you Daddy?”
Caleb didn’t speak right away, but there was a suspicious brightness in his eyes as he swallowed once, then again. When he answered, his voice was thick with emotion. “Daddy is my favorite name.”
“You know,” the little girl said thoughtfully, “I think you’re not my favorite cowboy anymore.”
“Lily?” Mallory wondered what was going on in that fertile mind of her daughter’s.
“Now you’re my favorite Daddy.”
Tears trickled down Mallory’s cheeks but she knew that was just happiness overflowing again. It was practically a daily occurrence since her charming cowboy had gone from maverick to daddy.
* * * * *
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Prologue
Life was all about trade-offs, Kenna Scott realized as she made her way through the corridors of Hillfield Academy, the private school she’d transferred to three weeks earlier. Her high marks had won her a scholarship to the prestigious school, but her secondhand uniform, scuffed shoes and ancient backpack still marked her as a “charity case” to her fellow students.
There was no hiding the fact that she was from the wrong part of town, where she lived in the erroneously named “Royal Towers”—a three-story apartment building with rusted balconies, cracked sidewalks and a landlord who sold dime bags in the back of the parking lot. Even working two jobs, it was the best her mother could provide for them, and putting food on the table for three kids without a penny from any of their good-for-nothing fathers wasn’t easy.
So Kenna didn’t expect anything to come easy for her, either, but it was harder than she’d thought it would be to ignore the snarky whispers and the disdainful glances of the other kids at Hillfield. Thankfully, they gave her a wide berth, as if her lower-class status might somehow be infectious.
All of them except Daniel Garrett.
At her other school, labs had been assigned alphabetically. But for some reason, Mr. Taylor liked to mix things up—test the randomness of chemistry, he explained. Basically he put names in a hat and pulled two out together, and those two would be lab partners for the duration of the semester. That was how she ended up with Daniel Garrett as her lab partner in junior year.
Which she didn’t really mind, because he wasn’t a complete goof-off like some of th
e other kids. Although he focused on the work they had to do, he was always asking her questions, about what books she liked to read or the kind of movies she liked to watch.
Finally, on the Friday of the third week of class and after the latest round of questioning, she asked, “What’s with the interrogation?”
“I’m trying to get to know you.”
“Just because we’re lab partners doesn’t mean we have to be friends.”
“It doesn’t have to keep us from being friends, either,” Daniel pointed out.
“And even if we were friends, it wouldn’t get you into my pants.”
“Excuse me?”
“You think I didn’t see you and your friends in the cafeteria, looking at me and snickering, probably making bets on how easy I am because I’m from South Ridge and here on a scholarship?”
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, there was some talk,” he admitted. “Not because you’re a scholarship student from South Ridge but because you’re hot. And yeah, some of the guys bet that I couldn’t get you to go out with me, so I thought I’d give it a shot.”
She hadn’t expected him to admit it. And she hadn’t anticipated that a casual comment on her appearance would make her stomach feel all quivery inside. She’d often been told that she was beautiful—usually by male “friends” of her mother—and those remarks had always made her uncomfortable. As a result, she’d dressed to hide her feminine curves and downplay her appearance, but the uniform requirements at Hillfield didn’t allow her to cover up with baggy jeans or oversize sweaters.
But the matter-of-fact tone of Daniel’s statement didn’t make her uneasy, and the way he looked at her didn’t make her wary. So she summoned the courage to ask, “How much?”
“What?”
“How much was the wager?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “A hundred bucks.”
She didn’t react, wouldn’t let him see how much that kind of money would mean to her. Even half of it was a fortune to her, and these guys threw it around on a lame-ass bet without a second thought.
After a few minutes, she said, “We could split it.”
“What?”
She almost smiled at this proof she’d surprised him. “If you give me half and buy the pizza out of your fifty, I’ll let you win that bet.”
He seemed to consider her offer for a minute, then nodded and held out his hand. “Deal.”
She felt an unexpected jolt when her palm made contact with his, but she refused to acknowledge it. She wasn’t interested in any chemistry outside of this classroom.
Chapter One
Ten years later
Kenna Scott owed Daniel Garrett more than she could ever possibly repay him.
Not that he would agree. The first time he’d ever bailed her out of a difficult situation, he’d told her, “Friends don’t keep score.” And while she hadn’t really kept score over the years, it was an undeniable truth that he’d come to her rescue more times than she wanted to admit. Now she was in the unique position of being able to help him.
Twenty-four hours earlier, she wouldn’t have imagined there was anything he could ask of her that she would refuse.
Twenty-four hours earlier, she wouldn’t have imagined he’d ask her to marry him.
As their taxi zipped through the streets of Las Vegas, her feelings were as much a blur as the scenery outside the window.
Was she really going to go through with this? Was she going to marry Daniel to help him gain access to the trust fund that was tied up until his thirtieth birthday or he was “lawfully married”?
And was a marriage under such circumstances considered lawful?
“You’re having second thoughts,” he guessed.
She looked at him—the man who had been one of her best friends for the past decade—and felt a little flutter of something she couldn’t, or maybe didn’t want to, define.
Daniel was the type of man who drew attention wherever he went. Not just because he was six-four with broad shoulders but because of the way he carried himself, with purpose and confidence. He was also undeniably handsome. He had thick dark hair that always seemed to be in need of a trim, deep blue eyes that could be intensely focused or sparkle with humor, a sexy mouth that was quick to smile and a square jaw that, even when unshaven, was somehow appealing rather than scruffy.
Aside from all of that, he was a Garrett, and with the name came a certain amount of power and prestige. But instead of working at the furniture business owned by his family, Daniel had chosen to pursue a career in the field of computer science and was presently a network security specialist.
In high school, he’d been the boy that all the girls wanted to be with. Now that he was a man, he was even more coveted. But just a few hours earlier, he’d put a ring on her finger, and her gaze shifted now to the stunning princess-cut diamond solitaire. She knew it would take some time to get used to the weight of the ring on her finger; she wasn’t sure she would ever become accustomed to its weight on her conscience.
“I just wish there was another way,” she admitted.
“For me or for you?”
“Both.”
“I told you I’ve got stocks and bonds worth at least two hundred thousand. I could cash some of those in to pay for your sister’s surgery.”
And he would do it for her, too—no strings attached. Because that was the kind of guy he was. And as much as she hated taking anything from anyone—even a loan from her best friend—she would do it for Becca.
Her fourteen-year-old sister had been in her boyfriend’s car when Todd lost control of the vehicle, which slid thirty feet down an embankment before crashing into a utility pole. The passenger side had taken the brunt of the impact, so while Todd had walked away from the scene, paramedics had to use the Jaws of Life to get Becca out of the mangled vehicle. She was rushed to hospital with three cracked ribs, a punctured lung and a tibial shaft fracture.
Three months later, it was discovered that the surgeon hadn’t properly aligned the broken fragments of the fracture, and now Becca walked with a limp. After several more doctors’ appointments and specialist consultations, it was agreed that another operation would be needed if she wanted to correct the problem. But because this surgery was considered elective, neither it nor the subsequent physiotherapy sessions would be covered by medical insurance.
A conservative estimate of the cost: eighty thousand dollars.
Just thinking about the enormity of the sum made Kenna’s stomach cramp. While she’d finally paid off her secondhand car, she’d barely begun to make a dent in her student loans and the doctor wanted a fifty percent deposit before he would even book the surgery.
She hadn’t had the first clue how she might scrounge up that kind of money, but she’d promised her sister she’d figure out a way. A lengthy conversation with their mother had garnered nothing but tears and regrets. Sue Ellen Duncan had always been good at both—it was handling her finances that proved to be a struggle. So when Daniel had stopped by to see Kenna later that night, she’d been desperate for a solution.
That was when he’d suggested they get married.
She’d stared at him blankly, waiting for the punch line, certain it had to be some kind of joke. He’d assured her that it was not. Kenna needed money for her sister’s surgery; he wanted access to his trust fund; a quick ceremony in Vegas would give them each what they desired.
They’d been friends for so long that she sometimes forgot about the drastic differences in their backgrounds and social status. Which was ironic, considering that it had been such an impediment to their friendship in the beginning.
Aside from the fact that Daniel’s family owned Garrett Furniture, his maternal grandfather, Jake Willson, had made a ton of money in real estate in the sixties. He’d spent as much of it as
he could in his lifetime, left a substantial amount to his only child and put the rest into trust funds for his three grandsons.
Kenna’s initial response to Daniel’s proposal had been equal parts intrigue and revulsion. She liked the idea of earning the money, but the method he was suggesting made her wonder if she’d be selling herself, à la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. He immediately assured her that he was looking for a temporary marriage in name only—just one year out of her life in exchange for one hundred thousand dollars.
Or $273.97 per day to wear his ring on her finger.
She’d finally said yes.
Now as the taxi pulled up in front of the Courtland Resort & Casino, Kenna tried not to gawk. She’d never been to Las Vegas. In fact, she’d never ventured any farther from her hometown of Charisma, North Carolina, than Daytona Beach, Florida, so she experienced a little bit of culture shock just looking around.
The opulence of the luxury hotel was unlike anything she’d ever seen. Glossy marble floors, life-size statues, spectacular waterfalls and exotic flowers. It was like a tropical paradise inside a hotel lobby that was probably bigger than any other hotel she’d ever stayed in.
Check-in was expedited, no doubt by Daniel’s platinum credit card, and although they each had only a small overnight bag, the desk clerk called for a bellman to assist with their luggage. The man, whose nameplate identified him as Alex, led them briskly down a wide corridor to a bank of elevators.
Each door of the elevator had an ornately scrolled C etched into the polished surface, and the doors opened without a sound. She stepped inside and noted there were specific buttons for Spa and Casino, but Alex pressed 7 and the elevator began its ascent. The ride was as smooth as it was quick, and then she was stepping out into a long hallway. The gold-and-cream decor continued here, from the patterned carpet beneath her feet and luxurious silk on the walls to the sconces that illuminated their path and the elaborately framed artwork along the way. The bellman slipped a key card into the slot of Room 722, and the lock released with a quiet click.
From Maverick to Daddy Page 20
