by Tasha Black
Copyright © 2020 by 13th Story Press
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Dax
Single Daddy Shifters #4
Tasha Black
Contents
Tasha Black Starter Library
About Dax
Dax
1. Dax
2. Ava
3. Ava
4. Dax
5. Ava
6. Ava
7. Dax
8. Ava
9. Dax
10. Dax
11. Ava
12. Dax
13. Ava
14. Dax
15. Ava
16. Dax
17. Ava
18. Dax
19. Ava
20. Dax
21. Ava
22. Ava
23. Dax
Her Teacher Mate (Sample)
1. Bianca
2. Bianca Remembers
3. Ian
Tasha Black Starter Library
About the Author
One Percent Club
Tasha Black Starter Library
Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!
Get your FREE books now at tashablack.com!
About Dax
Is her fragile magic strong enough to heal this broken shifter’s heart?
Dax is a dedicated dad, trying to get life back on track for himself and his twin babies after the untimely death of his beloved wife. But it’s not easy for the big wolf shifter to balance his secret duty to the Tarker’s Hollow pack with his commitment to his children and the impending sense of doom he feels each time he looks at his bank account.
His wife’s best friend, Ava, is a brilliant financial planner from Glacier City with a secret of her own. After surviving a battle with cancer, she has come to town at last. Ava is determined to help Dax fix the gaps in his finances. But can she also help to fill the hole in his heart?
When circumstances send the two into the snowy woodlands with a mission to save Christmas, will they be brave enough to reach for the happiness that seems to be in their grasp? Or will fear leave their hearts cold?
This shifter romance story includes a single daddy wolf widower, two adorable babies, and a woman who has battled cancer only to find herself at an emotional crossroads. Though the subject matter is a little heavier than the average Tarker’s Hollow story, I promise you a happy ending.
If you like strong women, sexy shifter men and unbelievably adorable babies, you will love the Single Daddy Shifters series, set in the steamy shifter world of Tarker’s Hollow!
Single Daddy Shifters:
-Axel
-Bane
-Chase
-Dax
Dax
1
Dax
Dax Walker looked around his living room and wondered if he could actually get it looking guest-ready in less than an hour.
Even if he had unlimited time, he wasn’t entirely sure it would be possible.
He had been tidying up since around six in the morning, but each time he cleaned up, the twins would sprinkle a potpourri of books, toys and foam blocks in their wake, like Hansel and Gretel in the fairy tale.
His strategy had been to work his way downstairs and backward, closing doors as he went, so that once he cleaned a room it stayed neat.
But the living space on the first floor was all open and there was no way to compartmentalize.
Right now, Mason and Maddie were chattering at each other while examining a cardboard box full of cloth dolls made by their grandmother.
At fourteen months old, a lot of what the twins said was a mystery to Dax, but they seemed to understand each other well enough to collaborate and argue.
Right now, they were thick as thieves.
“Mayyyy,” Maddie yelled happily. Her brother’s name was Mason, but she seldom attempted to say the whole thing.
Mason watched, delighted as Maddie grabbed an awkward armful of dolls and launched them at him.
“Ha,” Mason laughed. He bent over at the middle and rubbed the top of his little head on the fallen toys. This half headstand was his new trick and it always cracked his sister up.
Maddie laughed so heartily she fell down hard on her diapered bottom.
And now Dax was standing around chuckling at them instead of cleaning up.
He ran a hand through his too-long hair and smiled. He would have time for things like haircuts and a clean house when they were older.
The state of the house would have to do. If Jill’s friend judged him for having too many toys, he wasn’t going to worry about it.
“Coffee and a hot breakfast make up for a messy house,” he said to himself.
He’d gotten into the habit of talking out loud to himself when the twins were younger. The baby books all said that if you talked animatedly out loud it would make your child more interested in communicating.
Boy, were they interested in communicating now.
And, like the habit of pushing the shopping cart back and forth to soothe infants, the tendency to chat out loud had become an unbreakable tendency for Dax.
It also helped him manage his desire to talk to Jill.
She would have been so proud of the twins.
If she was watching over all of them now, she had a good reason to be especially happy today.
Her best friend, Ava, was coming to visit them.
Jill and Ava had been college roommates. Ava lived on the other side of the country, in Glacier City, but they still made a point of talking on the phone once a week when Jill was alive.
Ava was a high-powered attorney who acted as a financial planner at some huge firm in the city.
Jill had made Ava promise if anything ever happened to her, that she would come out and help Dax figure out the finances and make a plan.
None of them had ever imagined that day would come so soon.
But Ava wasn’t able to make it to Tarker’s Hollow when Jill died bringing the twins into the world. Ava had been ill herself then, though Dax didn’t have details about her illness.
Back then when Ava had called, Dax told her not to worry about it, that he was fine. There was enough insurance money for him to stay home with the twins for their first year and he had savings too. He was honestly just so gutted at his loss that he hadn’t wanted to do anything but lock himself up with the babies and try to survive.
Truth be told, the insurance money had stretched further than a year. Now that he wasn’t eating out with his colleagues for lunch every day or taking Jill on date nights, life was less expensive in some ways. Though the cost of diapers was relentless.
And he’d had the quiet, steady support of the pack. Between the meals left on the doorstep, the anonymous gifts of diapers, blankets and toys, and the phone calls and offers of an extra pair of hands, his fellow wolves of Tarker’s Hollow had come together for Dax.
He was getting by, but when Ava had called last week to say she was ready to come, he was relieved.
His friends and his savings account all agreed it was time for him to go back to work, but Dax wanted to stay with Maddie and Mason. If he could manage to be with them full-time until they went to p
re-school in two years, he could feel that they had been given the best start possible - not as good as if their mom had been around, but the best start he could give them on his own.
And he loved being with the twins. It could be exhausting and tedious, but it was also the most rewarding job in the world.
If Ava was as good at financial planning as Jill always said she was, maybe she could help him figure out how to do it.
Maddie and Mason were both rolling around in the dolls now. Maddie’s arms were up over her head, little fingers curling in her wispy hair, a sure sign that she was thinking about taking a nap.
In the beginning, Dax had thought babies should nap in cribs. But he’d learned that a supervised nap on the floor was just fine too.
He headed into the kitchen to put the pan of French toast he’d started earlier into the oven.
The kitchen was open to the living room in their small house. The simple removal of that wall had been the best improvement he’d made to it when it came to keeping an eye on the twins, even if it made it harder to clean.
The radio was on, and the weather lady talked in cheerful tones about the possibility of snow.
Dax smiled to himself. The twins would love to play in the snow. They were finally old enough to enjoy so many things, and their wonder at anything new was palpable.
In some ways, he knew he was a pretty lucky guy.
His heart was full as he started a pot of coffee.
2
Ava
Ava Sorensen stepped off the train and onto the platform, pulling her suitcase behind her.
Tarker’s Hollow spread out all around her - the tiny village stretching down Yale and Park on her left, the college and the Inn on her right, and beyond them, the forest.
And here at the train platform was the town clock - an antique style timepiece atop an ornate post, that overlooked a small garden surrounded by memorial pavers.
Her best friend Jill had talked about it a lot when she was on the fundraising committee to erect it.
She knew one of those pavers bore Jill’s name, but Ava was afraid she would cry if she saw it, so instead of searching the cobbled path, she gazed out over the town.
She’d felt raw and broken with loss on the journey here. It was as if she’d held in all her mourning during this long year so she could feel it all now.
Though Dax had offered to pick her up when she got in, Ava decided to walk to the house instead.
Now that her cancer was in remission, part of her life plan was to be healthier. She had been eating a mostly plant-based diet and since her strength was returning, she was trying to get her fresh air and exercise in.
She crossed the street, passing a coffee shop called Edible Complex, of all things. She stifled a groan at the terrible pun.
On the other side of the street she was greeted with more small shops. Holiday decorations brightened the windows. Even the lampposts were adorned with large snowflakes, festooned with fairy lights.
“Hello,” a woman with long silver hair said with a smile.
“Um, hi,” Ava replied, wondering if the woman thought she knew her.
She was a little breathless. It was unfair that just a year and a half ago she had been an avid runner, putting in a few miles every day before work.
“Patience is key, Ava,” she muttered to herself, quoting her dad.
She was in remission and getting stronger. She knew she was supposed to be grateful. Anyone would be.
The trouble was, she had evidence that she wasn’t really getting better.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t share it with anyone.
“Hi there,” a man said, giving her a little wave as he headed for the train, his briefcase swinging from his other hand.
“Hi,” she replied, wondering again if the stranger knew her somehow.
Or were people just friendly here?
She certainly wasn’t in Glacier City anymore.
She had been out west for years. Now that she was in a small town again, she recognized what she had used to notice daily.
Glacier City was all elbows, paper coffee cups and cigarettes. There, her new pace was hardly tolerated.
Here, no one even seemed to notice that she was walking slowly.
She was passing a bakery as a woman came out. The smell wafting from the door was heavenly.
“Oh, hello,” the woman said kindly. “Let me get that for you.” She held open the door to the bakery as if reading Ava’s mind.
A nice treat couldn’t hurt. And she didn’t want to show up empty-handed when Dax was probably subsisting on take-out and instant coffee.
She winced at the idea that she had allowed Jill’s husband and children to go more than a year before her visit. She had no idea what she was going to find when she got to the house.
“How can I help you?” a cheerful lady behind the counter asked.
“Hi there,” Ava said. “I was hoping to get a couple of treats to bring to a friend’s house.”
“What did you have in mind?” the lady asked.
“Well, he’s got two one-year olds,” Ava said, wondering if babies could even eat treats at all.
“Are you going to see Dax Walker?” the lady asked with a big smile.
“I am,” Ava replied. “How did you figure that out?”
“My fiancé is good friends with Dax,” she replied. “We see him and the kids all the time. I’m Kelly, and you must be Ava.”
“Wow, yes,” Ava said.
“We all knew you were coming,” Kelly confided. “Dax is looking forward to having you meet the twins. He knows how much your friendship meant to Jill.”
“Thank you,” Ava said, moved.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Kelly said quickly, looking like she was worried she had over-stepped.
“Thank you for that, too,” Ava told her warmly. “I miss her every day. I can’t believe I never made it out here to see her.”
“Well you’re here now,” Kelly said. “Dax feeds the kids pretty healthy, but I know they all love my cinnamon buns. Want to grab a wreath to take with you?”
Ava looked down at the wreath shaped batch of cinnamon buns under the glass. They looked delicious.
“That’s perfect,” she said.
“I’ll grab a box then,” Kelly told her.
Ava looked around the little shop while she waited.
There were sweet little tables and the walls were lined with bookshelves. The large plate glass windows revealed the busy village outside. People with bags and packages waved to each other and stopped to chat under the streetlamps. Even the clouds looked soft overhead.
She pictured Dax and the babies spending time here, with friends who cared about them, the way this woman, Kelly, and her fiancé obviously did, and she began to feel better about things.
3
Ava
A few minutes later, Ava arrived at the address on Princeton Avenue.
The house was a Victorian with a barn-style roofline and indigo painted wooden shutters. The first floor was stone, the second and third were gingerbread cedar shake. A porch wrapped around the front of the house, providing an ample parking spot for the enormous twin stroller beside the front door. The rest of the porch was covered in colorful plastic toys.
A bramble of untidy rose bushes crowded the bed in front of the house and threatened to spill out into the yard. Even the privet hedge across the front lawn was overgrowing its bounds, fingers of foliage reaching for the sidewalk and the trees above.
The house was everything Ava felt she wasn’t - relaxed, quirky, excessive. It made her instantly sense Jill’s accepting presence.
She hustled up the wooden steps, clutching the box of pastries in one hand and her suitcase in the other, eager to meet the family.
She knocked on the front door, not wanting to risk waking sleeping babies.
Nothing happened.
She waited a while more, then decided to risk ringing the bell.
A moment later
the door opened.
The sound of pealing laughter from another room reached her ears before she could even focus her eyes on the man who had opened the door.
When she did, she almost stepped back.
Ava had been at Dax and Jill’s wedding, but she’d barely had a chance to say hello to the groom.
She certainly didn’t remember him this way.
Dax was tall, with blond hair almost down to his shoulders. His worn jeans hung low on his hips, a white t-shirt clinging to his muscular chest.
He looked warm, like the kind of man whose arms it would be easy to snuggle into.
He smiled, but his dark blue eyes were serious.
Jesus, Ava, she scolded herself. Way to objectify your best friend’s widower.
“H-hi, Dax,” she stammered. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you at first. You look different.”
“Oh yeah, I clean up pretty well,” Dax chuckled. “Sorry you have to see me without the tux now. I guess the wedding was a pretty good first impression.”
“Yes,” she said. Then realizing that might sound like he didn’t look good now, she added. “I mean, you look great now—” She stopped suddenly, afraid she sounded like she was noticing his looks too much.
