Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  “All right,” Eddie easily agreed, surprising even himself.

  His parenting style normally didn’t include negotiations. If a rule was made, it was not up for discussion. When he found himself raising Emily on his own, he’d read every parenting book he could get his hands on. One thing they all seemed to agree on was that consistency was the key to raising a well-adjusted, disciplined, happy child.

  Eddie wasn’t a pushover. When he said no, it was no. Big puppy-dog eyes, begging, crying, pouting—he’d seen it all after almost eight years and he was immune. In life, there were rules and there were consequences. As much as he would love to be able to protect Em from the real world, he knew that wasn’t his job as a parent, especially as a single parent. He had to prepare her for the world, not shelter her from its harsh realities.

  After hearing that he was allowing her to push back her bedtime one hour, his daughter squealed with joy, jumped off her bike, and flung her skinny little arms around his waist.

  “Thank you, Daddy! I love you!” Emily squeezed him tightly.

  As he looked down at the top of her golden hair and felt her tiny arms wrapped around him, Eddie’s heart melted in his chest. These were the moments he lived for. The moments that put all the stress of life, the stress of parenting, and the stress of just plain living into perspective.

  Eddie hugged her back. “I love you too, squirt.”

  Loosening her grip, Emily looked up at him, wearing a very serious expression as she said, “I’m almost eight. I’m not a squirt.”

  “You’ll always be my squirt.” Eddie picked his daughter up off her feet and spun her around several times. She giggled as she held her slim arms snugly around his neck. Setting her down, he ruffled her hair as he instructed, “Go wash up and set the table. I’m making mac and cheese and hot dogs right after I take a quick shower.”

  “Okay!” Emily skipped happily into the garage to head into the house. Before she stepped inside, she paused and looked over her shoulder, a huge smile pasted across her little face. “You’re the best dad ever!” she proudly proclaimed before disappearing inside.

  Eddie shook his head, smiling to himself. Of course she thought that. He’d given in and broken a rule. Maybe he was becoming a pushover. Or maybe he’d said yes because of the guilt he felt over going out and taking time for himself. Or maybe it was because he’d heard the same desperation in his daughter’s voice when she talked about seeing Haley that he felt every time he thought about their blond-haired, blue-eyed, sexy-as-hell neighbor.

  Which was often. Way. Too. Often.

  Especially considering the fact that he and Haley could never happen. For more reasons than he could count. Not the least of which was the fact that he was not going to get into another serious relationship, or any relationship for that matter, until Em was in college. He wanted her to have a stable home environment, even if that meant having only one parent. There was no way he was going to have a stream of women in and out of her life.

  As Eddie was just about to close the garage, he saw the front door of Haley’s house open and his hand froze on the handle. A twinge of disappointment twisted in his chest when he saw red hair shining in the sun as Krista stepped onto the porch. He nodded in greeting as Haley’s sister waved on the way to her car.

  Damn, Eddie whispered under his breath as he pulled the heavy garage door shut. He seriously needed to get a grip on himself and his reactions in the Haley department. Since she’d returned from college four years ago, Eddie’s attraction, feelings, or whatever the hell it was that made him think about her constantly—against his will!—had become a serious issue.

  He’d tried to deny it. Fight it. Ignore it. Nothing seemed to help. As in-control and self-disciplined as Eddie was, he seemed to have zero control and only a small thread of discipline when it came to Haley Sloan.

  “Clean up your Barbies or no ten o’clock bedtime,” Eddie called out as he navigated his way around, what looked to be some kind of Barbie, G.I. Joe wedding that Em had set up on the stairway landing.

  “Okay,” his daughter’s voice rang out from the kitchen.

  At the top of the stairs, he found himself pausing and looking out the window that sat above the front door and had a direct line to another window—Haley’s bedroom window.

  He could see her through the white wooden shades. She was looking at something. Studying it. Her head tilted to the side, and he couldn’t make it out clearly but he knew that she was biting her lip, the way she did whenever she was seriously considering something or concentrating. His body tensed in response to seeing her, the way it always did.

  Forcing himself to move away, he pulled off his shirt as he stepped into his bedroom. He felt anxious. On edge. Irritated.

  It seemed like he had perpetually been in that state since Haley had moved into the house across the street with Krista six months ago. Now, instead of seeing her around town, at Sloan family functions, and the one or two times a month she stayed with Em, he had the added torture of seeing her every day.

  Add to that the fact that he now saw her doing things that up to this point, she’d only done as the star in his fantasies—but now—they were playing out in real time right before his eyes. For example, taking out the garbage in short shorts that left very little to the imagination, washing her car in tank tops she could easily have won any wet t-shirt contest in, or bending over to get her groceries out of the trunk in dresses and skirts.

  Torture. It was pure torture.

  Even when she wasn’t doing something that made his dick grow hard in .0002 seconds, he found himself watching for her, hoping to catch glimpses of her on her way to work, coming home from work, or—the worst—going out on dates with losers that Eddie wanted to pound into the ground.

  It had been hard enough—literally!—when she’d started watching Emily for him and he’d see her in his home once or twice a month. Now, she stopped by a few times a week. She and Em colored, painted their nails, watched TV, and read books. Seeing her with his daughter did something to him. Made him feel things he shouldn’t feel and want things he couldn’t have.

  Moving into the bathroom, Eddie reached in and turned the silver handle in the middle of the tiled wall. As the sound of water began rushing out of the showerhead, he stepped out of his jeans and into the stall. Shutting the glass door behind him, he stood under the hot spray and tried to clear his head of all things Haley.

  But instead of that happening, flashes of her smile, her silky hair, her vibrant blue eyes flashed in rapid succession in his brain. He felt himself growing hard at the images.

  Shit. He didn’t have time to take care of his growing problem. Plus, he didn’t need to. He was seeing Claire tonight. Hot, sexy, kinky Claire. She was more than capable of handling things in his growing area.

  So why did Eddie still feel annoyed and irritated? Why wasn’t he more excited at the thought having hot, dirty sex? Why wasn’t Claire the one on his mind?

  Hell, if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t even looking forward to seeing Claire tonight. And last month, he had felt lukewarm at best at seeing Erica. Then there was Trish a few weeks before that. He’d had to talk himself out of canceling.

  Eddie used to look forward to his nights off. He had decided about six years ago that the only arrangement that made sense for his life was to have sex-only, nostrings attached affairs in other towns. These affairs were only with women who knew that was all it was now, and that was all it was ever going to be. Over the years, the women had changed but the arrangement, the agreement, had stayed exactly the same. It worked for him. He got what he needed physically and Emily’s life was not affected by it.

  Nowadays though, he felt like he was just going through the motions. Sure, he was attracted to the women he saw, and some of them were actually enjoyable co
mpany. But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked forward to one of these nights.

  Well, that’s not entirely true—the past six months he had. Because since Haley had moved across the street, she’d begun staying after he got home and they’d have a beer on the back deck or sit in front of the fireplace. A couple of times, they’d even watched a movie.

  That was the part of the night he looked forward to now. That he played over and over again in his head. The few hours when Em was in bed and he and Haley would just hang out. Talk. Laugh. Just be…alone.

  Getting out of the shower, Eddie grabbed the towel that was hanging on the hook and quickly dried off. He didn’t want to put too much thought into what that meant; why a few totally platonic hours alone with Haley felt more intimate, more real, more fulfilling, than spending hours in bed naked with someone else.

  Nope, Eddie thought as he shook out his wet hair. Not going there.

  He’d been wild in his teens and early twenties and he’d paid for it. Now that he was an adult and a single dad, he lived by an unbending set of rules. That was how he kept order and structure in his life.

  There were other reasons too. Where women were concerned, rule numero uno was if you hadn’t attended high school within the same years he had…you were too young. Haley had been a sixth grader when he was a senior in high school. She might have been an adult now, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t still too young.

  Also, she was the closest thing that his best friend Riley had to a little sister. She was his little cousin. Sure, Riley had impregnated and married Eddie’s baby sister, Chelle, but that didn’t mean that Eddie would do the same.

  Rule number two was you don’t mess with your friend’s sisters, cousins, or exes. That was just guy code 101.

  Emily pounded on the bathroom door. “Daddy! I’m hungry!”

  “Be right out.” Eddie quickly got dressed, put on deodorant, and splashed on a little cologne.

  Opening the door, he found a small female with her arms folded, wearing an expression that said she was not too happy.

  “What?” he asked defensively as he crossed in front of her to grab his socks out of the top drawer.

  He could feel Emily’s eyes boring into the back of his head as he sat down to put on his socks.

  “Are you going on a date?” she asked.

  “I’m seeing a friend.”

  “A girlfriend?”

  “A friend.” He turned and looked down at his four foot six interrogator. Her big brown eyes were searching his as he stared down at her.

  She wasn’t going to break him. Nope. She was seven. He was thirty-four. He didn’t owe her any explanations for his life.

  Still, he had to admit that her assessing stare was making him feel a little bit uneasy.

  Then, speaking in a very adult, slightly accusatory tone, Emily over-punctuated each word as she said, “Mandy Pollack’s mom says that you don’t have a girlfriend because you don’t know a good thing when it’s standing right in front of you.”

  Mandy Pollack’s mom had only said that because she’d shown up at his door butt-ass naked when Emily and Mandy had been at a sleepover at Sierra Swanson’s house. It hadn’t played out as he was assuming she’d hoped it would. He’d shut the door on her.

  “Well Mandy Pollack’s mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Eddie said as he slipped on his shoes and headed downstairs.

  Emily continued telling him about not only what Mandy Pollack’s mom thought, but also what all of her other friends’ moms who had opinions about his love life thought. As he made dinner, he tuned his daughter out. Those women had no idea what they were talking about.

  Eddie had loved one woman in his life—Lacey, Emily’s mom. And look how that’d turned out. She’d taken off on not just him, but Em too.

  There was no way he was entering into that ring again. The first time had almost been a TKO. And this time it wouldn’t just be him going down. It would also be Emily.

  He was fine by himself. Em was the only girl he needed in his life.

  “So can I?” Emily’s voice was high, the way it got when she was really excited about something.

  “Can you what?” Eddie asked as he scooped some mac and cheese into Em’s favorite pink bowl for her.

  She sighed dramatically, obviously upset that he hadn’t been paying attention. “Can I get a bra?”

  Eddie felt the bowl of cheesy noodles slip from his hands and heard as it crashed to the floor. “What?” he asked as he grabbed a roll of paper towels off the counter and stooped to clean it up.

  Emily kneeled down and helped him wipe up the mess. “Stacy and Arianna both have bras. I need one too.”

  Eddie knew that these questions would be coming. He just hadn’t thought they’d be coming when his daughter was in second grade.

  “No,” he answered as he rinsed out the bowl that had fallen and got another one out of the cabinet.

  “Why not?” Emily whined.

  “You don’t need one,” Eddie stated firmly, turning back towards her.

  “Bu—”

  His daughter stopped mid “but” when she saw the look in his eye. Then, shoulders slumped, she turned and walked to the table like someone had just run over her dog.

  Eddie knew that this little episode was nothing compared to what he would face when Emily became a teenager, hell, probably even what he would face when she was a preteen.

  He was in serious trouble.

  CHAPTER TWO

  HALEY HAD A LITTLE pep in her step as she made her way across the street. She could see Eddie and Emily through the large bay window sitting in the kitchen and eating; it made her heart flutter. Not only was Eddie sexy as sin, funny, smart, capable, and gorgeous, he was also an amazing father.

  How in the world could any woman leave him? Willingly?

  Not only had Lacey left, she hadn’t looked back. Haley hadn’t known Emily’s mom that well. She’d been away at college when Lacey had left both him and newborn baby Emily. From what she remembered and the things she’d heard, Lacey had always tended to be on the wild side of things.

  Haley remembered walking home from school in fifth grade and seeing Lacey, who had been in high school at the time, hanging out of a truck, flashing her ta-tas for the world to see, screaming, ��Spring Break! Woooo!” The kids Haley had been with all thought it was cool and funny. Not Haley. Even at the young age of ten, she could remember thinking, That girl’s got problems.

  After knocking twice on the front door, Haley let herself in. “Hello, my favorite people!” she announced brightly as she stepped into the house.

  “Haley!” Emily shrieked, jumping out of her chair and running at full speed as if she hadn’t seen her in years, when actually they’d done a jigsaw puzzle over at Haley’s house just that morning.

  “Hi, pretty girl,” Haley smiled as Em flung herself into her arms.

  “I get to stay up until ten o’clock,” Emily announced excitedly as she ran back to her seat at the kitchen table.

  “Wow, that’s great.” Haley tried to keep her voice even and appear calm as she followed the excited girl into the kitchen.

  It was more than a little tricky though, considering the fact that Eddie was sitting at the table directly in front of her wearing a black V-neck t-shirt that showed just a hint of the phoenix tattoo he had on his chest. Haley’s fingers itched to run along the outline of it.

  Knowing she couldn’t stand there and drool, she forced her eyes up and—hello!—saw his eyes roaming up and down her body. She shivered from the sheer force of his gaze.

  “Hey,” she said weakly as she lifted her hand in greeting.

&n
bsp; “Hi.” His deep voice washed over her, and even though they were smack dab in the middle of a heat wave, a second chill raced through her.

  “We’re having cheesy noodles and dogs. Do you want some?” Emily asked.

  “Sure.” She wasn’t at all hungry. Well, for food anyway. But if she stood under Eddie’s heated stare any longer she was worried that she might start visibly shaking.

  As she walked past Eddie, on the way to the stove to fill herself a plate, the combination of his cologne and soap drifted up in the air. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath through her nose and his intoxicating scent washed over her. It was so good, she wanted to bathe in that smell.

  Damn, Haley thought as she forced her feet to keep moving, I’ve got it bad.

  Emily sat on her knees at the table talking a mile a minute, contemplating all the things that they could do with her extra hour before bedtime. Haley was “hmming” and “oohing” in response to the excited musings, but she had to admit that she was really only half listening. Her body was hmming and oohing for its own reasons—Eddie’s presence!—so loudly that she couldn’t really concentrate on what Em was saying.

  After grabbing a plate from the cupboard, she turned to find Eddie standing right in front of her.

  Her breath caught in her throat and she clutched her plate to her chest. With a knowing glint in his eye and a small smile lifting at his lips, he leaned past her and set the dinner bowl on the counter next to the sink behind her. His movement caused his forearm to brush lightly against her hip, causing a tremor so strong, she was sure he must have felt it spread through her from the brief contact.

  “Hey, Em?” Eddie’s deep voice vibrated through her entire body as she stared up into his gorgeous dark brown eyes. “Did you clean up your Barbies?”

  “Oops,” she heard Emily say under her breath as she jumped up from her chair. Empty bowl in hand, totally unaware of the sexual tension so thick it could be cut with a butter knife, Em ran in between them, causing Haley to take a step backward, her lower back hitting the counter. She was only vaguely aware of the loud crashing sound of the plastic bowl hitting the sink as a flash of honey-blond hair flew out of the kitchen.