Loe raamatut: «A Daddy For Her Daughter»

CHAPTER ONE

KALEB MCBRIDE HATED TUXEDOS.

It was safe to say that he and tuxes were no longer on speaking terms. He wore them only when it was required of him. Like tonight.

Sprinting down the steps of the Seattle Consortium Hotel, he made it a point to avoid eye contact with anyone as he dashed by. Because everywhere he looked, all he saw were costumes. Except this wasn’t Halloween and the myriad assortment of outfits or lack thereof was enough to make his head swim. From Elizabethan gowns to fairy-tale characters to flappers loaded with fringe, it was the only thing like it he’d ever seen. He even skirted a lone vampire who emitted a low hiss as he strode past.

If the hospital hadn’t made an agreement to provide concierge medical care to guests at the hotel, he probably wouldn’t even be here tonight.

A costume designers’ masquerade party. Who on earth even thought up something like that?

A suited doorman nodded to him and motioned him through yet another velvet-lined hallway. “She’s in the reception lobby.”

His patient, he assumed, and the reason he’d left the hospital’s swanky yearly fund-raiser—which was still trudging along without him in the hotel ballroom. Thank goodness for medical emergencies.

He burst into the lobby.

There.

Sure enough, sprawled on the floor next to a cluster of fancy potted plants was a woman dressed all in black. Shiny black.

Evidently the hospital hadn’t realized they’d booked their event on the same day as this. Both were dress-up affairs, but where one was as serious as it was upscale, this one looked...well, surreal. And a whole lot more fun.

Jacques, the hotel manager, was kneeling beside the downed woman, who was lying on her stomach. What he’d decided must be a long black leotard ended in sky-high boots of the same color. Had she fallen off them? A tail was attached to a cute little tush. Something he had no business noticing.

Jacques looked up as Kaleb reached him, the relief in his eyes evident. “I think she’s hyperventilating.”

Even as the man said the words, a muffled sound came from his patient, a rasping roar that was much too labored for his liking.

“Let’s turn her over.”

A black mask that looked like a patchwork of glossy black latex bound together with white stitching covered the woman’s whole head, leaving only her eyes and bright red lips exposed. Cat ears were perched on top.

The woman was dressed as a cat. A very sexy cat at that.

A quick glance could find no zipper, and the wheezing was getting steadily louder. Panicked green eyes looked up at him, one hand going to her chest as it continued to rise and fall in staccato heaves.

“We need to cut this mask off her. Now.”

The roaring paused for a second before starting up again. “No.” Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze. Cough. “...sister...kill me.”

Sister? To hell with her sister. A question surged to the forefront of his mind. “Do you have asthma?”

“Yes.” The rattling sound grew worse. “Albuterol. In my purse. Left at desk.”

Desk?

Jacques spoke up. “Some of the guests checked their briefcases and purses in at the concierge rather than carrying them around all night.” He glanced down. “Do you know your ticket number?”

The woman shook her head, gasping again. Her fingers fumbled at the wide belt encircling her waist. Kaleb spotted an opening in the side. Brushing her hands away, he felt inside and came out with a slip of paper. “Here.”

Jacques grabbed it and leaped up, heading to the desk a few feet away. In less than a minute, he came back with a black purse.

Without waiting to ask, Kaleb reached into the dark recesses of the bag and encountered a familiar-shaped object. “Got it.” He pulled the canister free, giving it a couple of hard shakes to mix the contents.

Wheeze. Cough.

Feeling vaguely obscene, he pushed the inhaler against those red lips, his skin brushing the delicate point of her chin as her mouth wrapped around the canister.

Even as he pumped off a couple of shots of medication, it hit him how warm the lobby was. Maybe because it was packed with people. Beads of perspiration lined his own neck and face.

Between the elaborately designed costumes and the crowded conditions in the room, he was surprised he hadn’t been called to treat any of the attendees before now.

Still holding the inhaler, he listened for her breathing. It immediately began to settle down, the hollow wheeze changing to a deep pull of air accompanied by a much easier exhalation.

“It’s working.” Her voice came out in a whisper.

She reached up and took the inhaler from him, those bright eyes glancing at his face and then skipping away just as quickly. Something sparked to life in his chest.

He couldn’t know her.

Swearing to himself that he only had her best interest at heart, he cleared his throat. “We still need to get the headpiece off so you can breathe easier.”

She gave a hum that he took as assent.

“Zipper?”

“Adhesive fastener. At the back.” She paused, the inhaler still in her hand. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t make it to the counter to get my purse or I could have done it myself.”

He could well imagine. With those heels and trying to navigate through the crowd, it would have been quite a feat under normal circumstances much less during an asthma attack.

Now that the medical crisis was easing, he was aware that a few costumed characters had gathered around them. Probably waiting for the great unveiling.

A tiny glimmer of anticipation sizzled through his own system.

Not the time, Kaleb.

He helped her sit upright before reaching behind her head, finding the seam and prizing apart the edges, the sharp rip of the fastener tape as it gave way filling the air around them.

He carefully peeled the stretchy fabric forward, easing it away from her face. The second he tugged it free, he stopped dead, his inner warning system going on high alert.

His own breath sluiced from his lungs in a rush he was helpless to prevent.

It couldn’t be. And yet it sure as hell looked like her. So unless she had a doppelgänger...

“Madeleine?”

From the shiny red curls—only slightly flattened by the tight mask—to the flashing warning in her eyes, there was no mistaking who she was.

One of the doctors from the hospital. His hospital.

But there was no way the Madeleine Grimes he knew would have been caught dead in an outfit like this.

Before he could even cobble together a sentence, she nodded. “It’s a very long story.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Exactly.”

He blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Nothing. My sister thought my coming here would be a good idea. She kind of dared me to... Well, she set me up on a—” her eyes went to the floor and stayed there “—blind date.”

Blind date?

He just wasn’t seeing it.

The glare she sent him dared him to say one word. Not likely.

How in the hell would she even be able to tell what her date looked like? Or maybe that was the point—she could be caught up in some kind of weird role-playing fetish.

Only the Madeleine Grimes he knew tended toward uptight and aloof, rather than...

Than what?

He had no idea how her sister could have talked her into climbing into that sexy costume and prowling around the lobby looking for her date. Or why Madeleine would even agree to it.

But suddenly he wanted to find out.

Wanted to understand the thought processes that had led her here. But he would only get that if...

If he got her out of here.

Before he could think better of it, he said, “And this blind date. Do you know his name?”

“Yes, it’s Max Hayward.” Her eyes slid away from his again. “But when I asked at the reception desk, he hadn’t arrived. I think he stood me up. Not that I wasn’t tempted to do the same thing.”

She gave a quick lift of a shoulder. “I’m going to take everything that’s happened tonight as a sign. I’ll leave a note at the desk, telling him I had to leave unexpectedly, just in case.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“I think so too.” Taking a deep breath and blowing it out, Madeleine tilted her head back, revealing the long line of her throat. No hint of the asthma attack she’d had moments earlier. “Man, I can’t wait to get out of this costume.”

She reached for her elbow and peeled a long black glove down her arm, revealing pale creamy skin as she went. She did the same with the other glove. The process was...agonizing.

His muscles tightened. Knock it off, Kaleb. It isn’t like she’s going to strip herself naked in front of all these people. Although he’d had some pretty crazy thoughts when he’d slid off that mask and seen who was sitting there. The contrast between the Madeleine he thought he knew and the one in this room was a little unsettling.

Taking a hurried breath of his own, he struggled to come up with a coherent thought. “Your sister. Does she work at the hospital as well?”

“No.” She gave a quick laugh, scooping her inhaler from her lap and dropping it in her purse. “She faints at the sight of blood. She’s a costume designer, which is another reason I agreed to come. I was supposed to be a living advertisement for her work.”

“Work. There’s actually a market for...?” He gestured toward her outfit, not sure what he was asking.

“Look around you. From theater, to film, to school plays, there’s always a demand for well-made and innovative costumes.” She scrubbed a hand through her hair, ruffling it into an unruly mass that he found oddly appealing. Then she took one of the shiny gloves and held it up. “This is Roxy’s realm, not mine.”

Roxy. A fitting name for the creature in whose suit Madeleine had found herself.

And from the word dare she’d used earlier, Kaleb had to assume that this was not a place Roxy’s sister would have chosen on her own.

“So you’re here under duress?”

“Let’s just say that Roxy said I needed to loosen up. She bet I wouldn’t last two minutes at one of these conventions.”

“And did you?”

“Yes. I would have been here an hour if something from the costume hadn’t set off an attack.”

He smiled and stood, offering her a hand, which she accepted, gracefully rising to her feet and adjusting the belt at her waist. “How long did you agree to stay?”

“Until the party died down. But surely she won’t accuse me of cheating under the circumstances.”

He tensed, hand tightening slightly on hers at the word cheating. Maybe because that was exactly what his ex-wife had done. He, more than anyone, understood her particular circumstances, but he’d still felt like the biggest fool on the planet when he’d discovered what she’d been doing. Hiding her grief behind a mask just as surely as Madeleine had hidden her identity behind hers.

“Do you want to run by the hospital and get checked out before finishing your night?” Releasing her hand, he braced himself to tell her goodbye. Something he should have done ten minutes ago.

“I think I’m done for the evening.” This time, it was Madeleine who smiled, and the flash of white teeth was something he wasn’t used to from her. The woman was always so serious. Then again, this whole night had been like something out of one of those strange dreams. The ones where nothing made sense.

Like this surreal encounter? He glanced around again, really taking in his surroundings this time. Standing in his tuxedo in a roomful of costumed adults, Kaleb felt out of sorts. And definitely out of place. Especially when there was what looked like a deflated cat’s head on the ground beside a beautiful woman.

Even as the thought went through his mind, she reached down and scooped up the mask, letting it sit in the crook of her left arm. “Thank you again. I probably would have been better off going to the hospital’s fund-raiser instead. But I don’t do stuffy...”

The words cut off abruptly, and her teeth sank deep into her lower lip. Rich color swept all the way to her hairline.

Kaleb allowed one side of his mouth to curve up. “You don’t ‘do stuffy’—” he gestured around the room “—but you’ll do this.”

She laughed. And the sound cut straight to his gut. It was rich, melodic and made things tighten in awkward places. Her palms floated up and down, as if weighing her options. “Stuffed shirts or make-believe. I can’t decide.”

Suddenly, he wanted to hear that laugh again. He bent closer. “I would offer to take you upstairs and show you what you’re missing...” When her eyes widened, he realized how the suggestion sounded. “Upstairs, as in the party going on in the fifteenth-floor ballroom.”

“Oh.”

Was there a tiny bit of disappointment in that single word?

Of course not. It’s all in your imagination, bud.

“How about a cup of coffee instead? I want to make sure that asthma attack is all the way under control.”

“Coffee sounds wonderful, but I can’t go anywhere dressed like this. I need to go home and change.” She hesitated. “I have coffee there.”

He gave another half smile. “You do? Is that an invitation?”

“Well, I...I mean if you want to join me, that would be okay. And no one’s there at the moment.” She shook her head. “Well, I mean my cat is there, and my sister is...”

Her voice trailed away.

“Your sister is there? With the cat?”

“No.”

There went those white teeth nibbling at her lower lip again. “But the coffee is there. With the cat. Right?”

“Yes. Why don’t you stop by for a cup? It’s the least I can do to say thank you.”

“No thanks necessary, but I would love to. Especially if you won’t agree to run by the hospital for a quick checkup.”

Something told Kaleb he should be heading in the opposite direction, back toward the elevators...back up to the safety of the fifteenth floor, where his obligations lay. But something about seeing Madeleine in that suit made him want to find out if there were other things about her he didn’t know. Not that he knew her at all. But he wanted to. If only to satisfy his curiosity. So one cup of coffee it was. And then he would be on his way back to his own life. In his own high-rise apartment.

* * *

Maddy squirmed on the beige leather seat of Dr. Kaleb McBride’s luxury car. What had started out as a halfhearted invitation—one she had not expected him to accept—had somehow ended up with her riding beside him.

She could not believe she was bringing him—a man—to her place. It had been ages since she’d had a guy over. Well, Kaleb wasn’t a guy, exactly. He was a...a colleague. She had always been tongue-tied around the resident bad boy of West Seattle Hospital, so she’d learned the hard way to keep that tongue firmly planted on the bottom of her mouth. She’d allowed one man to reduce her to a stuttering mess. Never again.

Still, she couldn’t resist a quick sideways glance at the figure in the driver’s seat. Then she slouched lower into the smooth upholstery. There was a reason the nurses at West Seattle whispered about Kaleb long after he strode down their hallways.

Inky dark hair curled over the collar of the man’s equally black tux, and warm brown eyes had flirted with her as easily as he flirted with every other woman at the hospital. Only Maddy had usually been immune, switching on her anti-charm force field and aiming it at any man who ventured into her personal space. So far, it had worked. Up until now. When she’d forgotten to hit that internal panic button. Thanks to her asthma. The feel of Kaleb’s fingers cupping her chin as he’d administered her medication hadn’t helped any.

Okay, she could explain away all of that. She’d been oxygen deprived. But what she didn’t understand was why she hadn’t told the man the reason Roxy wasn’t at her apartment: it was because she’d gone on a girls’ night out, with the person Maddy loved more than anything on this earth. Her daughter.

None of that was any of his business, right? He was coming to her house to have a quick cup of coffee. To make sure her asthma attack really was over—just as he’d said. There was no need to tell him about Chloe. It wasn’t as if her daughter were a deep dark secret. Her friends at the hospital all knew about her.

But not the circumstances surrounding her birth.

She shook off the thought. That was behind her. A year had gone by since she’d moved to this city, and she loved it here. It was huge, compared to what she was used to. She could actually get lost here. Well, not lost, but she could blend in. No one knew anything about her. Not like in the tiny town of Gamble Point, Nebraska, where you “couldn’t belch without the whole county knowing about it,” according to her father. She still missed him.

She needed to call her mom to let her know she was still okay. Still out of reach. She had Roxy to thank for that. Her sister had given her a precious gift: a new beginning in a brand-new city. She owed her big-time. And if putting on a slinky cat costume could help cover a little of that debt, Maddy would do it a hundred times over.

“Are you cool enough?”

“Wh—what?” She glanced over to find Kaleb fiddling with the climate-control buttons. “Oh, yes. I’m fine, thank you.”

This was a stupid idea. She should just have him drop her off at the nearest corner. She could catch a cab back to her place.

But it was too late, and if she tried to explain now she’d only wind up blurting out something that would make her look like a foolish child. As if she hadn’t already looked like one when he’d come across her splayed on the ground in her costume.

Debt or no debt, Roxy was going to pay for that for sure. Although watching Chloe’s eyes light up when she’d seen her dressed up as a sexy cat had made the whole fiasco of an evening a little less humiliating.

“Go down two more stoplights and then turn left. My building will be on the right.” In truth, she also didn’t want to have to call Roxy and admit that she hadn’t lasted even an hour. Barely even twenty minutes. Nor had she met her date. But none of that was her fault. Something in the costume had messed up her airways. But she had a feeling Roxy would think she’d simply wimped out on her.

Well, too bad. Maddy was a grown woman who could make her own decisions. And leaving her hometown with her daughter had been one of those decisions. Matthew hadn’t even tried to follow them. Then again, he’d be arrested if he came within a hundred yards of her, according to the courts. He wasn’t allowed to see Chloe. In fact, he hadn’t even asked to visit her. And if Maddy had her way, he’d never get the chance. Too much tainted water had passed under that particular bridge. Her ex had never wanted to have kids in the first place...had been disgusted when her birth control—because he couldn’t be bothered to think about those kinds of things—had failed. As her pregnant body had begun to change, his disgust had morphed into something sinister. Something...

She shook herself from her thoughts just as Kaleb pulled up to the entry of her modest apartment complex. “Is there a key code?”

“No, just push the button on the panel.”

He did and the single-levered barrier went up immediately. Kaleb slid into the dark parking garage, following the reflective arrows painted on the pavement. “Could someone get into the building itself through the garage?”

She frowned. “Yes, but we haven’t had any problems.” At least they hadn’t in the year that she’d lived there. And most of the people in the building knew each other. A stranger would be noticed.

Kind of like in her hometown? She shrugged off the thought. “There are also cameras in the garage and in the hallways.” She’d been shocked by the high cost of rent and by the security measures that came with living in a big city. But she’d come to love the anonymity afforded by a city with over six hundred thousand residents.

Sliding into one of the ten guest spots, he nodded. “Glad to hear it.”

Before she could twist around and reach into the backseat for the head to her sister’s costume, Kaleb had already retrieved it and was out of the car, heading around to her side. Just as he opened her door, something pinged from her purse.

Ugh. Her cell phone. And she had a pretty good idea who it would be. Roxy. The last person she wanted to text with right now. She could just ignore it until she got to the safety of her apartment.

What if something was wrong with Chloe, though? She climbed from the car and freed her phone from her purse, noting Kaleb’s frown as she glanced down at her screen.

“It’s Roxy.” She didn’t know why she was explaining.

We’re headed for that place with all the paraphernalia for Chloe’s doll. Having a blast. Hope you are too.

A blast? Not quite. But a few of her muscles relaxed. Chloe could spend hours in that particular shop, which meant they wouldn’t drop by the apartment anytime soon. She quickly typed Okay, have fun! and then dropped the phone back into her purse. She made no mention of the fact that she was arriving home with an attractive man in tow. A man whose name was most definitely not Max, nor was he from the masquerade party.

And if she had her way, Roxy would never know that Kaleb had been here. It would be her little secret. After all, that was one thing she’d learned she was good at. Hiding the ugly truth from everyone around her.

She glanced up at Kaleb. “I’m on the fifth floor.”

Modest by Seattle standards, her apartment had everything she and Chloe needed. It was only one bedroom, but she’d got around that by converting the tiny study into her daughter’s bedroom. There was a park right around the corner that Chloe loved to go to, so Maddy never really felt trapped. And she couldn’t afford anything bigger. Not yet. Once she’d been at the hospital a couple more years she’d be eligible for a pretty substantial raise. Maybe then they could move to a nicer place. When Chloe started elementary school, they would need something bigger. But for now, the apartment was just right.

They went into the lobby, and Maddy pressed the button on the elevator, hearing the creak as it broke free from whatever floor it was on and began to slowly descend to ground level.

“How’s your breathing?”

“Fine.” Even as she said it, she realized why he was asking. His proximity had caused her lungs to start working harder, wheezing a little—kind of like the elevator—as they pulled air into her lungs and then pushed it back out. To prove she was okay, she sucked in another breath and then let it rush back out. “You would never even know I’d had a problem.”

Kaleb made a noise. She wasn’t sure if it was a snort of doubt or if he was agreeing with her assessment. Whatever it was, she was ignoring it. Because she did not want to have to explain that having him behind her was doing a number on her organs. All of them, not just her lungs. Her swirling thoughts, jittery heartbeat and shaky legs were all warning signs.

She shouldn’t have brought him here. Her apartment was her one safe place. The spot she and Chloe could be totally themselves.

The elevator arrived, spitting out a puff of chilled air as she and Kaleb stepped through the doors. Kaleb moved to the opposite wall of the compartment, and she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him carrying that cat’s mask. From where she was standing, she could see quite a few strands of her hair clinging to the stark black fabric of his tux. They must have got stuck in the mask when he’d pulled it off her. “I’ll have to loan you my lint roller before you leave.”

When his head tilted, she nodded at his trousers. “I evidently shed as bad as a cat does.”

Oh, Lord, she’d been trying to make a joke, but he probably thought she’d been eyeing his pants this whole time. “Not that I was staring. I mean...” Her words faded when she realized she was only making things worse.

His mouth cranked up on one side in a way that made his left eye narrow slightly, craggy lines webbing out from the corner of it. Her breathing went wonky all over again before she schooled it back to normal.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. This was one of her more stupid moves.

Thankfully the elevator decided not to prolong her misery and rolled to a halt. She was across the tiny foyer as soon as the doors opened, sliding her key into the lock of her apartment.

Once inside, she took the mask from him and waved to the front room. “Make yourself at home, and I’ll be right back.” She zoomed into the kitchen, only to stop when Jetta went tearing past her to check out the intruder.

Oh, no! Expecting to hear curses at any moment, she headed back the way she came. But when she reached the living room, she found Kaleb on his haunches, stroking long fingers over her cat’s black fur, rubbing one of his cheeks and murmuring in low tones. When she moved forward to pick the animal up, Kaleb again beat her to it, scooping up the young feline and tucking him into the crook of his arm. “I take it this is the cat in question?”