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He strode from the kitchen into the hallway, pushing some fallen hair from his brow. His apprehension made his heart rate hitch as he unlocked the door and pulled it open.
His postman stared back at him, wide-eyed. “Everything all right, Ethan?”
The air eased from his lungs and he forced a smile. “Hey, Norman, how you doing this morning?”
“I’m fine. You, on the other hand...”
Ethan huffed a laugh. “Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. What can I do for you?”
“Got a package here. Too big to stick through your letter box.”
“Thanks.” Ethan took the padded envelope. “See you soon.”
“That you will. Take care.”
Ethan stared at the typed address label before turning the envelope over to see if the sender’s address was marked. Nothing. Frowning, he closed the door and wandered back into the kitchen. He sat at the table, ripped open the envelope and pulled out a blank sheet of paper. And another.
“What the hell...” He tipped the envelope, giving it a hard shake. More papers fluttered onto the table, followed by a couple of snapshots. He picked one up and his heart leaped into his throat.
Daisy smiled at the camera, holding her ten-meter swimming certificate and pin in her hands. Another picture showed her astride her first bike at age four, wheels glistening. Ethan turned over the copied certificates, report cards and health updates, and the words jumped and blurred in his vision.
What the hell was Anna playing at? He’d sent her all this stuff because it was the right thing to do. Now that he’d refused her money, was she telling him she didn’t want anything else about Daisy sent to her? That she was washing her hands of her child in every possible way?
He pushed himself to his feet, the chair teetering behind him. He gathered up the papers and photographs and slipped them back into the envelope before snatching up his phone. Walking into the hallway, he struggled to keep his voice calm as he called up the stairs. “Daisy?”
“Yes, Daddy... Mr. James.”
He closed his eyes, his anger immediately fading to a low hum. “I’m just in the living room making a phone call. Your breakfast won’t be long, okay?”
“Okay.”
Gripping the phone, he walked into the living room and quietly closed the door. He moved to the window and stared into his driveway, trying to think of what to say to Anna. How the hell did he talk to her about this?
Tossing the envelope onto the armchair, he quickly dialed Anna’s number before he could change his mind. The words would come, because one way or another, Anna would bloody well explain this new level of callousness.
She picked up. “Ethan?”
“The one and only.”
“I can’t talk right now.”
He closed his eyes and huffed a laugh. “You can’t talk right now... God, why didn’t I think to say that to you when you turned up on my doorstep the other night?”
“I mean it. I’m...” There was a rustling, and the faint sound of a door closing echoed in his ear. “I’m at the club. Harry is in the other room. If he knows I’m talking—”
“I couldn’t care less what he knows. What did you think you would achieve by sending all Daisy’s pictures and certificates back to me? You think that will go some way to persuading me I was wrong in refusing to give you money?”
“What are you talking about?”
Ethan opened his eyes. “The pictures, Anna. The pictures of our daughter that arrived in an envelope at my house this morning.”
“I didn’t send you any pictures.”
“No? Then who else would? I can’t imagine for one minute you share the stuff I send you with anyone else.”
“I don’t know. Ethan, you have to believe that I’d never get rid of them. I might not be the best mother in the world, but I do care about Daisy.”
“Really? Well, you’ll have to forgive me if I find that very hard to believe.”
“That’s not fair. I tried to be a mother to her. You know I did.”
“You tried? For crying out loud, Anna. Trying is what real mothers do every day. They try their damn best and then get up the next day and do it all again. What real mothers don’t do is walk away.”
“This again? You’re going to do this again? Now?”
His pulse beat at his temple, and his knuckles ached from clutching the phone. “The pictures, Anna. Why did you send them back to me?”
“I didn’t. If you don’t believe it, that’s too bad.” She paused, her voice quieting. “What if they were meant as some kind of message? What if Harry knows I came to you for help and he’s threatening you with the potential to hurt Daisy?”
Ethan paced the room, uneasy. “We’re not starring in some TV show, Anna. This is real life. Real life that involves Daisy. Now you either go to the police with the crap you’ve found yourself mixed up in or I will. I won’t let this affect Daisy. Do you understand?”
“Ethan—”
“No, I mean it.”
“Harry is not the sort of man to ignore. Now there’s a possibility he’s made contact with you, we’re in this together.”
Ethan clenched his jaw. “The hell we are.”
“What if he comes after Daisy, huh? What then?”
“Fine. You want to try the emotional blackmail route, I’ll go to the police. Today.”
“No. Don’t. Ethan, please. I’m sorry, okay? Just leave everything to me. I’ll sort this out. Promise. Harry doesn’t work alone. Those pictures could’ve been sent by any of the guys who work for him, or even someone he deals with.”
“So we could be looking at any number of people? We have to involve the police, Anna. This is ridiculous.” There was a rumbling of voices in the background. “Anna?”
“I can’t talk now,” she hurriedly whispered. “I’ll call you later.”
The line went dead.
“Damn it.” Ethan clicked off his phone, his body rigid. What the hell was wrong with the woman? She’d always enjoyed sneering at him, saying how he was a dreamer, that his writing mattered to him more than anything else. She couldn’t have been more wrong, but her selfishness and disregard for Daisy had chipped away at his previous love for his ex-wife until there was nothing left but cold, hard resentment.
Once upon a time, he’d adored her. Thought her the moon, the stars and then some. Slowly, all that was good and lovely about Anna had changed. Just weeks after Daisy was born, Anna’s thin patience was revealed. The smile that had once come so easily morphed into a permanent grimace; her once softly whispered words of love for him became angry shouts of hate.
And now Anna had stepped way over the line.
He moved to the window and pressed his hand to the wall beside it as he stared blindly across his driveway. What if Anna was right and the pictures and certificates were a message from Harry? That someone was threatening Daisy’s safety because of his ex-wife’s actions?
Whirling away from the window, he called up a search engine on his phone to look for the number of Templeton’s police station.
Enough was enough.
He found the number and his finger hovered over the call button. Anna was adamant she did not want the police involved, but Daisy was his priority.
Fear of his own weaknesses, of doing wrong by his daughter and all the other people he cared for, burned hot inside him. Would the police take Daisy away from him? Put her in protective custody? No matter how irrational those possibilities might be, his blood turned cold.
He slid the phone into his pocket and closed his eyes. Damn Anna for putting him in this position.
Their divorce had been inevitable. He just wished she’d told him she no longer loved him, so he could share the fallout calmly and with as much gentleness as possible with Daisy. Instead, Anna had walked away without warning, leaving their daughter to believe her mother had abandoned her. Which was exactly what Anna had done.
He could have—should have—done more to protect Daisy against heartbreak five years ago, but he wasn’t that miserable and uncertain man anymore. Nor was he stuck in a seemingly endless emotional revolving door. Being a single parent, a father, had made him stronger. Made him stand up for what was right for himself and Daisy.
If he didn’t hear from Anna by tomorrow morning, or the outcome of their conversation wasn’t to his satisfaction, he would speak to DI Garrett.
He reread Leah’s text.
The notion of spending time with her today suddenly felt like the only balm to his frustration. Yet wouldn’t she just get on his case again for not calling the police?
The living room door opened and Daisy entered, her sick Barbies laid out on a kitchen tray. He smiled. “Uh-oh, they don’t look too good.”
“They’re resting, Daddy. I didn’t want to stay upstairs anymore, so I thought the living room could be the new hospital.”
“No problem.”
“I wish we could go out somewhere today. It’s sunny.”
He looked to the window. The sky was clear blue, the sun bright and inviting. Leah’s text taunted him until he slowly exhaled. He turned to Daisy with a strained smile. “How about we take your patients to the beach?”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?”
Ethan nodded. “Yes.”
Her gaze dimmed and she frowned. “But they might get sand in their cuts.”
“Maybe...but Leah will know what to do if that happens.”
Her sudden grin was wider than the sun. “Leah’s coming, too?”
He shrugged. “If you don’t mind?”
“Yay! Quick, hold my Barbies. I’m going to find my swimsuit.”
She shoved the tray at him and fled from the room.
Smiling for real now, Ethan laid the tray on the coffee table and turned to his phone. Whether it was more for Daisy or himself, he wasn’t sure, but spending the day with Leah was bound to mean, at best, a nice few hours at the beach...or worst, Leah manhandling him into Templeton’s police station. Either way, it would turn out to be a different kind of day than he and Daisy had been expecting when they woke that morning.
He typed Leah a returning text before doubt could set in.
The beach sounds great. You might want to bring your first aid kit. Nurse Daisy has some critically ill Barbies. Ethan.
CHAPTER SIX (#u24408938-2b6d-5f7a-9680-c1a28c973f2d)
LEAH HAULED HER loaded picnic basket onto her arm and carefully navigated the steps that led onto Cowden beach. It was a beautifully sunny day, so very different than the rainy evening she’d met Ethan and Daisy for the first time. She shielded her eyes against the sun and scanned the beach as she debated whether to head toward the tumble of rocks at the far end, where Daisy might want to try to catch some of the tiny crabs that lingered in the pools. Or should they sit somewhere closer to the center of the beach, where it was a lot freer of potential hazards?
Deciding on a safe spot, she dropped her basket and flicked out the blanket, hoping that once Ethan and Daisy arrived, the tension between her and Ethan wouldn’t mar the tranquility of the day. Leah sat and pulled her purse toward her to check her phone. Ethan had said he’d text her when he and Daisy got to the beach.
She frowned. No incoming text.
Turning, she glanced toward the promenade, and before further disappointment could surface, she recognized the heights and gaits that could belong to only one father-and-daughter combination.
She studied Ethan avidly as he scanned the beach from the steps, his hand wrapped protectively around his daughter’s.
Good Lord, it’s cruel to womankind that a man who looks like that is holed up in that house of his day in, day out.
Squinting, she peered a little harder and her eyes widened at the sight of what looked to be a bright pink car in his other hand. She quickly turned away. The guy was all kinds of sexy and clearly completely unaware what the sight of a man loving his child so openly could do to a woman’s ovaries.
Dressed in knee-length, white linen shorts and a pale blue shirt that she feared would only serve to accentuate the depth of his gorgeous eyes, he looked the epitome of unruffled, incredibly cool beach candy...pink car or no pink car. How was she supposed to convince the guy how serious she was about him contacting the police when all she wanted to do was knock him over onto the sand and lie on top of him?
Get a grip, woman. She briefly closed her eyes before pushing herself to her feet.
She dialed his number.
Frowning, he pulled his phone from his pocket and answered her call. “Hello?”
Leah smiled as Daisy jumped up and down beside him, her plastic bucket and spade rhythmically knocking her legs. “Hello, yourself. Can you see me? I’m more or less in the center of the beach. I’m waving at you.”
He stared along the sand, and when he saw her, Leah could’ve sworn he flinched. Immediate self-consciousness flooded her. Had the shorts and cropped tank top she was wearing been a mistake? Too much flesh on show? Ethan had seen her only in her uniform. Maybe the sight of her in casual dress pushed their connection a little too quickly into a personal one?
He gave a half wave before leaning down to Daisy and pointing toward Leah. The girl gave a considerably more enthusiastic greeting than her father, then practically dragged him toward the steps.
Pushing away her lingering insecurity, Leah laughed. “I guess you’ll be right with me.”
“I guess we will.”
She ended the call and sat down again, pulling the picnic basket toward her. Taking out wrapped sandwiches, sealed tubs of cold chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, green salad, breadsticks and hummus, she laid everything out on the blanket and surveyed her bounty. Okay, so it was a mini feast, but she had no idea what Ethan and Daisy liked to eat, so had covered all bases.
Once a feeder, always a feeder. Wasn’t that what her best friend, Sasha, liked to accuse her of being, much to her embarrassment? Maybe Leah felt her place in life was to nurture and take care of people, but it wasn’t entirely selfless. Caring fulfilled her, secured her place in society and life...made her hope that maybe someday she’d have a family of her own and that her feelings and opinions would be valued by those who loved her.
Nerves rippled through her as she lifted out a big bottle of water and a couple of cartons of juice, just as the scents of sun cream and man enveloped her.
She briefly closed her eyes before tipping her head back. Ethan stood over her like a boulder, his gaze focusing on hers through his sunglasses. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
She turned to Daisy. “Hey, beautiful. Don’t you look a picture?”
Daisy grinned and pulled the material of her suit out from her belly. “This is my new swimsuit. Daddy bought it for me.”
