Bachelor Father

He decided against it. He needed to talk to his daughter, and there was no point in putting off the inevitable. He needed to go back upstairs and tell Megan that the woman she’d seen yesterday was not her mother.

For once in his life he found himself wishing that miracles could happen and the impossible would come true. He could think of nothing more satisfying than being able to tell her that he’d been wrong—that her mother hadn’t drowned. She was alive and well and right here in this hospital. The past six months had been just one big, nasty nightmare. It was the one thing he could tell his daughter that would for certain put a smile on her face.

He knew he was being fanciful to even allow such thoughts. Megan needed him to be a parent even if it meant he had to tell her what she didn’t want to hear.

Adam sighed. It seemed as if every day brought a new challenge to him as a father. Just when he thought he’d crossed the last of the major hurdles, another one always managed to pop up in the middle of the road. Never would he have expected he would be having a conversation with his daughter about her mother’s reincarnation. But then he’d been unprepared for so many of the things that had happened between the two of them, it really shouldn’t have come as that big of a surprise.

Reluctantly he turned away from the window and headed back to Megan’s room.

“HAS IT BEEN BUSY?” Zoe, a college student who worked the evening shift, asked Faith when she arrived at the child-care center.

“It hasn’t been too bad,” Faith told her replacement as she wiped down the wood slats of a crib.

“Who’s the guy in with Mrs. Carmichael?” the young girl wanted to know.

Faith turned around to glance at the office and saw Adam Novak leaning over Mrs. Carmichael’s desk. She wondered why he had come back.

“I think his daughter’s a patient here.” Faith returned her attention to scrubbing the crib, not wanting the other woman to suspect she had any interest in the conversation taking place in the office.

“He’s hot, isn’t he?” Zoe asked.

Faith mumbled, “I wouldn’t know,” which wasn’t exactly the truth. She knew very well that he was attractive. It’s why she’d had a funny feeling in her stomach when he’d stared at her earlier that afternoon.

“He’s probably married,” the other girl surmised. “Most good-looking guys are.”

Faith didn’t comment, not wanting to admit that she had wondered about his marital status, too. Since he’d left the child-care center earlier that day, she’d wondered about quite a few things about him, none of them she wanted to share with her co-worker.

To her relief, Zoe changed the subject. “How come you’re doing Gina’s job? I thought it was her week to wash the cribs.”

“It is, but I had some extra time so I thought I’d do it.”

When a mother arrived with a little girl, Zoe was forced to give them her attention. Faith emptied her bucket and was about to take off her smock and go home for the day when she heard Mrs. Carmichael call her into her office.

“Mr. Novak would like to speak to you for a few minutes,” she said when Faith paused in the doorway. Mrs. Carmichael gestured for her to enter the small room. “You can talk here,” she said before pulling the door shut on her way out.

Adam Novak stood next to the desk, looking every bit as attractive as he had earlier that day. Faith knew that Zoe was dead-on with her description of him when she’d called him hot. Just the way he looked at her could make her skin warm. Her heart began to beat faster and she clasped her hands together so they wouldn’t reveal her nervousness.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m here,” he began, his gaze not as intense as it had been the first time they’d spoken, yet it had the power to send a shiver through her.

“Why are you here?” Once again, the way he looked at her created all sorts of funny sensations inside her. She nervously moistened her lips with her tongue.

“You like children, don’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Of course. I wouldn’t be much help around here if I didn’t,” she answered with a weak smile.

He returned her smile with a grin that sent a tingling through her. “That’s why I came back. Because you like children and I have a pretty good idea that if you knew there was something you could do to help one, you’d do it. Am I right?”

“Yes.” She eyed him warily. “Mr. Novak, if you want me to visit Megan, all you have to do is ask.”

“There are circumstances that might make it a little awkward,” he said, his eyes still holding hers.

“I often visit the pediatrics unit to read to the patients. This is a hospital, Mr. Novak. I see children with all kinds of illnesses. It won’t be uncomfortable for me. If I can cheer Megan by visiting her, I’d be happy to do so.”

“Her physical condition is not the reason I think it could be awkward for you,” he told her.

“Then what is the reason?”

He took a deep breath, ran a hand over his dark head, then propped a hip on the corner of the desk. “I need to tell you a little about Megan. Maybe you want to sit down.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine, thank you.”

He shrugged. “Megan lost her mother last fall. She drowned in a boating accident.”

Faith’s chest tightened. “I’m so sorry. It must have been horrible for both of you.”

“Yes, it was. Losing a parent at such a young age is traumatic. It’s very difficult for a six-year-old to comprehend the concept of death. She had so many questions. I thought I’d answered all of them, but…” He trailed off with a shake of his head.

“I’m sure you did the best you could,” Faith said.

Grimacing, he admitted, “I’m afraid my best wasn’t good enough.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because no matter how many times I explain that once a person dies and goes to heaven that person cannot come home again, Megan doesn’t believe me.”

“She thinks her mother’s going to come back?” Faith asked in dismay.

“It’s worse. She believes she’s seen her.”

Emotion rose in her throat. “That is very sad.”

“Sad, but true. After surgery when they were moving her from recovery to her room, she saw a woman she believes is her mother.” He looked her straight in the eye and said, “You.”

“Me?” Faith was so startled that she was surprised she could say anything at all.

“Yes, and I can understand her mistake. You do look like Christie.”

Faith gasped. “That’s why you were staring at me? Because I reminded you of your dead wife?” She hated the frantic tone that had come into her voice, but at the moment she was feeling far from calm.

“Yes, you look very much like Megan’s mother,” he said quietly.

“You said she drowned.”

He nodded soberly. “In Lake Superior.” A shadow passed over his face. “That’s what makes this difficult for Megan to understand. They never recovered her mother’s body and for months after her death she believed it was all a mistake.” He continued to talk about the period of adjustment Megan was going through, but Faith had a hard time concentrating on what he was saying. There was only one thought going through her head. They never found her body.

Faith swallowed with difficulty. It couldn’t be. It was too bizarre to even contemplate. She couldn’t be this Christie person whom everyone thought was dead. Lake Superior was over three hours away. What would she have been doing on the side of the road in southern Minnesota if she lived on the North Shore?

“So that’s why I need you to visit Megan,” he said, unaware of the turmoil going on inside her.