The Dad Next Door

The Dad Next Door
Virginia Myers

JUST PLAIN KATE…Sometimes, secretly, Kate wished she were pretty. Pretty enough to attract the attention of handsome Ian McAllister, the dashing single dad next door. But Kate tried to be content, raising her children solo and filling in as part-time mom to Ian's lonely little boy.So it was a bolt from the blue–a dream come true–when Ian proposed, promising Kate anything if she'd be his wife. Her heart soared down the aisle–only to plummet with afterthoughts. Did Ian really want her? Or merely a family for his son? Was she headed for heartbreak…or heaven in Ian's embrace?

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#udec69d7d-691a-5044-80c7-5ac7f192b525)

Excerpt (#u50e0b7ee-0413-5b91-b202-520cf1660aa6)

About the Author (#u309c28ce-3fde-56c6-badc-23931bfb1492)

Title Page (#u8fd89611-933c-52f1-86c0-c136b667b3d9)

Epigraph (#u19f26833-d566-54ab-af1e-b7bf7cb7cefb)

Dedication (#u53c0ff3e-9e64-522a-9a5e-279d1236661d)

Chapter One (#u27c1ece3-bd80-537e-a602-9e793876e331)

Chapter Two (#u1d22f855-7b4a-54c9-9902-a5fae7a9d213)

Chapter Three (#uddb56461-a04e-5fde-9a06-b9183b5dece7)

Chapter Four (#ue878e2c3-3398-5add-a654-2594001a5763)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Dear Reader (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Years ago she’d settled down to single motherhood, sure she’d never be attracted to another man.

Until now.

For the first time Kate admitted to herself that she could love again. And—oh, dear God, help me—this was the man. She wanted to touch Ian, heal all his hurts.

He looked up at her, his beautiful hazel eyes troubled. “You’re a good friend, Kate.”

A good friend. She made herself say it. “Well, friends help friends, Ian. And you know how fond I am of young Raymond.”

“You’ve been a godsend to my boy. I could never repay you for what you do for him.”

“I understand,” Kate said gravely. But, her heart whispered, I don’t want you to pay me. I want you to love me. Love me to distraction. The way I love you…

VIRGINIA MYERS

Virginia Myers has been writing since childhood. As an adult she has published ten novels, contemporary and historical, for the general market. She has now written three novels for the inspirational market.

Active in the writing community, Virginia developed a course in popular novel writing, which she has taught in several Washington colleges. She has lectured, taught writing workshops and served for two years on the board of trustees of the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference.

She lives in Longview, Washington, where she is active in her community and a faithful worker in her church.

The Dad Next Door

Virginia Myers

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be

called the children of God.

—Matthew 5:9

In memory of my aunt, Lillian Harrison Hardesty,

a woman of peace

Chapter One (#ulink_628fe621-f63c-5ffd-bee6-fe15c25fbaa3)

Kate Graham glanced out the window at the weather. Seattle was having a fierce February for the second year in a row. She draped a scarf over her light brown hair, which was pulled back in a ponytail secured by a rubber band. As she tied the scarf beneath her chin, she wished—again—that she was pretty. She could be a lot better looking if she worked at it, the way she had when Claude was alive. But now…

Half a dozen of her sister Jill’s well-meant comments on the subject flew through her mind. Of course, Jill was beautiful. She snatched up her umbrella, picked up the windbreaker jacket she had found in Raymond’s closet and rushed out the door to meet the middle-school bus. She had wasted too much time looking out the window at Ian’s house next door, and planning what she would have for dinner. Ian always came over for dinner when he got home from a business trip.

It was ridiculous. Her daydreaming about Ian McAllister. She was a respectable widow with two children of her own. Maybe she should talk about it to Pastor Ledbetter. He had so much good sense and was always so willing to help. He had been a tower of strength for her when Claude had died. She had needed all the help she could get then. Dad, Mom and her younger sister, Jill. Then Jill’s husband, Greg Rhys, a CPA, had sorted out all the insurance so that she had the steady small income that paid her little family’s bills, if she was very careful.

She wondered again if she had taken on Ian McAllister’s son, Raymond, to bolster the family budget or because she was sorry for the lonely child of a broken marriage. Or was part of the reason that it kept her in regular contact with Ian? She had certainly never regretted the arrangement. Raymond was such a changeling of a child, bright, sensitive, responsive, with Ian’s blond good looks and hazel eyes, and so in need of love. He was twelve, but a very young twelve. She had always felt a wave of protectiveness toward him, from the first time he’d appeared in her kitchen.

She stopped halfway up the block, in front of the second-from-the-end brick house, as Raymond had instructed. He was afraid of some of the bigger boys at school, who often harassed him when they got off the bus at their corner, but he was, after all, twelve and it was unthinkable that he should be met at the bus.