Daughter On His Doorstep – Teresa Southwick

she demanded. “You’re cold.” He put the jacket he still carried around her shoulders. “And I think we should head back.” “I don’t want to go home.” “You don’t have to. Let’s just head in that direction.” She nodded, turned back the way they’d come and slid her arms into the sleeves that were way too big for her. They walked in silence for a minute or two and she didn’t volunteer any more details about what happened to make her so angry. Back to interrogation 101.

“So what got stirred up?” “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” “No,” he said simply. “Why do you care?” She looked up, studying him. “Good question.” The fact that she was upset shouldn’t matter and he didn’t want it to. But he couldn’t ignore her show of temper either. He chalked it up to being a soldier and cop, in public service.

Any other motivation would have been stupid and he wouldn’t go deeper. “I care for two reasons,” he said. “Something happened and it was about me. And second, you’re the mother of my daughter. Your well-being affects her.” “Fair enough.” She nodded absently. “What started it was Emma asking why my mom doesn’t like you.” Was it wrong to feel so much satisfaction that Emma was solidly in his corner? “She noticed that, huh?” “She’s very observant.” Shelby sighed. “Mom came up with an answer that would be hard for any parent to fault.”

“What did she say?” “That she’s mad at you for making me cry.” That punctured his satisfaction balloon. And he couldn’t dispute the accusation. The last time he saw Shelby to tell her he joined the army and say goodbye, she’d been crying. He hated that and it had taken every ounce of self-control not to pull her into his arms and tell her he would send for her as soon as he could.

Right now Luke was having similar self-control issues, except this time he was on the other side of her lying to him.

Knock, knock. Guess who’s a dad? Nine years of secret-keeping was finally over When Luke McCoy moved back next door, Shelby Richards knew he’d discover the truth. Within minutes, young Emma was on his doorstep, asking Luke if he really was her daddy. Though Shelby believed not telling Luke had been the right thing to do, the police detective was not so quick to forgive. And as Shelby saw Luke with their daughter, her heart was not so quick to forget what they’d all missed out on.

OceanofPDF.com “The only thing I ask is that you let me talk to her first. Explain things in a way she’ll understand.” “You mean make me look like the jerk who abandoned you and her?” “I’ll tell her the truth and make sure she understands that you didn’t know about her. But she’s nine, Luke. I have to pick the words carefully.” She sighed. “Do you want to be there when I do? Keep me honest?” She’d betrayed him in the most elemental way possible, so the word honest coming out of her beautiful mouth was hard to take.

And the fact that he could still think she was beautiful felt wrong but couldn’t be helped. “After you tell her, I want time with her.” “Okay. I’ll be in touch, Luke.” He wouldn’t hold his breath on that but at least he knew where to find her. OceanofPDF.com Dear Reader, It’s said that no one gets out of this life without regrets. Hindsight is 20/20. “If I’d known then what I know now.” There are probably more common expressions but those are the ones that popped into my mind.

The point is that we all make decisions with consequences, but usually a consequence that looks exactly like us doesn’t show up unexpectedly at the front door. This is what happens to Luke McCoy in Daughter on His Doorstep. Ten years ago he was a screwup in love with Shelby Richards, the girl next door.

He felt she deserved a better man than him and broke up with her, then enlisted in the army. But he had to see her one last time to say goodbye. At that meeting, Shelby planned to tell him she was pregnant with his child.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 89898e2390f42b3f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,840,855 bytes (2.709 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 198
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 332.02 minutes
• Total Words: 66,404
• Total Characters: 359,151
• Average Words per Page: 335.37
• Average Characters per Page: 1813.89

Most Frequent Words

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