Storybook Dad (Harlequin American Romance) (3 page)

Emily jumped up and dived into the lake with record speed.
“Are—are you okay?” she called as she stroked toward them.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Mark assured her, gripping Seth with one
hand and the overturned kayak with the other. A moment later he had his son
settled safely on his back. “And, oh…remember that tip about staying in the
center of the boat? That was a good one,” he sputtered through gulps of lake
water. “M-maybe you could add a class on kayaking to your company’s lineup.”

Her laugh cut through the sound of his splashing and warmed him
in ways he didn’t expect in the chilly water. “I offer kayaking classes all the
time, Mark.”

Hooking a thumb over his shoulder, he gestured toward his son,
who was pretending Mark was a white horse if the words making their way into his
left ear were any indication. “We might want to put Seth in the front row of
that particular class. So he’d be sure to catch all the helpful little tips you
might decide to share.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she joked as she stopped momentarily
to tread water and take a breath. “How are you holding up?”

“We’re fine. My ego, though, hasn’t fared quite as well.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Nibbling back the full effect of
a smile she couldn’t hide, Emily swam between Mark and the kayak, her bikini top
clinging to her rounded breasts as she flipped the boat right side up. Then,
with lithe grace, she hoisted herself into it before he could register much of
anything besides how alluring her legs looked as they broke the surface of the
water. “Now hand Seth up to me and we’ve got this.”

Chapter Three

Emily could feel the weight of Mark’s stare as she
secured the kayak to the roof of her Jeep, his still-labored breath matching her
own. She’d felt it as she’d paddled through the water with Seth safely seated
between her legs. She’d felt it as Mark had pulled them onto the beach and
plucked his son from the boat for a firm yet loving lecture. She’d felt it as
they’d stood dripping on the sand, trying to catch their breath. And she’d felt
it as she led the way to the car after he insisted on carrying the kayak.

In fact, the only time she wasn’t aware of him watching was
when she was stealing glances in his direction. But she couldn’t help it. Mark
Reynolds was easy on the eyes.

“Thanks for making that unexpected swim to help us out. It was
above and beyond,” he finally said as she hooked the last clip into place. “One
minute he was pointing at a fish and the next…well, you know what happened.”

She couldn’t help it; she laughed. It was either that or get
caught enjoying his dripping, shirtless chest even more than she already was.
“Kayaks tend to flip a little easier than canoes. It’s why people who are
skittish around water tend to shy away from them in favor of a bit more
stability.”

“Yeah, I get that now.” He bent to Seth’s level, buying her
time to catch her breath. “How about you, little man? You doing okay?”

The boy jumped from foot to foot, the adventure of the past
twenty plus minutes further fueling his natural energy. “I had my Floaties on,
remember, Daddy?”

She felt Mark’s appreciative glance. “And we have Emily to
thank for that, don’t we?” he continued, his attention trained once again on his
son’s face. “Did you learn something from that adventure?”

“The lake isn’t as warm as the bathtub.”

“And…”

Seth’s brows furrowed in contemplation. “You should always wear
your Floaties?”

“And…”

“Emily is a really good swimmer, just like you, Daddy!”

She tried to cover her ensuing laugh, but Mark’s exasperated
eye roll made it next to impossible.

“Yes, Emily is a good swimmer. But didn’t you also learn that
it’s better to look at fish from the beach?”

“But I got to get wet!” Seth exclaimed gleefully. “And so did
you, Daddy.”

A playful smile stretched across Mark’s mouth. “Yeah, but so
did Emily. And she’d still be dry if we hadn’t commandeered her boat.”

“Pizza might make her feel better.”

She looked questioningly at Mark as the four-year-old rattled
on. “Daddy said we’d go to Sam’s for pizza when my castle was all done,” he
said. “You can come, too, if you want.”

“I—I think I better head home, sweetheart.” Squatting down in
front of him, she pushed a strand of wet hair from his forehead, then tapped the
tip of his nose with her finger. “It was very nice to meet you, Seth. You are
truly the best sand castle maker I’ve ever met.”

“Please, Emily? The pizza is really yummy. It was my mom’s
favorite.”

Emily tipped her head to afford herself a better view of Mark,
noting the hint of sadness in his face at the mention of his late wife. So much
about his taking her class made sense now. The drive to check things off one’s
bucket list always intensified after losing a friend or family member to an
early death. It was as if the loss served as a wake-up call about the
uncertainty and lack of promises in life. She saw it all the time.

Still, such a loss was hard to rationalize when it came to
someone as young as Seth. “That sounds like some extra special pizza if it was
your mom’s favorite,” she finally said.

“It is! Especially the pepperoni kind.” Leaning forward, Seth
brought his mouth to Emily’s ear as if sharing a secret, the excitement in his
voice negating any attempt at whispering. “Sometimes, if I smile really big at
the waitress lady, she makes the pizza look like a great big smiley face…with
funny hair at the top! So please? Won’t you come, too? Pretty, pretty
please?”

Gesturing at her damp bikini top and drenched shorts, she
scrunched up her nose. “I don’t think the folks at Sam’s Pizza would be too
happy to see me in wet clothes.”

A snort of disagreement from the boy’s father brought a warm
flush to her cheeks.

“I’m wet, too. So’s my daddy,” Seth argued.

“And Sam’s has outdoor tables,” Mark added.

Slowly she looked from one to the other and back again, the
pull for a moment of normalcy making her relent in the end. “Okay. I’m in. It
sounds like fun.”

Twenty minutes later, any residual worry over wet clothes and
disapproving pizza eaters was gone, in its place the kind of happy-go-lucky fun
she’d been craving for months. Any tension that came from being huddled so close
to Mark evaporated as Seth kept them entertained with tales from his summer
preschool program, most of which came back to a castle in some way.

“The other day? At lunch? I built a great big castle out of
everybody’s
milk cartons
. And then Liam? He’s my
bestest friend. He made one out of Pixy Stix during playtime,” Seth said. “But
then Tyler—he’s a meany—he came over and kicked Liam’s castle down!”

Seth widened his eyes expectantly at Emily and waited.

“You’re supposed to gasp at the things Tyler does,” Mark
whispered in her ear.

“Oh, sorry,” she whispered back, before giving the desired
response.

Satisfied, Seth continued. “It’s okay. Me and Liam, we cast a
spell on Tyler.”

She glanced at Mark, then back to Seth. “A spell?”

“Uh-huh. And you know what happened?”

Mark paused from taking a drink and narrowed his eyes on his
son. “No-o-o…what happened?”

“He got in trouble with Miss Drake. She said she had eyes in
back of her head, which means me and Liam are good at casting spells!”

“Then I guess I’d better watch out,” Emily declared. “I don’t
want any eyes in any funny places.”

Seth elevated himself onto his knees. “Oh, I wouldn’t cast a
spell on a princess. That would be bad.”

Mark winked at her over the top of his glass before addressing
his son once again. “And Emily is a princess, huh?”

“Yupper doodle.”

When the pizza arrived and Seth took a break to eat, Mark took
over the conversation, peppering her with questions about Bucket List 101 and
the clients she’d encountered since starting the business four years
earlier.

“When you drew those pictures I saw on your wall, did you know
back then that you wanted to teach people how to do all those things?”

She nibbled at the crust of her first piece and then tossed it
on her plate. “Back then, I just knew
I
wanted to do
all those things one day. By the time I was halfway through college, I knew I
wanted to do them in conjunction with a business.”

“Who’s your typical client?”

“I’m not sure I have a typical client. People come for all
sorts of reasons. Some want to conquer a fear. Some come simply because they
love the outdoors. And some, like yourself, are motivated by a personal
goal.”

Seth pointed at his dad with his slice of pizza. “My mommy
taught my daddy not to wait for tomorrow.”

Mark drew back. “Where did you get that, little man?”

Turning the pizza toward his mouth, Seth shrugged. “I heard you
saying that this morning when you were standing in front of the mirror, trying
to decide if you should play in the woods or not.”

Emily watched Mark’s eyes close only to reopen mere seconds
later. “I was talking to myself.”

“Then you should be more quiet, Daddy.” The little boy took a
bite of pizza and started chewing.

“Apparently you’re right.” Mark looked at Emily with an impish
grin. “Nothing like getting a behind-the-scenes look at my many shortcomings,
eh?” Suddenly uncomfortable, he grabbed a slice of pizza for himself and raised
it in the air like a champagne glass. “Next topic, please…”

Story by story, they ate their way through the rest of a pizza
that was every bit as good as Seth had promised. But it was the time with Mark
and Seth that affected Emily most, temporarily filling a void that had been
lurking in her soul for years. It was as if Seth’s sweet stories and Mark’s
genuine interest allowed her to pretend, if only for a little bit, that they
were her family, sharing the details of their day over dinner.

“You know how to
rock climb?
” Seth
asked around a piece of pizza crust bigger than his face.

“It’s not polite to talk with food in your mouth,” Mark
reminded him.

Seth dropped his crust onto his plate. “Do you, Emily?”

Pulling her paper napkin from her lap, she brushed it across
her face, then crumpled it into a ball beside her empty glass. “I do.”

“Wow!”

“Emily can do all sorts of things.” Mark shifted beside her,
the brush of his thigh against hers sending a tingle of awareness through her
body. “She can pilot a raft through rapids, she can ride a horse through the
woods, she can rappel over the side of a mountain and climb huge rocks.”

At the naked awe on Seth’s face, she turned a playful scowl on
the child’s father. “You do realize you just made me out to sound like
Superwoman, don’t you?”

“Nah. Superwoman is a little taller. And her hair is a lot
longer. Besides, you’re much,
much
better
looking.”

Mark’s words, coupled with the huskiness of his tone, brought
her up short. Unsure of what to say, she was more than a little grateful when
Seth leaned across the table. “Could you teach me how to rock climb?”

With a steadying breath, she nodded, acutely aware of Mark’s
hand beside hers. “After you shared such yummy pizza with me, I’d be happy to
teach you how to rock climb. If it’s okay with your dad, of course.”

“Daddy?” Seth’s eyebrows rose upward, making both adults laugh
out loud. “Please, please? Can Emily teach me how to rock climb?”

A moment of silence had Seth nearly falling out of his seat in
anticipation.

“Hmm. If it’s okay with Emily, it’s okay with me—under one
condition.”

Bracing herself for the inevitable clean-your-room or
put-away-your-toys bribe, she was more than a little surprised—pleasantly
surprised, if she was honest with herself—when he revealed his nonnegotiable
terms. “I get to learn, too.”

Beaming triumphantly, Seth brought his focus back to Emily.
“Daddy has this whole week off and I do, too. So we’re free tomorrow.”

She bit back the laugh Mark was unsuccessful at hiding.

“Oh we are, are we, son?”

“Yupper doodle!”

“Think ten o’clock would work for you?” she asked, with the
most serious face she could muster.

Seth hopped down from his seat and consulted his father in a
series of back and forth whispers before repositioning himself at the table.
“Ten o’clock works great!”

When the last of the tables around them had been cleared for
the night, Mark reached for the check, plunking down thirty bucks and declaring
their dinner a delicious success. “Well, little man, I think it’s time we walk
Emily to her car and give her a big thank-you for rescuing us from the lake and
accepting our invitation to dinner.”

The little boy moaned. “Do we have to stop eating?”

“We stopped eating an hour ago, when we finished the pizza.”
Mark pushed his chair back and reached for his son’s hand. “Besides, if we want
Emily to teach us how to rock climb in the morning, we really should let her go
home and get some sleep.”

Sensing the boy’s reluctance, she took hold of his other hand
and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Rock climbing is serious stuff, Seth. You need to
be well rested so you can listen extra carefully when I tell you what you need
to do.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They walked through the pizza parlor and out into the night,
the answering silence of the crickets marred only by the sound of Seth’s
flip-flops slapping the pavement. It was a sweet sound, one she’d never really
noticed until that moment.

“I had a really nice time tonight, Seth. Thank you for
including me—” A shot of pain zipped up her leg, making her drop his hand and
reach for the support of a nearby car.

“Emily? Are you okay?”

She smiled through the pain, praying that would wipe the worry
from the boy’s face. But it didn’t work.

In an instant, Mark was at her side, his strong arm slipping
around her shoulders and drawing her close. “Hey…talk to me.”

As the untimely pain released its grip, she did her best to
shrug away the incident. “I’m okay. I just had a quick pain is all.”

“Do you get those often?”

Wiggling out from beneath his arm, she did her best to sound
nonchalant as she made her way across the parking lot. “Yeah. Well, sometimes, I
guess. It’s no big deal.”

Mark jogged to keep up, her pace quickening as she neared her
Jeep. “No big deal? Are you kidding me?” He pointed at the nearest lamppost
while studying her face. “Even in this lighting I could see your color drain
away.”

She shrugged. “It happens from time to time. And it always
stops.”

“If that happens again, maybe you should call your doctor. You
know, to get it checked out or something.”

And just like that, the magical spell that had transformed the
evening was gone, wiped away by the reality of her life. Turning her back, Emily
reached into her purse and pulled out her car keys, her response barely audible
to her own ears. “I can’t do that.”

He took hold of her shoulders and spun her around, raising her
chin with his hand. “Why not?”

“Because I can’t call him every single time I get a pain. I
can’t call him every time my arm goes numb. I can’t call him every time a bout
of fatigue decides to rear its ugly head and confine me to bed for three days. I
have a
disease,
Mark. It’s life.”

* * *

M
ARK
TIGHTENED
HIS
GRIP
on the steering wheel and resisted the urge to
close his eyes. When he’d picked the multiple sclerosis pamphlet off the floor
of Emily’s office that morning, it had never dawned on him that it was she who
had MS. She was too beautiful, too energetic, too much of a go-getter to have
such a debilitating disease.