Darcy and the Single Dad

Nick watched as Darcy opened her shop door and stepped out. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, waving in the breeze like a red flag, and every ounce of testosterone in his body was urging him to charge.

Their eyes met and the impact hit hard—a swift kick of desire straight to his gut. Just the sight of her sent him back to that moment in her kitchen. A moment he still couldn’t decide had really happened or not. But he did know one thing for sure: he should have kissed her. If he had, he wouldn’t be wondering now … He’d know.

For a brief moment he’d forgotten about his daughter beside him … and the tangled mess of the Clearville grapevine. Darcy had that effect on him. So what if, for a split second, he wasn’t a single dad, worried and scarred? With Darcy, he was something else. A man interested in a woman …

Dear Reader,

Have you ever had the chance to start over? The phrase sounds so hopeful, doesn’t it? A clean slate, the possibility of a new beginning … The reality of a fresh start can be challenging, though. How do you get over the mistakes of the past and overcome the fear of repeating them?

For Darcy Dawson, a new start means a move to a small town and an opportunity for a new business. But a new love with the town’s serious—and seriously handsome—veterinarian is the last thing on her mind.

Nick Pirelli thinks he’s ready for a new relationship with the right kind of woman, but will painful lessons from the past keep him from opening his heart to a city girl like Darcy?

Darcy and the Single Dad is the first book in my new Cherish™ miniseries, THE PIRELLI BROTHERS. I hope you enjoy it. Look for Sam’s and Drew’s stories in the future!

Happy reading!

Stacy Connelly

About the Author

STACY CONNELLY has dreamed of publishing books since she was a kid, writing stories about a girl and her horse. Eventually, boys made it onto the page as she discovered a love of romance and the promise of happily ever after.

When she is not lost in the land of make-believe, Stacy lives in Arizona with her two spoiled dogs. She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted at stacyconnelly@cox.net or www.stacyconnelly.com.

Darcy and the

Single Dad

Stacy Connelly

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Gail Chasan and Susan Litman—

Thank you for this chance at my first series for Cherish™. I’m looking forward to telling all the Pirelli brothers’ stories!

Chapter One

Nick Pirelli was exhausted. Staring out the windshield of his SUV, he was glad he knew the back routes around his hometown as well as he did. The evergreen-lined asphalt curving through the mountains had landed more than one tourist—and the occasional local—in a ditch or with a new guard-rail-shaped hood ornament. But even under the dark skies of an approaching storm, he could easily find his way.

It had been one hell of a day. Nick had worked as Clearville, California’s only vet for years, and most days, he loved his job. He had an affinity for animals and recognized the joy they brought to people’s lives with their loyalty and affection. In his almost ten years as a vet, he’d learned to control his emotions to best deal with the animals and owners who trusted him with their care. He’d treated injuries and accidents and the heartbreak of old age.

But the horse the sheriff had called him out to evaluate wasn’t sick or injured or old.

Instead, it had been abandoned and left to fend for itself in a weed-and-debris-filled paddock. Nick didn’t know how people could walk away from someone who depended on them. Who needed them.

The animal had stood still as Nick and the sheriff debated its fate, head bowed, posture as poor as the pitiful creature had to feel. But in that moment of decision, the horse’s head rose and it looked right at Nick. Its eyes had been dull and listless, but in the soulful brown gaze, he saw a hint of … It was ridiculous to call it hope in such a hopeless situation, but he’d seen a flicker of something. Maybe just the ghost of a chance that with a little care, a little love, the future could be so much brighter.

Not wanting to look too closely at the reason why the horse’s plight seemed to reach inside and grab hold of his gut, he’d pulled out his phone. Within the hour, Jarrett Deeks had arrived with a trailer hitched to his king cabin truck.

None of the local rescues would have the resources or ability to even try to nurse a horse this far gone back to health.

The horse barely had the strength to walk, but the two of them managed to ease it into the trailer. Nick had followed Jarrett out to his property. He gave the former rodeo star all the instructions he could, promising to check on the horse the next day and letting Jarrett know he could call for help at any time.

Nick was still wondering if he’d made the right choice as he headed home. Only time would tell. For now, he was looking forward to relaxing and, hopefully, leaving this day behind. With nothing more pressing to do, he planned to spend a few hours in front of the television, enjoying a baseball game and having a beer. Alone.

Thanks to a slumber party his daughter, Maddie, had been invited to, he had a weekend to himself, and he was looking forward to it with enough anticipation to send guilt dogging his heels.

After all, Maddie had just gotten back from a trip to San Francisco to see her mother. He shouldn’t have wanted—needed—a break so soon. The only saving grace was that Maddie had missed her friends during her two weeks away and had been thrilled with the invitation to stay with the Martins.

So, really, he had no reason to feel guilty at all.

Trying to force the feeling aside, he focused on the cold, crisp taste of the beer waiting for him at home, the smoky flavor of the burgers he’d cook on the charcoal grill, the peace and quiet of having the house to himself. The cabin in the woods he and his younger brother Drew had built together was more than a home to Nick. It was his haven, his sanctuary, his—

Cave.

He’d heard the gibe from more than one family member, and he was tired of listening to their complaints that he was turning into a hermit. Hell, some days he was tired of being a hermit, a realization that had blindsided him more than once lately. The most recent blow had been at his parents’ anniversary party a few weeks ago, a celebration concluding with his sister Sophia’s engagement to Jake Cameron.

The newly engaged couple had glowed, lit from within by their emotions for each other. His little sister deserved that kind of happiness and a man who loved her as completely and utterly as Jake did. Already they’d worked their way through some daunting hurdles with Jake having to earn Sophia’s trust after she’d been betrayed by a man she’d met before Jake. A man who was the biological father to the baby Sophia carried. But Jake had already vowed to love the baby as much as he loved its mother, and no one in the Pirelli family doubted his word.

Love—strong and solid after his parents’ thirty-five years of marriage and as bright and shiny as the engagement ring his sister now wore—had surrounded him and yet Nick had somehow felt apart from it all. His mother’s words had only multiplied the feeling of life and love passing him by as she’d embraced his sister in a tearful hug. “I can’t believe my little girl is getting married! It seems like only yesterday you were Maddie’s age.”

Nick had immediately looked toward Maddie, his own little girl who he feared was ready to make her eight-going-on-eighteen leap in a blink of his eye.

His hands tightened on the wheel. This last trip to San Francisco over summer vacation—or more specifically, Maddie’s return from that vacation—solidified Nick’s fears.

His daughter was changing.

At first, after Christmas and then spring break, he’d convinced himself the changes were merely superficial. The new outfits that cost more than his entire wardrobe combined. The haircut too sophisticated for an eight-year-old. Underneath it all, he’d told himself, Maddie was still his Maddie. His little girl.

But this time, he couldn’t close his eyes to what was happening. His concerns had hardened into cement blocks around his ankles, and no matter how he struggled, he felt himself going under. Getting in over his head while Maddie drifted further and further away. Because each time his daughter left their small hometown of Clearville to visit her mother, she came back … different. A little less the girl he knew and a little more the woman he’d married.

But a girl needed her mother, so he’d done his best to accommodate Carol’s requests to see their daughter even after she’d walked out on both of them with little warning five years earlier.

Lately, the uneasy feeling that his ex wanted more time with Maddie had crept into his gut whenever they spoke. Not that Carol had come out and said anything directly, but then that wasn’t her style. She was more subtle and sly. Like the most recent visit when Carol had sadly informed Maddie they had time to go to SeaWorld or Disneyland but couldn’t possibly do both.

Nick had known extending the trip would be playing right into Carol’s hands, and he’d been damn close to telling her she could take Maddie to SeaWorld and he’d take her to Disneyland. But one thought stopped him. He didn’t want to take Maddie only to have her wishing the whole time her mother was the one holding her hand through the happiest place on earth.

Nick was glad his daughter enjoyed her visits with her mother. If Maddie was happy, he was happy. Most of the time, he could even convince himself it was true; after all, it wasn’t Maddie’s happiness that worried him. It was how unhappy she was when she returned that had his gut tangled in knots.

He’d hoped his sister Sophia’s upcoming wedding and Maddie’s role as flower girl would give her something to look forward to, but she wasn’t nearly as excited as he’d expected. He couldn’t figure it out. With her recent fascination of all things girly, he’d thought she’d jump at the chance to be in the wedding party. He just didn’t get little girls.

Nick snorted. Hell, it wasn’t like he got women, either.

Maybe that was what happened when a man was single for too long.

His jaw tightened, and he half expected a lightning bolt from the approaching storm to strike him down. Hadn’t he said it’d be a cold day before he ever took a chance on another relationship?

But watching Sophia and Jake together, he’d envied their courage to risk heartbreak for the reward of finding love again. He felt as though something had hit him in the chest in that moment, striking the emptiness inside him like a blow to a bass drum. Even now, weeks later, the reverberations still vibrated inside him, urging him to … do something.

But Nick wasn’t a man to give into rash impulses. He’d learned his lesson after trying to turn a heated, whirlwind affair into a long-term relationship. If that hadn’t already made him cautious, he also had Maddie to consider. Word of his first date would spread throughout town before he’d glanced at the dinner menu, and the woman would likely have nieces or nephews—if not a son or daughter—who went to school with Maddie.

The idea of putting his daughter through that kind of speculation—of putting himself through it—had kept at bay any thoughts of trying to date as a single dad. Until now.…

The buzz of Nick’s cell interrupted his thoughts. A glance at the screen showed his office number, and he cringed. If Jarrett Deeks was having trouble with the horse, he’d have called him directly, so Nick could only hope that whatever his assistant needed could wait until tomorrow.

Answering the call on speaker, he said, “I’m on my way home, Rhonda. Unless this is an emergency—”

“Oh, but it is,” the forty-something woman replied with a hint of amusement in her voice.

The first splatter of rain hit the windshield, and Nick bit back a curse. “If this is some kind of a joke—”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, Doc.”

Nick sighed, mentally kissing his beer and ball game goodbye. “What’s the emergency?”

“Darcy Dawson called. She said she ‘needs the doctor right away.’”

Personal experience reminded him Darcy Dawson’s voice sounded nothing like his assistant’s pack-a-day rasp. Darcy had a just-out-of-bed-sexy murmur and a laugh that stroked like fingernails down a man’s spine.

“Better watch out,” Rhonda was warning him with a fair share of teasing in her tone. “I’m surprised Darcy hasn’t tried making a play for you or one of your brothers already. The three Pirelli boys are some of the best catches in town. You’re all young, successful, single—”

“Give me a break, Rhonda,” Nick said with a snort of laughter at his assistant’s joking and the implication that he, like his brothers, was free to have the kind of fling Darcy Dawson had become known for in her less than two months in Clearville. He had Maddie to think about, and even though she was still a little girl, he was painfully aware how the decisions he made could affect her.

Doubly aware, he felt, since Carol wasn’t always as discriminating as he thought she should be. He’d made it more than plain to his ex-wife a few years ago—when Maddie came home talking about the “sleepovers” her mother had—that he didn’t want any of Carol’s casual boyfriends around his daughter.

Carol had turned his words back on him, insisting he, too, keep his girlfriends away from Maddie, and Nick had immediately agreed. He hadn’t known any women in Clearville he’d want to have a casual fling with then.

You still don’t know any, he mentally berated a libido that had taken immediate notice the very first time he heard Darcy Dawson’s laugh.

He’d been standing one row over at the grocery store, trying fruitlessly to decide on the hair bands his daughter had sent him to the store to buy. But the moment he’d heard that laugh, he’d forgotten all about them. Heaven help him, for a moment he’d forgotten all about being a single father, and before he knew where he was going, he’d sought out the woman behind that laugh.

Fortunately within the first glance, he’d come back to his senses. Well, mostly, since he hadn’t been able to get Darcy Dawson out of his mind since. Still, it had only taken that first look to know Darcy wasn’t the kind of woman he was looking for. Wasn’t the kind of woman a man ever found, not in Clearville, at least.

A pair of expensive oversize sunglasses propped on the top of her head held back a tumble of shoulder-length red hair and she carried a purse that likely cost more than the monthly payment on his SUV. Her clothes—a tailored white shirt belted over narrow black trousers that hugged a pair of legs that seemed to go on forever before ending in spiky heels—spoke of a fashionable, sophisticated woman. Not the kind he was looking for, he’d determined, and that was before he’d learned of her reputation.

Single or not, he didn’t have the freedom his younger brothers did. Sam especially enjoyed the opportunity to have a good time. He’d dive into a fling with Darcy Dawson headfirst and come out smelling like roses on the other side. Women could never stay angry at Sam.

Normally, Nick could never stay angry at Sam, but just the thought of his youngest brother and Darcy Dawson together made his jaw clench tight enough to crack.

“Did Ms. Dawson say what the emergency is?”

“Nope. Her cell phone started breaking up before she could say. Funny thing, I didn’t even know she had any pets.”

Deciding he was having some cell problems of his own, Nick hung up on his assistant’s chortling laugh.

Having his name even temporarily linked with Darcy Dawson’s would only scare off the right kind of woman. His ill-fated marriage to Carol was already something of a black mark against him. He didn’t need to be down two strikes before he even came up to bat.

Maddie needed a positive female influence. Sure, his mother had been around her entire life, and Sophia had recently moved back to town, but a grandmother and aunt weren’t the same as a mother. Someone who could be a constant, consistent, solid presence in Maddie’s life. Someone who was small town, with Clearville roots dug deep in her soul. That was the kind of woman Nick was looking for.

This time, he was going to be damn sure he made the right choice from the start. He couldn’t risk jumping on and off some kind of dating-go-round, asking out any woman who happened to spin by. His failed marriage and Carol’s desertion had made him cautious, but Nick knew once he found the right woman, he’d have to jump in with both feet, hang on and not let go. Because try as he might, after looking at the idea from every angle—up, down, inside and out—he couldn’t work his way around one simple fact.

If Maddie needed a mother, then he needed a wife. Because God help him, he couldn’t figure out how to get one without the other.

The dog hadn’t moved.

Crouched down at the back stairs, Darcy Dawson squinted toward the far side of the crawl space beneath the porch. Every now and then, in the flashes of lightning that lit the darkness, she could see the reflection from the dog’s eyes, her only indication the animal was still there. Worry trickled through her, and she shivered, pulling up the collar of her coat closer around her ears.

She’d tried using the lure of the kibble, but the dog refused to come out of hiding. Refused, too, to eat from the bowl Darcy had shoved as far as she dared in the cramped space. She might have blamed fear of the storm for the dog’s behavior except it had holed up before the lightning and rain had begun.

Even though Darcy didn’t know anything about dogs, she knew something was wrong. But she didn’t know what it was or what she could do to offer any comfort.

Helplessness rose up inside her. “It’s just a dog,” she muttered against the lump in her throat. “You don’t even like dogs.”

The words echoing through her thoughts for the past half hour were a lie, and saying them out loud didn’t help convince Darcy they were true. She didn’t dislike dogs, but she was afraid of them. Had been since she’d been bitten by a neighbor’s dog when she was little.

Her fingers slipped past the collar of her sweater and she traced the scars along her shoulder, reminders from that long-ago day. As a kid, she’d shied away from dogs, and as an adult living in an apartment in Portland, she hadn’t been around them much. She simply didn’t go places where dogs were likely to be, and if she saw one in passing … Well, she just passed quickly.

But her move to the small town of Clearville, California, was supposed to be about making a new start and living in the moment. So when a stray dog wandered into her backyard after she’d left open the gate, she decided that maybe it was time to put her fear of dogs in the past, as well. Not that she planned to keep the dog; she wasn’t that certain of her ability to let go of a twenty-year-old phobia, but something in the animal’s crouched, uncertain posture spoke to her.

And, she had to admit, the dog was … interesting. A mix of silver and black from its alert ears down to its tail with brown and white spots on its face and legs. And its eyes—one brown and one blue—fascinated Darcy with their watchful intelligence. Of course, she’d only noticed thanks to the zoom feature on her digital camera. She hadn’t actually gotten near enough to see the dog’s two-toned eyes up close.

But she printed the pictures she’d taken, placing “Found Dog” posters around town. She’d also bought a bag of dog food and some toys at the grocery store and folded up an old comforter for a bed in the sheltered corner of the porch. None of which nominated her for Pet Parent of the Year, but just knowing the dog was in her backyard pushed Darcy out of her comfort zone.

Still, she’d been certain, in a town the size of Clearville, the owner would come forward in no time. Or that someone would recognize such a unique dog and know who it belonged to. She’d even imagined the scene—reuniting the poor lost dog with its grateful, tearful owners. Darcy would wave off their praise and offer of a reward, content to see owner and pet back together again.

But after a week, no one had called, and Darcy had started to wonder what she would do if the dog’s owner never showed.

Sometimes facing your fears is the only way to escape them. Her mother’s encouragement rang in her head, strong and sure.

But then her mother had always been brave.

The ache wasn’t as sharp as it had been following her mother’s death a year ago, but time had done little to lessen Darcy’s sense of loss. She blinked back tears. Her voice was rough around the lump in her throat as she whispered, “You always did say we should get a dog.”

Alanna had raised Darcy to be confident, strong, proud. Lessons Darcy tried to live by, but ones she’d failed recently. She’d been devastated by her mother’s death. Feeling so alone, she’d reached out blindly to grab hold of the first lifeline she could find. But Aaron Utley hadn’t helped her out of her misery as much as he’d taken advantage of it.

It was the only explanation Darcy had for falling so hard and so fast.

He’d seemed so charming and caring, Darcy somehow missed when that care transformed into control as he tried to mold her into the perfect accessory for an up-and-coming lawyer.

And she’d foolishly gone along. Hoping to ease the ache of sorrow and emptiness, she had convinced herself she was in love. For months, she poured her heart and soul into trying to be the perfect girlfriend and then the perfect fiancée. Only after gaining distance from Aaron had Darcy realized how fully he’d manipulated her. How he’d used her as his emotional punching bag, constantly setting her up simply to knock her down.

Thank God she’d gotten out before trying to be the perfect wife! She didn’t need anyone to tell her what a failure she would have been as Mrs. Aaron Utley.

But the anger following their breakup had been the kick in the butt Darcy needed to put aside her sorrow and recall the wonderful times she’d had with her mother. It had always been just the two of them, and they’d shared everything. Including her mother’s dream of moving back to the tiny Northern California town where she’d been raised and opening a small beauty boutique on Main Street.

Alanna wanted to take the knowledge she’d gained from her years managing a dozen different locations of a major department store chain and focus it on her own business. Moving then opening the shop had always been planned for a distant “someday,” but her death had taught Darcy to take advantage of today, and she was determined to make her mother’s dream a reality.

She refused to consider what she would do if she failed, so she’d handled it all—moving to a town where she didn’t know a soul, renting a century-old house in need of serious updating and planning a grand opening for a new business at a time when many shops were closing. If she had any doubts, any worries, she’d keep them hidden behind a confident facade where no one would see.

Fake it ’til you make it, her mother would say.

The wind shifted again, sending rain pelting against her back and running in icy rivulets down the collar of her coat. Another spark of lightning briefly illuminated the sky, but it was long enough for Darcy to see the dog lying on its side, its watchful gaze still focused on her.