Slipping her hand from Leah’s, the little girl touched her father’s arm. “Are we going home in Leah’s car?”
Leah froze. How could she have been so stupid? He couldn’t possibly drive with his injured hand and now she’d have to endure sitting side by side with the man all the way to Clover Point. Which, strictly speaking, was a ten-minute drive, tops...but still.
She forced a smile. “Of course you are. I’ll grab a booster seat from the trunk.”
Surprise widened his eyes. “You’ve got kids? I didn’t realize...”
“No.” She huffed a laugh. “But I am a little anal about being prepared for anything and everything.”
“Right.” His gaze softened with something that looked far too much like acceptance...as though he should have guessed as much. “Got it.”
Leah quickly looked away and walked to the back of her car. Shoving her first aid kit, car jack and mini toolbox to the side, she pulled out one of the two booster seats. After closing the trunk, she opened the back door and pushed the seat inside. She waved toward the open door. “All yours.”
She stood back as Ethan helped buckle Daisy safely inside, her gaze roaming over his strong back and perfectly edible ass encased in cargo pants. Ignoring the twitch deep in her abdomen, she walked around to the driver’s side...but was too slow opening the door. Ethan’s steady gaze met hers over the car’s roof, and for the first time in a while, her automatic smile was far too long in coming.
She stood frozen to the spot.
Until she broke the moment and found blessed escape by sliding into the driver’s seat.
* * *
SOMETHING VERY, VERY bad had just happened.
Ethan blew out a slow breath before opening the passenger door of Leah’s car. Once seated, he stared straight ahead, willing his racing heart to slow. Her hazel eyes had burned straight into his and he’d seen the attraction, the realization, and finally, the panic that rolled inside him reflected in her gaze. His pull toward her had to be quashed. He couldn’t get someone as lovely and caring as Leah involved in his messy life right now.
She started the car and he reached for his seat belt.
Yet he’d agreed to her coming to the house against all the warnings screaming in his head. But how could he refuse? Her care and attention to his injury was genuine—as was her clear concern that Anna might come back. Leah was obviously a good person who took her job seriously. Whereas he was little more than a control freak about his work, his life and Daisy’s life.
After the way he’d failed Anna and his daughter in those early years, it was no surprise he’d evolved into the man he was today. He refused to apologize or make excuses for doing all he could to keep Daisy safe.
It had just been him and her for the last five years. Sure, he’d dated and some of those dates had even stretched into an overnight stay when his mum had been able to have Daisy.
Yet no woman’s allure had smacked him upside the head like Leah’s.
And now they sat side by side, with only a shift stick and hand brake between them.
He had to push Leah away for her own protection—not to mention Daisy’s.
She was first and foremost in his every thought and action, and he’d been careful not to invite a woman into his life who could up and leave them at a moment’s notice. It had taken him months and months after Anna’s leaving to convince Daisy he was here to stay. Having her get attached to someone else who might one day let her down was something he couldn’t allow to happen. At least, not until Daisy was older and understood adults could let people down—could let children down.
His daughter’s happy humming filled the car and he glanced at Leah as they drove along the main street. Her jaw was set and her grip on the steering wheel looked tight enough to break the damn thing.
He stared ahead and cleared his throat. “You know, my hand feels fine, if you want to postpone looking at it until tomorrow. I’ve no idea how long I’ll be talking to my agent, and I don’t want to keep you waiting. Plus, I need to get Daisy showered and into bed. She has school in the morning.”
“It’s for the best that I look at it tonight. I’ve already seen the dried blood.” She glanced at him. “Your hand is clearly not fine. I’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I just...” He just what? Wanted her far away from him so there was no risk acting on the sudden and crazy need to kiss her? She showed him so much more care than anyone else had in a very long time. That had to be the reason behind such irrational yearning, right?
She smiled. “You’re just scared I’ll hurt you. I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
Ethan swallowed. She had no idea how close to the mark her words had struck. Wasn’t the real reason she scared the hell out of him because there was every chance he could come to care about her, too? That maybe she could end up being someone special? Someone who would make his and Daisy’s lives a whole lot better?
But the last time he’d felt anything near what he felt now was when he’d first met Anna...and look how that had turned out.
He screwed his good hand into a fist. Well, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about preventing Leah coming to the house tonight, but tomorrow, he’d figure out a way to stop her that night and every night after.
They rode the rest of the way to Clover Point in relative silence, punctured every now and then by Daisy’s stream of chatter, blended with bursts of humming and, her latest discovery, whistling.
Ethan looked out the side window. Leah’s stubbornness ranked pretty high on a scale of one to a million. Well, whether she realized it or not, he could match her tenacity. All he wanted was to be a good father to Daisy and a successful author. To prove to his daughter, his readers and himself that he had something worth sharing with the world, after Anna’s demeaning verbal shots during the final months of their tumultuous marriage took their toll on his courage and self-belief.
In the past, he’d run from confrontation—not anymore. Not when he had learned what hiding from reality could do. A man losing his wife and a child losing her mother.
Anna was unlikely to disappear from his life again anytime soon. And neither Leah nor Daisy deserved even the slightest slash of his ex-wife’s poisoned tongue.
If Leah wanted to play nurse outside working hours... Thoughts not entirely suitable for his current dilemma filtered into his imagination.
“Something funny?”
He coughed and sat a little straighter in his seat. “No.”
“You were smiling.”
He faced her. God, she was beautiful. Beautiful and kind and caring...and sexy and pretty spectacular in every other way, as far as he could tell. Finding out more about her was something he might have wanted, but had to ignore if he had any hope of keeping her away from Anna.
He shrugged. “I was just thinking about something I saw on TV.”
“Hmm. Sure you were.”
She shook her head and the soft sway of her cropped, glossy blond hair about her face took a little of his breath away. He shifted in his seat and glanced at Daisy in the back. She stared at him mischievously, her mouth stretched into a grin.
His smile dissolved as unease rippled through him. Was his attraction to Leah so obvious a seven-year-old could see it?
He might not want to be alone forever, but now was the worst possible time for him to contemplate getting into anything...if Leah ever came to consider him romantically, of course.
Even if he took Daisy’s emotional stability out of the equation, Anna’s impulsiveness, her unpredictability and spiteful temper had