Falling for the Single Dad Read online

  Finding Her Way Home

  After fifteen years away, Dr. Caroline Duer is nervous about returning to her hometown. The veterinarian might be able to save stranded sea turtles, but she can’t convince her dad of her good intentions. And when Caroline meets darling Izzie Clark, she encounters similar suspicion from the young girl’s father. Former coast guard commander Weston Clark had his life upended by Izzie’s mother. He won’t go through the same pain again. But Izzie isn’t the only one tumbling head over heels for the enigmatic Caroline. And if she can release the pain of the past, she just might be the missing piece Weston and his daughter have been searching for.

  “Caroline could take me shopping.”

  He reddened. “Izzie, I’m sure the lady vet is busy. She probably has much more—”

  “I’d love to take Izzie shopping.” Caroline gave him a defiant look. “Why don’t you bring her to the animal rescue center later this week—say Thursday—about four o’clock?”

  Izzie bounced on the balls of her feet. “Yay!”

  “You don’t need to—”

  “And you’re welcome.” Caroline slipped behind the wheel.

  His lips quirked. “Like you said yesterday, I’m sure I would’ve managed somehow, but…” He rolled his tongue in his cheek.

  “Is that your idea of a thank-you?” She laughed. “Not much of a people person, are you?”

  Weston leaned his elbows against the car window. “Will you allow me to fix dinner after you and Izzie return from your shopping expedition? I could give you a tour of our home-slash-work-in-progress.”

  She smiled at him. “I’d like that. Till then?”

  Till then. His mouth went dry. Had he lost what little mind he still possessed? What had he done?

  Lisa Carter and her family make their home in North Carolina. In addition to her Love Inspired novels, she writes romantic suspense for Abingdon Press. When she isn’t writing, Lisa enjoys traveling to romantic locales, teaching writing workshops and researching her next exotic adventure. She has strong opinions on barbecue and ACC basketball. She loves to hear from readers. Connect with Lisa at lisacarterauthor.com.

  Books by Lisa Carter

  Love Inspired

  Coast Guard Courtship

  Coast Guard Sweetheart

  Falling for the Single Dad

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  FALLING FOR

  THE SINGLE DAD

  Lisa Carter

  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

  —Hebrews 10:23

  Dedicated to David and Peggy Riley

  You advised me long ago to read a psalm a day, and you were right. Thanks for your friendship and support. You two make a great team. Yours is a special gift, a noble legacy—to shine the Light. Your example of godly leadership has been a beacon of light and truth to me throughout the years.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Kathy Davis for her quick, on-the-scene guidance regarding the exact layout of the bridge, the tunnels and the pier at the Chesapeake Grill at the exact minute I was trying to write that scene. Any errors are, of course, my own.

  The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) is real. Its three-part mission is “to conduct interdisciplinary research in coastal ocean and estuarine science, educate students and citizens, and provide advisory service to policy makers, industry, and the public.” I’ve taken a few liberties with the actual facility layout. And currently, no marine rescue/rehabilitation/conservation center exists on the Virginia portion of the Delmarva Peninsula. But wouldn’t it be fun if such a place did?

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from The Soldier’s Surprise Family by Jolene Navarro

  Chapter One

  “Excuse me? Excuse…meeee…?”

  Startled, Caroline Duer gazed to the left, then right, before coming to rest on the heart-shaped face of a little girl tugging on her sleeve. “Were you talking to me?”

  The child’s shoulder-length tangle of red hair bobbed as she nodded. “Would you help me find a book?”

  Her enormous blue eyes inspected Caroline for a second. And as if an afterthought, she added, “Please.”

  Caroline’s eyes skittered around the Kiptohanock Library. “Um…”

  Moments before, a librarian had been reading to a cluster of children on the big green rug. Obviously, one of her charges had wandered.

  “I don’t see her right now, but…”

  Where was a librarian when you needed one?

  “Uh…” Caroline wasn’t good with children. Sea creatures, yes. Little girls, no.

  This was what happened when you put off what needed to be done. You got roped into over-your-head situations.

  “I’m not—”

  “But I said the special word.” The little girl cocked her head and waited.

  Special word? What in the name of fried flounder was a special word? A secret children’s language to which Caroline wasn’t privy? “I’m sorry, dear…”

  The little girl scowled.

  “Dear” must not be a special word. Where was the librarian? Caroline cut her eyes over to the child.

  The little redhead planted her fist on her hip. And jutted it. “I need you.”

  Just Caroline’s luck. A tyke with attitude.

  The little girl needed her? A clear case of mistaken identity, but it had been a long time since anyone needed her. In fact, the last time she’d been needed, she’d failed everyone so completely.

  She was perhaps the worst person on earth anyone needed to need. Caroline swallowed. Where was the librarian? Better yet, where was this child’s mother?

  Even Caroline understood children required a lot of time. More time than she as a thirty-five-year-old marine veterinarian was willing to pencil into her schedule. If you couldn’t spare the time, don’t have ’em. She drummed her restless fingers on the wooden surface of the librarian’s desk.

  “I want books like that.” The little girl pointed at the illustrated Eastern Shore bird-watcher’s field guide in Caroline’s hand. “Books about turtles and dolphins, too.”

  Caroline glanced from the book to the little girl. “This is a book my sister, Amelia, illustrated. Illustrated means—”

  “She drew the pictures.” The little girl fluttered her hand as if shooing sand fleas. “I know all about that.”

  Caroline’s lips twitched. Okay, the redhead was a smart little girl.

  “Are you going to check it out?”

  “I don’t live around here.” Caroline’s gaze darted out the window overlooking the Kiptohanock square. “Not anymore. I don’t have a library card.”

  The little girl dug a plastic card out of the pocket of her jeans. “I do.” She held up the card. “I’ve had my own library card since I learned to read when I was four. My daddy says I’m a reading machine.”

  Caroline stifl
ed a laugh. The same could’ve been said of her as a child, too. She passed the book into the little girl’s custody.

  The redhead grinned at Caroline. “Thanks.”

  Caroline shifted to move past her. “You’re welcome.”

  “Aren’t you going to help me find the book on turtles?”

  Caroline studied the expectant little face. “You’re not going to leave me alone till I do, are you?”

  The little girl smiled. Tiny lines feathered the corners of her eyes. An indication she was a happy child? Caroline hoped so.

  “All right. Come on, then.” Racking her brain for what she remembered of the Dewey Decimal System, Caroline headed into the stacks. The little girl followed close on her heels.

  Ten minutes later, Caroline’s arms bulged with picture books and the surprisingly adult volume on aquatic life the child herself selected. Caroline marched toward the checkout station. Still, no sign of the librarian.

  She bit back an inward sigh. “You’ll have to wait—”

  The little girl lugged Caroline toward a pint-size monitor. “Self-checkout. I do it every week after story time. I’ll show you.”

  Caroline plopped the books onto the counter. The child scanned her card under a red-eyed laser beam. A beep sounded every time she ran the bar code on the back cover underneath the beam. A final printout scrolled out of the printer, and the child tore it free with a flourish. “This way you don’t have to wait in line.”

  What line? The library appeared deserted. Not so different from Caroline’s childhood. She had whiled away many pleasant hours here in the library while Lindi dated, Amelia went fishing and Honey played house. Caroline figured old Mrs. Beal had probably long since retired.

  “Good.” Caroline slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Happy read—”

  “Wait.” The child caught her arm and halted Caroline’s bid for freedom. “Maybe we could read one of the books before you leave.”

  Caroline pursed her lips. “Don’t you have somewhere you have to be?”

  The child shook her head.

  A sense of panic mounted. Caroline wasn’t good with children. “Won’t your mother be looking for you?”

  “My mother’s dead.”

  “Oh…” Caroline’s heart thudded. “So is mine,” she whispered.

  The child entwined her arm through the crook in Caroline’s elbow. “Just for a minute.” Her face scrunched. “Please…”

  Caroline bit her lip. “The special word?”

  The child nodded.

  Caroline caved. “Okay…”

  The child let out a whoop and then slapped a hand over her mouth. She giggled. Caroline giggled, too.

  Finger against her lips, the little girl pulled her toward the sitting area near the entrance. And somehow Caroline found the both of them ensconced in a comfy leather armchair.

  “My name’s Izzie.” The little girl extended her hand, adult-like. “For Isabelle.”

  Caroline shook her hand. “I’m Caroline.”

  The little girl curled into her side while Caroline read the short depictions and flipped the pages of a picture book about turtles.

  Halfway through, Caroline glanced up to find twin pools of blue fixed on a tendril of Caroline’s hair. Which had come loose from the practical chignon she’d wound on the nape of her neck for her early-morning aquarium meeting across the bay.

  With a tentative touch, Izzie fingered the strand of Caroline’s hair, a thoughtful expression on her small face. “I wish my hair was as pretty as yours.”

  At the child’s plaintive words, Caroline laid the book across her slacks. Izzie’s hair was a mess. Did her father never take the time to brush it?

  “My hair was about the same auburn shade of red as yours when I was your age. It darkened when I got older.”

  She feathered a springy coil behind Izzie’s petal-shaped ear. “I always wanted beautiful, curly hair like yours. Mine is straighter than most sticks.” And she poked Izzy in her belly with her index finger to demonstrate.

  Caroline’s breath hitched. Where had that come from? You didn’t go around touching children. Especially children who didn’t belong to you. Further proof she was no good with children.

  But Izzie doubled over and laughed. “You’re funny, Caroline.”

  Since when?

  Lindi had been the pretty Duer girl. Amelia the tomboy and Honey the sweet one. Caroline had been known as the brainy sister.

  Izzie flipped the book right side up. Her finger jabbed the page. “That’s where you stopped. Finish…” She snuggled closer, practically in Caroline’s lap. “Please…”

  What parent left a child alone this long, even in a library? Somebody should’ve taught Izzie about stranger danger. According to the evening news, child abductions were on the rise. Not to mention serial killers.

  Though unless things had dramatically changed since Caroline was a girl on the Delmarva Peninsula, those crimes rarely occurred on the isolated strip of land separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean.

  But she couldn’t deny a frisson of pleasure as the top of Izzie’s red head scraped her chin. She inhaled the little girl scents of sea air, coconut oil and sunshine clinging to Izzie. Caroline propped the book so they could both see better.

  Not such a bad way to spend a May morning. Anything to stall the coming confrontation she dreaded with her family. Put off the inevitable with her sisters and dad.

  Because despite having returned to her Eastern Shore birthplace, Caroline feared she’d never truly be able to go home again. Not after what she’d done.

  *

  Weston Clark hunched over the blueprints spread over the table at the Sandpiper Café. His friend, and the former executive petty officer at the United States Coast Guard Station Kiptohanock, Sawyer Kole ran his finger across the etchings Weston had created in what would become Weston and Izzie’s new home.

  After buying the decommissioned lighthouse and keeper’s station from the Coast Guard and after six months of remodeling, he—not to mention nine-year-old Izzie—was anxious to move into the new quarters. He’d promised Izzie one of the two rooms in the tower.

  “Don’t worry, Wes.” Sawyer rested his forearms across the renderings. “It’s going to be fabulous.” He smiled. “With the ocean on one side. And the tidal marsh on the other.”

  Weston sighed. “It’s a money pit is what it is.”

  Considering some lighthouses sold at public auction around the United States in the million-dollar range, he’d bought the property situated on a neck of Virginia land at a bargain price. This spit of land and the lightkeeper’s station held special meaning for him.

  His grandfather had been one of the last of the light-savers. History come full circle, preserving Izzie’s heritage and finally establishing the home Izzie’s mother had longed for. The home he’d been too self-absorbed and rootless in his upwardly mobile Coast Guard career to provide. Until too late.

  Weston swallowed against the unexpected rush of feeling. It surprised him sometimes how grief engulfed him without warning like a rogue wave.

  He checked his watch. Izzie would still be occupied at the Saturday story hour. He took a sip from his coffee mug. “How’s Honey?”

  Sawyer’s arctic blue eyes lit at the mention of his bride of six months. Weston tamped down a prick of envy at his friend’s happiness. A hard-won happiness the onetime foster kid truly deserved. Unlike Weston.

  “Honey’s good.” Sawyer’s lips curved as if he was reliving an especially sweet remembrance. “We’re good.”

  An aching emptiness consumed him. At thirty-six, Weston believed that kind of joy had passed him by forever. Everything that happened between him and Jessica was his own fault.

  Sawyer fiddled with the Shore-famous Long John doughnut on his plate. “I promise I’ll finish the lighthouse remodeling well in advance of the foster kids camp.”

  “Everybody seaside knows you have the work ethic of ten men, but don’t put so muc
h pressure on yourself. Izz and I are making do in the lightkeeper’s quarters.”

  Weston warmed his hands around the mug. “A few months—give or take—won’t matter. I understand Keller’s Kids Camp needs to be your priority.”

  He’d been on a cutter during most of Jessica’s pregnancy with Izzie. But he’d never allow Izzie to suffer again. Not because of him.

  Weston cleared his throat. “Is the baby doing okay?”

  Sawyer placed his arm across the back of the seat. “Honey swears the kid is practicing for the rodeo in utero.”

  The ex-cowboy Coastie had only recently completed his enlistment and returned to civilian life to oversee the kids camp where siblings separated by the foster system could reconnect for one week a year. Sawyer also helped his wife run the Duer Fisherman’s Lodge.

  “Any gender news to share? Or aren’t you telling?”

  Sawyer rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me? Honey had to know. There was a nursery to decorate. Baby registries to fill out.”

  “Izzie got her invite to the baby shower last week. She’s killing me wanting to go shopping.” Weston grinned.

  “Appreciate the warning.” Sawyer laughed. “We’re having a girl.”

  Weston reached across the booth and play-punched his friend’s arm. “Way to go, Coastie.”

  “Ex-Coasties.” But Sawyer smiled.

  Wes glanced at his watch. The hands hadn’t moved an inch. He tapped the watch face with his finger. Nothing. “Oh, no…” Panicked, he grabbed his cell off the table to check the time. Weston shoved out of the booth.

  Sawyer rolled the blueprints. “What’s wrong?”

  Weston fumbled in his jeans for his wallet. “My watch stopped.”

  Sawyer motioned him toward the exit. “I got this today. Your turn next time. Another thing I’ve learned from my beautiful wife—never keep a lady waiting.”

  “Thanks. See you later.”

 
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