Delinquent Daddy (Banks / Kincaid Family #2)(22)

Cheese's in Lawrence tomorrow, how're you going to stop me?"

Boston sighed, already well aware he fought a losing battle.

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86

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage





Chapter Six


At five till noon the next day, Nora Young swept into Winston Young's law office where her brother-in-law stood over Ellie's desk, giving her last-minute instructions before he went to lunch.

"Table it, Winston," Nora interjected. "Ellie can't work through her dinner hour for you today. I'm taking her out to eat."

"But—"

"The girl's going to shrivel up and starve if you keep denying her a break."

Winston had never been able to stand up to his brother's wife, so he frowned in defeat and turned beseechingly to Ellie.

"Well...just make sure this is the first thing you do once you return."

"Of course," Ellie answered and yelped in surprise as Nora grabbed her wrist and tugged her from the office.

In minutes, she found herself seated in the restaurant across the street with Nora, ordering a drink. Blinking herself to the present as she watched the waiter walk away, Ellie suddenly realized her friend had just ordered a cosmopolitan.

"I can't drink alcohol." She whirled toward Nora incredulously. "I have to go back to work after this."

"Oh, honey," Nora murmured and sighed as she reached across the table and patted Ellie's hand in a sympathetic gesture. "That was for me. I ordered you your usual Diet Coke."

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Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"Oh." Ellie sat back in her booth seat and ran her fingers through her hair, wishing she could have the cosmo instead.

Nora made a tut-tutting sound. "Been a long morning?"

Ellie massaged her temples, pressing hard. A throbbing resistance pushed right back. "I don't know what to do, Nora."

"Well, first of all, you're going to bring me up to date. All I know is that Keller came home last night from your place, saying you kicked him out because Cassie's dad was there."

Ellie swallowed.

"And half an hour before you got home, that tall, dark and hot stranger showed up, lingering around your place, waiting around for you like some lovesick puppy dog." She shrugged.

"He told me he was a relative and hadn't seen you since before Cassie was born. Course I assumed he meant he was related to you, not your daughter. It never occurred to me he might be her father."

Ellie dropped her hands from her temples and gaped at her friend. "Wait. What? You talked to Boston?"

"Boston," Nora repeated, lifting her eyebrows in interest.

"Is that his name? Hmmm. I like it. Very original. Boston what?"

"What'd he say to you?"

"I just told you. He said he was a relative and hadn't seen you in a long time. Oh, and that you were expecting him but he made it to town earlier than he thought he would."

Ellie snorted. "I most certainly was not expecting him."

88

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"He's really Cassidy's dad?" Nora asked in awe. When Ellie sent her a miserable nod, Nora's jaw dropped. "Wow. Where's he been all these years?"

"Kansas City, I guess."

"And what's he doing there when his daughter's here?"

Nora wanted to know.

Ellie averted her face and bit her lip. "I kind of told him I had a miscarriage."

"You... what?" Nora gaped at her like she'd lost her mind, making Ellie flush. "Oh, now I'm going to have to hear the whole story."

Ellie sighed, giving in. "We'd already broken up by the time I found out I was pregnant. Boston went crazy when I told him, accusing me of trying to trap him, of purposely getting pregnant to get him back. He blamed it all on me."

"The jerk," Nora muttered, falling back in her chair. "Why are men such jerks?" Waving her own question away, she leaned forward and confidentially asked, "Okay. Aside from the fact that he's a guy and all guys are scum, why did it end between you two in the first place?"

The answer came to Ellie in a brilliantly clear memory. "He cheated on me," she murmured, though she was already drifting toward the past, sitting in early American history class and listening to Heather Grimaldi talk with her friends about Boston Kincaid, whom she'd spent the evening with at some wild dorm party.

And suddenly, Ellie was nineteen again, in Boston's dorm room, confronting him.

89

Delinquent Daddy

by Linda Kage

"What did you do last Friday when I was working?" she asked, feeling like she had to dive straight to the point or she'd never be able to discover the truth.

Boston wouldn't meet her gaze as he shrugged. "I don't know. Why?"

She shrugged too and had to focus on something else as she said, "So, you didn't meet some redhead named Heather and go back to her apartment with her?"

His silence was the loudest confession he could've made.

Ellie swallowed. "Okay," she said calmly. "I'll take that as a yes."

Boston shoved his hands into his pockets and stared fixedly out his room's single window. A ray of light glimmered in and reflected a blue-black glow over his hair. He looked so beautiful it nearly took her breath away. But thinking about her beautiful lover with another woman killed her.