“I didn’t just come up with it,” Dylan explained. “The idea has been percolating in my brain for a couple of days.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before now?” Worried she might wake Daisy, Eve forced herself not to shout the words. “You wait until the eleventh hour to drop a bombshell on me and what? I’m supposed to swerve right when I planned to go left?”
Eve saw no reason to tell Dylan that she had no idea what she would do next with her life. She felt pathetic enough standing in the hallway, her hair uncombed, a slight fuzzy feel to her teeth. The last thing she needed was for him to think she was at loose ends—even if that was exactly her situation.
“I would have asked sooner but I didn’t think you would agree,” Dylan said.
“What’s changed?” Eve crossed her arms. “Why ask me now?”
“Panic set in last night. I didn’t sleep a wink.” Dylan scrubbed a hand over his face. “I know Daisy is young. In time, she’ll adapt to her new family. However, right now, she’s about to be uprooted by a man she just met. New city. New house. New bed. Everything is unknown.”
Eve’s eyes grew damp, the tears she couldn’t cry before on the verge of falling.
“Daisy will wonder where I went,” Eve said, swallowing a sob. “She’ll think I abandoned her. Then, she’ll cry. You don’t know how to console her. You don’t know what she needs.”
“I know. I know!” Dylan handed Eve a handkerchief. “What was I thinking? Uprooting a little girl from the only home she’s ever known? Taking her from the person who keeps her world steady and safe? I’m not an uncle. I’m a monster.”
Dylan’s image wavered before Eve’s tear-filled eyes. Was he about to cry? He couldn’t, she thought as she wiped her face. One blubbering adult was more than enough.
“Doing what’s right doesn’t make you a monster,” Eve told him. “I know you care about Daisy.”
“I love her,” Dylan said. He shrugged when Eve blinked her surprise. “Have you seen her? Blonde, and sweet, and adorable. My heart isn’t made of stone. The second she looked at me, I was hooked. She called me Unc-D and I turned into a puddle of goo.”
“I know the feeling,” Eve said in commiseration. “Daisy collects admirers without even trying. When she’s older, there will be teenage boys lined up around the block.”
“Teenage boys are the worst. I know. I was one.” Dylan shuddered. Suddenly, he brightened. “I can lock Daisy in her room until she’s thirty. No. forty.”
“No, you can’t,” Eve told him with a watery chuckle.
“Crap.” The light went out of Dylan’s eyes. “See why I need you to come with us? I haven’t a clue about how to cope.”
“And I do?” Eve shook her head. “I flew by the seat of my pants with Daisy. Believe me, I made plenty of mistakes.”
“Daisy is perfect,” Dylan said. “Because of you.”
“Don’t give me too much credit,” Eve warned. “Sometimes I feel Daisy is so smart, she was the one who raised me.”
“You can downplay what you did for her. I know the truth,” Dylan said.
“Mr. and Mrs. Dowd.” Dylan smiled. “They are a couple who like to talk And, their favorite subject is you.”
Afraid the waterworks might start again, Eve breathed deeply, in and out. She hit the jackpot when she moved in next to the Dowds. True, the couple could be a little bossy. And they didn’t know the meaning of the word boundaries. They were also supportive, caring, and unfailingly reliable.
Without the Dowds, Eve would have fallen apart the first week.
“You told me your mother is excited to welcome her granddaughter to the family. Daisy will live with her, right?”
“Eventually.” Dylan sighed. “Tanner is still in hiding. If he shows up, we’ll figure something out. Mom agreed that Daisy will be better off with me for the time being.”
If Eve had her way, Tanner Montgomery would be castrated, tarred and feathered, and sent to a monastery somewhere in the Swiss Alps.
“Kind of an extreme solution,” Dylan said when Eve shared her fantasy.
“Maybe you’re right.” Eve pictured Tanner with a circle of his hair shaved from the top of his head. Smiling when she imagined his lack of balls. “Maybe not.”
“Your idea of justice scares the crap out of me,” Dylan said.
“Don’t seduce, impregnate, and abandon anyone and you’ll be fine,” Eve assured him.
“Since my testicles have shriveled to the size of frozen peas, I don’t see myself procreating any time soon.” Dylan grimaced. “Just in case, I may never have sex again.”
“You’ll understand if I don’t believe you,” Eve sneered, unimpressed by Dylan’s declaration of celibacy. “The first time some buxom brunette or leggy blonde sashays past, you’ll be back in business faster than you can whip out your condom of choice.”
“Ouch.” Dylan clutched his hand to his heart. “At least you give me credit for using protection.”
“No glove, no love.”
When Dylan laughed, Eve realized how much better she felt. She wasn’t ready to run a marathon, but her energy level was up. Close to a full charge.
“We strayed from the original subject.”
“Just a bit,” Dylan agreed, nodding. “Give me—give Daisy—a month. Time for us to settle into each other.”
Eve knew she would say yes. From the moment Dylan asked, her answer was inevitable. Yet for some reason, she felt the need to make him work a little harder.
“I don’t know,” Eve sighed. “A clean break might be best.”
“You’ll have a room to yourself. Free run of the house. You can ask my housekeeper to buy anything you want to eat.”
“You have a housekeeper?” Eve assumed she would clean Dylan’s house as part of her room and board.
“Plus, I’ll pay you a generous salary.”
“I get paid for looking after Daisy?” Eve was certain she must have misunderstood.
“My mother planned to hire a nanny,” Dylan said with a shrug. “I’ll find
