Maddie dropped the bone and tucked the cookie into the pocket of her sundress. "I read now."
Watching Mercy wipe Maddie's hands and face like a mother gave him a feeling he didn't understand. It was contentment. How had a woman and child changed his life so drastically in such a short period?
He glanced at Mercy, who motioned for him to pick Maddie up and put her in his lap, and he did.
She opened the book and read. Pride swelled his heart to near bursting. When she finished, she stared at him. "That was amazing, Maddie." He looked at Mercy. "She could read before she came?"
She nodded. "Some. We're working on letter sounds, but it's hard to break habits like w to l or wuv to love. You'll have to work with her too."
Maddie climbed off his lap and ran toward the nearby slide. Watching her enjoy herself and hearing her laughter when another child slid down behind her was the simple stuff that made life enjoyable. He never thought he could sit and enjoy anything so domesticated. In Los Angeles or on the road, he was a go-go-go guy and never stopped for anything because there was never anything to enjoy. The truth hit him like a brick over the head. Fear mixed with the lies he told himself had stolen possible moments like this.
"Have you heard from Doc yet?"
Once he pushed his empty plate aside, he leaned back on his elbows. "No. I thought the results would be in, but I guess it's taking longer."
"Are you worried?"
He rolled to his side to face her. "About Maddie being my daughter? Yes, I'm terrified, but for different reasons now."
She bit into a cookie. "Go on."
She was the only woman he'd talked to like this. Most of the women he spent time with weren't interested in his words.
"I was so certain she wasn't mine, but Doc Parker reminded me of the CDC information on condoms. The percentage of failure is really high. I thought it was about four percent, which is still high when you consider that's four out of every hundred that fail. But he said something like thirteen percent. I never worried much because most groupies were on birth control. At least the smart ones were."
"Sounds like you're getting lessons from everyone."
"No kidding. Anyway, because of my upbringing and my career, parenthood was never on my radar. I'm a fish out of water."
"Fill your tank."
She made it all sound so good—so easy.
"Don't forget, I'm a musician, and I'm on the road for months out of every year. How am I supposed to raise a little girl when I'm not around? It pretty much makes me a clone of my father, who was the lead guitarist for Drive Shaft."
"Oh. My. God. Really?"
"That's my daddy." Sarcasm dripped from the last word like honey from a dipper.
"Wow. I had no idea."
"Any fan worth their salt would know my whole bio. Not the parts about my mother because that's been kept hidden, but that I'm the love child of Bastian Cruz."
"Don't forget. You are not your father. You can learn from his mistakes and choose to be better." She sipped her cola. "What does Maddie call you when you're home?"
He chuckled. "She has a smorgasbord of names for me from 'hey you' to 'mister Awex.' I don't think she knows what to call me."
"Have you ever told her to call you anything specific?"
"Yes, I told her to call me Alex."
"Hmm, okay, we'll work on that. I've probably confused her by referring to you as Daddy."
"I told you that would be a problem."
"Yes, you did. Lesson learned."
"Otis," someone screamed from the edge of the park. "You get back here."
Alex saw the dog making a beeline straight toward the kids on the playground, and his heart flipped. He hadn't met Sage's dog. Though he never had a pet, he knew they could be unpredictable.
Adrenaline surged through him, and he stood and took off toward Maddie. He got to her a second before the dog.
She clung to him like he'd saved her life. That could have been the case if Otis wasn't licking at her leg. She giggled and wiggled out of Alex's arms.
"Look, Daddy, he's a nice dog." She hugged the hound who licked whatever chicken and cookie were left on her face.
"Sorry about that." A winded Sage waddled up to him. "He's harmless."
Alex stared at Maddie, then the dog. She'd called him Daddy, and that felt strangely right.
He shook those thoughts free and shifted his eyes to Sage. "It's okay. I was worried about her for a second, but I can see Otis is harmless."
A hand settled at his back, and a sharp sense of awareness that it was Mercy rushed through him. Every time she touched him, he filled with warmth—sometimes plain old heat. The kind that got men like him in trouble—the kind that made cute little girls like Maddie.
"Any news on the test Doc did for Maddie and me?"
Sage shook her head. "You're on mountain time, and I swear slow, stubborn mules carry the mail. It'll get here in its own sweet time."
"Are you hungry, Sage?" Mercy asked. "Alex brought enough chicken and fixings to feed an army."
She rubbed her rounded belly. "I could use a bite of something."
"You two enjoy while I push Maddie on the swings." He held out his hand, and she slipped hers into his. "You want to swing?" While they moved away, Otis abandoned them for chicken and cold fries.
For the next hour, he and Maddie played on the swings,
