“Hello, Joshua,” Michelle said brightly. “I’ve come to discuss the case.”
“There is no case. I thought I told you a few days ago I couldn't help you.”
“Please, I’ve taken time from work I can hardly afford.” She grinned and shrugged. “I told them I was sick. I got the information you told me I could find. I forgot to tell you that we found someone not too long ago who actually knew our father. You can ask her questions we didn’t think of.”
“You can handle that yourself.” He held Penny back when she tried to insert herself between him and the door jamb.
“At least listen to what I’ve found, please. Finding my father is really important to me.”
“Yeah, well, so’s keeping my kid important to me, and I don’t think either one is going to happen.” He turned and swept Penny up in his arm and made to shut the door.
“Wait.” Michelle stepped inside, crowding against Josh and Penny. Her behavior was diametrically opposed to what she was used to doing, but she was getting desperate.
Joshua glared at her and then softened his expression as he looked at his daughter. “Why don’t you get your bear and head back for your room? As soon as Michelle leaves, we’ll have lunch.”
“Okay.” The little girl ducked her head and looked at Michelle with wide, curious eyes.
“She wears a baseball hat even in the house?” Michelle asked.
“Yes, do you have a problem with that?” His tone was belligerent.
Michelle smiled at Penny and shook her head.
When the little girl ran off down the hall, Joshua leaned against the hall wall and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know how to make myself any clearer. I don’t want to find your father. I’ve got other things of greater concern right now.”
“What do you mean by your comment about keeping your daughter? Didn’t you find a new day care center?”
He looked across the street, catching sight of his neighbor avidly staring in his direction. Her curiosity knew no bounds.
“You might as well come inside, no sense the whole world hearing.”
And it would give him some small satisfaction to shut the door on Mrs. Turner’s snooping.
Michelle looked around and saw Joshua’s neighbor. She smiled politely and stepped aside so he could close the door.
Glancing around, she noted a child’s clutter—books, crayons, toys, blocks. The TV sounded from the front room. Had she interrupted cartoons?
“This way,” he said leading the way down the hall into the small kitchen. A table shoved against the wall held the remnants of their breakfast. Michelle said nothing, sitting gingerly on the chair he indicated.
“How did you find me?” he asked, sitting in another chair and tilting back on its rear legs.
“One of the operatives at your office said you were working from home and sent me here when I said you were handling a case for me.”
“Thought we cleared up the situation a couple of days ago,” he said. “I’m not handling anything until I get Penny situated.”
“I’ve contacted three more agencies—from listings in the phone book. They all said no, but one of them recommended you. Not that I needed the recommendation. You occasionally do some work for Acme Insurance Company—my employers. I figure that’s about the best recommendation I can get. A search like this can’t be that hard for someone as experienced as you. But I don’t have a clue where to begin. I didn’t even think of the birth certificate angle to obtain my father’s age.”
“Lady, I have a lot of other things on my mind right now. The last thing I need is to take on a new case.”
“Business is so good you can refuse it?” she asked in surprise.
He slammed down the front legs of his chair, rose and crossed to the stove. “Want some coffee?”
“That’d be nice. Thank you.”
“Business is on a downhill slide, but I can’t concentrate on that without getting Penny settled first.”
He filled two cups and brought them to the table. Placing one before Michelle, he took a sip of his and began to pace.
“If I don’t find something soon, my goose is cooked.”
Michelle licked her lips. “A live-in baby-sitter?”
“Tried that—had four. One quit right in the middle of the day.”
At her look of surprise, he shrugged. “Penny’s a bit spoiled. She can throw a terrific tantrum if it suits her.”
“And day care is out?”
He nodded toward the phone. “I’ve been calling for two days straight. Either they’re full, or they charge half a year’s income, or they’re ones we’ve already been thrown out of.”
Michelle looked at him, trying to swallow the urge to giggle at the image. From what she’d seen of Penny, the little girl was delightful. Must be his propensity for tardiness.
“It's not funny. If I don’t find something soon, I may have to let Penny go to her grandmother's.”
“So there is someone to watch her.”
“Yeah, she just happens to live in Atlanta.”
“Oh.”
“It’s the last thing I want to do.”
Michelle nodded in agreement. “Little girls need their fathers. I know. I didn’t have mine.”
He glared at her. “If there was another way, don’t you think I’d leap at it? Fathers happen to want their little girls, too.”
Stunned, Michelle tried to figure out if her father had felt the same over the years. Had he missed his daughters all these years as much as she’d missed him? Wouldn’t he have done all he could to see them once they were grown? she wondered.
She could sympathize with Josh O’Malley’s desire to keep his daughter if only for his daughter’s sake.
“Maybe you should really consider getting a wife,” she suggested hesitantly.
“Totally out of the question. Absolutely and positively no! Good grief, I think I’d kill myself first.”
Michelle blinked. “So why don’t you tell me how you really feel about the suggestion?”
Chapter Two
He stopped pacing and leaned a shoulder against the wall, sipping from his cup.
“Maybe you can guess, my first venture into marriage wasn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread.”
For a moment, Michelle
