Storybook Dad. Laura Bradford

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      “Because I’m different now,” she whispered.

      Kate reached out and brushed a wisp of hair from her friend’s face. “Did you ever consider the possibility that all this other stuff came true first because you were able to do it at that time?”

      Emily closed her eyes, the familiar pull of fear that had accompanied the doctor’s diagnosis threatening to envelop her all over again.

      No. She refused to go there again. Not now, anyway. Not when she had a class to teach.

      Opening her eyes, she gave Kate a hug and then shoved her through the door, her voice settling somewhere between frustration and determination. “I was and am able to do it, Kate. Nothing is going to change that. You just wait and see.”

      “But if you’d just slow down long enough to meet someone, you might—”

      “Please. I’ve got to go. I’ll see you Friday evening.”

      Without waiting for a response, Emily made her way toward the classroom at the end of the hall. Her friend was wrong. Scenes in the pictures on the wall had come true because they were up to Emily. The Prince Charming picture she’d sent back home with Kate was nothing but a childhood fantasy born at a time when she’d been blissfully naive about words like disability and burden.

      She was wiser now.

      Squaring her shoulders, she yanked open the door and walked into the room to find five pairs of eyes greeting her arrival with the same determination that had driven her throughout her life. It was a determination she admired and understood. “Welcome to Bucket List 101. My name is Emily Todd, and I’m here to help you realize your dream of learning how to orienteer your way through the woods with nothing more than a compass and some coordinates. As you probably know from the course description that lured you here, we’ll spend our first hour in the classroom learning about the compass and how to use it, along with our maps. Then we’ll head out into the woods for some fun.”

      The left side of the conference table held a trio of retired men who were hanging on every word she spoke. To the right sat the mother-daughter team who’d called the day before looking for some memorable bonding time. “It looks like we’ve got a good group here,” Emily said.

      “I hope my presence won’t change that.”

      Spinning around, Emily took in the sight of the man standing in the doorway, registration papers in hand, and froze, her heart thudding in her chest.

      “My name’s Mark Reynolds. Your assistant at the front desk said I could still get in your class if I hurried.”

      She knew she should say something. But for a moment she was at a complete loss for words.

      Mark Reynolds was like no man she’d ever laid eyes on—at least not outside the confines of her imagination. Even then, the flesh-and-blood version was much taller than she’d always envisioned. Either way though, his hair was the epitome of Milk Chocolate Brown and his eyes a perfect match for Ocean Wave Blue….

      But it was his arms—the kind capable of sweeping a woman off her feet and carrying her across the threshold of a make-believe castle—that yanked Emily back to a reality that no longer had room for such silly dreams.

      Mark looked down at his registration papers and then back at Emily. “So … am I too late?”

      Slowly she expelled the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “It’s never too late, Mr. Reynolds. Not for learning, anyway.”

      HE HUNG BACK as they neared the parking lot, his thoughts as much on Emily Todd as anything he’d learned that morning. During the first hour of class, before they’d ventured outside, they’d sat around a table, and Emily had taught them how to use a compass to find a set of coordinates. He’d tried to listen politely to the questions his classmates asked, and had worked hard to focus on the answers, but in the end, all he knew for sure was the fact that his teacher was gorgeous.

      Emily Todd was straight out of the pages of one of his son’s favorite fairy tales, right down to the wispy blond hair, slightly upturned nose and big brown doe eyes. But unlike those winged characters that flew around in the dark, sprinkling pixie dust in the air, this woman’s feet were firmly on the ground, and she carried herself with a confidence that was anything but childlike.

      He admired the determination that had driven her to start a company like Bucket List 101. It took guts and—judging by the list of outdoor activities the company offered—she had to be in great physical shape. Her toned legs and taut body attested to that.

      “Did you enjoy yourself, Mr. Reynolds?”

      Mark shifted his attention from Emily to her teenage assistant. “I had a great time, Trish. Spending the last two hours in the woods was really cool.”

      “It’s one of my favorite classes, too.” Trish swept her clipboard toward Emily, who was disappearing into the woods with a drawstring bag. “Every time I think Emily has come up with the coolest class ever, she trumps it with another one the next time around. Come January, she’ll be offering this same class, but on skis.”

      “Skis?”

      “Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?” Without waiting for his answer, Trish headed across the parking lot, glancing back over her shoulder in his direction. “If you’re interested, I’ll be in the office tomorrow morning. We can get you signed up before the fall and winter program guide even goes out in the mail.”

      “Thanks, Trish. Sounds like fun.” And it did.

      Especially since it meant spending more time with Emily Todd …

      “Don’t you think you should give that back to Emily before you get in your car and drive home?”

      Mark pulled his gaze from Emily’s receding back and fixed it instead on one of the retired guys, who’d kept the class in stitches with his nonstop jokes throughout the three-hour course. “Huh?”

      The man pointed at Mark’s left hand. “You still have your compass. You were supposed to set it on the porch railing when we came out of the woods.”

      “Whoops. You’re right. I’d guess I better catch up with Trish and turn this in before Emily thinks I made off with her equipment.”

      “If I were you, young man, I’d bypass Trish and take it straight to Emily. Gives you an excuse to look at her for another few minutes.”

      Raking his hand through his hair, Mark released an audible breath. “No, man, it’s not like that. Really. I’ve got a kid at home and I’m not in any place to be—”

      “She’s a cute little thing. Spunky, too.” The man took a few steps and then paused. “And she don’t have no wedding ring on her finger, either.”

      Mark looked down at the hand that gripped the compass, a familiar lump building in his throat at the sight of the half-inch band of skin that no longer stood out the way it once had when his ring was off. What on earth was he doing? He’d taken this class as a release, not to pick up chicks. It was way too soon. Seth needed his complete focus. He needed his complete focus….

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