Hero Dad. Marta Perry

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СКАЧАТЬ I pictured a nosy battle-ax out to make us look stupid. Or a bleeding heart who’d write a tear-jerker that we could never live down.”

      Julie White hadn’t fit either stereotype. With her cool, detached manner and her delicate blond looks, she had upset his calculations on how to deal with her. He stifled an exasperated sigh. He had enough to do without babysitting the woman through this story she wanted to do.

      “She’s no battle-ax, that’s for sure.” Ryan dropped into the chair opposite him.

      Seth lifted an eyebrow at his younger brother. “Are you planning on asking her out?” Ryan had turned into the playboy of the family in recent years, never sticking with one woman for more than a few dates.

      “I thought about it.” Ryan shrugged. “But she’s not really my type.”

      “You have a type? I thought you flirted with every female you met.”

      Ryan grinned and tossed one of the magazines at him. “I like a little warmth. J. White’s a tad too cool and unfeeling for me. Ice maidens aren’t worth the effort.”

      Seth considered that. He wouldn’t have said unfeeling exactly. His sense of the woman had been that she was keeping a strong clamp on her emotions.

      Ryan tossed another magazine, always ready to irritate one of his brothers. “So, why don’t you ask her out? You’re the one who’s ready to get married, not me.”

      For the hundredth time Seth regretted confiding that in Ryan, of all people. “I didn’t say I was ready to get married. Just that maybe I should think about it, for Davy’s sake.”

      An almost-three-year-old needed a mother, and it wasn’t fair to expect Mom to play that role indefinitely. So he had started looking around for someone who’d make a good mother, someone who wanted a marriage based on companionship and building a family together.

      Not one based on romance. His mind veered away from thinking about Lisa. About how he’d failed her.

      He was almost grateful for the knock on the door. “Behave yourself tonight.” He frowned at Ryan, who grinned back, unrepentant. “And put those magazines away before Mom comes back in.”

      Ryan scooped the magazines from the floor and headed toward the kitchen. “I’ll tell Mom she’s here.”

      Some things hadn’t changed since they were kids. Ryan still baited him, and he still let it happen. Maybe he didn’t bother trying to change things because teasing aside, he knew Ry would go to the wall for him.

      He opened the door. Julie White clutched her camera bag tightly and gave him a polite smile.

      “I hope I’m not too early.”

      “Just right.” He gestured toward the living room. “Please, come in.”

      Why had she brought the camera bag with her tonight? Did she expect to start photographing them already? The thought still made him vaguely uneasy. They’d be baring their private lives to the woman, with no idea of her agenda or that she even knew what she was doing.

      “Thanks.” She stepped inside and paused next to him, as if not sure what to do next.

      Her head barely made it to his shoulder. He hadn’t realized, when they’d talked at the station, how small she was. Her light blond hair and pale ivory skin made her look as delicate as a porcelain doll.

      An illusion, no doubt. No woman who’d talked the chief into agreeing to this story could be all that delicate.

      She glanced up at him, soft layers of hair flowing against the shoulders of the coral sweater she wore. And what was he doing, noticing what the woman was wearing, anyway? This was business, not social. Ryan’s ribbing had taken over his thoughts.

      “Are you sure I’m not too early?”

      The repeated question clarified things for him. Julie was putting on a good front, but nervousness lay behind it.

      “Relax.” He grinned, taking her arm. “We don’t bite, honest.”

      Her face eased in a smile that melted whatever ice Ryan seemed to think was there. Seth blinked. That smile could thaw a glacier. Maybe he’d have to readjust his view of Julie.

      “My nerves are showing, huh?”

      “Well, you’re gripping that camera bag as if you intend to attack someone with it.”

      She let go of the bag, shaking her fingers. “I’m always a little stressed when I’m starting a new project.”

      He nodded toward the bag. “Did you want to start taking pictures already?” He hoped not. Maybe, given a day or two, he’d get used to the idea of having a stranger recording their lives. Or maybe not.

      “Not until your family is ready.” Her smile took on a tinge of embarrassment. “I’m afraid the camera is my security blanket. If I don’t have it with me, I always think I’ll miss the best shot of my career.”

      “Somehow I doubt that dinner with the Flanagans will give you that.”

      “I also brought along a few magazines that contain some of my photo essays. I thought seeing them might reassure you that I know what I’m doing.”

      He must have been too obvious. “I’d love to see some of your work.”

      “So would I.” His mother swept into the room and over to them, still moving as lightly as a girl in spite of having five grown children. Six, if you counted Brendan, the orphaned nephew she’d raised.

      His mother grasped Julie’s hand warmly in both of hers. “I’m Siobhan Flanagan. Welcome to our home. Goodness, Seth, what are you doing keeping Ms. White standing here like this? She’ll think I didn’t raise you right.”

      “Julie, please, not Ms. White,” she said.

      The words were right, but there was something strained about Julie’s smile that told him nervousness had taken hold again. What was wrong with the woman? Nobody could be more warm and welcoming than Siobhan Flanagan.

      “I’m sure she’s not going to blame my shortcomings on you, Mom.”

      “You kids came by those all by yourselves, didn’t you?” His mother swatted him lightly. “I don’t know how I got through raising the lot of you.”

      He grabbed her and kissed her cheek. “Go on, now. Which of us would you like to get rid of?”

      He glanced toward Julie as he spoke, and her expression startled him. For pity’s sake, she looked as if she’d never seen horseplay before. If that was the case, she wouldn’t last around the family long enough to do that story of hers.

      His mother seemed to notice something, as well. She freed herself from his grasp, probably intending to try and put Julie at ease. But whatever she might have said was lost in the thunder of running feet.

      Davy charged in from the kitchen at the headlong run that was his preferred method of locomotion. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.” The yell was earsplitting. “I help СКАЧАТЬ