Dylan's Daddy Dilemma. Tracy Madison

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СКАЧАТЬ her car had malfunctioned, requiring last-minute repairs the mechanic had deemed nothing more than Band-Aids. He’d strongly suggested she junk the car and put her money toward something newer. Of course, she couldn’t afford newer, so she’d gone with the short-term fix and used a chunk of her not-so-healthy savings in the process.

      Then Henry had awakened with the flu on the day they were supposed to leave, delaying them further. She’d called her would-be employers twice before her pay-as-you-go phone had run out of minutes, had left messages but hadn’t actually spoken with them. And seeing how she’d spent so much to fix her car and didn’t trust it wouldn’t break down again, she’d decided to conserve her drastically dwindling funds rather than adding more minutes.

      She should have bought the minutes, because when the home owners attempted to reach her and found her phone out of service, they’d assumed she’d bailed. A logical assumption under the circumstances, and one she likely would have made in a similar situation. Understanding the whys, however, didn’t change her current predicament one iota.

      There were no two ways about it. She was good and stuck.

      Shivering as much from her jagged emotions as the cold, late-winter weather, Chelsea opened the door to the backseat. “Hop in, kid,” she said in as cheery a voice as she could muster. “Seems our plans have changed. How does dinner sound? I bet you’re hungry.”

      “I thought we were staying here.” Henry crawled into the safety booster seat and tiredly rubbed his eyes. Unlike most kids, he never slept well in the car, so the long drive had worn him out. Her, too, but she’d grown accustomed to exhaustion. “I don’t wanna drive anymore.”

      “We’re not going far,” she promised. “I saw several restaurants in the center of town. I was thinking we could stop for burgers and fries.” After buckling him in, she tousled the top of his sandy-brown-covered head. “Unless you’d rather have another peanut-butter sandwich?”

      In an effort to save for this trip, their menu for the past many weeks had largely consisted of peanut-butter sandwiches. She had little doubt her son would jump at the chance to eat his favorite dinner in a real restaurant. An extravagance she absolutely couldn’t afford, but the kid had to eat and she needed the break to decide what they should do next.

      “Burgers!” Henry’s face lit up in a megawatt smile. “And a root beer!”

      “Milk,” she countered. “You had a soda when we stopped for gas.”

      “Juice?”

      “Milk,” she repeated before closing his door. Always the negotiator, that was her son. She slid into her seat and with a silent prayer put the key into the ignition. The engine balked, hacking and coughing itself awake before settling into its normal state of aggravated compliance. She backed out of the driveway with a sigh of relief.

      Henry remained quiet as they drove, likely due to a combination of fatigue and contemplation over the milk debate. Breathing deeply, Chelsea tried to ignore the heavy pressure on her chest. This was bad. Really bad. Other than Henry—who counted on her to make his world safe—she was alone in a strange city with little cash and nowhere to go.

      Tears stung her eyes as the reality of her dilemma sank in.

      Should they turn around and return to Pueblo? She didn’t have to look in her wallet to know it held one crumpled five-dollar bill and two twenties. There were a couple of ones in her coat pocket and probably a handful of change lurking in the bottom of her purse. All told, she had less than fifty dollars to her name. Enough, maybe, to get them back to Pueblo. If she drove straight through and her car didn’t gasp its last breath en route. But why?

      She’d spend most—if not all—of her cash in the process, and frankly, there wasn’t much of anything left for them in Pueblo. No home. No job. No true friendships. Henry’s father—if anyone dared call Joel Marin that—had walked into the sunset shortly after learning she was pregnant. For most of Henry’s life, she hadn’t heard one peep from him, but six months ago, she’d received a postcard—a damn postcard, mailed from California—with a scrawled “Was thinking of you and wanted to say hi!”

      Really? Close to five years, zero communication, zero support, zero interest in Henry, and he sent her that? And how had he gotten her address?

      She didn’t know, but she’d thrown the postcard into the trash and had put him and it out of her mind. Then, two months ago, she’d heard he was back in Pueblo. He hadn’t shown up on her doorstep, so she’d assumed he didn’t want to see Henry, but just knowing they were in the same city was enough for her to decide to pick up stakes and move on.

      Plainly speaking, she wanted nothing to do with Joel Marin. Ever again. And she felt more emphatically about keeping Joel away from Henry. Her son deserved better than a fly-by-night, immature man who had bolted from his responsibilities as a father. The fact Joel was now in Pueblo only added a check mark to the con side of her what-to-do-next list.

      And what remained of Chelsea’s family—save her sister, but Lindsay had her own set of problems—would just as soon hang up on her than offer their help.

      So. She could be broke, alone and homeless in Pueblo and deal with the remote possibility of Joel popping into her life, or almost broke, alone and homeless in Steamboat Springs, but without the worry of Joel hanging over her head.

      Inappropriate laughter bubbled in her chest. When thought of like that, the choice was pretty damn simple. Sad and scary, but simple. She’d rather save the money she had and take her chances here than head back to a place she couldn’t wait to leave.

      Okay, then. One decision made. Now she just had to find a new fresh start. She’d done it before and she could do so again.

      “You win, Mommy,” Henry said from the backseat. “I’ll drink the milk.”

      “You will, huh? That’s good to hear.”

      “Yup! Chocolate milk!”

      She almost argued, but decided to give in on this front. “I think we can make that happen.” Amused despite the weight of her fears, Chelsea braked at a stop sign. Her son’s tenacious, never-give-up attitude always reminded her of what was important. Even when the world seemed bent on crumbling around them. So, yeah, he’d get his chocolate milk, and she’d keep them safe. Somehow. “Thank you, Henry.”

      “For what?”

      “Oh, I don’t know. Just for being you.”

      Henry laughed, and the normalcy—the joy—of that sound wove into her heart and rekindled her hope. “I like being me,” he said, “so it’s easy. And fun!”

      And that, Chelsea thought as she pulled into the parking lot of a place called Foster’s Pub and Grill, was a motto everyone should live by.

      * * *

      Dylan Foster winked at the curvaceous blonde who’d flirted mercilessly with him ever since sitting down at the bar an hour earlier. She’d started off with a beer before moving on to a rum and Diet Coke, and had just ordered a Snowshoe shooter, which consisted of bourbon whiskey and peppermint schnapps. Three drinks in an hour didn’t cause him concern—he’d obviously seen far quicker consumption rates—nor did the relatively quick uptick in the alcohol percentage in each successive drink bother him all that much.

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