One Of A Kind Dad. Daly Thompson

Чтение книги онлайн.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Daly Thompson is a collaboration between Barbara Daly and Liz Jarrett, both multipublished authors. Barbara brings to this joint effort her passion for reading, the characters she’s collected from the diverse places she’s lived and jobs she’s held, and a firm belief in happy endings. She began writing when she discovered she’d need a mobile career in order to follow her academic husband from coast (the Atlantic) to river (just across the Mississippi), and at last found her own happy ending in writing romance.

      Liz has been writing stories since she was a child. After graduating from college, she was a technical writer for twelve years before she decided to stay home with her children. During their naps, she started writing her favorite type of stories—romances. This enjoyable pastime is now her full-time career.

      Thanks to Johanna Raisanen for her expert

       guidance…and to my Vermont friends and

       neighbors. I wish I could have named

       a town after each of you.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      Nick’s screams jolted Daniel into action before he was entirely awake. Barefooted, with his pajama bottoms flapping around his ankles, he raced down the hall, pausing outside Nick’s room to take a deep breath and will his heartbeat to settle down. Not until he’d accomplished that did he step into the room.

      “Nick,” Daniel said softly. “It’s okay. I’m here.” He switched on the bedside lamp, a figure of a baseball player in a Red Sox uniform. In the subdued glow of the light, he saw the boy sitting up in bed, eyes wild and face drained of color, his screams still bouncing off the walls.

      Daniel sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed Nick’s tousled red hair. It was wet with perspiration. “It’s okay,” he said again. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”

      Gradually, the screams faded into sobs, then to gasps for air. Nick didn’t reach out his arms to be hugged until his terror passed. He’d been one of Daniel’s foster boys for almost two months now, and still didn’t trust him enough to seek him out for comfort. What could have happened to a boy so young to make him close his heart so completely?

      No one knew. A woman in a larger town nearby had found Nick, all alone and unable to give his name or his parents’ to Child Services. How old was he? The pediatrician who examined him had put his age at seven. Daniel’s hands clenched. He’d solve the mystery of Nick one day, and when he did, the responsible parties would deeply regret what they’d done to this child.

      “What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, gently rubbing Nick’s bony shoulder. “Tell me about it.”

      With one final gasp that ended on a sigh, Nick mumbled, “It was just a bad dream.”

      “What about?”

      “Nothing.”

      “You’d feel better if you told me. We could talk about it.”

      “I don’t remember. Sorry I woke you up.”

      Nick always said, “I don’t remember.” He was calm now, safe behind the invisible wall that protected him from the demons he couldn’t confront.