Читать книгу Just One Kiss - Carla Cassidy - Страница 9

“Aren’t they cute?” Samantha Curell pointed to the three toddlers playing in the day-care sandbox.

Samantha’s assistant, Marie, nodded. “They always play well together. And the way they chatter, it’s as if their gibberish is their very own language and they’re solving the world’s problems.”

Actually the three toddlers were not solving the world’s problems. Instead, the two little girls were bragging to the little boy.

“My daddy took me to the movies last night,” eighteen-month-old Claire boasted in the toddler language only other toddlers understood.

“So what?” Twenty-month-old Julie looked bored. “My daddy bought me a new doll and it hugs me when I squeeze its tummy.”

Both girls looked at two-year-old Nathaniel. He frowned. Sometimes he didn’t like girls at all, especially girls who had daddies and liked to brag.

He shoved a toy truck along the floor, trying to pretend he didn’t care about the fact that he didn’t have a father.

“My daddy is so strong, sometimes he lifts me up to touch the ceiling,” Claire continued.

“Well, my daddy is a policeman and he arrests bad people, so he’s really strong,” Julie said, refusing to be outdone.

Unable to resist, Nathaniel abandoned the toy truck. “I’m gonna get me a daddy and he’ll be the best daddy in the whole wide world.”

Claire laughed, her blue eyes disbelieving. At that moment Nathaniel decided that when he got married, he’d marry a woman with brown eyes. “Where are you going to get a daddy?” she asked.

“On vacation. My mom is taking me on a trip tomorrow. A vacation trip. When I get back, I’m gonna have a dad.”

“How are you gonna do that?” Julie asked.

Nathaniel frowned. “I’m not sure, but I’ll think of something.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Claire replied, her little nose in the air.

“You wait and see, I’m going to get me a great daddy,” Nathaniel vowed. He turned at the sound of his mother’s voice.

Marissa Criswell stood talking to Miss Samantha. They were talking grown-up talk and Nathaniel didn’t understand all the words. Just as the grown-ups didn’t understand when he talked to his friends.

“I gotta go,” Nathaniel said to the girls. He carefully climbed out of the sandbox. “I’ll see you when I get back and then you’ll see the daddy I bring home.”

Nathaniel ran to his mom, who opened her arms to welcome him. “Hi, sweetheart,” Marissa said as she picked him up and kissed his cheek. “Were you a good boy today?” Nathaniel snuggled against his mother, who always smelled so nice.

Marissa smiled at Miss Samantha. “Okay, then we’ll see you when we get back.”

“Have a wonderful time,” Miss Samantha replied. “Bye-bye, Nathaniel.” She wiggled her fingers and Nathaniel waved back.

As Marissa carried Nathaniel to their car parked in front of the Hickory Dickory Day Care, Nathaniel gave her neck an extra squeeze.

He knew she had no idea what he had planned. But a boy shouldn’t grow up without a dad. One way or another he was going to get one. And if he got himself a dad, that meant he’d be getting his mom a man—whether she liked it or not!

Excitement made him wiggle impatiently as his mom buckled him into his car seat. Oh, yes, he had a mission…and that mission was to get a daddy.