Doorstep daddy

_{Doorstep Daddy}

_{LINDA CAJIO}

_Prologue

_{Dear Richard:}

_{All four of those cousins of ours finally got married, and all in the same year. Amazing! Ran into a mutual acquaintance here in Barbados who told me the news. Ought to keep up with the other Holidays more. Family is not your thing, I know. The weather's terrific and the beaches pure white. Eat your heart out. Celeste and the kids love it. See you when you get home and we get home.}

_Bob

_{Richard Holiday chuckled and slipped the postcard into his breast pocket. He leaned back in the plane seat and closed his eyes. So the other side of the family had a rash of marriages last year. Scary thought. Still, Peter, Michael, Jared and Raymond Holiday had been bachelors for a long time - like he was. He wondered what had changed his cousins' minds all at once, then decided better them than him. He just didn't have time for a wife and kids.}

_{He shivered as if a ghost had just wafted through him. Must be the air-conditioning, he thought.}

_{He'd rarely seen his second cousins, or maybe it was
third cousins or fourth. Or maybe they were once-removed. He was never sure how relation counting worked. Their grandfather and his grandfather had been half brothers, if he understood the connection right. He hadn't seen the guys in years, even though they all lived in the Philadelphia area. Better to let his older brother, Bob, handle the family thing. Bob was better at it. He had a beautiful wife and three great kids. Richard hadn't seen them in several months, as an extended trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia had kept him away from home. His import-export business was growing like crazy with the entry of Pacific Rim nations into the world economy.}

_{He grinned, thinking how his gift of an old phone system to the newly elected Fijian government had garnered him the appointment of part-time consul to represent that country, and eventually several more, in Philadelphia. Not bad for a guy who quit college in his sophomore year. It helped that his roommate had been from the islands and had political connections. Bob would howl with laughter when he heard of Richard's latest appointment - especially when he found out the duties mainly consisted of getting fresh fish, flowers and exotic fruits and vegetables out of the airport and through customs for the local restaurants. Once an importer, always an importer, no matter how one gussied it up.}

_{Richard smiled to himself. He was thirty-four years old, had an expensive high-rise apartment in the city, a BMW two-seater convertible, his own business and money in the bank. He came and went as he pleased, with the occasional woman on his arm and in his bed, and he adored his niece and nephews. That was enough for him.}

_{Life was excellent. Unlike his whatever-they-were-in-relation-to-him cousins, he had no desire to change the way he lived. Certainly he was nowhere ready to.}

_{He leaned back in his seat, content.}

_{Chapter One}

_{"Flap your wings, Uncle Richard."}

_{Richard groaned at his nephew's request. "Not again!"}

_{"Please,"
Jason whined.}

_{"Peas Fap!"}

_{Richard sighed at the baby voice. His nephew, Mark, not quite three, repeated everything he heard. Richard had made the mistake of cursing in front of the little guy after cutting a finger. Mark had happily repeated the swear words. Seven-year-old Jason loved his uncle Richard's Batman costume, unfortunately. The boys' older sister, Amanda, looked at her uncle with a sad gaze. Amanda needed something to cheer her up.}

_{All the kids did. He hadn't been home from his Micronesia trip for two weeks, when his brother, Bob, and his sister-in-law, Celeste, had been killed in a car wreck. Richard was the children's godfather, but he'd never imagined in his worst nightmare that this would happen. Yet it had.}

_{The kids had come to him of course, and his life had completely changed. He tried to fill in the blanks as a parent and make a good life for them, but he was a woeful greenhorn. His mistakes had been endless. He
barely knew what little boys were like, and he had no clue what to do with a young female adolescent, let alone help all of them through their loss. Raising them in the city hadn't been working. Neither had trying to run his business from his midtown office. He had finally chucked the hapless baby-sitters, au pairs and day-care centers, bought a home in the outer suburbs and moved his business into his home. That had been two months ago, and things weren't much better, either in his learning curve or in the children's happiness. But he was trying.}

_{Which was why he was trudging along the street in a rented Batman costume on Halloween.}

_{"Should I?" he asked Amanda.}

_{The thirteen-year-old shrugged. "Halloween at home was better than this."}

_{She had joined her brother in his plea to celebrate a traditional Halloween and go neighborhood trick-or-treating. They'd all dressed up - little Mark was Robin, Jason was Hercules and Amanda was a goddess in white and gold. She had been as excited as Jason when they'd left the house. Now she looked embarrassed.}

_{"The streets are a little empty," Richard admitted with a frown as he looked around the small yet exclusive homes in the Green Briar development. They'd been to five houses and so far no one had even answered the door. No other family was out trick-or-treating. He decided they must be a little early. It wasn't even six yet, although it was dark. Probably that was it. "I guess I'd better flap. That ought to wake everyone up. Amanda, you push Mark's stroller while I flap."}

_{"I'll go ring the doorbell!" Jason shouted, and ran off.}

_{"Jason!" Richard yelled, but the boy didn't stop. That
was the problem with Jason. He was uncontrollable at times. "Damn!"}

_{' 'Damn!'' Mark repeated.}

_{"Hel - " Richard swallowed the end of the curse. "No, Mark. Bad word." "Hell," Mark said, anyway.}

_{"We better hurry up," Amanda said wisely, trotting after Jason and taking Mark out of earshot. She wore a ghost of a smile.}

_{Richard brought up the rear, flapping as he went. The bodysuit, with its washboard torso, chafed and seemed to cut into his circulation. He gripped the winged cape and moved his arms as best he could. He wondered if he looked as idiotic as he felt.}

_{The door opened and Jason shouted at the top of his lungs, "Trick or treat!"}

_{Richard stopped in midflap. The woman on the doorstep blinked at the strange-looking family in front of her. She was tall and slim, her jeans tight-fitting and her Perm State sweatshirt loose, giving her the air of a teenager. Her face was heart-shaped, her features delicate and exotic like a fairy's. Blond hair framed her face in a cloud of curls, the hall light behind her adding the illusion of a halo.}

_{Richard's heart pounded and his blood turned thick in his veins as awareness seeped through his being. A boy, not much older than Amanda, stood next to her, but he barely noticed the kid. His attention was all on the woman.}

_{Her surprised expression vanished, replaced by growing amusement. Richard realized how ridiculous he must look in his costume. Awareness died and humiliation shot to the fore.}

_{"Poopies!" Mark yelled happily, sending the humiliation factor rocketing skyward.}

_{"Oh, God," Amanda muttered, knowing what it meant.}

_{Truer words had never been spoken, Richard thought.}

_{"Is that my trick?" the woman asked Mark, bending down and tweaking Mark's nose. "It works, pal. I surrender."}

_{Richard cleared his throat. "My nephew likes to announce his personal business after he finishes it. I'm not sure why."}

_{The woman grinned. "He's probably pleased with himself. Kids are shameless, aren't they? They look great, too. So do you."}

_{Richard could feel his face heat. He was blushing like a schoolboy. What was this reaction to her? "Thanks."}

_{"Joey, get the Halloween candy," she said to the boy who stared from behind her.}

_{"We don't have any, Aunt Callie," the boy, Joey, replied.}

_{Richard groaned under his breath. They finally got someone at home and there was no candy. What a disaster this Halloween was.}

_{The woman, Callie, turned to the boy. "What do you mean, you have no candy?"}

_{"Nobody does trick-or-treating here," Joey said, shrugging. "The moms have that neighborhood party, instead, for the little kids. Us older kids...well, we go to our friends' or something. But nobody goes around here."}

_{"Ah, that explains it," Richard said, enlightened. His niece gave a little squeak. He wondered why, but was too relieved with the boy's explanation to ask. "I'm glad
that's all it is.
I
thought Halloween had been banned or something.
I
'm sorry, guys.
I
didn't know."}

_{Amanda looked unhappy, which explained the squeak. Jason looked crestfallen.}

_{Richard grimaced. Once more he'd screwed up and the kids had suffered - except Mark who grinned and stuck out his tongue.}

_{"Uncle Richard, let's go," Amanda whispered, her voice quavering.}

_{"We aren't getting anything?" Jason asked, tears in his eyes.}

_{"I
have something at home, Jason - "}

_{"Oh, yes, you are, Jason," the woman said. "Joey, get the cookies and those packaged cakes and the big bag of gumdrops."}

_{"But, Aunt Callie - "}

_{"The sooner you get them, the sooner
we
go." Wherever he and his aunt were going motivated the boy, because he raced down the hall to the back of the huge house. She turned to Richard. "The cookies aren't wrapped, but
I
assure you my sister and her family are perfectly normal and nothing will be wrong with them."}

_{"You don't have to do this..."}

_{"I
've got a buff Hercules, a beautiful goddess, a poo-pie Robin and Batman. Now that's deserving of a treat." She gasped, then laughed.
"I
didn't mean you were poo-pie. Sorry."}

_{Amanda giggled. Jason laughed.}

_{To Jason she said, "So which Here are you? TV or movie?"}

_{"Movie," Jason shouted, happy again.}

_{"I
thought so. By the way,
I
did clean the wax out of my ears today, so
I
can hear your normal voice really well. But maybe you're saving wax in your ears and you
can't hear yourself shouting. If you're planning to make wax candles, now's the time."}

_{Jason laughed again. "You're funny." He didn't shout this time.}

_{She focused on Amanda. "You look great. Taking your younger brothers around? I always had to take my little brothers and sisters around, too. I permanently borrowed a candy bar or two from them as payment when they weren't looking. Think about it."}

_{"Okay," Amanda said, smiling in pleasure.}

_{Richard gaped. She had Jason laughing
and
listening, and she had Amanda smiling.
Smiling.
How had she done it? He realized he should introduce himself. And do it quick before she got away.}

_{"I'm Richard Holiday," he said, holding out his hand to her. "And these are my niece and nephews, Amanda, Jason and Mark. We live up the road."}

_{"Callie Rossovich. This is my sister Gerri's house. The boy's her son, Joey, and she has a daughter, Kristen, who's upstairs dressing."}

_{She took his hand. As her ringers touched his, Richard felt as if he'd been jolted. Never had a woman's touch affected him in quite this way. She pulled her hand back, as if affected, too. God, he hoped so. He wouldn't like to think he was all alone in this.}