John’s face hardened. “I can assure you, Ms. McReedy, that my daughter isn’t lonely.”
Rachel hoped he was right. She zipped her bag closed, then stood up. “In that case, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Although you might want to talk to her about finding a wife. We deal with dresses, Mr. Fletcher, not hearts. Thank you for seeing me. You can keep the card.”
She left John Fletcher’s office, took her coat off a hanger, and walked past his secretary. She’d done what she’d set out to do, but it hadn’t ended well. At least she could report back to her friends that Bella Fletcher was no longer their mystery girl.
It was just a pity that John Fletcher didn’t share his daughter’s personality. If Bella was unhappy, there was nothing she could do about it.
Not today, anyway.
***
John glanced at his daughter. Bella was sitting on a kitchen stool, swinging her legs in time to the music playing on their sound system. She had her head bent over a book, concentrating on the words.
He took a container of fresh fruit salad out of the fridge and two bowls out of the pantry. “I met Ms. McReedy, today.”
Bella looked up at him. Her absent smile told him she was still stuck somewhere in, Anne of Green Gables. She frowned at the fruit salad, then glanced back at him. “The teacher from the school I’m going to?”
He nodded and Bella smiled. Her wide grin caught him off guard. She was so much like her mom that a sharp stab of grief made him forget what he was about to say.
He wished his wife had been here to see how beautiful their daughter was. Bella lit up the room with her happy laughter and unguarded smiles. He was her beginning, middle, and end, and the only reason he’d been able to function after Jacinta died.
He cleared his throat and reformed the words inside his head. “Ms. McReedy said that she enjoyed teaching you.”
Bella leaned forward and rested her elbows on the counter. “I liked her, too. She’s a fun teacher.”
Bella’s gaze followed him as he put a serving of fruit into each bowl. “She came to my office to see if I knew who’d sent her friends a card.” Bella took one of the bowls and waited for him to pass her a spoon. There was no flicker of recognition, nothing that told him his daughter knew what he was talking about.
He passed Bella a spoon, then walked across to his briefcase and took out the envelope. “Does this look familiar?”
The fruit on Bella’s spoon dropped into her bowl. “How did Ms. McReedy get my card?” she whispered.
John pushed the envelope across the counter to Bella. “She helps her friends give bridesmaids’ dresses to people who need them.”
Bella nodded and pushed some fruit around in her bowl.
“Is there anything you want to tell me?”
Bella frowned. “Daisy sent us a card from Barcelona. I put it on the fridge.”
Daisy was Bella’s tutor. Unfortunately for Bella and John, Daisy had called him three nights ago and told him she wouldn’t be coming back. The two-week vacation she’d first planned had turned into twelve months of traveling around Europe. John’s housekeeper was filling in as a substitute tutor, but he needed to find someone more permanent.
John glanced at the postcard. “That’s nice, but it’s not what I’m meaning. Why did you ask The Bridesmaids Club to find a bride for me?”
Bella blushed and looked down at her fruit salad.
“Bella?”
“It was ages ago,” she muttered.
John wasn’t sure how to find out if his daughter was lonely. So he didn’t. He carried his fruit salad across to the counter and sat on a stool beside her. “Mrs. Daniels said you’re doing really well with your school work.”
Bella shrugged her shoulders.
John stabbed a piece of melon with his fork. “What did you do today?”
“We did some math and reading. Mrs. Daniels showed me how to make a chicken pasta salad and a huckleberry cheesecake. We’re having them for dinner tomorrow night.”
John nodded. He’d seen the weekly work plan that Daisy had left with Mrs. Daniels. His housekeeper had shown Bella a whole lot more than cooking skills, but if that’s what Bella remembered the most, he wasn’t too worried. He was advertising for a new tutor next week. With the money he was offering, he didn’t expect to have any problem filling the position before Christmas.
“Ms. McReedy is nice.” Bella glanced at him quickly.
John nodded and kept eating his fruit salad. He had a feeling that Rachel McReedy hadn’t been too impressed with the welcome she’d received in his office. Her blue eyes had flashed at him more than once, warning him that he’d annoyed her.
“Is Ms. McReedy going to be my tutor?”
John shook his head. “She’s already got a job. But she’ll be at your new school when you start.” He watched Bella pick through her fruit salad, looking for the strawberries he’d buried at the bottom of the bowl. “How did you find out about The Bridesmaids Club?”
“Mrs. Daniels read me a story from the newspaper about what they were doing. I went onto the Internet and looked at their website.”
John stopped eating. “You found their website?”
Bella smiled and nodded. For the first time since he’d mentioned the card she’d made, her eyes lit up. “They have so many pretty dresses. They’ve even got tiaras and petticoats. Mrs. Daniels said her granddaughter donated her wedding dress to The Bridesmaids Club. Mrs. Daniels’ granddaughter found her husband on the Internet.”
A piece of apple got stuck in the back of his throat. He coughed and tried not to look as though he was worried about his eight-year-old daughter knowing about online dating sites.
He glanced quickly at Bella. “Did you look at any dating sites?”
Bella shook her head and looked sad. “Mrs. Daniels said they were only for adults.”’
“You asked her?”
Bella nodded. John breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”
“She told me that she met her husband at a friend’s wedding. I thought that The Bridesmaids Club might know someone who’d want to marry you.”
The fork in John’s hand never made it to his mouth. He put the fruit back in his bowl and pushed the whole thing away. He watched Bella closely. “I don’t want to marry anyone. I’m happy living with my favorite girl.”
“Mrs. Daniels said that Mr. Daniels makes her happy every single day. Sometimes you don’t look happy.”
John didn’t know what to say. He’d worked hard to provide a stable, happy home for his daughter. But sometimes, after Bella had gone to bed and the house was quiet, he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders.
His wife, Jacinta, had died six years ago. He’d been working in the Middle East when he’d been told the news. He returned home, unsure of what the future held. He didn’t know Bella, didn’t know how to look after a two-year-old who missed her mom.
A chance meeting with a senator had set him on the path he was on now. He’d started his own security company, quickly moving into high-risk, high-return contracts that catered to the rich and famous. Over the next five years, he’d bought companies across America. Moving into international security operations had seemed like the perfect fit. But with the fit came danger.
He’d created a successful security operation, but some days he wondered if it was all worth it. He could afford to give his daughter anything she wanted, take her anywhere in the world. But after ignoring his life beyond work and his daughter, he’d forgotten what it felt like to be happy.
He put his arm around Bella’s shoulders. “I love you, sweet pea. Sometimes if I don’t look happy, it’s because I’ve got things on my mind. I promise that it’s not because I’m sad.”
Bella nodded. “Pinky promise?”
John held his hand out. “Pinky promise.”
Bella grinned and John’s heart swelled with love. They wrapped their little fingers around each other and sealed their bargain with a kiss.
“Do you want to see the pretty dresses on The Bridesmaids Club website?” Bella’s face glowed with excitement.
John couldn’t think of anything worse, but he smiled at his daughter. Bella loved frilly, flouncy, dresses. He didn’t know how or why it had happened, but it had. “Sure, I do. Finish your dessert first, and then we’ll go into my office and use my computer.”
Bella ate another spoon of fruit, watching him with eyes that were far too wise. He needed to show her that he was happy, that she didn’t have to worry about him. And more importantly, that he didn’t need a wife.
Pretending to be the dad that Bella wanted wasn’t hard. All he needed to do was work out what made him happy and stay clear of single women.
CHAPTER TWO
Three days later, John reminded himself that this was what it felt like to be normal. He was standing in Charlie’s Bar and Grill, trying to look as though he belonged with the loud, over-excited crowd of business executives, cowboys, and college students.
He was thirty-four-years-old, but he might as well have been one hundred. He felt uncomfortable, so out of his depth that he was almost ready to leave.