Stef Ann Holm Read Online Free

curve ball. She’d start bawling.

    Jacquie didn’t cry very much, but when she did she might as well take a hunting knife to him. God, he hated when she cried. But it wasn’t enough to make him change his mind and let her move in, or worse yet, get married.

    Not now, not with Mackenzie being without her mother.

    His seventeen-year-old daughter hated his guts, and he didn’t blame her. Up until six months ago, at her mother’s funeral, he’d only seen Mackenzie a few times in her life.

    He’d been back to Florida this past February for the Dodgers spring training camp—a combination business and personal trip, one he’d hoped would begin to change Mackenzie’s mind about him. She’d let him take her to the ballpark, but Mackenzie had wanted nothing to do with him outside of nine innings worth of his company.

    Cleaning up his forty-six-year old past, with one major screwup, was complicated.

    Over the years, he had always kept that phone call from Caroline and the possibility of having a daughter in the back of his mind. He hadn’t actually believed he was the father of her child, and he hadn’t wanted to be trapped into something like that when his baseball career had just started to go places. He’d had phone calls like Caroline’s before, so hers had been no different.

    But Caroline Taylor had been different….

    Not that he’d thought about that phone call very often, but some nights, when he’d been on the road with the team and lying in a hotel room, the possibility of him being a father had crossed his mind. Sometimes he’d pick up the phone to call Caroline, then cradle the receiver without ever dialing. He guessed he’d been afraid that it could be true. And if it had been, what was he supposed to do about it?

    Caroline and her family lived in Kissimmee, Florida, and he’d lived in Los Angeles during the off-season. How could he be a long-distance dad?

    And then there were the years when his judgment had been clouded and he could barely take care of himself, much less a kid. In a selfish way, it had been easier to deny parentage rather than confront possible truths.

    But today he was able to look at that rationale with sober clarity. Disgust filled his chest. What an ass he’d been.

    Caroline had sent him pictures throughout the years, but Drew hadn’t seen any resemblance. Yet he’d never thrown the photos away. He’d kept them all. In fact, several had been in his locker when he’d been with the Dodgers.

    Memories surfaced and the coffee cup in Drew’s hand felt cold. He didn’t want to think about the call he’d gotten from Caroline when she told him Mackenzie saw his name on her birth certificate.

    Pulling into the parking lot of Opal’s Diner, Drew looked for an available spot, didn’t see one, so cut a sharp turn and did what he usually did. He drove the Hummer up and over the curb, four-wheeled through the field and parked out back of Claws and Paws grooming.

    Ada, the plump owner, walked a terrier who was doing its business on a fireweed bush.

    Puckering her lips, she frowned. “Andrew Tolman, I told you I was going to call Sheriff Lewis the next time you illegally parked on my property.”

    “Only be a few minutes, Ada,” he said, aiming the touch pad at the Hummer and locking it with a chirp. “When I’m done, I’ll bring you over some of Opal’s hot biscuits.”

    “I don’t want any hot biscuits. I’m doing the South Beach diet and those carbs kill me.”

    “Sugar, you do not look like you need to lose a single pound.”

    Ada blushed, smiled shyly, then wrinkled her nose. “No, I’m not going to let you talk me out of it, Andrew. I’m calling the sheriff to have you towed as soon as Buster’s done with his potty.”

    Buster had been leaving a little potty all along the back brush. The terrier was going to be awhile.

    Winking, Drew added, “I’ll get you some of her clover honey to go with.”

    “Now, Andrew. I mean it.”

    “Won’t be