An Unlikely Father

Helen pressed her foot to the accelerator

She hugged the side of the road and careened around a bend. Then she saw it—a pearl-gray automobile parked half on the asphalt and half against the roadside underbrush.

She jerked the truck to the left as a man holding a cell phone to his ear stepped onto the road. In the instant before she swerved on two wheels away from his vehicle, she noticed the man’s eyes—large, round and filled with terror.

A loud crash followed by the screech of rent metal and the squeal of her own brakes made Helen’s heart thud against her chest. She glanced in the rearview mirror. The man was nowhere to be seen. Had she struck him? She jumped out and ran toward the sedan.

“Hey, mister!” she called. “Where are you?”

“I’m in here.”

Helen walked hesitantly to the gaping hole that had been the driver’s door. She peered into the car’s interior at the tasseled tops of a pair of oxblood loafers and the twin peaks of bent knees encased in perfectly pressed tan chinos. “You okay?”

The knees parted and an ashen face rose from the passenger seat. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again in my life.”

Dear Reader,

To those of you who read Claire and Jack’s story in An Unlikely Match, I’d like to welcome you back to the island community of Heron Point, Florida. To those of you visiting Heron Point for the first time in this book, I hope you will enjoy this quirky little town as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

It’s autumn and change is in the air in Heron Point. The citizens are hopeful about the future, and some of them are falling in love. The leading lady of this story, Helen Sweeney, is not the typical heroine. She’s tough and strong and struggling to make her way in a male-dominated profession. And when faced with the most important decision of her life, whether or not to raise the child growing inside her without its father, she shows a vulnerable, humbling side of her character, as well. I hope you enjoy Helen and Ethan’s journey to a happy ending.

And for those readers who have asked me if Heron Point really exists, take Florida route 24 west until you hit the Gulf. There, among the cedar trees, you’ll find the closest thing to it.

I love to hear from readers. Please visit my Web site, www.cynthiathomason.com, or e-mail me at [e-mail]. My address is P.O. Box 550068, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33355.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Thomason

An Unlikely Father

Cynthia Thomason

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This book is dedicated to my favorite

hero/fisherman, my husband, Walter,

who was literally my “left-hand man” while

I recuperated from a broken wrist.

All is forgiven, honey, even though

I suffered this injury when you took me fishing.

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

AT EIGHT-THIRTY WEDNESDAY morning, Helen Sweeney waited for Maddie Harrison to raise the window shade on the door of Heron Point’s only medical office. As soon as Maddie changed the sign from Closed to Open, Helen got out of her scarred old Chevy Suburban, walked inside and strode to Maddie’s desk. The receptionist looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Helen. What brings you here? Is something wrong with Finn?”

“No, Pop’s all right. It’s me who needs to see Dr. Tucker.”

“Sorry, hon, but the doc’s out of town. Won’t be back for three days. I’m only here for a couple of hours to finish some paperwork.” She searched Helen’s face as if she could come up with a diagnosis by just looking closely. “It’s not like you to get sick, Helen.”

“I’m not sick, Maddie, but I do need to see the doctor.”

“Well, like I said…”

“I know. Three days.” Helen twisted her fingers together, a habit she had when she was nervous, which wasn’t often.

Maddie came around the desk and took Helen’s elbow. “Sit down, dear, before you do something stupid like faint on me.” She led Helen to a chair, forced her onto the wooden seat and sat down next to her. “Tell me, what can I do?”

Even though she knew no one was in the waiting room but her and Maddie, Helen still scanned all four corners of the office. She looked out the windows, stared at the door. She figured she could trust Maddie, and since Doc Tucker was away, she was going to have to. She turned toward the older woman and said, “If I tell you something, you have to abide by patient confidentiality, right? Just like if I told Doc?”

Maddie patted Helen’s clenched hands. “I don’t know about the official rules, Helen, but I do know if you tell me something you want kept a secret, I’ll go to my grave with it.” She smiled. “Now, is that good enough for you?”

Helen nodded, swallowed, then plunged ahead. “Since Doc’s not here, I guess I need one of those things from the drugstore. One of those…” She couldn’t even say the words.

“Do you need a prescription?” Maddie asked. “Because if you do, I can’t give you one without Dr. Tucker’s say-so.”

“No. It’s over the counter. I need a…pregnancy test.”

Maddie fell silent for a moment before uttering a simple, “Oh.”

“I can’t go buy it myself,” Helen said. “Within a half hour, everyone on this island would hear about it.” She stared down at her hands, stilled now by the pressure of Maddie’s comforting hold. “I can hear it now, ‘poor ol’ Helen. Now she’s gone and got herself pregnant. And no husband.’”

Maddie leaned closer. “Do you want me to buy the test for you, hon?”

Helen looked up. Relief washed over her, and finally, the spasms that had gripped her stomach since she’d stepped into the office stopped. “Would you, Maddie?”

She nodded. “You betcha. I don’t suppose anyone in town would waste gossip on me. Five grandchildren is about as close to mothering as I’m ever going to get again.” She stood up. “You answer the phone till I get back. And tell any walk-ins that Doc’ll be back on Saturday.”

Helen agreed, gave Maddie a twenty-dollar bill and watched her go out the door and turn in the direction of Island Pharmacy. And then she paced. Buying the test was only the first round.

MADDIE HANDED THE white plastic bag to Helen. “I put your change in there, along with the test.”

Setting the bag on the desk, Helen knotted the two handles together at least a half-dozen times. Anyone who tried to see inside would have to have X-ray vision or a machete. “Thanks. Did Frank ask you any questions?”

Maddie smirked. “Of course. I swear that pharmacist thinks he’s got the right to know everyone’s business.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That my daughter was coming to town, and she asked me to pick up the test.” Maddie shrugged. “Heck, the way that girl reproduces, it could turn out to be true.”

Helen tucked the sack under her arm. “I appreciate this. You’re a good friend.”

Maddie stared at her as if she wanted to ask something. But she settled for saying, “It’s still quiet. Do you want to talk anymore?”

“No. I’ve got nothing to say, yet. I’ll see what this test shows and then, if…well, I’ll make an appointment with Sam if I need to.”

Maddie put her hand on Helen’s shoulder. “Okay. No need to get yourself upset unnecessarily.”

Helen headed for the door. “Thanks again for buying this.”

Maddie returned to her chair behind the desk. “Good luck, Helen. I don’t know what to wish for. Babies are awful sweet gifts, but in your situation, the responsibilities you’ve already got…”

Helen gave her a weak smile. “I know.” As she walked to her truck she analyzed what her situation was, exactly. She was thirty years old, unmarried and tied down to a job that demanded more from her physically than was expected of most men. She wasn’t complaining. But heck, if this test turned out to be positive, wasn’t fate asking more than she could give? But who said life was fair?

She tossed the sack onto the passenger seat and started the truck. As she rumbled down Island Avenue, she repeatedly stole peeks at the innocent-looking plastic bag rustling in the breeze coming in her open window. Pregnant. It wasn’t possible. Donny used protection. They were careful. She raked her fingers through her hair a couple of times. She didn’t even want to think about how Donny was going to take this news if the test was positive.

Helen could have driven narrow Gulfview Road blindfolded. She’d lived with her father all her life in a two-bedroom cottage next to their private dock that jutted into the Gulf of Mexico. And she’d traveled the two-mile journey into town more times than she’d like to admit. Her world had always been this island, these few acres, these twisting, palm-lined roadways.

Once away from the moderate traffic of midisland, she pressed her foot to the Suburban’s accelerator and mindlessly cruised toward home and the task she had to face when she got there. She hugged the side of the road and careened around a bend, feeling the shocks of the old truck moan in protest as she leaned into the curve. And then she saw it—a pearl-gray automobile parked half on the asphalt and half against the roadside underbrush.

The driver’s door of the sedan opened as Helen approached, and a pair of trouser-clad legs swung from the interior. She jerked the truck to the left as a man holding a cell phone to his ear stepped onto the road. In the instant before she swerved on two wheels away from his vehicle, she noticed the man’s eyes—large, round and filled with terror.

A loud crash, followed by the screech of rent metal and the squeal of her own brakes, made Helen’s heart thud against her chest. She turned her wheel sharply to the right, buried the hood of the Suburban in a thatch of sabal palms and thrust the gearshift into Park. For one brief second she folded her arms over the top of the steering wheel and dropped her head to her wrists. “Oh, shit.”

She glanced in the rearview mirror. The gray sedan was visible, but there was no man standing beside it. Had she struck him? Was he lying in the middle of the road? Did he still have the damn cell phone so she could at least call 911?

She heaved her shoulder against the driver’s panel, mumbling a few obscenities under her breath about the rusty old hinges that required a body slam to open the truck door. She jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward the sedan, which was a hundred yards down the road. Before she reached it, she saw the driver’s side door halfway between the car and her truck. It rocked innocently on the pavement like a delicate wing ripped from the body of a great silver bird.

Without pausing, she sprinted the rest of the way to the car, relieved that she didn’t see a body sprawled on the road. “Hey, mister!” she called. “Where are you?”

“I’m in here.”

Slowing her pace for the first time, Helen walked hesitantly to the gaping hole that had been the driver’s door. She peered into the car’s interior at the tasseled tops of a pair of oxblood loafers and the twin peaks of bent knees encased in perfectly creased tan chinos. “You okay?” she asked.

The knees parted and an ashen face lifted from the passenger seat. Deep brown eyes stared at her with numb shock. After a moment, the man squinted and exhaled a burst of air. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again in my life,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

“At least you fell back into the car instead of onto the road,” Helen said. Spotting his cell phone, she picked it up and examined the keypad to see that the battery light was on. “You need an ambulance?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

She reached into the car between his thighs. “Here, give me your hand.”

He did, and she pulled him upright. Once his feet hit the road, he gaped at the mangled mess in the car’s framework that had once connected the driver’s panel to the rest of the vehicle. “The door’s gone,” he said.

Helen pointed down the road. “No, it isn’t. It’s right there.”

He leaned out. “Oh, right. My mistake.”

Deciding the guy wasn’t hurt, Helen held the phone toward him. “You might need to use this.”

He remained motionless while she set the phone in his hand. “I was sort of trying to use it when you dissected the car,” he said.

She wiped her damp palm along the pocket of her shorts. “Yeah, I saw you with the phone. You lost, or something?” Scrutinizing his automobile, which she now noticed was a Lincoln Town Car and would probably cost about a million bucks to fix, she added with a mental wince, “You’re new to Heron Point, right? That would explain why you’d pulled over in such a dangerous place.”

His eyebrows arched in astonishment. “What do you mean, ‘dangerous’?”

“This is a busy road. All the locals know you can’t just park your car on the side like you did.” She shrugged her shoulders with all the bravado she could muster. “Makes you a target for oncoming traffic.”

He stood up, towering over her by several inches. “Oh, sure. A target for any vehicle that barrels around that curve at sixty miles an hour.” He nodded toward the Suburban, which was idling like a tethered dinosaur, smoke hissing from its radiator. “And, by the way, that death trap of yours is the only car that’s come down this busy road in the last ten minutes. I should know. I’ve been waiting to hail the first vehicle that showed up.” He wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead and stared at it on the back of his hand as if he’d never perspired before. “Just my luck, you were driving it.”

Helen tried to recall the details of her pitiful auto insurance policy. She knew she didn’t have coverage on the Suburban. Why would she? That tank could survive anything. And she seemed to recall that her liability coverage had a deductible equal to the payoff of a winning lottery ticket.

Lately, Helen’s meager savings account had suffered some major hits. The future didn’t look much better if that pregnancy test came up positive. Certain that her best course of action was to maintain a tacit innocence, she shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back on her heels. “So, you had car trouble even before—” she glanced from the Lincoln to the dismembered door “—this happened?”

“Yeah. I rented this thing in Tampa, exactly—” he checked his watch “—one hour and forty-five minutes ago. It ran beautifully for eighty miles and then conked out on your deserted stretch of Heron Point superhighway.”

Helen leaned against the hood of the Lincoln. “Tough break. A car this fancy should get at least a couple hundred miles before breaking down.”

He smiled grimly and looked at the pad of the cell phone. “At least we agree on something. I was just calling Diamond Rental to come pick up this two-ton pile of misery when you decided to make my complaint a bit of an embarrassment. I think the rental company might question the validity of my claim, now.”

He started to dial, but paused and said, “Maybe you ought to get your insurance information. And I suppose we have to report this to the police.”

Oh, great. Just what she needed. It’d probably be Billy Muldoone who’d swoop down upon the scene with his siren blaring and his features cemented into a condescending sneer. He’d write her up faster than the women of Heron Point turned him down for dances at the Lionheart Pub. In the pit of her stomach, Helen sensed a tingling of panic—the second time today. She didn’t like the feeling, though she figured she’d experience it again while she waited for the pregnancy-test results. But right now she needed to calm down so she could plan a course of action for this current disaster.

“Ah, sure,” she said. “I’ll get my insurance card from the truck.” She walked to the Suburban and lifted the hood to make sure none of its parts had been crippled. Thank goodness the steam had cleared and the engine hiccuped with its usual congestive rattle, telling her its internal workings were A-okay.

“Any damage to your vehicle?” the new guy called to her.

She looked over at him. “A busted headlight.” Then she flashed him a little smile, hoping to distract him from following accident protocol to the letter. “Guess you’d better get your insurance information, too. Last time I replaced a headlight in this beast it cost me twenty-five bucks.”

He held up a card between his thumb and index finger. Naturally, he already had his card ready even though he’d probably determined he was the injured party.

Helen scribbled a phone number on a scrap of paper and walked back to him. Ignoring a persistent niggling of guilt, she said, “I forgot my wallet. Here’s my number. How can I reach you?”

He pulled a business card from his shirt pocket and held it out to her. “I’m staying at the Heron Point Hotel temporarily,” he said. “You can leave a message if I’m not in.”

She stepped closer to him and reached for the card. When she took it, he wrinkled his nose and jerked his hand back. “What’s that smell?”

Well, great. Barely an hour ago she’d been cleaning the bait well on the Finn Catcher, getting the boat ready for its next charter trip on Friday morning. She hadn’t bothered to change clothes before running into town for a quick visit to the doctor, and now she noticed a few glistening fish scales still stuck to her cargo shorts. Fishy smells didn’t bother her. She’d grown up with them, but that obviously wasn’t the case with this pressed and polished out-of-towner.

She slipped the business card into her waistband. “It’s fish.”

“Fish?” He said the word as if he needed a zoology textbook to figure out what she was talking about.

“This is an island,” she said. “We are surrounded by the little creatures.”

He stared at his hand but at least had the decency to chuckle a little in a self-deprecating way. “Of course.” Then he abruptly changed the subject to one she definitely wasn’t interested in. “I guess I’ll call the police now.”

She pointed a finger at him. “You do that. I’ll wait in my truck.”

She walked away from him, got behind the wheel of the Suburban and backed out of the palm thatch. Then, without so much as a backward glance, she peeled down the road. It was the coward’s way out. Helen knew that just as she knew she wasn’t getting away with anything. Maybe he’d call that number she gave him and have a nice little chat with the old guy who repaired fishing rods in town, but the decoy wasn’t going to get her out of trouble. Everyone in town, and especially the police, knew who drove a rusty old Suburban.

So, it was only a matter of time until she had to face up to what had happened here. Helen frowned at the package on the passenger seat. But first she had to face something a whole lot more important.

APPARENTLY FINISHED WITH his inspection of the damages, the muscle-bound cop leaned against the Town Car and rested his elbow near the retractable sunroof. “So, what did the driver of the other car look like, Mr. Anderson?”

Ethan stared at the police officer who had arrived a few minutes ago heralded by earsplitting sirens and flashing lights. Ethan had considered the entrance a somewhat over-the-top reaction to what he’d called a “minor traffic accident” when he’d phoned in the report. Pad in hand, and his eyes narrowed in that officious scowl police officers seemed to perfect, the cop had sauntered all around Ethan’s car, and its missing door fifty yards away.

“What did she look like?” Ethan repeated.

Officer Muldoone removed his arm from the top of the car and prepared to write. “It was a female, then?”

“Right, yes,” Ethan answered. He held his hand just under his chin. “She was about this tall.”

“About five feet, five inches?”

“Give or take. She was skinny. No, thin. Not too skinny.” Now that Ethan thought about the daredevil driver, he decided she was actually quite pleasantly proportioned. She was slim all over, though her breasts were certainly full enough to satisfy any man’s standards. And ignoring this woman’s better features under that ribbed tank top had been impossible.

“Anything else you remember?” the officer asked. “Hair? Eyes?”

Funny. Ethan remembered both quite well. “She had light blond hair.” He wiggled his fingers around his own head. “Strands of it stuck out every which way, some short over her forehead, some longer, reaching her shoulders.” He felt his skin flush when he realized he must sound like a Manhattan hairdresser. “That’s not important,” he said. “She’s a blonde.”

Muldoone wrote.

“And she had blue eyes,” Ethan added. “I remember that distinctly.”

“Sounds like Helen Sweeney,” the officer said. “Was she driving a noisy old Suburban with rust spots?”

Ethan nodded, experiencing a totally unexpected attack of guilt. The ID had been too easy for the cop. But why should Ethan feel guilty? The car rental agency had specifically informed him that he’d need a police report when they sent a tow for the Lincoln. Heck, he was only doing what he had to do. Besides, the kooky lady could be here defending herself if she hadn’t shot down the road, leaving him in her dust.

“And it was a hit-and-run, you say?” Muldoone asked. “That would be Helen’s MO. She ran down a mailbox last month, and we didn’t know who to blame until a new box showed up at the victim’s house two weeks later with a note of apology. Signed H. S.”

Helen’s MO? The cop was behaving as if this woman had a rap sheet. Ethan scrubbed his hand down his face. “To be completely honest, officer, it wasn’t truly a hit-and-run. Helen, or whoever did this…”

The cop let loose with a sputter of laughter. “Oh, it was Helen.”

“Anyway, Helen did hit my car, but she didn’t immediately run. She stayed quite a while, actually. She made certain I wasn’t hurt.” When he remembered Helen’s initial reaction upon finding him flat on his back in the car, Ethan tried to make her seem more sympathetic to the officer. “In fact, she offered to call an ambulance.”

“Big of her.” Muldoone chose not to write that information down.

“What are you going to do?” Ethan asked.

“I’m going out to the Sweeney place when I leave here. Helen just lives a mile up this road. I’ll issue her a ticket for reckless driving, and she’ll have to face a county judge. He may take her license, this time.”

Wonderful. Here he was, his first day in a new town. He was here to get the residents’ cooperation and to get them to accept that Anderson Enterprises was coming in and would most definitely make an impression. And what had happened? Before he’d been here an hour he’d had a literal run-in with a local and stood to make an enemy of her if she lost her license. Not a very auspicious beginning.

“To be perfectly honest, Officer,” he said, “maybe I shouldn’t have been parked where I was. The car is half on, half off the road.”

Muldoone smiled and flipped the cover over his notebook. “Don’t let her get to you, Mr. Anderson,” he said. “You can be sure Helen will give the judge that little detail. If I were you, I’d stick to your story. If not, you could end up losing your license. Helen has a way of turning the tables.”

The officer headed toward his patrol car. Before he got in, he turned back to Ethan and said, “What are you going to do now, Mr. Anderson? You want me to call headquarters? I’ve got the only patrol car, but I can have my partner come out on the golf cart, pick you up and take you back into town.”

Oh, right. Ethan remembered the head of security for Anderson Enterprises telling him that Heron Point cops rode around on golf carts. As much as he wanted to see that, and as much as he wanted to get out of the heat, Ethan declined the offer. “I’ve got to wait for the tow,” he said. “I could be here as long as two hours. You’re kind of remote on this island.”