Breaking the Greek's Rules by Anne McAllister Read Free Book Online

Charlie?”
    “He doesn’t know about Charlie. I’m doing him a favor, really,” she said firmly. “He doesn’t want kids. He never did.”
    “Because he doesn’t think he has any,” Cal pointed out. “What if he finds out he does?”
    “He won’t.”
    “But if—” Cal persisted. It was what she hated about him.
    “Charlie is mine! And yours.”
    She had always told Charlie—not that he understood yet really—that he had two fathers—a birth father who had given him life, and Cal, the father he knew. Charlie didn’t question it. Someday he would, no doubt. But by then it would be ingrained in his mind. There would never be a time when she had to “tell him” his father was not Cal.
    Because in every way that counted, his father was Cal. Cal was the one who had been there for her. He’d been her husband when Charlie was born. Charlie bore his surname. He was the only father Charlie knew.
    If someday he wanted to know about Alex, she’d tell him. If someday in the distant future, Alex learned he had a child, perhaps they would meet. But not now. Now Charlie was a child. He was vulnerable. He didn’t need a father who didn’t want him.
    “You don’t know what he’ll do, Daze,” Cal said heavily, “if he finds out.”
    “He won’t find out.” She would make sure of that.
    Cal’s smile was grim. “We hope.”

CHAPTER THREE
    A DAY went by. Two.
    Daisy still kept looking over her shoulder—well, out the window, actually—feeling skittish. Apprehensive.
    She checked the caller ID every time the phone rang. Her breath caught whenever she saw a shadow on the front steps.
    She actually dropped the kettle she was filling this morning, even though it was just the FedEx man bringing an order to Mrs. Kaminski upstairs.
    Now she was filling it again for her friend Nell, who had just brought Charlie home from preschool and was staying for a cup of tea and regarding her curiously all the while.
    “Something wrong?”
    “No. I just … dropped the kettle this morning. I’m trying to be more careful now.” Daisy set it on the burner and turned the gas on.
    “Cal giving you trouble?” It was always the first thing Nell thought of because her own ex-husband, Scott, was a continual source of irritation.
    “Cal never gives me trouble,” Daisy said. She glanced out the sliding door to the garden where Charlie and Nell’s son Geoff were playing with trucks.
    Nell grimaced. “Lucky you. Scott’s driving me crazy.”
    Daisy wasn’t glad to hear that Scott was creating difficulties in her friend’s life, but talking about it did avert Nell’s further interest in Daisy’s edginess. She gave Daisy an earfulabout her ex while they drank their tea and ate biscotti. Daisy made soothing sounds, but Nell was still grumbling when she decided it was time to go. She called Geoff in and they headed out the front door.
    Relieved that her life was nowhere near as complicated as her friend’s, Daisy was feeling much more sanguine when the phone rang as the door shut behind Nell and her son.
    “Daisy Connolly,” she said brightly into the phone.
    “Daisy.” The voice was warm, slightly gruff and instantly recognizable. The intimate tone of it made the hairs on the back of Daisy’s neck stand straight up. Why hadn’t she checked the ID this time?
    “Yes. This is Daisy,” she said crisply. “Who is this?”
    “You know who it is.” There was a smile in his voice as he called her bluff.
    “Alex,” she said flatly because playing the fool any longer wasn’t going to help matters a bit.
    “See. I knew you’d figure it out.” He was grinning now. She could hear that, too.
    “What do you want?”
    “Are you married?”
    “What?”
    “I remembered you weren’t Daisy Connolly back then. Wasn’t your last name Harris? Morris?”
    “Harris.”
    There was a brief silence. “So you did marry.” It wasn’t a question.
    “Yes,” she said firmly.
    “And now?”
    “What do you mean, and now?” Why did