The Single Dad Finds a Wife by Felicia Mason Page B

spoken from experience I take it. How many children do you have?”
    â€œAbout three hundred,” she said. “But I loan them out to their other parents for extended periods of time.”
    That earned a laugh from him, and Spring liked the way it sounded, as if a well of good humor lived deep within him and he tapped it often.
    â€œI know it was scary,” she said.
    â€œTerrifying.”
    â€œBut he came through like an ace.”
    David nodded. “With a lot of praying and deal making with God.”
    Curious about that, she asked the obvious follow-up question. “What did you offer?”
    â€œEverything,” David said. “My job keeps me busy, and being a single father has its challenges. I didn’t know—or maybe it’s that I didn’t realize how easy it was to prioritize until now. Jeremy comes first.”
    â€œYour mother said she’s going to stay with him.”
    He nodded. “She got the adjoining room at the hotel and will stay for a day or two, then take Jeremy home while I finish up here.”
    â€œWhat’s your work?” she asked.
    â€œAh, so you finally believe I’m a productive member of society? I’m an architect,” he said. “If you’d like, I can have someone from my office scan and email my degrees and licenses to prove it.”
    Her cheeks grew warm again, a recurring affair around this man, but this time she knew the cause was embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”
    He shrugged, then flashed a grin that was quick and easy. “When I had an objective moment to think about it in the middle of the night, I had to laugh. We must have been quite a sight at the Common Ground clinic. The clerk at the front desk directed me there as the closest and best place to get medical treatment.”
    â€œI’m glad, then,” she said, even though she knew her words could and probably would be interpreted as flirting. Spring couldn’t remember the last time she’d flirted with a man.
    â€œMe, too,” he said. “We got the best doctor in town.”
    With a start, she realized that he was flirting with her.
    As they enjoyed their beverages, David told her a funny story about Jeremy and a stuffed dinosaur he’d gotten after a visit to the natural history museum.
    â€œThe next thing I know, I’m trying to convince him that monsters are not under the bed or in the closet trying to eat him. In retrospect, a dinosaur exhibit may have been a bit much for a three-year-old. The ones at the museum were not purple and cuddly.”
    She was barely able to keep the laughter from her voice as she told him, “I know for a fact it was too much for a little girl who was six years old.”
    â€œYou?”
    Spring shook her head. “My sister Summer. I was fifteen and she was six when we had to douse the entire house with monster spray before she would settle down.”
    â€œAmazing things, those spray bottles filled with water,” he said with a grin.
    â€œI wish it had just been water,” Spring said. “I added a couple of drops of green food coloring and made up a label that said, ‘Certified by the Dinosaur Society of America’ to lend it authenticity. Summer stopped crying and went to sleep assured that our house was safe from dinosaurs that liked to munch on little girls. Unfortunately, Mother didn’t appreciate the pale green tint added to her silk-covered throw pillows and dry-clean-only draperies.”
    â€œHow much trouble did you get into?”
    â€œI had to pay for the cleaning out of my allowance and I was banned from doing any more educational babysitting.”
    â€œWait a minute,” he said. “Did you say your sister’s name is Summer?”
    Spring groaned. “I wondered if you’d caught that. We were the objects of much amusement for a while.” She lifted a hand before he could say anything else. “There’s also a