Chapter One

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

Lance jumped at the shrill sound of his alarm clock going off, his arm immediately moving to the bedside table to smack the offending object. He winced when his aim was off and instead of hitting the “snooze” button, his wrist bone hit the corner of the wooden table.

“Ow!” he said with a groan, moving to rub his sore wrist with his other hand.

He hit the button to turn the alarm off harder than he needed to, and let his head fall back on the pillow with a sigh. His brain pounded as if he had a subwoofer inside of it, his ears rang, and his eyes were sore.

Must have been a hell of a night, he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and index finger, pinching the bridge of his nose.

When the door of the bedroom flew open, so did his eyes.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” the bubbly brunette said as she came in and moved to his side of the bed. He swallowed hard, noticing she was half-clothed, wearing only an old black NSYNC t-shirt with his and his bandmates' faces staring back at him.

“I made you breakfast,” she said, staring down at him. “Well, get up lazy bones!”

“Where'd you find that?” he asked groggily, pointing at her shirt.

“Buried way down deep in your underwear drawer,” she said with a smile, flipping her long, wavy hair back around her shoulder.

“You went through my underwear drawer?” he asked.

“Not intentionally,” she said, grinning. “I was looking for new clothes to wear.”

“Clothes?” he asked, rubbing a hand down his face. “You needed clothes?”

“Unless you wanted me to walk around downstairs naked,” she said with a giggle.

Must have really been one hell of a night, he thought to himself.

“Are you coming down for breakfast?” she finally asked.

“Uh...yeah,” he said, throwing his arm above his head. “Give me a minute.”

“Don't take too long precious, don't want it to get cold,” she said with a wink before she opened the door and closed it behind her.

Lance sighed and rubbed his hand down his face again, attempting to wake his brain up a little more from the hangover.

“Oh shit,” he said to himself. “She's gotta go.”

After blowing out a breath and preparing himself for the headache when he lifted himself from the pillow, he groaned and let his head fall into the palms of his hand, sitting on the edge of the bed. The picture was fuzzy. It was December and there was a party – it must have been the Happy Place Christmas party from the night before. There was always a lot of employees, music, and alcohol, because he always put on one hell of a holiday party for the employees of his production company. He must have been drunk, judging by the hangover, and he must have picked her up there – what was her name? Clarissa? Larissa? Laura? Something like that.

He bent down to grab the faded blue jeans and the wife beater from the floor, giving them a quick smell to make sure that they weren't any older and dirtier than he thought they were. When they passed his test as acceptable, he pulled them both over his aching body.

When he stepped out of his bedroom and walked down the winding staircase in his two-story Orlando townhouse, he immediately smelled the aroma of strong coffee and sizzling bacon.

“There you are,” she said when he walked into the kitchen. “Pancakes?”

When she shoved the porcelain plate stacked with two buttery pancakes in front of him, his nose curled at the smell.

“No,” he said, fighting his upset stomach after a night of heavy drinking. “Just coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.”

Once he had filled a mug full of dark coffee, he sat down at his island counter and grabbed the bottle of Tylenol, shaking three pills out into his hand.

“Fun night, wasn't it?” she said, noticing the amount of pills.

“My head tells me yes,” he responded, immediately popping them into his mouth and chasing them with a swig of coffee.

“I'm sorry,” she said. To his surprise, she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him, leaning down and giving him an unwelcome kiss on the lips. “But at least I'm still here.”

“Speaking of that, uh...uh...”

Her eyes opened widely, watching him search through his brain using his index finger.

“Claire.”

“Claire,” he said. “That's right, from accounting. Listen, Claire, I hate to cut this wonderful morning short, but I have to get ready to go to work.”

“Oh, we can drive to the office together,” she said. “It's not a problem.”

“I'm...I'm not going into the office today,” he said. “I've got a few business...things, to take care of.”

Smooth, Lance, he thought to himself. Real smooth.

“Business things?” she asked, her manicured eyebrows raised in suspicion.

“Yeah, you know, meetings, things on set to take care of, executive things.”

“Sounds boring,” she said with a smile.

“The life of a CEO,” he said with an overacted, nonchalant shrug. “Sorry to have to run you out this early, but I'm such a busy guy, I really gotta get ready to go.”

“Oh, that's okay,” she said, only mildly disappointed. “You don't happen to have some pants I can wear though, would you?”

“What about the ones you came in?” he asked.

“I didn't come in pants,” she said with a laugh. “I came in my costume.”

“Costume?”

“My Santa's Little Helper costume? Don't you remember?” she asked. “You had me, Julie, and all the girls from accounting dress up in Santa's Little Helper costumes for the party last night?”

It was then that he remembered. He had given all the girls in his accounting department short, skimpy outfits to dress up in to play “Santa's Little Helper” roles at the party for the other employees. Typical crushed velvet red material with white fur around the outsides – only much sluttier.

Jesus, I am an asshole.

“Um...there might be something in the bottom drawer of my dresser that will fit you,” he said, thinking of his drawer with drawstring sweats and workout pants. “You can go ahead and check there – and keep whatever you find, and the t-shirt too.”

“Cool,” she said. “Good, 'cause I kinda like it.”

You and half a million hormonal teenage girls, he thought as she ran back up his staircase. When she disappeared, he let his head fall down on the counter with a groan.

At only 25 years old, he was one of Orlando's youngest CEOs in history, of his own company, A Happy Place Productions. He had created the company from scratch during his days with NSYNC, and after the band had gone their separate ways he had put all his focus into the company. It was fast-rising to possibly be one of the biggest production companies in the United States if they continued to grow at the pace he had set. He could see expanding in the next few years to creating an office in Los Angeles.

His life had been good the past few years, despite the band going their separate ways. He filled his days with plenty of work with the company and although there were times he missed performing and jet-setting across the world with the guys singing, he was happy where he was at. He finally had plenty of time to spend with his family back home in Mississippi, a beautiful two-story townhouse in Orlando near a small private lake and a few minutes away from Chris's home, and two beautiful cars including a sporty red Mustang. He had a good life.

And women. Lots of women.

It had all started back in the days that he was touring with the band. He had come from humble beginnings in Mississippi, raised by two wonderful parents who had instilled good values in him – but all the good values in the world couldn't beat the temptations of Hollywood stardom and fame. All the young women throwing themselves at him – beautiful, willing, young but of-age women – had broken him down at the age of nineteen. He was at an age where puberty was past him, but hormones were not.

Joey did it; JC did it. Justin did it possibly more than any of them combined. After a while, seeing how much fun the others had with women backstage after shows, never hurting anyone, he eventually figured – why not? Why not use this fame that he had been thrown into to his advantage?

But now, six years later, he had found that his life was actually a wreck. He had noticed a pattern, and that pattern seemed to be a new woman every night. He had convinced himself that he was not the “settling down” type and enjoyed this lifestyle, but he had recognized that living the lifestyle he lived was actually incredibly lonely.

Something had to change.

He pushed his untouched coffee off to the side and stood up, preparing to go upstairs and get dressed to go into work when he heard feet already coming down.

“Well,” she said, coming back down the staircase with the now-familiar velvet costume thrown over her arm, “I'll be going I guess. I have to run to my own house and change into my own clothes before I head into the office.”

He followed her to the door. “Claire, about that--”

“I know,” she said with a smile. “You don't date people from the office. I'm not stupid, Mr. Bass. I know what you're doing asking me to leave right now. You have a reputation, you know.”

“I do?” he asked.

“Mr. Bass,” she said, holding up the costume to show him. “Come on. Really?”

His eyes landed on the red monstrosity and he couldn't help but laugh.

“I'm sorry, Claire,” he said. “Never again. I promise.”

“The accounting department appreciates it,” she said, chuckling. “I'll see you in the office next week, Mr. Bass.”

“Claire?”

She turned from his open front door to look at him.

“Don't call me Mr. Bass,” he said, smiling.

“Sure thing, Lance,” she said as she left, closing the door behind her.

He turned from the door, scratching his head.

“She'll quit in a week, tops,” he said to himself. “God, Lance, reevaluate your lifestyle.”

He had turned the corner to head upstairs and get dressed when he heard his cell phone ring from the coffee table in the living room.

“Hello?”

“Hey Lance, it's Ben Miller.”

The voice of Lance's lawyer came back in his ear from the receiver.

“Hey Ben, how's it going?” Lance asked, taking the stairs two at a time.

“I'm good, how are you?”

“You know, getting by.”

“That's good,” Ben said. “I called wondering if you were available to come to my office today. We've got a bit of an issue going on.”

“With the company?” Lance asked as he walked into his bedroom, his curiosity piqued.

“No, Lance, it's actually about you,” Ben responded.

“What? Am I being sued or something?”

“Not quite. Lance, were you aware that you had a daughter?”

Lance scoffed, laughing. “Yeah Ben, and were you aware that you were the Pope? Very funny. What's going on?”

He was surprised when his lawyer didn't laugh.

“I'm not joking, Lance.”

He felt his face go white and all the oxygen leave his body.

“What?” he asked.

“Meet me here in an hour,” Ben said. “Don't be late.”

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“Lance, buddy, come in. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable.”

He had shown up at Ben's office in an hour on the dot, so scattered that he had almost forgotten to check in with the secretary at the front. Ben had come out of his office a few minutes later and called Lance in.

“How are you doing today?” Ben asked as they both sat down in their seats.

“I was splendid until you called me.”

Ben smiled. “Yeah, I figured. Let's get down to it then, shall we?”

He reached into a folder on his desk, pulling out a paper.

“Do you remember a woman named Lacey Jackson?”

Lance thought for a moment, trying to remember anyone named Lacey that he had ever met – someone at the office that might have once worked for him, possibly. When he couldn't come up with anyone, he shook his head.

“No, I don't remember anyone named Lacey.”

“Well you should,” Ben said, pushing the paper towards Lance. “She was the mother of your child.”

Lance picked up the paper from the desk in a haste – putting it in front of his face, he could see that it was a copy of a birth certificate record. Scanning over it, in the spot that said “Mother” he saw the name – Lacey Elizabeth Jackson. Moving over a space, he huffed a breath when he saw “Father” - listed as James Lance Bass.

“Ben, come on,” he said, shoving the paper back at his lawyer. “I'm a celebrity. Like, a household name. Any woman could put my name on a birth certificate. That doesn't make it true. What does she want, money?”

“Lance, she doesn't want your money,” Ben said. “She's dead.”

For the second time that morning, Lance felt his face drain of all color.

“She's what?”

“Car accident,” Ben said. “She was 23 years old, from Richmond, Virginia. She was coming home from work when a semi-trailer stopped suddenly. Died on impact.”

“That's awful,” Lance said, “but what does that have to do with me?”

Ben had opened his mouth to answer when the door to the office swung open.

“Daddy!”

Lance turned around at the voice, to see a young girl, not more than two or three feet tall with dirty blonde hair, being held back at the arm by a young, professional-looking woman. Looking at both of them, it was then that he finally put together the pieces.

“Oh no,” Lance said turning back to his lawyer and shaking his head. “No, no, no, no...no. Ben, you're not serious.”

“I'm sorry, Lance,” he responded. “There's nothing I can do.”

“Aren't there grandparents? An aunt? A sister? Some other kind of family?”

“There's nobody,” Ben responded. “Lacey was a foster child. She had no family to speak of, and was estranged from her foster parents that took care of her from the age of twelve until she aged out at eighteen. As the person listed as the Father on the birth certificate, you have a legal responsibility to her. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do for you.”

Lance felt breathless. “Paternity test?”

“I've already ordered for one,” Ben said, reaching into his desk drawer and pulling out a small business card, handing it to Lance. “Your appointment is at this lab at four o'clock, and the results will be sent to me as soon as they're in. Unfortunately, the results do take two business days to process, and today is a Friday. So until at least Wednesday, we're stuck.”

Lance choked.

“I'm sorry, Lance.”

Lance turned to look at the young girl, who was holding onto the woman's arm with both hands, digging her toe into the carpet as she stared back at him. She couldn't have been more than four or five at his best guess. He was terrified; and if he was feeling that way, he couldn't imagine how she was feeling – being in such a strange place, with strange people, without her mother.

And with a man who people said was her father, who she didn't know and he didn't know her.

“Ben, what am I supposed to do?” Lance said, raising his voice. “I'm not capable of taking care of a kid! I'm a CEO of a production company, I'm gone at the office all the time. I don't have a babysitter, or clothes, or a bed, or even a car seat!”

“Don't worry Lance, Mrs. Stanley has one of those to provide you for the day,” Ben said.

It was then that the woman grasped the little girl's hand tightly and walked over to Lance, holding out her free hand to him.

“Mr. Bass, I'm Leann Stanley,” she said as he shook her hand. “I'm with Florida State Social Services. I'm the social worker assigned to this case.”

“Case?” Lance said.

“You and Kayleigh,” she said. “I'll be overseeing you for the next few months for the state, to ensure that you're fit for legal custody. I'll be making regular home visits on a periodic basis to check and make sure that everything is running smoothly and Kayleigh's safety and well-being is the first priority.”

“Kayleigh?”

“This is Kayleigh, your daughter,” she said with a smile, looking briefly down at the little girl who grasped her hand tightly.

She stared back at him, and it was then that he noticed her eyes – bright, clear blue. Her shoulder-length, curly hair was a dark, dirty blonde with sunny streaks of lighter blonde, and she had bangs cut just past her eyebrows. Her cheeks were chubby with a light pink blush to them, and she wore pink stud earrings in her little pierced ears. She wore a light pink dress with a sash around the waist, white tights, and black Mary Jane style shoes, her arms covered from the December cold by a white cardigan sweater.

“Hi, Kayleigh,” he finally said.

She only stared back at him with the piercing blue eyes.

“Mr. Bass, I know this is a lot to process for you,” Mrs. Stanley finally said. “Kayleigh has had a rough couple of days, as you can imagine. She's been staying with me while we found contact information for you and drew up the papers and everything – but right now, she needs a home with someone who can give her some comfort.”

“Mrs. Stanley, with all due respect,” he said, “I'm not so sure that someone is me.”

“I fully understand,” she responded lightly. “I know this is a shock. And I will be here for you every step of the way, I promise.”

“I...” he stuttered. “I don't have anything for her. I don't have clothes...”

“Her social worker in Virginia sent along some necessities with her,” she said. “She's got a few clothes, toys, coloring books and crayons, that sort of thing. The state can provide you with some money to help offset some of the costs of the other things...”

“No, it's not about money,” he said. “I can afford things for her. To tell you the truth – I have no idea how to raise a child.”

“And that's why I'm here to help you, Mr. Bass,” she said. “I can help you out. But first, you have to help Kayleigh. We both do.”

Lance looked down at the little girl once more, realizing the social worker was right. He couldn't walk out of this building and leave this little girl in the care of the state, to end up with a foster family as her mother had, bouncing back and forth between homes. He couldn't leave this little girl behind.

His little girl.

Chapter Two

“Kayleigh, can you grab your suitcase, sweetie?”

After signing a few papers for temporary custody of the girl, Lance's lawyer had handed him the copy of the birth certificate for his records and a file folder of various other papers that he thought Lance might need for her care. Afterward, Mrs. Stanley had led the young girl out of the room by her hand, leaning down to make up the height difference between the two.

They had walked over to a space in the lobby by the couch against the wall, where three to four suitcases, including a smaller bright pink one, were stacked.

“Yes, Miss Leann,” the young girl said.

Mrs. Stanley smiled and watched as she ran over to the stack of suitcases.

“She has great manners for her age,” she said, looking at Lance.

“How old is she?” he asked.

“She's four years old,” she responded, moving to walk toward the suitcases, which he followed. “The poor girl. She has no one else in the world right now, and she's doing so well. I have no idea how she's doing it.”

“Does she have any...behavioral issues?” he asked hesitantly. “You know, that I should know about?”

“She has some bad dreams,” she responded. “Other than that, she's a wonderfully behaved little lady. Under the circumstances, I think it's to be expected, and it's surprising that's the only issues she has.”

“Was she...in the car?” he asked. “When her mother died?”

“No, thankfully,” Leann said quietly. “She was at daycare when it happened. She was immediately put into state custody by her daycare teacher when they were notified, because she had no other family to go to.”

“How long has she been in the state's custody?”

“A week,” she responded, lifting a suitcase from the stack in her hand. “It's taken a while to get everything sorted and draw up all the records and papers, it took a couple of days to find out how to contact you.”

He lifted the other two suitcases in his hands and looked at the little blonde girl, clutching her tiny pink suitcase in her own hands. She was clean, well-dressed, and well-behaved – but of course, he couldn't judge that that wasn't because she had been in the care of social workers for the past week. From the looks of it, her mother took care of her – she didn't look like she had been malnourished or mistreated in any way.

He couldn't imagine how frightened she had been, being in the care of strangers for the past week.

“You don't have a child safety seat, am I right, Mr. Bass?”

He snapped to attention when he heard Leann talking to him again.

“Yes...I mean, yes, that's right, I don't,” he said.

“I figured,” she said with a smile. She reached over a grabbed a child's booster seat from the couch. “Most men don't keep a spare one in their vehicle in case they get a call that they have a daughter. You can use this until you get your own suitable one, then you can bring it back to the agency.”

Leann turned to the little girl, looking down at her.

“Are you ready to go, Kayleigh?”

“Wait!” Kayleigh yelled. “I need Scooter!”

“Alright, well go get him sweetie,” Leann said. “We'll be right here waiting for you.”

Kayleigh sat her suitcase down on the ground next to her feet and next thing Lance knew, took off running to the conference room, off the lobby.

“Who's Scooter?” Lance asked.

“Her puppy,” Leann responded.

“Wait – puppy?” Lance said. “Ben didn't tell me that a dog came with the package. I can't take care of a dog and a child, too.”

“Mr. Bass, no need to worry--”

Leann was in the middle of stopping Lance when Kayleigh ran back into the room, clutching a knitted stuffed puppy dog toy under her arm.

“Got 'im, Miss Leann,” she said, going back to her place by her suitcase and picking it back up with her free hand. “I'm ready.”

Leann smiled at Lance. “As I was saying...Scooter is her puppy. Her friend. She carries him with her everywhere.”

“Oh thank God,” Lance said, releasing a breath.

“Are we all ready?” Leann said, looking between Lance and Kayleigh.

Kayleigh gave a confident nod and started walking off toward the door of the law office, and Leann followed quickly in tow, reminding Kayleigh to stay close to her and watch out for cars.

“As ready as I'll likely ever be,” Lance said as he grasped the suitcases and followed off toward them.

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“Now, all you have to do is buckle in the car's safety belt across her like this,” Leann said as she pulled the seat belt across young Kayleigh's chest in the back, demonstrating to Lance how it was done. The mechanism clicked. “And that's it. She has to ride in a booster seat until she's 80 pounds according to Florida state law, and she must always be riding in the back seat. Got that?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Lance responded, looking at the child buckled into his back seat.

“Everything else will probably come to you naturally,” she said, looking back at Kayleigh, holding her stuffed dog up. “Parenting is a tough job, but to tell you the truth a lot of it involves common sense and a good deal of morals. You'll know the right thing to do.”

“Yeah, but what if I don't?” Lance asked, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean, you take kids away from people all the time because they're not capable of parenting, right?”

“Remember when I said a lot of parenting involves common sense and good morals?” she asked. “Well, unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this world who have neither. If there were more people that did, I'm sure I wouldn't have a job.”

He lightly chuckled.

“You look like a good person, Mr. Bass,” she said. “I have faith that you can do it. I'm sure you'll manage fine. And I'll be there to help guide you, so whenever you need some help, give me a call.”

She reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out a business card and handed it to him.

“I'm in the office Monday through Friday until about five or six, and you can call me at home anytime after hours if you have a question or need help with anything.”

He glanced over the business card. “I have to say, Mrs. Stanley, I've heard a lot of bad things about social services. It's unexpected that you're this kind.”

“My sole interest is Kayleigh's health, safety, and well-being,” she responded. “As long as she is well taken care of, my job is done.”

She turned to Kayleigh with a smile.

“Kayleigh, are you ready to go with Mr. Bass?”

“Are you coming with us, Miss Leann?” she asked.

“No sweetie, I have to go take care of other kids now, but Mr. Bass will take good care of you and I'll see you again on Tuesday when I do my home visit, okay?”

“Okay,” Kayleigh said with a smile. “Bye, Miss Leann!”

“Bye, sweetheart,” Leann said, shutting the car door. Then she turned to Lance. “Is there anything else before I go?”

Lance wanted to respond that there were so many things; that he couldn't do this and she should take the girl back to live with her because he was incapable of being a good parent. But his heart broke for the little girl sitting in his back seat. He couldn't leave her behind.

“No, I think I'm okay,” he said, his confidence shaky.

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “Well then, I'll see you on Tuesday.”

He watched as Leann walked away toward the law office until she disappeared from his sight.

He was all alone now. With a four-year-old.

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his keys, opening his door and climbing into the seat before putting the keys into the ignition. When he looked up to buckle his belt, he caught a glance of Kayleigh in the rear view mirror.

“How're you doing, kid?” he asked.

“I'm okay,” she said quietly, shrugging and looking down at the stuffed dog in her lap.

Noticing her demeanor with him was unlike the one she had with Leann, his face fell slightly.

“It's just you and me now, okay?” he said. “I'm not real good at this, but I'm gonna try my hardest. I'm flyin' by the seat of my pants.”

“What's that mean?” she questioned, looking up at him.

“It's like...I don't know what I'm doing,” he responded. “Does that make sense?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she said with a slight nod.

“How about we go get you some new stuff?” he asked, turning the key in the ignition. “A bed to sleep in, something to put your clothes in – how's that sound?”

“Sounds good,” she said, turning her attention back to the dog in her lap.

“Alright then,” he said, shifting the car to move. “Let's get this show on the road.”

Lance was surprised that she was quiet the whole way to the store. If he didn't have her in his sights in his rearview mirror, he almost would have forgotten she was there several times. He was amazed that the whole twenty-minute drive, she entertained herself with the stuffed toy he only knew as “Scooter”.

Maybe this will be easier than I thought, he thought to himself.

He pulled into the parking lot of the Kids 'R' Us store, shutting off the ignition, and looked back at her.

“Ready to go?”

“Ready, Daddy.”

Lance froze pulling his keys out, and looked back at her in the mirror again.

“Kayleigh, I don't know about this 'Daddy' thing,” he said. “I don't want you to be disappointed if...things don't turn out the way you think they will.”

She looked up at him, puzzled. “What do you mean, Daddy?”

He narrowed his eyebrows. He forgot he was talking to a four-year-old.

“How about you call me something else for now, would that be okay?” he asked. “For now, at least.”

“What am I supposed to call you?” she asked.

“How about Lance?”

“Why would I call you that?”

He chuckled. “Because that's my name.”

“Okay,” she said, shrugging. “I'll call you Mister Lance. Is that okay?”

He smiled. “Yeah, that's good.”

After getting out of the car himself, he moved to the back passenger seat and opened it. He leaned in and unbuckled the seat belt and picked her up out of the booster seat, groaning at her weight before setting her down on the ground.

“What did Miss Leann feed you while you stayed with her, Kayleigh – lead?” he asked.

“She made me grilled cheese, and chicken, and rice, and yogurt, and chocolate milk...”

As he closed the door and quickly grabbed onto her hand so she wouldn't inadvertently get away from him, he chuckled.

“You're a little chatterbox, aren't you?” he asked.

“What's a chatterbox?”

“A little girl who likes to talk – a lot,” he responded.

“I like to talk,” she said, walking beside him. “Me and Miss Leann talked a lot while I was with her.”

“Oh yeah? What'd you guys talk about?” he asked.

“We talked about back home in Richman,” she said, and he had to smile at her mispronunciation. “And we talked about me and what I like to do for fun. I like to paint. Do you like to paint, Mister Lance?”

“Sometimes I like to paint,” he said. “What else did you talk about?”

“We talked a lot about what happened to mama,” she said, her voice growing solemn.

He couldn't help but let his smile fade slightly.

“What happened to mama, Kayleigh?”

Kayleigh sighed. “She went to Heaven.”

He sighed and pursed his lips.

“You know what, Kayleigh?” he said. “Little girls need toys. Do you want toys?”

As he had hoped, she immediately grew excited, her eyes lighting up.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” she yelled, jumping a few times before he led her in through the sliding doors of the store.

“Well, at least I have distractions down,” he said to himself as they walked through.

He watched Kayleigh's eyes grow large as she stepped inside the store, her eyes moving around to look at all the toys and things to play with. As he watched her reaction, it occurred to him that she was amazed because she had probably never been in one of these stores before. He could only assume that Lacey had been a single parent, and a young mother at only nineteen. She had probably worked difficult, minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and after child care expenses, there probably hadn't been much money left over for expensive toys.

Why didn't she ever file for child support? he wondered to himself. If she proved to be his daughter, he would have done the right thing and made both of their lives a lot easier. But maybe she didn't think I would believe her, he thought.

And then it occurred to him – he probably wouldn't have. At the time, he probably would have passed her off as another fan wanting to capitalize off his money and fame. It wasn't as if there weren't plenty of fans who would have done the same thing – he thought that Justin would always be the target, since he was the most well-known and popular of them. He never thought he could be the one caught up in a “baby mama drama” as Joey or Justin would have called it.

He pulled out a shopping cart and lifted her up into the front seat, knowing that they would be here long enough that she would get bored and tired if he didn't. As he walked down the aisles with her quietly playing with her stuffed dog she had brought with her, he felt...overwhelmed. There was so much stuff, and almost all of it looked necessary or useful in one way or another. There was no way he could shop for her by himself.

There was only one person he could think to call on for his help.

“Hello?” Joey finally answered after three rings.

“Hey, 911, I have an emergency,” Lance said, looking down at Kayleigh. “You gotta help me out.”

“What's wrong?” Joey asked. “Are you in prison? Did you finally kill Chris? Where's the body? No wait, don't tell me.”

Lance chuckled. “No, Joe, I didn't kill Chris. I've got an...issue.”

“What kind of issue?”

“An issue that is about 3 feet tall, weighs about 40-some odd pounds, and calls me D-A-D-D-Y,” Lance said, spelling out the word.

“You've got a midget sugar mama?” Joey asked.

“You know, only your warped mind would come up with that one,” Lance said. “No, Joe. I have a kid.”

Joey laughed. “That's funny, Lance. Seriously, what's the issue?”

“Joey, I am serious. I have a kid.”

There was a long pause at the end of the line, and Lance held his phone out to make sure he hadn't lost connection. As he put the phone back to his ear, Joey started yelling.

“You have a kid?”

“Yeah,” Lance responded. “I've had a hell of a day.”

“Ohhhhhhh,” Kayleigh said from her seat. “You said a bad word!”

Lance raised his eyebrows. “You didn't hear that, Kayleigh, got it?”

“Is that her?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, her name is Kayleigh,” Lance responded, putting the receiver back to his mouth. “Man, you gotta help me. I'm desperate. I don't know what the f...well, you know. I don't know what I'm doing here.”

“Hold the phone, pause, rewind,” Joey said. “How'd you get a kid?”

“'Cause I couldn't keep it in my pants,” Lance said, briefly covering Kayleigh's ears with his hands. “Apparently this girl I slept with like, four years ago had a kid and never contacted me. Now she's dead and...”

“Whoa hold on, she's dead?”

“Yeah, man, it's bad,” Lance said. “Now I'm the only family this kid has – that is, if I am her family. She's in my custody until they prove whether or not I'm actually her father.”

“Well, do you think you are?”

“Well, she looks a lot like me,” Lance said, looking over her features again. “But listen, I got bigger issues right now. I don't have anything for a kid, and I have to get some stuff for her while she's staying with me. The problem is, I have no idea what I need to take care of a four-year-old.”

“Well, you're gonna need a bed and bedding and some furniture if she's going to be staying with you for a while,” Joey said. “You got clothes for her?”

“She brought a few things with her, but I don't know how much.”

“You might want to pick her up a few extras, in case. Toys?”

“I was going to let her pick out a few things for herself, and she brought some with her.”

“Well pick up some basics – toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, pajamas, a comb – you should be set for a while. You can go back for the rest later as you think you need it, 'cause you don't know how long she'll be staying with you if she doesn't end up being yours.”

“I think I can do that,” Lance said, hoping he would remember that whole list. “What about like, diapers? Do four-year-olds need those?”

“Well, it depends...is she potty-trained?”

“Um...you know, I don't know.”

“Well, ask her,” Joey said.

Lance held the phone away from his mouth. “Kayleigh, are you potty-trained?”

“What's that mean?” she answered.

“Dude, she doesn't even know what that means,” Lance said, ignoring Kayleigh's question. “She's four.”

Joey sighed. “Let me talk to her.”

“Seriously?”

“Let me talk to her,” Joey repeated. “You can't do anything.”

Lance let out a frustrated sigh and pulled the phone away from his ear.

“Kayleigh, can you talk to my friend Joey for a second?” he said, holding the phone out to her.

She took the phone from him without a word, putting it up to her ear.

“Hello?...Hi Mister Joey...”

Lance stood and watched as there was a long pause, watching Kayleigh's expression.

“Yes, mama said I was a big girl...Okay, bye Mister Joey.”

She held the phone out to Lance again, immediately going back to playing with her toy.

“Yeah?” Lance said.

“Saved by the flush. She's potty-trained,” Joey said. “Jeez, Lance, that was so hard. I really had to beat it outta her there.”

“You don't have to be a smart a...leck,” Lance said, suddenly remembering that from now on he was in the presence of a human word sponge.

“Man, you're clueless,” Joey said. “Make sure to pick her up some underwear too. I'd pay good money to be there right now to see this.”

Lance narrowed his eyebrows as Joey snickered.

“Never thought I'd see the day that instead of shopping for women's lingerie, Lance Bass would be shopping for little girl's undies,” he said. “That sounds kinda creepy now that I actually say it.”

“Joey, do you have anything else that is going to help me, or can I hang up now?”

“Use your common sense,” Joey said. “If it's something she uses everyday, you should probably get it. If it's not, you can probably bypass it for now and come back to it later.”

“Common sense,” Lance said, remembering Leann's words to him this morning. “Yeah, seems like I'm going to need a lot of that for this, too.”

“You should probably pick up some of that while you're at it,” Joey said. “Pick up some for Chris, too. You can give it to him for Christmas.”

“God, bye Joey,” Lance said, finally frustrated enough to hang up.

Kayleigh looked up at him from the cart as he brought the phone down from his ear and sighed.

“We're gonna need a lot of help, kid,” he said as he started pushing the cart down the aisle again.

Chapter Three

“And I like the color green 'cause that's the color of the grass...and I like yellow because that's the color of the sun and flowers...and I like pink. Do you like pink, Mister Lance?”

Kayleigh had not stopped chattering for hours that Lance had been in the store. Every aisle they went down, she found something new to screech out joy over and brought something new to her mind to tell Lance.

“Yeah, pink is okay, Kayleigh,” he said as he loaded the various bags full of new clothes, toys and other necessities into the back of his Escalade. “Are there any other colors you like?”

“I like blue because it's the color of the sky...but I like pink the best. It's my favoritest.”

Lance couldn't help but chuckle as he loaded the last bag into the back – bags full of everything in every shade of pink that she had picked out herself.

“Your favoritest, huh?” he asked. “Work on grammar – check.”

“What's grammar?”

“It's, like...” He stopped to think. She had a penchant for asking what words meant, and it was becoming harder and harder to think of explanations. “...you know, Kayleigh, never mind. Are you ready to go home?”

“You mean, to your home?” she asked.

“Well of course,” he said, lifting her up out of the shopping cart before pushing it into the carriage. “Where do you think you're going to sleep tonight, silly?”

After hours inside the Kids 'R' Us store, he had managed to spend a whole lot of money and grab all the necessities that he thought he might need for the next few days that he had Kayleigh. He knew it was a risky investment, spending so much and buying so many things when he didn't know if she would even be with him past Wednesday, but he couldn't turn his back on this kid now.

He had become invested – possibly too invested.

It was a small comfort that by tomorrow night, she would have a bed to sleep in with clean sheets, a dresser to put her clothes in, and a toy box for all her toys once it was all delivered the next day and put together. It made him feel better that she now had pajamas to sleep in, and she could take a bath, brush her teeth and hair as well.

“So we're going to your house, Mister Lance?” she asked as he lifted her into her seat and buckled her in, exactly as Mrs. Stanley had showed him how to.

“Well Kayleigh, first we have to go somewhere else,” he said. “Then we're going to my house.”

They had spent so long shopping for necessities for her that their appointment for the paternity test was now less than an hour away, and he still had to search for the place.

“Where are we going first?” she asked once he had climbed into the driver's seat and turned over the ignition.

“We have to go take a test,” he said, throwing the car into reverse and backing out of the parking space. “They're going to test us and be able to tell us if I'm your...well, your Daddy or not.”

“Like the tests my mama used to take?”

“Your mama used to take tests?” he asked, glancing at her in the rear view mirror.

“Yeah, on the commuter,” she said.

“You mean computer, Kayleigh?”

“Yeah, on the innernet.”

Lance sighed. She was a college student; probably taking classes online in between work to make a better life for her and Kayleigh, he thought.

“I thought you were my Daddy?” she finally asked, throwing him a quizzical look as they entered onto the highway.

“Well, maybe I am, sweetie,” he said.

“But Miss Leann said I was going to stay with my Daddy. Why do we need to take a test if Miss Leann says you're my Daddy?”

Good question, kid, Lance thought to himself. Why did he need a test to tell him if she was his daughter? He'd fibbed to Joey over the phone in the store. She didn't look a lot like him. The more he looked at her, the more he saw that she was the spitting image of him. The hair alone was a dead giveaway that she was his flesh and blood; his DNA. The nose, the bone structure, the shape of her eyes...it was all him.

In reality, it could end up all being a fluke, and that's what the test was for, to make sure. But deep down...he knew what the results would be.

“We're taking the test to make sure, sweetie,” he said. “So it can be all legal and everything.”

“Hmm...okay,” she said with a shrug, then went quiet as she played with Scooter's floppy ears, the rhythm of the back of her feet kicking the seat under her filling the silence.

He smiled. He had a feeling he was in for a ride with this one.

He managed to find the lab and pull into the parking lot with only minutes to spare until four o'clock. He pulled Kayleigh out and this time held her against his hip, knowing it might be easier to control her that way. He wasn't fond of the looks of this neighborhood, considering it was in one of the more rundown parts of the city.

He pulled her puffy coat tightly around her chest before closing the door, and felt a shock go through his body when she immediately leaned her head down to rest on his shoulder.

“Are you tired?” he asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” she said. “I wanna go home.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, pulling her close to him. “We'll be done soon, then we can go home.”

He stepped up to the counter the minute he entered through the door, to a young woman with long, straight black hair.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“I have an appointment for a paternity test at four,” he said.

“Ahh, yeah,” she said, smacking her gum and reaching to grab something from her counter. “Fill out these forms and the tech will call you back when he's ready for you.”

Lance took the pen and clipboard and sat down in one of the seats, scooting Kayleigh into his lap. When she was settled, he turned his attention to the form in his lap.

Date, he read. Well that was easy. He wrote down December 10, 2004 in the spot provided. Alleged father. Well, that was him, so he wrote down his name. It was when he came to the next spot that he was thrown.

Child's name. Of course, it was Kayleigh – but what was her full, legal name? Did she have a middle name? Did she take her mother's last name, or had she taken his? He thought surely he would have needed to be there to sign the birth certificate if Lacey had chosen to give Kayleigh his last name, but he had left all the paperwork from this morning in the car.

It was then that he broke. He sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned his head against an oblivious Kayleigh's. He was so overwhelmed and unprepared. He possibly had a kid, and he didn't even know her last name.

“What's wrong?” Kayleigh finally asked him, her voice soft and sweet.

He looked over at her, feeling downtrodden – but when he looked in her eyes, he couldn't help but smile. There was something about those eyes.

“Nothing,” he said, simply shaking his head.

The lab tech called them back a few minutes after Lance had finished filling out the paper work.

“This will only take a few minutes,” she said, prodding around his counter top pulling out the paper covered medical supplies. “It's a couple quick swabs and then we can get you out of here.”

Lance sat on the table with Kayleigh on his lap, curled around and clutched tightly onto his chest. It seemed that the minute she went into the room and saw the surroundings that looked like a doctor's office, fear set in.

Fantastic, he thought. She's afraid of doctors. Not just afraid – terrified.

“It'll be okay,” he whispered in her ear, seeing the fear on her face as she looked at the tech. “He's going to do one thing and it will be over.”

She shook her head, digging it into his chest and only whimpering.

He sighed; the more he tried to comfort her, the more she resisted and clutched onto him.

“Can you do me first?” he asked the tech. “To show her it doesn't hurt?”

“Sure thing,” she answered.

“Watch, Kayleigh,” he said, seeing the tech finally take out the swab as she prepared everything. “She's going to do me first, so you can see that it doesn't hurt.”

Lance wasn't sure why he was nervous when he saw her coming toward him with it. He knew it wasn't going to hurt; it was a swab across the inside of his cheek with something that amounted to no more than a huge Q-tip, so that wasn't it. It was more the fact that this was it; whatever came out of this test, this simple swab of his cheek, would change his life in one way or another.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he opened his mouth and the tech put the swab in his mouth, rubbing it against the inside of his cheek. As much as he tried to keep his face from having a reaction so Kayleigh would be comforted, his nose twisted up as he felt the stick rub against his mouth.

“Tickles,” he said, but it came out muffled without being able to press his tongue against the roof of his mouth to enunciate letters, causing Kayleigh to slightly giggle against his chest.

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Lance sat across from Kayleigh, watching her use her fork to push bright green peas across the plate.

“You don't like it?” he asked.

“I don't like peas,” she said, not looking up.

“Peas are good for you, though,” Lance said. He picked up a single pea between his fingers and popped it into his mouth. “See?”

“I don't like 'em,” she said, letting the fork fall down to the plate with a clang.

Lance cocked his head to the side and sighed. She had been quiet ever since they had gotten home after the paternity tests were finished. After having heard her chatter all day about anything and everything she could, he knew something was on her mind.

“What's wrong, kid?” he finally asked.

“Nothing,” she said, resting her head on her arm, propped up by her elbow.

“Listen,” he said, maneuvering around the island counter to take a seat next to her. “This kinda sucks, I know. You don't know me that well and I don't know what I'm doing. I've never been in charge of a four-year-old before. We have to stick together if we're going to get through this, right? We gotta talk to each other.”

She only stared at the uneaten food on her plate.

Lance sighed. He was exhausted and he still had to get her into a bath and bed before he could sleep himself. He went to the refrigerator and opened it, leaning in to pull out a beer.

“I miss mama.”

He pulled his beer out slowly and closed the door quietly before setting the unopened bottle on the counter.

“You know I'm going to take care of you, right Kayleigh?” he asked. “We'll be okay.”

“I know,” she said, sighing heavily.

He frowned, dropping his head to look at his feet. He couldn't compete with Lacey; he was new at this, whereas she had done this for four years. She had motherly instinct; all he had was his common sense, at best. He was trying his best, but that was all he could do. His common sense was enough to tell him how to heal a skinned knee or a bump on the head; but he had no idea how to fix this girl's broken heart.

“If you're done eating, it's bath time, Kayleigh,” he finally said. “Why don't you go upstairs and find some of those pajamas we got today and wait for me to come up.”

She silently pushed her plate away and stepped down carefully off the stool, running off to the staircase. When he heard her run up, he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed the familiar phone number.

“Hello?” the voice said after a few rings.

“Hey, Ben, how's it going?”

“Well, it's going good Lance, it's a surprise to hear from you,” Ben replied. “Did something go wrong? Is everything okay?”

“Oh, no, yeah, everything is good with Kayleigh,” he said. “I managed to get her some stuff and I survived dinner, so you know, day one accomplished I guess.”

“Well that's good, I was worried about you when you left the office. It's good to hear your first day went well.” Ben paused. “So if everything is going okay, was there a reason you called?”

“Actually, um...yeah,” Lance responded. “Ben, there's not really an easy way to say this. I've been thinking and...what's going to happen with Lacey?”

“What do you mean?” Ben asked.

“Her, um...it's so weird to say this...her body,” Lance said. “I mean, what's going to be done? You said there was no family, right?”

“No, she was estranged from her foster family and hadn't talked to them for the past five years,” Ben said. “After Lacey aged out of their care, they dropped themselves from the fostering program. Since then, they've moved and the agency no longer has contact information for them. Believe it or not, they're harder to find than you may think. As the legal father, you always had first dibs on Kayleigh anyway.”

“So if she was estranged from her foster parents and had no other family, who's going to plan her funeral?”

“Well, currently she's classified as an unclaimed body,” Ben said. “The state of Virginia has made several attempts to contact any family of hers that may be able to claim her, but so far no one has come forward. Time is running out; if somebody doesn't come forward soon, her body will become the responsibility of the state.”

“I wanna do it,” Lance said.

“Have you officially gone crazy?” Ben said with a laugh.

“I know, it's stupid,” Lance responded. “I hardly even knew the woman. But...Ben, if she ends up being my daughter, regardless of the fact that I only spent one night with this woman – we shared something together. That's Kayleigh. She's something special, you know? And I can't let the mother of my child be an...unclaimed body. I can't do it.”

“I get it,” Ben said after a pause. “We can do that, Lance.”

“I want to take responsibility of her, plan her funeral and pay for it, and have her buried here in Orlando, so Kayleigh can visit her.”

“Okay, we can definitely do that,” Ben said. “I'll contact the state and get it started. I don't know how much I'll be able to do over the weekend, but I'll give it a shot. Monday at the latest. You should be able to get things rolling by Thursday or Friday.”

“I appreciate this, Ben. I really do.”

“I'm glad to see that you're taking some initiative, Lance,” Ben said. “I'm proud of you.”

Lance smiled. “Thanks.”

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He laid there in the dark silence of his bed. It was ten already and he was exhausted, but he couldn't begin to slip off to sleep. He had way too much on his mind.

Last night he had been drunk and oblivious at his work Christmas party, like some stupid teenager. Maybe in a lot of ways, he still acted like one. He'd never gone through a rebellious stage in his childhood; he'd been brought up too well to act that way in his early teen years, and too busy with the band in his later teen years to have time to act like that. This was his rebellious stage – the way he had started acting like the guys after the concerts and the way he had lived his life the same way afterward.

It was the reason he was here now. If it was true, he was twenty when it happened, and it was catching up with him now. But in some ways, he welcomed it. It scared him, but deep down inside, he realized that maybe he wanted this.

He only wished that he'd had a chance for it to go the right way, instead of having to raise a daughter and plan a funeral at the same time.

He heard his door creak open and leaned up to turn on the bedside light, surprised when Kayleigh stood there.

“What are you doing up, Kayleigh?” he asked. “You're supposed to be in bed.”

“I can't sleep,” she said.

He knew it was untrue; he could hear in her voice that she was half-asleep as it was.

“You need your sleep, sweetie,” he said. “We've had a long day.”

“That room is scary.”

He'd put her to bed in a guest bedroom that hadn't been used in at least a year, possibly more. The bed was way too big for her, but until her own bed was delivered and her room temporarily set up, he figured it would be the most comfortable for her.

“Can I sleep with you?” she asked.

He sighed, but smiled.

“Sure, climb in,” he said softly.

She smiled and ran over to the opposite side of bed, lifting her legs high to climb in. He chuckled and grabbed her arm, helping her up.

“But you have to sleep, okay?” he said as she climbed in and pulled the covers back to settle in.

“Okay, I will,” she said. “Can you leave the light on?”

“Yeah, I'll do that,” he said.

He watched as she laid down and settled into bed, covering herself with the thick white comforter. Once her head hit the pillow, she looked back at him with her bright but tired blue eyes before closing them tightly.

“Good night, Mister Lance.”

“Kayleigh,” he said, smiling when she opened her eyes to look at him. “Just call me Daddy.”

Chapter Four

“Breakfast, Kayleigh!”

Lance took a long drink of coffee as he sat the donut box on top of the table, along with a napkin in Kayleigh's spot. He heard her footsteps bound down the stairs and as she appeared in the kitchen, he raised up an eyebrow. He had left the responsibility of picking out her clothes and dressing herself up to her this morning, and she had come down the stairs in an orange shirt with puffy sleeves, blue capri leggings, a pink skirt, and purple glittery sneakers.

“Kayleigh, what in the world are you wearing?” he asked with a laugh.

“I dressed myself Daddy, do you like it?” she asked.

“It's...colorful,” he said. “Breakfast is on the table. Sit down and eat.”

She climbed up onto the chair, sitting up using her knees for added height, and looked at him when she saw him pull a chocolate frosted donut out of the box and place it on her napkin.

“Miss Leann never let me have chocolate donuts for breakfast,” she said.

“Yeah, but I'm the Dad,” he said with a smile. “I'm actually cool.”

“Yay!”

She was still celebrating the treat for breakfast when his phone rang from the island counter and he reached over to grab it, putting it to his ear right away.

“Mmm, hello?” he said, licking chocolate frosting off his fingers.

“Lance?” the voice of his female business partner, Wendy Thorlakson, said. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, sorry Wendy, I was doing breakfast,” he said. “What's up?”

“Well what's up is I was wondering why you hadn't been to the office in two days,” she said. “It's not like you.”

It was unlike him; Lance usually found himself at the office for at least two hours, even on the weekends when most of the staff was off. He hadn't gone into the office on Friday due to being called into his lawyer's office that morning and all the errands that had followed. He hadn't gotten a chance to go in Saturday either, after spending an entire day emptying out a spare bedroom for her and getting her furniture put together and inside. It was now Sunday and he was finally finding a solid “groove” with Kayleigh around.

Despite their “groove”, he still had one major issue – neither of them were getting any sleep. When the social worker had said she had nightmares, he assumed it was an occasional occurrence. He'd quickly found out that she had him up all night, back and forth yelling out for him and her mom. To say he was exhausted was an understatement.

“Yeah, Wendy, I'm sorry about that,” he said, looking at Kayleigh whose mouth was covered with chocolate frosting. “I had something pretty big come up.”

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think so, I got a...major surprise,” he said, scratching his forehead.

“Well, whatever it is, I hope you have everything sorted out, because I really need you to get here. Like, yesterday.”

“Well, Wendy, I can't drop everything,” he said, chuckling. “It's not exactly something that I can sort out in two days.”

“Look, Lance, I don't know what's going on,” she said. “Truthfully, I don't want to know. I don't care. I do care about our project – which is currently falling apart.”

His business side kicked in.

“What's going wrong with the project?”

“Our funding has tanked because our contributor backed out, we've had five crew quit in two days, and some of our filming locations won't be available for the days we need them,” she said. “I could use your push for this. Can you come in today?”

“I...I can't just leave the house,” he stuttered. He grabbed a hair brush and a ponytail holder from his coffee table as he headed back into the kitchen. “I have responsibilities here to take care of, too.”

“I understand, Lance,” she said as he started brushing through Kayleigh's unruly curls. “But you have responsibilities to this company as well. Those have always come first and foremost before. I expect that not to change. I don't know what trouble you've gotten yourself into this time, and like I said, I don't care. I care about this project, and I care about this company. And if you can't dedicate the same amount of time and caring to it, let me know. We can always find someone who is more willing and able.”

Lance's mouth dropped open and he sighed. It was the worst possible time for something like this to come up.

“Ow,” Kayleigh said, holding her hand up to her hair as he brushed.

“Sorry baby, you've got tangles.”

“Lance?” Wendy said. “I need an answer. I don't have time for this nonsense today.”

He scrunched his face up and groaned.

“I'll...I'll be there,” he finally said. “You have to give me a few hours. But I'll be there.”

“You better be,” she said. “Or I'll run this company by myself.”

When she hung up before he could respond, he threw the phone down on the table, grunting in frustration.

“What's wrong, Daddy?” Kayleigh asked.

“Nothing, Kayleigh. Look, we gotta go somewhere, so finish eating your food and let's get you cleaned up and ready to go, okay?”

He threw her hair up into a ponytail after he had finished brushing through it and quickly downed the rest of his coffee before running up the stairs to change. He threw off the t-shirt and sweatpants and threw on a crisp white shirt, pressed slacks, and purple tie in record time. The minute he came down the stairs and checked in on Kayleigh, he ran to the side table in his living room, pulling out the Yellow Pages.

“Daycare...daycare...” he said, flipping frantically through the pages to the “D” sections.

He knew it was a long-shot to try to find a daycare center with a single opening available today, but he was at a loss for what else to do. He had no one else who could babysit. The only people he knew that he could trust to babysit were Joey and Kelly, who were all the way out in Los Angeles, and his mom and dad, who lived in Mississippi – and still weren't even aware that they might have another granddaughter.

Hopefully I can buy my way into this one, he thought to himself as he found the list of daycare centers in the book.

He ran his finger down the list, looking only by sight for a name that sounded decent, until his finger landed instinctively on one.

“Kiddie Academy,” he said, grabbing a pen and notepad and writing down the address on it. “That'll work.”

He sat down with the paper in his hand and slipped his shoes on before walking back into the kitchen. He turned to look down at Kayleigh, who was taking a drink of juice out of a glass, her mouth and fingers covered in chocolate.

He chuckled. “Let's get you cleaned up.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Where are we going?”

Lance drove, carefully looking at each street name while keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.

“I have to go into work for a few hours, so I'm taking you to this daycare center so they can watch you for me,” he said.

“Can't I stay home?” she asked.

“No,” he said with a laugh. “You are way too little to stay home by yourself.”

“Well, can I come with you?”

“Sweetie, my office is no place for a little girl,” he said, finding the right street finally and turning onto it. “There's all kinds of people and no other kids there. You'd be bored anyway.”

“But I don't want you to leave me,” she said, whining.

“It'll be okay,” he said, turning the wheel as he saw the daycare's huge sign on their storefront. “It'll only be a few hours and you'll have lots of toys and other kids to play with. Then I'll come get you.”

He parallel-parked in one of the front spots, noticing as he looked in his mirror that she was pouting in the back seat, and finally turned off the ignition. He unbuckled Kayleigh and held her against his hip as he walked up to the door, grasped the handle, and yanked.

It stopped immediately. The door was locked.

He looked over to his left to see the “Closed” sign in the window.

“Oh come on!” he said, throwing his only free arm up in frustration, letting his fist fall to the glass door. He sighed; he didn't need this thrown at him as well.

“What's wrong, Daddy?” Kayleigh asked, sensing his frustration.

“Nothing, baby,” he said. “I guess we're going home after all.”

He sat her down on the ground to walk and led her by the hand to the car, where he opened the door for her.

“Climb in and buckle yourself in, Kayleigh,” he said. “I have to make a phone call real quick.”

He pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and watched her climb into her seat with the help of his hand, closing the door when she was secure in the seat. He leaned his back against the door, scrolling through the list of names in his address book, until he finally landed on the first person he knew he could at least count on.

He pressed his finger to the name and hesitated a few seconds before pressing the green Call button, and putting the phone to his ear.

He had a feeling he would regret this.

“Hey Chris, I need a favor...”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, I'll try to be back by ten,” Lance said as he threw his coat over his shoulders. Chris had finally arrived shortly before four that afternoon, and he was in a hurry, knowing that Wendy was probably fuming by now. “I can't promise anything, but as soon as I finish cleaning up this mess I'll come back home.”

“No problem man,” Chris said.

“I appreciate this,” Lance said, grabbing his car keys. “I was desperate.”

“Wendy's pissed, huh?”

“Chris, language,” Lance lightly scolded, seeing Kayleigh on the floor playing. “But yeah, she is. I didn't know I could be threatened to get fired from my own company.”

“Ouch,” Chris said.

He walked over to the place where Kayleigh sat playing quietly.

“So kid,” Chris said, looking down at her and patting her head. “It's you and me tonight. We ordering the biggest pizza we can and watching movies 'til we fall asleep?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” she shouted. “Pizza!”

“Not too much, guys,” Lance said.

“Your dad's no fun, kid,” Chris said. “First up, Beauty and the Beast...then The Little Mermaid and some Lion King.”

“Lion King's my favorite!” Kayleigh shouted.

“Don't let her stay up too late, Chris,” Lance said. “And seriously...if she throws up pizza all over my carpet, you're cleaning it up.”

“Party pooper,” Chris said, watching Lance walk out the door.

The whole drive to the office, Lance had only his thoughts to keep him company – and the more he thought, the more angry he got. Two things had always been important to him – business and family. In the equation, family had always come first. He cared about his company, but he had new responsibilities that life had thrown his way.

He hadn't been in this child's life for the first four years; he was bound and determined to spend the next fourteen, at least, making up for it. Work was not going to stand in his way.

“Finally,” Wendy said when he walked in, as if she had been standing there waiting for him the whole time.

He could tell by her scowl that she was fuming – but so was he.

“Where the hell have you been?” she asked.

“Let's just get this done,” he said as he walked past her.

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He blinked his eyes as he put the key in his front door. It was already eleven by the time he pulled back into the driveway from work. It had taken longer to clean up the mess than he had planned for, but he had done it – and managed to keep Wendy at bay in the meantime.

“Hey,” Chris said the minute he walked in the door from the couch. “I was wondering when you'd get home.”

“Sorry, man,” Lance said, removing his coat. “Rough night.”

“No problem,” Chris responded. “We had a good time.”

“Was she good for you?” Lance asked, noticing the Disney movie still playing on the screen and the almost empty pizza box on the coffee table.

“Yep,” Chris said, popping a chip in his mouth. “She was great, in fact. Out like a light.”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “You're kidding me.”

“No,” Chris said, shaking his head. “Don't believe me?”

Lance quickly walked over to them. There, on the couch, was Kayleigh – her head resting on Chris's left leg, the stuffed puppy dog tightly clutched in her hand next to her head with its glossy eyes staring back at Lance, her thumb stuck in her mouth. She was fast asleep.

Lance's mouth dropped open and he looked up at Chris, who only stared at the television playing through the end of The Lion King and stuffed another chip in his mouth.

“How'd you do it?” he asked.

“Do what?” Chris asked, his eyes not moving from the television.

“Do what? Do this!” Lance said. “How'd you get her to go to sleep?”

“I used the Force,” Chris said with a straight face.

“Seriously dickhead, how did you do it?” Lance asked, loosening his tie. “I've gone without sleep for two nights because I couldn't get her to go to sleep. She cries out for me like, six times a night.”

“We played,” Chris said with a shrug. “I ordered pizza and breadsticks and we started a movie...she painted my fingernails and whatever. I told her it was getting close to bed time and found her pajamas and brushed her hair and her teeth. By the way, you might want to knock her of that thumb-sucking habit, I've heard it can mess up their teeth.”

“Yeah, because I'm so experienced in that too, right?” Lance said with a laugh, throwing his tie off to the side and watching it land on his loveseat.

“You're in new territory, that's all,” Chris said, watching Lance plop tiredly into the loveseat. “It's not like you've ever had to deal with children all that much. You're only 25. You've babysat for Brianna what, twice? That doesn't exactly qualify for you Parent of the Year material.”

“My whole life disqualifies me for Parent of the Year material,” Lance said. “Before this, my only consideration when buying furniture used to be will the wood match the baseboards – not is this fabric stain-resistant, or will Kayleigh fall and bump her head on this glass tabletop?”

“Well, see, you're getting it already,” Chris said, moving her head gently off his lap so he could stand up. “You know enough to know that glass tabletops aren't a good idea – that qualifies you for something.”

Lance groaned, his head falling back and his eyes closing.

“Chris, how am I ever going to do this?” he asked. “I have to make sure this kid makes it to eighteen without killing somebody or dying of starvation or something.”

“Feed her and don't give her a gun then,” Chris said, smiling.

Lance grabbed a throw pillow from his side, throwing it at Chris and narrowly missing.

“Smart ass,” he said.

“You'll manage,” Chris said, throwing his coat over his shoulders. “Hey, she's a good kid. Least she doesn't have half of Justin's genes – then you'd be fucked.”

Lance laughed. “True.”

“I gotta go,” Chris said. “Mel's parents are coming in from Arkansas tomorrow afternoon and I'm supposed to 'help' get the house together.”

“You're whipped,” Lance said as he got up and walked Chris to the door.

“I'm not whipped yet,” Chris responded. “I'm on a very short leash. With a choke collar. Hey, you suppose Mel has the stuff to get this junk off my fingernails?”

Chris held up his hand to reveal five fingers painted with pink glittery nail polish, smeared and with several missed spots. Lance couldn't help but burst into laughter.

“I'm sure she does, but are you sure? Chris, it's so purdy...it matches your eyes.”

“Yeah, haha, fuck you man,” Chris said, opening the door. “Good luck with Kayleigh.”

“Thanks, see ya,” Lance said, still chuckling as he closed the door behind Chris.

He walked over to the couch and stood in front of it, staring down at the child laying across it, still clutching the puppy dog that went everywhere with her.

His child. His. He'd actually created her. She had his dirty blonde hair, soft and shiny. Lance assumed she had her mother's blue eyes.

It bothered him that he couldn't remember a thing about this woman that he had apparently created a child with. He didn't think he was that much of a playboy. He'd had his fair share of one-night-stands in his life, especially now that he was older. Being CEO of his own company provided a lot of perks – and for him, plenty of women had been one of them. But he never thought that it had gotten so bad that he wouldn't remember one of them if they came along and told him they were pregnant – even if it was four years ago.

He leaned down and carefully picked her up, moving slow in the hopes that he wouldn't wake her up. He cradled her against his chest as her head went limp against his shoulder, her fingers tightly clutching the dog by the neck.

As he carried her carefully up the stairs, he could hear her breathing in his ear, her gently sighing every few moments. He couldn't help but smile as he carried her to her room; it was cute. He could understand why people fell in love with their children.

It might even be happening to me, he thought.

Chapter Five

Tuesday Afternoon

“I want those papers on my desk by eight in the morning or we'll be scouting a new location.”

Lance leaned back in his office chair, his legs and elbow resting on his desk.

“Yeah, yeah, that's right,” he said. “And you'll get to explain to your boss how you lost him so much money.”

He slammed the office phone back on the receiver. He groaned and covered his face with his hands, harshly rubbing his eyes.

Two o'clock – only two o'clock. It would be at least another three hours before he could pick Kayleigh up from daycare and go home to collapse on the couch. He was so tired. He could barely function.

In the four nights since Kayleigh had come to stay with him, he'd gotten less than half the sleep he needed because she kept him up. He couldn't figure it out – didn't kids need like, ten hours of sleep a night in order to be the bundles of energy they normally were? And what about the phrase “sleeping like a baby” - weren't they supposed to sleep all the time?

He'd managed to get her in at Kiddie Academy yesterday morning – barely. Money could talk and do wonderful things, and as he'd imagined, he'd had to mostly buy his way into the only extra spot they had. Or at least, he'd bought his speedy way into it.

“Is it sorted out?”

He turned to see Wendy standing in his office doorway, leaned against the door frame.

She was still mad at him; in fact, he could see it in her face now. Since Sunday, for the most part, they had done a good job of avoiding each other and letting each other do their respective jobs. She had been quite upset at him Monday morning when he'd had to come in to the office late to try to get Kayleigh into daycare, but he didn't bother trying to smooth things over with her when he'd finally made it in to work. He was far too tired to deal with it.

“For the most part,” Lance responded, willing his eyes not to close as he leaned his head back. “I'm waiting on the papers but they should be here first thing in the morning.”

“Good,” she said. “Lance, we need to talk.”

He groaned. Great, he thought.

“Wendy, I'm too tired to deal with this,” he said. “Can you ripping me a new asshole yet again wait a few days?”

“Your dedication to this company and to the job has slipped,” she said. “You're spending too much time partying.”

He scoffed. “Partying? That's what you think I'm doing?”

“I saw you at the office Christmas party on Thursday,” she said. “You were drunk beyond your own comprehension. I saw you slip out with Claire from accounting. You can't risk our business like this, Lance.”

“I'm not partying,” he said, looking at her with a smile. “Unless you think that spending your nights playing with Barbies and consoling a crying four-year-old at two in the morning is a party. In that case, by all means, crash the party – maybe I could get a decent night's worth of sleep.”

“Barbies?” she said.

“Yeah,” he responded. “Oh, didn't I tell you? I found out I have a kid. I forgot, you were too busy ripping me for not leaving her at home alone to come in and babysit the project funding.”

“You have a kid?” she asked, obviously stunned.

“Yeah,” he said, his tone becoming snide. “Funny how that happens, huh? Maybe you're right Wendy. Maybe I have been spending too much time partying.”

He was amused by her open-mouthed stare until his desk phone rang again, and he had to look away to pick it up.

“Happy Place Productions, this is Lance.”

“Hi, Mr. Bass?” a female voice said.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“This is Lisa Brooks, from Kiddie Academy. I'm calling in regards to your daughter, Kayleigh.”

He leaned up in his seat, suddenly feeling panicked.

“Is she okay? What happened?”

“Oh no sir, Kayleigh's fine,” Lisa answered. “Unfortunately, we do have a slight problem. We're going to have to ask you to come pick her up immediately.”

“I'm at work right now,” he responded. “What's wrong? Is she sick?”

“No, sir,” she responded. “I'm sorry to bother you at work, but we can't have Kayleigh here at the daycare anymore. She got into a fight with another little boy and bit him.”

“She bit him?” he asked, his mouth dropping open.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “We need you to pick her up as soon as possible.”

He sighed. “I'll be there in twenty minutes.”

Instead of waiting for a goodbye from her, he hung up the phone, standing to attention and grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair and throwing it on.

“I have to pick up Kayleigh from daycare,” he said, barely looking at Wendy. “I'll be gone the rest of the day, I have Daddy duty. Guess you'll have to learn how to be sufficient on your own.”

He breezed past her and out of his office before she could respond, leaving her still stunned.

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He picked her up from daycare, apologizing to the teacher that he talked to – which wasn't exactly his forte – and managed to smooth things over by offering to pay for any of the boy's medical bills. The whole ride home was quiet, Kayleigh in the back hanging her head and barely looking out the window, avoiding his looks.

They pulled up to the house and she unbuckled herself, rushing out of the car when he opened the door for her. The minute they got inside and he closed the door behind him, he saw her take off running toward the staircase.

“Kayleigh Jane Jackson, you get your butt back here right now,” he scolded.

She froze a couple of steps up, slowly turning around to look at him before stepping over to him.

“Why would you do something like that?”

“But Daddy...”

“Kayleigh Jane, you answer my question! Why would you do something like that?”

Looking at her dejected face, he realized...this was the first time he had ever scolded her. Or any child, for that matter.

He hated it.

“Daddy, he called me a bad name,” she said quietly.

“What did he call you?” he asked.

It was a few moments before she answered; her head hung low and the points of her toe dug into the carpet as he waited for her.

“He called me a bastard,” she said.

He noticed that her voice had changed, as if she was crying. Shortly after, he noticed the sounds of her sobbing.

He sighed and ran his hand over his face, eventually kneeling down on the carpet to her level.

“Kayleigh,” he said. “Honey...he shouldn't have said that to you. It was mean. But you can't bite him, do you understand?”

“He called mama a whore.”

Hearing the word 'whore' come out of his daughter's mouth stunned him.

“Sweetie, mama wasn't a whore,” he said. “Mama was a wonderful person. You know that.”

“But that boy said she was one.”

“That boy doesn't know mama,” he said, leaning down to look her in the eyes. “We knew mama, right? And we know better, don't we?”

“Did you ever love mama?”

He had to admit that the question took him by surprise. What could he say? He couldn't tell her the truth, that he hadn't spent enough time with her in order to love her – only enough to make a baby and then bolt. But he couldn't tell her a bold-faced lie, either.

“Why, sweetie?” he asked.

“Because that boy said you never loved mama, and you never wanted me. He said you never loved me and that's why you were never around.”

The idea that someone had told his daughter – his little girl – that he didn't love her...made his blood boil.

“Kayleigh Jane, you listen to me,” he said. “That boy doesn't know anything. Just because I wasn't around before doesn't mean I don't love you – because I'm here now. I do want you. I do love you. You got it?”

She only nodded.

“Kayleigh,” he said, softening his voice. “I love you.”

And that was it. He had changed. Five days ago he had never even imagined he would be standing in front of a four-year-old, much less telling her he loved her and meaning it.

But here he was.

He grabbed her into a hug as the tears started coming down her eyes and cheeks, lifting her up into his arms. He ran his fingers through her curly hair as she cried into his shoulder, tears staining his suit jacket.

“You're grounded from TV for a week,” he said, whispering into her ear. “But how about ice cream to make you feel better?”

He smiled as he felt her nod, even as she continued crying, and carried her into the kitchen. By the time he'd filled a bowl full of ice cream, he was wiping her tears as she ate it, smiling. He'd softened.

He was surprised when there was a knock on the door.

“I'll be right back, Kay,” he said, leaving her sitting at the island with her ice cream.

When he opened the door to see Leann Stanley, he was sure the shock registered on his face.

“Mrs. Stanley,” he said.

“Hello, Mr. Bass,” she said, smiling. “Did you forget about my home visit today?”

“I did,” he said. “You caught me unprepared.”

“That's usually what we do,” she said. “Although that certainly wasn't my intention today. May I come in?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said.

Even though he knew he had nothing to hide, he felt nervous as she walked into his house and he closed the door behind her. The only context he'd ever thought of Social Services or DCF was when it was bad, when parents weren't taking care of their kids. Being so new and unprepared for this, he was sure he was making mistakes along the way, and he didn't want those to be misconstrued and count against him. It made his stomach twist up into a knot.

“I realize that my visit today may make you nervous, especially if you forgot and I caught you unprepared,” she said, as if she was reading his mind. “I want to assure you that today I'm only coming into the home to have a look around, monitor how you guys are getting along starting out, and advise you of anything I see that may be harmful to Kayleigh to give you a chance to change it.”

“Okay, that sounds good,” he said.

“Your house is very nice, Mr. Bass,” she said, immediately looking around the living room. “Do you own it?”

“I do. I own two homes, actually – this one here and one out in Los Angeles.”

“Oh really?” she asked. “Do you go out there often?”

“Well, I used to, but I'm sure my travel time will be cut down a lot now, unless it's for business.”

“What is it that you do, Mr. Bass?” she asked, writing down things on her legal pad.

“I own a production company,” he said. “We do a lot of the work behind making movies – finding the funding, hiring and managing the crew, setting filming locations, handling pre- and post-production, things like that.”

“So you make a pretty good income then,” she said.

“It gets me by,” he said, smiling.

“How has Kayleigh handled the past few days with you?” she asked, slowly moving her way around the living room as she looked over things and wrote on her pad.

“It hasn't been too bad,” he said, putting his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket. “We're finding a routine, I think. The only problems we've had is during the night.”

“Nights not going so well?” she asked, briefly looking up.

“Sleep doesn't seem to come to her so easily,” he said.

“How do you handle things when you're feeling tired?”

He was smart enough to catch onto her.

“It's not so bad,” he said. “Sometimes she'll take a small nap during the day and I can get a few minutes of rest. The rest of the time we relax on the couch and watch a movie, read a book, that sort of thing.”

He was appeased when she only smiled in response.

“Where is Kayleigh now?” she finally asked.

“She's in the kitchen.”

“Would it be okay if we stepped in there for a few moments before I go upstairs?”

“Sure.”

He led her into the kitchen where Kayleigh was still seated on the stool at the island counter, putting big spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth. When she heard the adults enter the room, she turned.

“Miss Leann!” she yelled, smiling.

“Hi, Kayleigh,” Leann said, walking over to the counter. “Oh, you have ice cream there?”

“Yeah, want some?”

“That's okay,” Leann responded with a smile, then turned to Lance. “I assume ice cream so close to dinner isn't a regular occurrence?”

“No,” he said with a laugh. “We had a bit of a bad second day at daycare.”

“Oh yeah? What happened Kayleigh?”

“I bit a mean boy.”

Lance could feel his muscles clench.

“Is that true?” Leann asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “They had a little misunderstanding with each other. He said some things that upset her. We've had a talk about it already.”

“And I'm neeeeever gonna do it again,” Kayleigh said, looking into her bowl before putting another spoonful into her mouth.

To Lance's relief, Leann laughed. “That's good, Kayleigh.”

He watched her take a few notes before she looked up again at Kayleigh.

“Kayleigh, would you mind if we talked for a couple minutes by ourselves?” She looked over at him. “I hope that's okay with you.”

“Yeah, that's fine,” he said, feeling the nervousness in his stomach again. “I'll be in the living room.”

When he hesitantly walked out of the living room, he couldn't help but slip against the wall, hoping to listen in to their conversation.

“Kayleigh, do you like living here with Lance?” he heard Leann say.

“Yeah, Miss Leann, I really like living here.”

“Do you guys do anything fun?”

“Sometimes we watch movies. He reads me books, too. And he sits with me when I play. He likes playing dolls.”

Lance tried to stifle a laugh – it wasn't that he liked playing with her dolls. In fact, he was hard pressed to find anything more boring to do with his day. It was the fact that he liked watching her play with them; it was something so small that brought her so much joy.

“That's good, Kayleigh,” he heard Leann say. “Does he take good care of you?”

“Yeah,” Kayleigh responded. “He feeds me every night, and I take a bath, and he reads to me before I go to bed.”

“It sounds like the two of you are getting along well with each other, then,” Leann said.

“Yeah, he's my Daddy. I really love him, Miss Leann.”

Lance found himself smiling.

“Is it okay if I go with your Daddy upstairs and see your room, Kayleigh?”

Lance walked quickly away from the wall in an effort to at least look like he hadn't been eavesdropping, and only smiled at Leann when she entered the living room again.

“Would you mind if we go upstairs and check over everything?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he said, leading her up the stairs.

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“So everything looks pretty good,” she finally said as she came back down the stairs with him following. “I have a list of some things that I'll need you to fix, but they're pretty basic. They're simple safety precautions that you should take to child-proof the house for Kayleigh, since she's so young. I won't be back again until after the Christmas holiday to check, so you have another couple of weeks to do everything.”

He nodded. She had gone upstairs to check through all the rooms – he could only assume to make sure that everything was clean and she had a real bed to sleep in. All the while, he could only wonder what she was writing on her yellow legal pad.

“And don't worry, you're not in trouble for anything on this list,” she said, ripping a page off the pad before handing it over to him. “I understand that all of this was unexpected and you didn't have an opportunity to plan for it. We're simply giving you this opportunity to fix these things.”

He glanced briefly over the list she had given him – it was basic and he couldn't say he was surprised by anything she had listed. Drawer and cabinet locks, locks for medicine cabinets, poisonous substances put into only locked cabinets or high places, covers for electrical sockets...

“I can definitely manage this,” he said.

“I figured you could,” she said, smiling. “That's a basic list I've written out for you but I'll have a more formal copy available in your records, if you need one. I think I'm done for the day, so I'll get out of your hair for now.”

“I appreciate your help,” he said, folding the list in half. “I love having Kayleigh around here, so anything I can do to make it better for her, I'll gladly do.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” she said. “She seems to enjoy being here with you.”

She turned and headed for the door.

“I'll let myself out. Thanks for being so welcoming, Mr. Bass. I'll see you again in two weeks.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Stanley.”

He walked slowly to the door as she opened it and walked out, grabbing the doorknob and closing it behind her. After he was sure she was gone, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

He had successfully survived his first encounter with Social Services.

Chapter Six

“Okay, Kayleigh, you're going to be good for me today, right?” he asked as he opened the back passenger door, looking at her. “I'm not gonna have any problems, am I?”

“Not today, Daddy,” she said, smiling.

“Good girl,” he said, reaching over to unbuckle her.

After the incident the day before, Kiddie Academy could no longer take Kayleigh as one of their children. Leave it to my child to get kicked out of daycare on her second day, he thought to himself. Because of it, he had no one to send Kayleigh to this Wednesday morning, and he had things in the office he couldn't tear himself away from until this afternoon.

He had no choice but to bring her to work this morning and find a new daycare this afternoon. He knew a boring office wouldn't be the best place for her, but with a small backpack strapped to her back full of a few toys and coloring books, he hoped he could manage to keep her occupied long enough to get only what was necessary done.

“Is this where you work, Daddy?” Kayleigh asked as he held her, gripping tightly onto his tie.

“Yep,” he said. “And I work with lots of girls. And I bet they're going to love you.”

He opened the front door entering the lobby, and wasn't surprised that the first reaction came within seconds.

“Mr. Bass, you have a call on line – oh my goodness!” the front desk girl, Britney said, holding the phone away from her ear as she yelled. “Who is this adorable little girl?”

“This is my daughter,” he said. “But Britney?”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Phone,” he said with a smile.

She glanced over at the phone she held in her hand, still on the line. “Oh, sorry sir!”

He could only chuckle as she went back to the phone, hearing her apologize to the caller as he walked through the door to the back offices.

The minute he walked through the door to the room where most of the girls worked, he wasn't surprised to get much the same reaction.

“Mr. Bass!” Christy, the advertising manager, exclaimed, immediately getting up from her desk. “You brought a little girl to work!”

“Oh, who is she?” Reagan, an assistant said, following Christy.

“Guys, this is my daughter, Kayleigh,” he said. “She had to come in with me for a couple hours today while I find her another daycare center.”

“I didn't know you had a daughter!” Julie from accounting squealed.

Neither did I until five days ago, Lance thought with a smile.

“She's been staying with her mother,” he said, choosing to avoid bringing his personal life into the office. “But now I have her.”

“She's so cute,” Claire, who had followed the others, said. “How old is she?”

“She's four,” Lance said, setting her down on the ground. “But ladies, I don't want you to be distracted from your work while she's here. Understand?”

He watched as his words fell on the deaf ears of the girls, who had already gathered around Kayleigh as she ran over to greet her new fans.

“It's like you brought bait to the shark tank.”

Lance looked over to his side to see Wendy had come up next to him. He was surprised to see her smiling.

“Sorry,” he said. “She got kicked out of daycare yesterday so I don't have anyone to watch her. I had work to do this morning so I won't be able to go find her a new daycare until this afternoon.”

“She's cute, Lance,” she said, and he glanced over at his business partner. “She looks like you.”

“Good, then I'm not seeing it wishfully,” he said.

“I heard about what happened,” Wendy said. “I'm sorry to hear about her mom.”

“I wish I'd have known her better,” he responded. “I have to plan her funeral and...I was so unprepared for all of this.”

“When do you find out the results of the paternity test?”

“Hopefully today,” he said. “But, you know, I don't think I need them. I think I know anyway.”

“I'm sorry about the way that I acted the other day,” she said. “I didn't know about everything. I was so worried about our project falling apart, and I didn't think that whatever was going on in your personal life was so serious. I thought it was you being you again.”

“I'll take that as an insult,” he said with a laugh. “But I know what you mean. I've had my head up my ass too much lately. You were right. I'm going to change, Wendy. I have to change – I have to do what's best for Kayleigh now.”

“Well, if you need anything,” Wendy said, turning slightly to him, “let me know. Okay?”

He grinned. “Thanks Wendy.”

“Now get that gaggle of girls back to work,” she said, pointing to the staff gathered around as Kayleigh entertained them. He could only laugh.

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“Here's the place, Kay,” he said as he pulled into the first available parking space, seeing the sign. “Sunny Acres.”

“Is this going to be my new dayplace, Daddy?” she asked from her seat, looking up front to him from behind her yellow sunglasses that were oversized for her face.

“As long as you can be good,” he said, removing his own sunglasses. “Think you can manage not to bite anyone this time, Mike Tyson?”

“Who's Mike Tyson?” she asked, scrunching up her nose.

“Never mind,” he said with a laugh.

The minute he entered the daycare, he noticed the difference between this one and the one she had previously been at. Kiddie Academy wasn't bad, but its appearance was lacking. The place had stark white walls and no imagination; nothing like he would expect a place that took care of children to look like.

Sunny Acres was exactly that...sunny. Every wall was painted a different color of the rainbow, and cartoon characters decorated every spot, including the base of the front desk where the secretary, a peppy-looking blonde woman, sat taking a phone call. He immediately heard kids chattering, laughing, and running around, clearly having fun. Kayleigh quickly ran off to join them as he stepped up to the front desk.

“Hi, can I help you?” the blonde said when she placed the phone back on the receiver.

“I had an appointment today,” he said. “I talked with a woman – a teacher here, I think. Parker, maybe?”

“Ahh yeah, Rayne,” she said with a smile. “Hold on, let me get her for you.”

He leaned against the counter as the woman walked away to another room full of children laughing and playing, watching as Kayleigh sat down in the middle of a play area with a few other children.

She looked happy. He wasn't surprised; this was what kids needed, from what he could tell. It looked like the perfect place for her.

He saw the blonde walk back in and sucked in a breath when she stepped out of the way.

Following her was possibly the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

“Hi, Mr. Bass,” she said, holding out her hand to him as she walked up with a smile. “My name is Rayne Parker. I'll be Kayleigh's teacher.”

“Uh...hi,” he said, finally remembering to grab her hand to shake it. “Rayne.”

“Kayleigh seems like a sweet little girl, we're happy to have her here at Sunny Acres,” she said.

“Yeah, she is a pretty good kid,” he said. “I hope she doesn't give you the same issues she did at her last daycare.”

“Oh? What kind of issues were those?” she asked.

God, she was so gorgeous. She wore a long floral print skirt with a silky white blouse, her dark brunette hair pulled up in a clip. Her reading glasses were propped up on her forehead, and jingle bell earrings dangled from her delicate ears – looking cute and teacher-like, but not tacky. Her smell...he could smell her perfume from here.

He was suddenly aware that he hadn't gotten laid in almost a week.

Get a grip, Lance, he thought.

“Um...well she's had a bit of a rough time adjusting,” he said. “She's not used to me, and she's dealing with the death of her mother at the same time.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that,” she said. “Your wife?”

“Uh...not quite,” he said. “She got sent to me because my name was on her birth certificate. Lacey kind of raised her alone. In fact, I didn't even know I had a daughter until five days ago.”

“Oh, I see,” she said. “Well, that's a unique situation to find yourself in, I guess. How are you two managing?”

He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He was tempted to take off his jacket, feeling like the heat in the room had been turned up, but he resisted, trying to focus on the conversation with her.

“Not bad so far,” he said, taking a deep breath. “We've had a couple of bumps – she's having some trouble with nightmares and sleeping at night, and she bit a kid the other day at her other daycare. I hope that's not going to be a problem.”

“In her situation, I think a little acting out is to be expected,” she said. “It's nothing I haven't seen before, and in fact, I've seen a lot worse. I don't think it will be a problem at all.”

God, she was attractive and good with kids. He was in trouble.

“Would you like me to take you on a tour of the facility?” she asked. “I have a few moments to spare.”

Don't do it, his brain screamed.

“I would love to do that,” he said, immediately realizing his mistake.

Idiot!

“Follow me,” she said with a smile, holding her hand out cordially to lead him through the room.

Walking next to her through the daycare, he tried to focus on anything – looking around at the environment, listening to her talk – to keep himself from looking straight at her.

“We're a Montessori education-based daycare, so we focus a lot on the kids having the freedom to express themselves in the way they see fit, as long as it doesn't affect the safety and well-being of the other children,” she said. “Our teachers take into consideration each child's personal developmental level and their psychological and social developmental levels as well – which is why this is the perfect environment for Kayleigh right now. I can work with her through any behavioral issues on a personal level, unlike a lot of other daycare providers.”

“Mmm-hmm,” he managed to say.

“We let the children choose their own activities within our educational guidelines. Our goal here is to prepare them for preschool, kindergarten and beyond into elementary school. We focus on giving them the tools and experience they need for their first few years entering into the more structured environment of public or private schooling while still allowing them a place to have the freedom to play, as children should.”

“Uh-huh.”

“This is an important stage in Kayleigh's development. She's at about the right age that she'll be entering into kindergarten and it's important to ease her into the change gradually. When will she be starting school, Mr. Bass?”

He was unaware that she was staring at him, while he walked along freely next to her, watching his surroundings.

“Mr. Bass?” she asked, touching his arm lightly.

“Yeah?” he said, turning around with a jump at the touch.

“Do you know when Kayleigh will be entering kindergarten?” she asked, smiling at him.

He breathed deeply, unprepared to have to look at her again.

“Um, I'm not sure,” he said. “In a year, I guess?”

“Will she be attending a public school or will you be sending her to a private one?”

“I haven't really...thought that far ahead,” he said. “You know, five days – I'm still working on getting her to eat food instead of wearing it.”

She laughed. “Of course. Well we can help you make the decision on school as well, if you'd like us to.”

Smoooooooth, Bass, he thought to himself. Real smooth.

“Would you like to peek in on one of our classrooms while the children are here?”

“Sure,” he responded.

As she walked ahead of him toward the classroom door, he tried to collect himself. He was making a jackass out of himself in front of this woman. She had to think he was a complete moron by the way he was acting.

“This is one of our main classrooms, it might be a little...oh!”

As she opened the door, three kids ran through, barely giving them both time to move.

“It gets a little crazy around here,” she said with a laugh.

“You seem to handle it well, though,” he said. “How long have you been teaching?”

“Four years, and this will be my second here.”

“Wow,” he said. “You don't look old enough.”

The minute he said it, he cringed. His goodfella Southern upbringing always told him you never questioned a woman on two things – her weight, and her age. Even if it sounded relatively positive and you were underestimating...you would never be right, in one way or another.

To his relief, she only laughed.

“I'm 25,” she said. “I interned for a year and worked in elementary another year – but I much prefer the setting I'm in now.”

As they stepped into the teaching room, he finally snapped out of his daze to get a good look around the room. It looked much like the room they had come from with the walls painted bright colors, and children milled around a floor covered with playmats and toys. It was loud and chaotic to him, but he was surprised that all the children looked well-behaved, keeping themselves entertained.

“Have you always wanted to be a teacher?” he asked. “Have you ever wanted to do anything else?”

“As far back as I can remember, I've loved kids,” she said. “Teaching seemed like the most sensible profession to go into, and I felt like I could reach kids who might need something more than a teacher.”

“Kayleigh definitely needs more than a teacher,” Lance said. At that moment, Kayleigh ran up to his side quietly, and he rested his hands on her shoulders. “I woke up one morning a regular guy, and when I went to bed I was a dad. I'm still finding my way, and I have no idea where I'm going.”

“You'll find your way,” she said with a smile. “I don't know you well, obviously – but I can tell you love Kayleigh and care for her. That's a step above a lot of parents. You'll figure out the rest with time.”

He smiled and was about to respond with a thank you when his phone rang from his jacket pocket. He sent her an apologetic look as he reached in to grab it, holding it up and seeing on the ID a call from a name he had been waiting to get all day.

“I'm sorry, I have to take this,” he said to her.

“No problem. Kayleigh, you want to come with me and see your classroom?”

Rayne walked away into the classroom tightly holding Kayleigh's hand, and Lance slipped out of the doorway, putting the phone to his ear.

“Ben,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Hey. Did you get anything?”

“I did in fact,” Ben responded. “Are you ready to hear the results?”

Lance paused a moment, inhaling a breath deeply. Whatever was the next thing to come out of his lawyer's mouth would determine Lance's fate for the rest of his life. If Kayleigh was his daughter, he was responsible for another human being's life, safety, and happiness – when sometimes he could barely take care of his own. If she wasn't his daughter, he would have no choice but to let her go and make sure that she went to her real father, wherever and whoever he was, the person she belonged with.

He still wasn't sure what would make him happier.

“Yeah,” he said, holding in the breath. “I am.”

“She's absolutely your daughter.”

Lance was surprised when he released the breath, and along with it came a chuckle and a smile.

“Thank you, Ben,” he said, unable to believe the joyful feeling making its way through his body.

“No problem,” Ben said. “If you need anything else, feel free to let me know, Lance.”

Lance hung up without a goodbye, taking a moment of peace to himself to process the news. She was his daughter; and it was without a doubt now. He'd had five days to get used to it, but it was something he didn't think he would be able to get used to this quickly. To his surprise, he was happy. He never would have expected it himself.

He shoved the phone back in his pocket and walked back to the doorway of the classroom, stopping and leaning against the door frame when he saw Kayleigh and Rayne together. For the first time since she had been with him, Kayleigh looked happy. The way she looked at Rayne with a smile – he knew this was the right place for her.

Rayne looked up and seeing Lance, grabbed Kayleigh's hand and led her over to the door where he stood.

“Everything is okay, I hope,” she said.

He smiled. “Everything's perfect.”

Chapter Seven

Saturday, December 18, 2004

“You're such a stuttering dumbass.”

Lance took a swig of beer as he rolled his eyes.

“Thanks for the confidence boost, Chris,” he said. “That really helped me.”

“You could have gotten into her pants,” Chris said, popping the cap off his own beer bottle.

“The teacher, Chris?” Lance responded. “Really?”

“Hey, behind those reading glasses and that librarian look, there might be a freak hiding,” he said. “If you're lucky, she might smack your ass with the ruler instead of your hand.”

“Yeah, thanks, maybe that floats your boat,” Lance said, raising an eyebrow at his friend, “but not mine.”

Chris shrugged.

“Besides, I'm trying to grow up,” Lance replied. “I've got another person's life to take care of now. That's huge. I don't have time for hit it and quit it anymore. Work and my daughter, that's my life now.”

“So you're not even going to date?”

“Date, maybe,” Lance said, “but not sleep around with every woman I meet. I actually want to attempt to set a good example for this little person who now lives inside my house.”

“So who says you just sleep with her?” Chris asked. “Ask her out.”

Lance gave Chris a dumbfounded look.

“What do you have going on up there in that head of yours?” he asked. “Is it two baboons playing poker? 'Cause if that's it, JC owes me fifty bucks.”

“Hey, I'm offended that I wasn't asked to join in on the pool,” Chris said.

“Nyeah,” Lance said, brushing Chris off with a wave of his hand.

“I was serious,” Chris said. “You said she was beautiful – the most gorgeous creature you'd ever seen, if I remember correctly. She's amazing with kids – and now you have one. I'm surprised she's not foaming at the mouth for you – chicks dig that single father shit.”

Lance shook his head as Chris tipped the bottle back to his mouth. “I toured with pigs for eight years. No wonder I turned out the way I did.”

“Hey, I'm not that bad of an influence,” Chris said in defense. “Especially when you take into consideration what Joey was like.”

“Yeah, and Joey's married now. He actually grew up. You've been dating Mel for what, three years now? You guys are serious, you live together. Justin and Britney were totally in love for years, even though it didn't work out for them. JC and Bobbie dated for a long time. What do I have? A four-year-old, serious commitment issues, a laundry list of one-night-stands...and one who's dead.”

“Man, is that what this is about?” Chris asked. “Lacey? That was said and done five years ago, left back in whatever city we played in the night it happened. You know how it was back then. None of us thought we had the time for commitments. We were always gone, it was impossible to even go out on a date without getting mobbed by fans, you never knew when someone was serious about you or whether they were a gold-digger. What happened and how it all went down...it wasn't your fault.”

“It takes two to tango,” Lance said after taking another drink. “I'm as much to blame as anybody is – probably more. It should have been my responsibility to use something – or not do it at all.”

“She made the choice, too,” Chris said. “None of the girls we've slept with were forced to sleep with us. It was consensual all the way. And you've always been responsible and careful about it – maybe this happened to be the time the condom broke. You catch her at the right time of the month, bad timing all around, and oops! You have an accident. And she calls you Daddy now.”

“Could be,” Lance said with a slight nod. “Or could be that I lost my head, decided one night of being irresponsible wasn't going to ruin my entire life, and look at where I am now. I love Kayleigh, but...”

“Did you ever consider that there may have been a reason she never came after you for child support, Lance?” Chris asked. “That maybe she realized she was as much to blame as you were? That maybe she didn't blame you at all? It's not like it takes a rocket scientist or an armed guard to go to the media and tell them a celebrity is your baby daddy, because women do it all the time. And she is your daughter, so it wouldn't have been an unsubstantiated claim. She could have taken you for all you had, man. But she didn't.”

“I feel bad,” Lance said. “She had to do this all by herself. It's only been a week and I'm exhausted – and I don't have to deal with diapers and bottles and all that stuff. She had to do that, plus work, plus go to school, all by herself. I didn't do anything, I got off easy, and it doesn't seem fair.”

“Lance, you're a good guy,” Chris responded. “Almost too good. You shouldn't kill yourself feeling bad when you had no way of knowing and she could have cashed in her easy ticket at any time and gotten child support from you. She could have gotten money and wouldn't have had to do all that by herself, but she didn't. And there's a reason.”

“I'll focus on that when I get through the funeral tomorrow,” Lance said.

“Hey, we'll be there for you,” Chris said as he stood up from the kitchen table and walked over to the counter. “You know we will.”

Chris pulled on the utensil drawer, only to have it stop before opening.

“Your drawer's stuck dude,” he said, turning to Lance.

“No, it's not,” Lance said. “It's called a child safety lock, Chris. There's a special way you have to get into it.”

“What do you have to do, tell it that it's pretty and promise you'll call in the morning?”

“No,” Lance said with a laugh, getting up. “You have to do this.”

Lance walked over and pushed the tab on the lock, pulling the drawer out in an instant.

“Why don't you post a bouncer at your kitchen doorway to check ID?” Chris said. “Damn. You have to be smart now to make a sandwich in Lance's house.”

“In that case, I'm putting a safety lock on everything,” Lance said with a smile, dodging a dirty look from Chris.

As Lance walked back to the table to take his seat, Kayleigh ran through, nearly colliding with his legs.

“Whoa small fry,” he said. “No running in the house.”

“Daddy, why don't we have a Christmas tree?” she asked.

Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Um...I don't know Kay, I've never had a Christmas tree. I guess I've never thought about it.”

“Well, my daycare has one,” she said, climbing into the chair next to him with her messy pigtails bouncing over her ears.

“Kay, this isn't your daycare,” he said, laughing.

“I think we should have one, Daddy.”

“Hey Lance, there's your in,” Chris said from the counter.

Lance turned in his chair to look at him. “What are you talking about now?”

“That's your ticket in,” Chris said, looking up from making his sandwich. “You don't have Christmas decorations, Kayleigh wants them. Ask Rayne to help you shop and decorate – because we all know you're not a decorator.”

“I managed to put together this place by myself. It's not so bad.”

“It's a high-end frat house,” Chris said. “The hideous child safety whatchamacallits improve the look of the house.”

“So in other words, make myself look completely incompetent, and she'll fall all over herself with desire for me,” Lance said. “Yeah, Chris, sounds like a solid plan. Make sure to tell that story in the toast at our wedding, okay?”

“Hey, there's two things that women go in for,” Chris said, walking back to his seat at the table with his sandwich in hand. “Single dads, and pathetic, incompetent men. And if you're both, you're locked in.”

Lance rolled his eyes and watched Kayleigh climb off the chair and walk to the fridge, opening it.

“Hey, Pez Junior.”

Kayleigh turned to face Chris as she shut the refrigerator door silently.

“Do you like your teacher?” Chris asked.

“Miss Rayne is lots of fun,” she responded.

“Wouldn't it be cool if she was here a lot? Spending time with you and your dad?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What would you think of your dad dating Miss Rayne?” Chris asked.

“Chris!” Lance protested. “Don't ask her that!”

“Why not?” Chris asked, turning back to Lance.

“Don't drag my four-year-old into my love life,” Lance said.

“What's dating?” Kayleigh asked, still looking at Chris.

“It's like, when your dad takes Miss Rayne out for dinner,” Chris said. “And then they go see a movie. And then your dad brings her back here and--”

“Chris!” Lance scolded.

“I was gonna say gives her a kiss goodnight, jeez Mary Sue,” Chris said.

“Daddy,” Kayleigh said, turning to Lance.

“Yeah, Princess?” he asked.

“I think you should take Miss Rayne to dinner,” she said. “It would be nice. And Miss Rayne has to eat or she'll be hungry. And it wouldn't be nice if you let her get hungry. And you told me I always have to be nice.”

Lance watched her walk out of the room, dumbstruck as Chris tried to control his laughter.

“She's got you there,” he finally said. “You can't be beat by the wisdom of a four-year-old, dude. Now you gotta take her out.”

“Thanks, asshole,” Lance said. “Get out of my house.”

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Sunday, December 19, 2004

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

Lance held Kayleigh against his shoulder, feeling Chris's girlfriend Melissa's hand rub against his back soothingly.

“I'm so sorry, Lance.”

It was what people had said to him all day, as if he had five years of invested emotions. He didn't, but in many ways, he was feeling as if he had five years of invested emotions that had grown like bacteria overnight and were presenting themselves now, at this moment.

Kayleigh was too young to cry, he realized. She only understood that her mother was dead, and didn't understand the concept of a funeral being a time for grieving and closure. He had debated asking one of the girls at work to babysit for a couple of hours and leaving her at home, but in the end he felt it was important to give her the opportunity to attend. He didn't want her to get older and find the emotions of not being able to go to her own mother's funeral come back to haunt her.

He didn't cry either. He hadn't expected himself to cry; there were no feelings for this woman to cry over, with the exception of whatever he felt for her the night he had slept with her and what had snuck up on him the past week since he'd found out they had a child together.

All of his feelings came down to one thing – guilt. It wasn't the guilt of not being a responsible father for the past four years, or the guilt of never knowing he even had a daughter. Today, it was simply the guilt of not getting to know this woman better.

They shared something so special – the girl he held tightly to his body right now, occasionally kissing her cheek and forehead. The girl he loved giving a bath every night, watching her run up the stairs in her pink sheep pajamas with the feet in them, brushing through her hair every morning and learning to braid hair and tie a mean ponytail. He loved that girl, and Lacey had loved her as well. It was one bond he could say that they shared.

It was the finality that that was the only bond they would ever share that got to him. He could never rewind the clock, get her phone number, take her out on a date. He could never be on the receiving end of the call telling him she was pregnant. He could never attempt to make it work between them, never have the chance to fall in love with her...possibly marry her.

What could have become if he had done things differently haunted him.

The service ended and he looked down to realize that Kayleigh had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He only wished today could be that innocent for him.

As he was turning around to follow Chris and Melissa back to their car, he saw her. Standing a few feet away from them, wearing a long black dress with her hair pulled up, was Rayne.

He was frozen solid in shock as she saw his eyes connect with her and she made the few steps towards him.

“Miss Parker, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Oh please, call me Rayne, you're not one of my students,” she said, a hint of a smile on her face. “I know you weren't expecting me, but I thought you and Kayleigh could use someone who cared enough to show up.”

“Wow,” he said, dumbfounded. “I...we appreciate that. You didn't have to come.”

“I just...knew today might be hard. Especially for Kayleigh,” she said. She looked down at the sleeping toddler against his shoulder and brushed a strand of loose hair out of her face. “Fell asleep, huh?”

“Yeah, she did,” he replied. “I guess funerals aren't the same for little people as they are for adults.”

Rayne looked up when Melissa stepped up to them.

“Want me to take her to the car, Lance?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said, gently situating Kayleigh into her arms, trying not to wake her. “Thanks, Mel.”

When Kayleigh's face fell back into place against her shoulder with only a gentle sigh, Melissa smiled and carefully started walking toward the car, where Chris stood waiting.

“So it looks like Kayleigh's doing okay,” Rayne said when they were alone. “How are you?”

“I could lie, but I'm not in the mood,” he said with a sigh. “I don't know.”

“How well did you know her?” she asked.

“I...didn't.”

She briefly looked down at the ground.

“You shouldn't let it bother you,” she finally said. “Life hands us lemons. We choose what we do with them. Some of us make lemonade and some of us chuck them at people because it's the only way we can find humor in it.”

Despite the setting, he couldn't help but laugh.

“Most guys wouldn't do what you're doing now,” she said. “Some guys find out they're fathers unexpectedly and decide it's too much work and never bother to make an effort or grow up. You're making an effort, and you're doing a great job at it. That's an amazing thing in itself, Lance.”

It didn't slip from him that it was the first time she had called him by his first name.

“Thanks, Rayne,” he said. “And I appreciate what you did here. Lacey was a foster child, and was estranged from her foster parents. She didn't have any other family. I didn't know how to contact any of her friends either. It was only us. Having someone like you here...makes me feel better about it.”

“If you need anything,” she said, “you can call me. Anything at all. I want to help you.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

“I'll see you and Kayleigh tomorrow when you drop her off, then,” she said. He wasn't expecting it when she lifted her arm and gently touched his shoulder. “Bye.”

“Bye,” he said hesitantly.

And then, as quick as he had noticed her presence, she walked away from him – not knowing what she had done for him at a moment when he needed it desperately.

Melissa and Chris were leaning against the car when he walked through the cemetery towards them.

“Well, that looked cozy,” Chris said. “You two have any...big plans?”

Melissa elbowed him in the side harshly.

“We're at a funeral,” she said. “You need the filter between your brain and your mouth replaced; it's dirty.”

“What'd I say?” he said.

Melissa only shook her head at him and turned to Lance.

“It was nice of her to come, Lance,” she said. “She sounds like a great person. You shouldn't let that one go.”

Chris and Melissa both went to their respective car doors, opening them to duck inside out of the slightly chilly Orlando air. But Lance could only stare in Rayne's direction, watching her get into her car.

“Yeah,” he said, mostly to himself. “I really shouldn't. And I don't think I will.”

Chapter 8

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

“Play it again, Daddy!”

Lance looked up in the rear view mirror.

“Kayleigh, I've played it five times already,” he said. “Besides, we're almost there.”

“Daddy.”

He glanced up in the mirror again and behind his sunglasses, saw his daughter with her arms crossed over her strapped-in chest, giving him a death glare in the mirror.

“Play it again,” she said.

“Such a look,” he said. “Fine, drama queen.”

He pressed the seek button on the console and saw her immediate satisfaction when Justin's voice came over the player.

“Dirty pop!” she sang along with it.

He leaned back in his seat and when he stopped at the next light, looked up in the mirror again. He couldn't help but laugh watching her bob her head to the music, watching her mouth move with the lyrics as she sang them the best she could.

“It doesn't matter...” Despite her best efforts, the music moved too fast and she could only mumble the rest of the line. “It doesn't matter...”

“Any hope of you replacing Justin in the group is out, little girl,” Lance said, glancing at her.

“What, Daddy?” she asked, stopping mid-song.

He smiled. “Nothing, Princess.”

He listened to her sing as he pulled in next to the daycare, parallel parking in his usual spot.

He was just closing her car door and watching her walk around the car to the door when he saw Rayne step out of the door.

“Can I speak to you for a moment?” she asked.

“Uh...yeah,” he stuttered.

Rayne disappeared into the center and as he stepped up to the curb, he looked at his daughter, standing next to the car with her backpack strapped to her back.

“What'd you do now?” he asked, a hint of a smile on his face.

She giggled. “Daddy, it wasn't me.”

The minute he opened the door, Kayleigh ran into the center and towards her classroom, where kids were running, playing, and making plenty of noise. It was something he was used to now; in fact, it would be odd now not to step into a classroom full of screaming and running four-year-olds.

Rayne was standing at the front desk and when he stepped inside, she looked up at him as she handed the lady behind the desk a folder.

“How are you today?” she asked.

Despite her obvious manners, the look on her face he read told him she was not happy.

“That depends,” he said. “Why do I feel like I'm about to get in trouble?”

She paused. “Kayleigh said something yesterday. About you.”

“Oh, crap,” he said.

“She said something about you taking me out on a date.”

He paused a moment before letting out a loud chuckle.

“What's so funny?” she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

“That's it?” he said.

“What do you mean, 'that's it'?” she asked.

“She got kicked out of her last daycare for biting a kid,” he responded. “I mean, I thought you were gonna say that she like, I don't know, pledged a gang or got a prison tattoo or something.”

“You don't take this seriously, Mr. Bass?”

He cleared his throat, noticing he was no longer 'Lance'.

“Well, of course, Ms. Parker,” he said. “But – what's that phrase? Kids say the darndest things? I mean, she's four.”

“Where would she pick that idea up, exactly?” she asked.

“I...I had a friend over on Saturday,” he said. “My friend Chris. And Chris is...he's stupid.”

He paused to judge her look; she didn't crack a smile or even a grin.

“He might have said something about it. Just being Chris, as usual. And he might have asked her about it, if it would be okay with her.”

“If what would be okay with her?” she asked.

“Well, you know, if it would be weird, or if she thought it would be cool,” he said. “To have you around outside of daycare. She said it would be cool, and I should take you out to dinner.”

She sighed. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Mmm-hmm,” he mumbled, slightly nodding his head.

“Were you planning on asking me if it was cool with me, or was Kayleigh and Chris's approval all you needed?”

“You're mad,” he stated.

“I don't date my student's parents,” she said. “And I especially wouldn't date you.”

“Whoa,” he said, suddenly taken back. “What's wrong with me?”

“I see right through you, Lance,” she said. “I know what you're like. I know this game you play. And I'm not stupid enough to fall for it.”

“What I'm 'like'?” he asked, offended.

“I know that you're new at this,” she said, her voice lowered. “So I'm going to cut you a little slack on this one. But you need to be aware that putting ideas like this in a child's head sometimes isn't a good thing to do.”

“I didn't put it in her head,” he said defensively. “My friend was being an idiot and joking around like he always does. She caught the tail-end of a conversation that was between me and him.”

“Just don't let it happen again,” she said, letting her arms fall to her side.

She turned on her heels, clearly frustrated, and started to walk away when he remembered.

“Oh, Rayne--”

She turned, her eyes narrowed at him.

“Sorry, Ms. Parker,” he corrected. “It's probably not the best time to ask you, but...I wanted to ask you for a favor.”

“A favor,” she said. “You want me to do you a favor, really?”

“A big favor,” he said, his desperation coming out in his tone.

“What is it?”

“Christmas is coming. And I'm...clueless,” he said with a chuckle. “I haven't really celebrated Christmas in years. I don't do decorations and I really don't do presents very well. My sister tells me what to get her kids for Christmas and that's what I get. I've never had to do this on my own.”

“And what do you want from me?” she asked.

“Help me make Kayleigh's first Christmas with me special,” he said, softening his voice. “Help me shop for presents and decorate the house. She's already had to deal with so much this month. Christmas is sacred to a kid, and I don't want to be the one to ruin that for her. I finally have her trust, and I don't want to mess this up, but I need help.”

She pursed her lips, her chest rising deeply before letting out the breath through her nose.

“I'm desperate, Ms. Parker,” he said. “I'm not asking for me. I'm asking for Kayleigh.”

She slightly rolled her eyes; chances are it wasn't at his desperate plea, but instead of the guilt trip he was laying on her. But he meant every word of it. He wanted to make his daughter's first Christmas with him everything she hoped for. He didn't want the holiday to be another disappointment to add to all the other issues she had to work through.

Rayne sighed. “I'm free at seven. Will that work for you?”

“Of course,” he said with a nod.

“Meet me downtown around that time,” she said. “In front of the Starbucks. If you're late, I'm not waiting for you.”

“I won't be late,” he said.

“Then, I'll see you at seven.”

Before he could respond, she turned around and started walking away, back towards the classroom where the children were running.

He sighed, shaking his head before jangling his car keys in his hand and walking back out the door.

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He made sure to be downtown by ten minutes before seven, which was just enough time to slip into the Starbucks to get a coffee and slip back out to wait for her with a couple minutes to spare. He didn't want to risk being just a couple minutes late and her immediately leaving if she didn't see him – especially after the way she had approached him that morning.

After he had left the daycare – with his proverbial tail tucked between his legs, no less – and gone to work, he started thinking about Rayne's behavior. He realized there was something odd about it. Sure, he hadn't known her very long, but every encounter they've ever had with each other had been cordial and warm. Not only that, but he had learned – from Rayne – that Kayleigh was quite a storyteller with a bit of an overactive imagination, and she was always saying off-the-wall things during the school day that her and the other teachers brushed off and laughed about. It was entertainment to them, from what he heard, and there had never been a time that he had been confronted about a problem with one of her wild stories.

There was definitely something weird about her reaction. In fact, after thinking it over for hours at his desk, she had almost taken a defensive, protective stance against him.

And after a bit more of thinking, it led him to believe that it wasn't at all about Kayleigh. But if it wasn't about Kayleigh – what was it about?

He had no more time to think about it as after a few minutes of standing outside the Starbucks, he saw her walking toward him in the parking lot.

“You're actually here,” she said as she threw her purse over her shoulder.

“I told you I would be,” he said.

“I guess maybe you do keep your word sometimes,” she said as she threw a light scarf around her neck.

The days in Florida during the so-called “winter” weren't too bad, being in a mostly tropical climate, but the nights had a tendency to get slightly chilly, especially now that they were so deep into the winter season. Even he had thrown on a medium-weight coat and grabbed a scarf, laying it lazily around his neck before he left the house that night.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked her. “What is up with you lately? The other day we were friends. Now it's like...I killed your dog or something.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I guess...I guess I'm just grumpy lately, that's all.”

“Grumpy?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.

“How about we just get this done,” she said.

He was dumbfounded when she went quiet and serene, turning and walking away from him. Nevertheless, he turned to follow her.

“So, do you have any ideas what she might want for Christmas?” she asked as they walked.

“Not a clue,” he responded. “I've known her all of ten days.”

“Well, let's start with something easy,” she said. “What's her favorite color?”

“Pink,” he said matter-of-factly. “My house looks like it puked up pink all over the place.”

She laughed. “We can work with pink.”

An hour and a half and almost three-hundred dollars later, he was fully loaded down with all the things that Rayne had deemed necessary for a four-year-old to have.

“Barbie's Dream House costs a lot more than I remembered,” he said as he loaded the last of the boxes and bags into the back of his SUV and shut the hatch.

“Inflation has hit us all hard,” she said with a smile.

“Poor Ken,” he said, throwing his keys in the air before catching them. “He's working seventy hours a week just to pay for the Dream House, the Dream Car, and all those expensive clothes and shoes. Barbie's a selfish, shallow bitch.”

“Wow, how have you never been married before?” she asked sarcastically.

“Give me a break,” he said as they started walking away from the parking lot. They had already decided to load the presents into his car and grab a bite to eat at the Chili's across from the outlet mall they had been walking. “You have to admit that there are some women out there who don't care about men for their looks or personalities. It's all about the money.”

“Of course,” she responded. “But men aren't any different. There are men out there who do nice things like take a woman to a movie or out to dinner and pay expecting something in return.”

“Like a thank you?”

“Like sex,” she said with a chuckle. “You should know; you're one of them.”

“I take offense at that, you know,” he said. “I'm buying you dinner and I don't expect sex afterward.”

He could see her smile out of the corner of his eye as he walked beside her.

“Of course,” he said, “if you really wanted to...”

“I don't understand how you can get laid as often as you do. You're not too slick with the ladies,” she said as she smiled and walked ahead of him.

He stood there, mouth hanging open. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“I see right through you, playa,” she said with a giggle as he caught up to her. “You see a woman you want and you immediately rummage through your stash of cheesy pick-up lines, load 'em up with a couple cocktails, and get them in your bed in a matter of hours. The next morning, they're gone.”

“Do those damn glasses of yours have magical man-reading powers or something?” he asked.

“Oh please,” she said. “You're as translucent as plastic wrap but a lot less smooth. You show up with a daughter that you didn't know you had until four years later, frantic because you have no idea what you're doing, relying on anyone you can to help you clean up your mess. The day you dropped off Kayleigh, you were stunned stupid the minute I walked into the room. I'm guessing you hadn't been able to pick up a woman and take her to bed for a couple of days since Kayleigh was around.”

“I don't know why Kayleigh likes you so much,” he said with a smile. “You're not nice. You're actually kind of mean.”

“Careful, I might have to put you in a time-out,” she said, glancing over at him.

“See, now that's confusing,” he said. “Are you threatening me, or are you flirting with me? Because it really seems like you're flirting with me.”

She only chuckled, staring straight ahead and speeding up her steps to walk in front of him.

“Rayne,” he called out.

But she kept walking.

“Rayne?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How did it go?”

Chris was up off the couch the minute Lance walked into the door that night, already putting his coat on when Lance sat the keys down on the side table.

“That woman is...a tough nut to crack,” Lance responded.

Chris paused. “Is that a euphemism? Or are you actually being philosophical?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Where's small fry?”

“Upstairs,” Chris responded. “In bed. She's fed, bathed, and in one piece. I taught her how to count cards. Next week, we work on lock-picking.”

“You know, Chris, you're that weird uncle that no one in the family wants to sit next to at get-togethers.”

Chris only smiled. “Gotta run.”

Lance and Chris said quick goodbyes before Lance shut the door behind him, pausing a moment before throwing his jacket across the back of the couch and collapsing in a heap on it.

He laid on his back several moments, feeling his eyes close.

“Daddy?”

He was slipping off to sleep when he heard her voice from the top of the stairs.

“Kayleigh, what are you doing up honey?” he asked, rubbing his hand over his eyes as he sat up.

“I heard you come home,” she said. “Was your date with Miss Rayne good, Daddy?”

He smiled. “That wasn't a date, Princess.”

“But Uncle Chris said you went out on a date.”

He lifted her onto his knee as she came down the stairs to him.

“Well...Uncle Chris was dropped on his head as a baby,” he said.

“Daddy...”

He smiled at her scolding, 'I don't believe you' tone. She leaned into his chest, her wavy hair falling to hide her face.

“Daddy?”

He looked down, moving hair out of her face to see her glancing up at him.

“Is Miss Rayne going to be part of our family?”

He sighed; nobody told him that one of the hardest parts of being a parent was answering the tough questions – the ones that you hoped they wouldn't ask. Ones that he couldn't answer.

“Bed, Kayleigh,” he said, choosing to ignore the question entirely. “It's late.”

With her head hung, she begrudgingly lifted herself up off his knee and to her feet.

“Love you, kiddo,” he said, grabbing her head and pulling it toward him to place a kiss on her forehead.

“Love you, Daddy,” she said. “Night.”

He watched as she ran toward the staircase, slowing down as she reached it to walk slowly up. She was so small that each stair required a large step, and she hung tightly to the railing with one hand as she climbed up. It wasn't long before she disappeared around the curve and he heard her footsteps run back toward her room above him.

He shut his eyes tightly, letting out a breath.

Chapter Nine

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Lance had no idea he was tired enough to have fallen asleep right there in his place on the couch until he was startled awake the next morning by an extremely loud banging on his front door.

The bang was so loud it shook the entire wall of the house, and he immediately opened his eyes and shot up, a pain shooting through his neck.

“Ahhhhh,” he said, grabbing the muscles and giving them a twist to try to relieve the pain.

The bang came even louder, which made him open his eyes wider.

“Lansten!” a loud male voice came from behind the door. “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!”

He sighed, recognizing the voice.

“You've gotta be kidding me,” he said to himself as he stood off the couch, various joints in his body crackling after sleeping in an unnatural position, and headed toward the door.

The minute he opened it, Justin and Chris stood in front of him.

“Finally,” Justin said with a smile. “We thought you were having trouble finding a hiding place for the hooker.”

Lance glanced over at Chris, who shook his head apologetically.

“I couldn't stop him,” he said.

“Justin, what the hell are you doing here?” Lance asked, letting both of them inside and closing the door behind them. He glanced at his clock. “Christ, it's seven in the morning.”

“No rest for the weary, my friend,” Justin said. “I heard about your little...situation.” He smiled. “I'm curious to meet the little snot rocket that sprung from your loins.”

Lance glanced over at Chris.

“Snot rocket?” he asked.

Chris only shrugged.

“Justin, she's asleep,” Lance said, walking away from the door. “Because she's four and it's seven in the morning. Come back in like ten years and a couple of hours.”

“Daddy?”

The tired voice got the attention of all of them, and Lance looked up to see her standing at the top of the stairs again, rubbing her eyes.

“Guess I came at just the right time,” Justin said with a smirk.

“Daddy, I heard banging,” Kayleigh said.

“I'm sorry, baby,” Lance said, walking towards her. “Daddy has idiot friends.”

He scooped her up in his arms, heading towards the kitchen.

“What the hell are you guys doing here so early?” he asked, noticing they followed him into the kitchen.

“Justin has a vacation,” Chris said, and Lance could detect the sarcasm in his voice. “And lucky us – he decided to stay a couple days in Orlando.”

“Yeah, well, you know,” Justin said, immediately going for Lance's refrigerator. “This is my home away from home. And I figured you guys missed me.”

“Newsflash,” Lance said, walking over and grabbing the carton of orange juice from Justin's hand. “Not so much.”

“What's going on here?” Justin asked. “Mel said the exact same thing.”

“Could it be because you woke her up at six in the morning and tried to lift up her shirt when you saw she wasn't wearing a bra?” Chris asked.

“I was just going for a hug,” Justin said with a smirk. “She moved the wrong way. Total misunderstanding.”

“Sure, Justin,” Chris said.

“I wish I had time to visit guys,” Lance said. “But I've got a lot to do before work. I have to shower and get dressed and get Kayleigh fed and dressed and off to daycare...”

“We can feed the munchkin,” Justin said.

“Daddy, who's that man?” Kayleigh asked, looking at Justin as Lance sat a glass of orange juice and a bowl of cereal in front of her at the table.

“Nobody, baby, eat your breakfast,” he responded. “No, Justin. I've got a routine. I can handle it. Why don't you and Chris run off and find somebody else to annoy, okay?”

“You're going to keep me from my precious little niece like that?” Justin said.

“You're kidding me, right?” Lance asked, stopping a moment to pour himself coffee. “Ten days ago you didn't know she existed. Ten days ago, I didn't know she existed. Now you're trying to guilt-trip me for not introducing you when we're already running late for work and school?”

“Actually,” Justin said. “I just think it's hilarious that you of all people are now tied down by this routine and you're running around like a beheaded chicken because we disturbed it.”

“Thanks,” Lance said sarcastically as he leaned against the counter.

Just as he had lifted the coffee mug to his lips, he heard another knock on the door.

“You're kidding!” he yelled. Then he turned to look at Justin. “Who did you pay to come bug me even more?”

Justin's mouth dropped. “It wasn't me!”

“As much as I'd hate to defend Justin after all he's done this morning,” Chris said, “it's just me and him. Whoever's at the door isn't here with us.”

Lance groaned, setting his mug down. “Kayleigh, eat. Chris, just...handle Justin the best you can.”

He left the three of them in the kitchen and walked through the living room. Opening the door, he was expecting to see one of his neighbors coming to complain about the noise Justin had caused that morning – but he was surprised to see Rayne standing at his door.

“Miss Parker,” he said, his eyes opening in shock.

“Lance, it's early, I know,” she said. “I hope I didn't wake you up.”

“Uh...no, you didn't,” he said.

“I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time.”

“Chaotic maybe,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“Mind if I come in for a few moments?”

He waved her in with his hand, shutting the door behind her.

“I came to say that I'm sorry for yesterday,” she said. “For the way I acted towards you. It wasn't fair to get angry at you for something your friend said and Kayleigh just happened to pick up. And I think I may have...slightly overreacted about the situation.”

“Maybe slightly,” he said with a grin. “But you're forgiven.”

“I think I just...got caught off guard--”

She was about to continue when suddenly, they both heard a crash from the kitchen.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Remember when I said 'chaotic'?” he asked.

He started walking off toward the kitchen with her following quickly behind him. He wasn't surprised to see Justin standing near the counter, with broken glass at his feet.

“Daddy! Uncle Justin broke a glass!” Kayleigh said.

“You know, kid, nobody likes a tattletale,” Justin said.

“You're in trooooouble,” she responded, chewing her Fruit Loops with an open mouth.

Lance sighed, putting his hand up to his head a moment.

“Kayleigh, chew with your mouth closed, please,” he said. “Justin, go home.”

“It was all her fault,” Justin said, pointing at Kayleigh.

Kayleigh turned halfway in her seat, narrowing her eyebrows at him.

“I see you've got your hands full this morning,” Rayne said.

“I'm not sure who's worse, the big one,” Lance said, pointing at Justin, “or the little one. Actually, no – I'm positive the big one is the worst.”

“Exactly how many children do you have that you don't know about?” she joked. “I mean, they seem to just show up at the door...”

“Ha, ha,” Lance said. “Justin, this is Rayne Parker, Kayleigh's daycare teacher. Rayne, this is Justin.”

“Timberlake,” she said. “Oh, I know him. Who doesn't?”

“That was a compliment, right?” Justin asked.

“You know, when my students break something in class, I make them clean it up and I take away one of their stars,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lance and Chris couldn't help but smirk.

“That doesn't sound quite as kinky as I'd hoped for but hey, whatever lights your fire, baby,” Justin said with a coy smile.

“Clean it up,” she said, not cracking a smile, her tone authoritative.

Justin backed off, despite still having a grin on his face, and bent down to start picking shards of glass off the floor.

“Kayleigh, honey,” she said, “do your daddy a favor and go get dressed. How would you like it if I took you to school today?”

“Yeah!” Kayleigh said, her spoon landing in her bowl and jumping up out of her seat.

“Are you sure that isn't too much trouble?” Lance asked, stepping out of the way as Kayleigh ran between the two of them.

“I'm going that way anyway, aren't I?” she asked with a smile. “It's the least I can do, for the way I acted yesterday. It looks like you have your hands full here, so it would be a help.”

“Are you looking to get out of the profession of teaching and into full-time nannying?” Chris asked.

“No,” Rayne said, shaking her head. “Why? Do you have kids that need one?”

“No, but I'm sure he could use someone to keep him in line,” he said, leaning his head towards Justin.

“Bite me, Pineapple Head,” Justin said, picking up the last shard of glass and putting it in his hand.

Rayne laughed and turned her head towards Lance. “So it really was like this all those years. I thought the antics were just for show.”

“No,” Lance responded. “It was all real. All eight mind-numbing, IQ-dropping years of it.”

“Before I head out with Kayleigh, I was wondering,” she said. “Do you think...maybe you'd like to come with me to take her to the park later tonight? Around 5:30?”

He paused as the room went quiet.

“You know, she can get out, play, get some exercise,” Rayne said. “You and I can talk. Nothing big.”

“Uh...yeah,” Lance said. “That'd be great, actually.”

“If you want, her and I can go after I get off at five. You can just meet us there after work, if that's okay.”

“Yeah, that'd be fine,” he said.

“Great,” she said, smiling. “I look forward to it.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said, returning the smile.

“I suppose I should see if she's ready to go,” Rayne said. “Her room's just upstairs?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Up the stairs, second door to the right, just next to the bathroom. It's the one that looks like a tornado hit it. You can't miss it.”

“Okay,” she said with a chuckle as she walked out of the kitchen, disappearing behind the door frame.

Lance slowly turned to see Chris and Justin both staring at him.

“I think I just got asked out on a date,” he said, keeping his voice low.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was fifteen-to-six before Lance finally pulled into one of the parking spaces at the park. He walked through the grass to the sandy pit surrounded by benches, where dozens of kids were already running around through the playground equipment. He saw her sitting at the bench and smiled as she looked at him.

“Sorry I'm late,” he said, his hands in the pockets of his duster coat. “Work hung me up for a bit – minor blow-up.”

“It's okay,” she said with a smile. “I knew you'd make it eventually.”

He looked behind him at the children on the playground, and after only a few seconds he spotted Kayleigh – clad in her puffy pink coat, climbing on the bars of the jungle gym.

“She's having a blast,” Rayne said, smiling as she looked toward Kayleigh. “It's almost as if she's never seen a playground before.”

“I hate to admit that I haven't gotten a chance to take her to do anything like this yet,” he said as he sat down next to her on the bench. “I got all of this sprung on me so fast. I think my head is still spinning.”

“Actually, I was thinking of her mother,” Rayne said, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. “She says her mom never took her to a park before.”

“Not surprised.” He followed suit, stuffing his hands back in his pockets, away from the cool air. “Her mom was young. I met her when I was twenty, height of the band and the fame, she was probably about the same age – maybe nineteen. One night was all it took. She didn't get to go to college like all her friends. She probably had to work two jobs to keep the bills paid; never got a chance to go to a movie, or go on a date, or go out with her friends, much less take Kayleigh out of the house to go to the park.”

“You feel awful, don't you?” she asked.

“I've felt awful since she came home with me,” he admitted. “Where the hell have I been for four years? I've been a deadbeat all this time.”

“You haven't been a deadbeat,” she said. “A deadbeat is someone who knows he has a child and still doesn't take care of her. For the past two weeks, you've done nothing but dedicate your entire life to Kayleigh.”

“It's a little hard to see it that way when your daughter sees you as a complete stranger,” he said, watching Kayleigh push the hair blowing in the wind out of her eyes. “And when she's a complete stranger to you, too.”

They both went quiet as they watched her play with a boy about her age, watching the two of them chase each other, giggling as they played tag with each other.

“Is she your daughter?”

Lance looked up when he heard somebody step up to him and speak, seeing a dark brunette woman looking at him.

“Yeah,” he said.

“That's my son, Jordan, she's playing with,” she said. “She's adorable.”

Lance smiled. “Thanks.”

“You two have a beautiful little girl.”

Rayne looked up. “Oh. Oh, no--”

“Thank you,” Lance interrupted, smiling again at the woman. Rayne was surprised when he reached out an arm, wrapping it around her shoulders. “She's the best thing that's ever happened to us, isn't she honey?”

Rayne smiled at him. “Oh yes, sweetie,” she said. “Being a mother is so...unexpectedly rewarding.”

He smiled and winked before they both looked back at the woman, saying brief, polite goodbyes as she walked off in the opposite direction.

“I take it back,” she said as he looked at her with a huge grin. “Oh, you are smooth.”

He chuckled. “It's better to just let her believe it. The alternative story is too confusing. Besides, it's a compliment, isn't it?”

“To be confused as her mother, or be confused as your other half?” she asked. “Granted, your superior, much better other half...”

“Ouch,” he said. “That hurt.”

She laughed. “I guess you're not so bad, though.”

“Was it really hard trying not to choke when you said that?”

“Yeah,” she said with another laugh.

They let Kayleigh play for a couple of hours at the park while they talked amongst themselves, and finally left just as it was starting to get dark. Instead of going their separate ways, they decided to go grab dinner at the McDonald's not far away, taking only his SUV. Time slipped away from them quickly, and before either of them knew it, he was parked next to her car in the empty, dark park.

“She's wiped out,” Rayne said, looking back at Kayleigh, who had fallen asleep in her booster seat.

“She's also sandy and dirty,” he said, glancing behind him at the dirt tracks across her cheek from playing with the other kids. “I better get her home. There's baths to take, stories to read...”

“Lance, no matter what you think, you're a great dad,” Rayne said, looking over at him in the darkness. “You're doing good for her, even if you haven't been there for the past four years. You're making up for it.”

He leaned his head back in his seat and looked over at her. She didn't say anything, and neither did he. He wouldn't admit it to her, but he didn't want her to reach over and pull the handle to get out of his car.

“This was a good time,” he finally said. “We should do it again.”

“Yeah, we should,” she said quietly. “I think Kayleigh had a lot of fun.”

He mumbled and nodded his head.

“I mean, I had fun, too,” she said, smiling slightly.

He chuckled. “So did I.”

“I guess I should go home,” she said. “I have to be at school early in the morning.”

He watched her hand reach for the door lever and slightly sighed – but her hand gripped it and pulled, stopping halfway.

“Who am I kidding?” she said with a light chuckle. “I don't want to go home yet.”

She released the door lever from her grasp with a hard thud as it retracted, turning in her seat to look at him.

“I like how I feel when I'm with you,” she said.

“I thought you don't get involved with your students' parents,” he said, looking at her.

“I guess I've never met one that made me want to break my own rules,” she said.

He went silent as he watched her lean in slowly towards him. She lifted her hand, pausing a moment before she placed it on his cheek, inches away from him. Instinctively, he reached up and put his hand on hers before leaning in slightly, finally letting his lips fall onto hers.

He reluctantly pulled back after a few seconds, when she pulled away.

“Now I guess I should go home,” she said with a chuckle, winding her fingers through his as she pulled their hands away from his cheek.

“Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked, holding onto her hand, not willing to let go yet.

“Try and stop me,” she said, smiling.

She gave his hand a squeeze, leaning in once more to place her lips against his.

“Good night,” she whispered as she pulled away.

“Good night,” he said, reluctantly letting go of her hand.

She opened the door and stepped out, smiling at him as she closed it behind her. He watched as she took her keys out of her pocket and stepped into her own vehicle, started the ignition, and backed the car up, quickly driving out of the parking lot.

He sighed, leaning up to turn the keys in his own ignition and let the car's ignition come to life. He reached up to grab his seat belt, pausing to smile just before he pulled it across his body.

Chapter Ten

Christmas Eve – Friday, December 24, 2004

Kayleigh's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she stared at the sight in front of her.

“Wooooooow,” she said. “Daddy, that's a big tree.”

He chuckled as he adjusted the last branch.

“You act like you've never seen a Christmas tree before, goofball,” he said.

“Mommy never had a tree this big,” she responded. “This tree is bigger than me!”

He paused. “Your last Christmas tree wasn't bigger than you?”

“No,” she said. “It sat on our table. Daddy, it was pathetic.”

As sad as it made him, he couldn't help but laugh at her tone and the way she dramatically shook her head as she jumped off the couch and walked away.

“Kayleigh, can you bring me those Christmas lights?” he asked.

She walked over to the box where the coiled rope of lights sat.

“Daddy, Uncle Justin isn't coming over for Christmas, is he?” she asked.

“Justin went home to Memphis for Christmas, to see his mom and brothers,” he said. “He won't be back for a couple of weeks. Why?”

She sighed, and he noticed that she rolled her eyes.

“Thank goodness,” she said. “Because Daddy – Uncle Justin is weird.”

He broke out into laughter as she grabbed the coil of heavy lights in one spot and lifted, making a heaving sound.

“Come on, use those muscles girl,” he said.

“I can't,” she said, her voice strained as she tried to lift the coil onto her shoulder. “It's...too heavy...”

He smiled, walking over to her and lifted the coil out of her arms with ease.

“That better?”

“Better,” she said, taking a breath. “How about you do the heavy stuff, Daddy? I need a chocolate milk break.”

He laughed to himself and shook his head as she smoothed down her dress and leggings and made her way toward the kitchen without even looking at him. Just as he had walked back over to where the tree stood and thrown the coil of lights down on the floor next to it, he heard a knock on the door.

“I'm coming,” he said.

He walked slowly to the door, glancing back to admire the handiwork on his tree before he opened the knob, surprised to see Rayne behind the door.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“The daycare closed down early today, and I figured that you could use a little help doing the decorations,” she said. “And...I wanted to see you.”

He smiled.

“Where's Kayleigh?” she asked.

“Decorated out,” he said, leaning against the door frame. “She insisted she needed a chocolate milk break, stat.”

She chuckled. “Good.”

Taking a step into the door, she moved toward him, smiling before she put her lips on his. His hand immediately moved to her cheek, brushing his thumb against the apple.

“Mmm,” she mumbled as she pulled away. “I've been looking forward to that all day.”

“You know, we'll have to tell her eventually,” he said, closing the door behind her as she stepped inside. “That girl of mine – she's smart. I'd be surprised if she hasn't already figured it out.”

“Yeah, but it has to be on her terms,” she said. “All of this...it's too new. If she gets too attached...”

“Rayne, she's four,” he said. “She's attached to a stuffed puppy and a favorite pair of pajamas. She'll get attached no matter what – or when – we tell her.”

“I just don't want this to end badly for her if things end badly for us,” she said.

“She's already attached to you,” he said. “And you won't admit it but you're attached to her, too. You're stuck with her. Unfortunately for you, that means you're stuck with me, too – no matter how you end up feeling about me in the end.”

She smiled. “I hate it when you're right.”

“Yeah, most people do,” he said with a grin.

“Miss Rayne!”

She looked over as Kayleigh appeared in the doorway, her chocolate milk and a frosted Christmas cookie in her hand.

“Kayleigh. Spoiling your dinner, I see.”

“Kayleigh, what did I tell you about the cookies?” Lance asked, as he had started trying to uncoil and untangle the string of lights.

With a guilty glance toward Rayne, Kayleigh broke into a smile.

“That they were for Santa Clause,” she said shyly.

“And?” Lance asked.

“And...not for me?”

“Oh, so you do listen,” Lance said.

Kayleigh giggled shyly, lowering her head.

“How can you be mad at a face like that?” Rayne said, smiling at him next to her.

“That's the problem,” he said. “I can't.”

Rayne chuckled.

“You're crafty, kid, you know that?” Lance asked, looking straight down at Kayleigh.

She only smiled, a smear of fresh, warm pink frosting covering the corners of her mouth.

“Go eat your loot and then clean up, you little thief,” Lance said.

Kayleigh put the cookie to her mouth and took another bite, skipping away towards the kitchen.

“I hope Santa decided to go on a diet,” Lance said as Rayne laughed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Those lights look uneven.”

Lance glanced over at Rayne.

“They're not uneven,” he responded. “Your head's uneven.”

He laughed as she used the back of her hand to slap him on the arm. The two of them had spent the past five hours at least working on the decorations throughout the entire house. Rayne had strung the garland around the winding staircase and hung the red velvet bows off the railing in intervals. Lance had finished setting up the tree and precariously twisted the strings of lights around the whole thing, forgetting to leave enough room for him to move without knocking over the whole setup, which provided some entertaining moments for Rayne and Kayleigh while watching him.

They had foregone twinkle lights outside the house due to the time constraints, but Rayne had added a pre-lit wreath to the door to add a bit of outside festivity and a string of lights inside around the windows. She had even taken it upon herself to grab a spray can of fake snow and artistically added it to the inside of his front windows, making it look “frosted” - which is something he never would have thought of himself. When he stood back to look at it all, he was surprised that even though he had gone so low-scale for decorations, being Christmas Eve already, that the house looked so nice and festive.

Rayne was pulling the stockings out of the box as he was preparing to light a fire, feeling a chill in the Orlando night air.

“They're not much,” he said to her as he watched her pull out each stocking. “I didn't have time to order any special, personalized, handmade crap.”

“I think they look nice,” she said as she looked at the white velvet flocked stockings, noticing the light scroll pattern in them. “There'll be plenty of time to order special, personalized, handmade 'crap',” she said, narrowing her eyes at him, “as you so eloquently put it.”

“The important thing is, at least we have stockings to fill,” he said, throwing another log into the fireplace.

He arranged the firewood carefully and picked up the long lighter, but before he flicked it to light the flame, he looked over at her, seeing her stare at the stockings.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “Just...there's three stockings here.”

He paused. “Yeah, because there's three people here. Me, Kayleigh, and you.”

He saw her take in a breath.

“That is okay, right?” he asked. “I mean, I just figured...you and I...I guess I figured you might be here with us, for at least part of Christmas.” He paused again. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” she said. “No, you didn't do anything wrong, Lance. I just...I didn't expect it. It's all moving so fast, you know, and we just started seeing each other a couple of days ago. And I'm not even sure we're really seeing each other, you know? I mean I see you when you drop Kayleigh off, and when you pick her up, and we've kissed a few times, and we shopped for Christmas presents together but that was only once...”

“Rayne,” he said, smiling, “calm down. It's a Christmas stocking, not a marriage proposal.”

“I just keep thinking about Kayleigh,” she said. She sat the stockings back down in the box. “She's been through so much. She's just lost her mother, Lance. Her mother died. And now she's had two weeks to get to know her father. And here, I come along, and I'm just the teacher, but I'm around all the time, like...like...”

“Like a mother?”

She was surprised to hear him finish her sentence.

“Yeah,” she said. “Like a mother. I can't live up to that, Lance. I can't live up to being a replacement mother.”

“Rayne, nobody's asking you to,” he said. “No offense to you, but you could never replace Kayleigh's mother. Even if you wanted to; even if you tried.”

“I don't want her to get hurt,” she said. “I don't want to fall for you like this. Inevitably, it starts out hot and heavy. Then it cools. Then we get to know each other better and we find all kind of flaws in each other that we hate. Then the arguing starts, and we're bound to break up...”

“Whoa,” he said. “Give me a little credit here. A minute ago you weren't even sure we were together. Now we're arguing and talking about breaking up?”

“You have a reputation,” she said softly.

“And I'm not denying that,” he said, grabbing the stockings from the top of the box in front of her. “I've never denied to you that I have a reputation, and I've never tried to make myself look good, either.”

He walked over to the fireplace, arranging the stocking holders on the mantle as perfectly as he could.

“I've never denied having my fair share of one-night-stands,” he said, placing the stockings on each hook. “But unfortunately, it caught up with me in a big way. It was a wake-up call. It made me realize that I was living a completely unfulfilling life, and that I wasn't happy. I could have spent the past four years putting up three stockings for Christmas.”

He stepped back, admiring his handiwork, then looked at her.

“I'm done with that,” he said. “I'm actually ready to grow up, and have three stockings up, instead of one.”

“I just don't want any of us to get hurt,” she said softly.

“No one's going to get hurt,” he said, taking a step towards her. “I'm not stupid enough to let Kayleigh get hurt by my personal life. And I won't hurt you.”

“How do I know that?” she asked. “How do you know that?”

“I guess you don't,” he said. “But a few days ago, when I walked into my lawyer's office and walked out with a child I didn't know I had, I didn't know whether I would be a good dad; I had no idea whether I would work this out for myself or whether it would explode and crash on me in a pile of flaming embers. I'd have bet money on flaming embers, truthfully.”

She chuckled.

“But, I don't know,” he said, turning his head to survey the entire room, which was now dimly lit up by the color and sparkle of the twinkle lights on the windows, the fireplace, on the tree, and sparsely coiled around the railing of the staircase along with the garland. “It hasn't been so bad, and to give myself a little credit, I think I've done pretty good so far.”

“You really have,” she said softly with a nod. “I mean, at least nothing's exploded – yet.”

He smiled at her. “Faith. You don't know how things will turn out until you give it your best shot and put a little faith into it.”

“Faith,” she repeated.

The house went silent. She looked away from him and scanned her eyes over the sight in front of her. His house was nice to begin with; small and quaint surprisingly, considering his social and financial statuses, but cute, charming, and family-like despite his reputation as a bachelor. But with the house lights dimmed low and the glow of the Christmas lights and all the decorations put together, she couldn't help but feel warmed by the holiday feel.

“Well, everything's put together,” he said finally. “We've got about two hours before Kay's bedtime. What do you say to a Christmas movie, a book, a mug of cocoa for the little people, and maybe a glass of wine for the grown-up people?”

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“Be quiet!” Rayne harshly whispered. “You're going to get us caught!”

Lance looked down at her from the top of the staircase, peeking past the large boxes in his hands.

“I don't see you carrying any of these big, heavy boxes, boss lady,” he said. With the boxes he carried, he was precociously attempting to maneuver the staircase without tripping or dropping anything.

“I'm carrying my fair share,” she said, maneuvering herself the same way, with far smaller boxes. “One wrong step, one box falls, one big bang and Kayleigh is sure to wake up and catch us wrapping the presents.”

“I don't think I'm the one who needs to worry about tripping.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe someone shouldn't have poured that second glass of wine,” he said, looking past the boxes to her.

She stepped aside to let him pass her on the stairs as he walked down to the safety of the floor, while she stood against the wall on the staircase, mouth widened.

“Are you saying I'm drunk?” she asked. “By the way, I didn't pour that second glass of wine – you did.”

“I didn't say you were drunk,” he said. “And by the way, I didn't say I minded if you were drunk.”

She scoffed when he looked up at her with a smile on his face as he set the boxes he had carried on the floor, next to the Christmas tree.

“Let's get started wrapping these presents,” he said, reaching up to take the boxes from her and set them with the others. “It's midnight already and you probably want to get to bed soon.”

She was hit with the sudden realization – she'd have to go home. It wasn't as if she didn't know it before, but after spending the entire day with Lance and his daughter transform the house into a winter wonderland, and then enjoying a movie, a book, and a glass of wine with the three of them before she helped Lance tuck Kayleigh into bed for the night...something about going home, to an empty house, didn't seem appealing.

“Um...yeah, I probably should head home after we wrap presents,” she said.

He smiled. “You don't want to go home, do you?”

She smiled back shyly. “No, I really don't.”

He turned and walked toward the entertainment center, opening the glass doors that held a stereo, and pulled a CD out of the holder it was filed in.

“Do you know what Dean Martin says?” he asked as he opened the case and popped the CD in.

“'I've been dead for almost ten years'?” she asked.

He glanced around, shooting her a look. “No, smartass.” He turned back around long enough to push a button on the player before he shut the glass doors.

Within a few seconds, an old-timey upbeat tune came from the speakers, and immediately recognizing it, she smiled and gently moved her hips to the beat.

“Baby, it's cold outside,” Lance said.

“I really can't stay,” she responded, flirting.

“Beautiful, what's your hurry?” he asked.

“My mother will start to worry...”

“Put some records on while I pour,” Lance half-sung as he reached down to the coffee table, pouring the last of the wine into their glasses to refill them.

“The neighbors might think,” she responded sing-song as she welcomed the glass he handed her.

“But baby, it's cold outside,” he said, gently clinking his glass against hers.

She smiled. “Well, maybe just half a drink more,” she said with a wink as she lifted it to her lips.

He took a drink and sat the wine glass back down on the table, reaching for a remote next to it. He turned the remote towards the stereo and pressed a button, and the volume of the song gently went down.

“I know Christmas is tomorrow--”

“Actually,” she said, glancing at the clock, “it's five after.” She smiled. “It is Christmas.”

“So then, it won't be cheating if I give you your gift now.”

She watched as he walked over to the tree, reaching for a small box on the very top of the stack, and picked it up.

“Lance, you--”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “You don't need anything, you didn't get me anything, I shouldn't have, blah blah blah.” He smiled. “But nobody needs anything, I don't care if you didn't get me anything, and I did – so deal with it and just be quiet and open it.”

She rolled her eyes, but smiled as she set her wine glass back on the table and took the box from his hand. It was the only present that was wrapped, carefully in metallic silver paper with pink accents, and adorned with a silky pink ribbon and shiny pink Christmas bow on top.

She carefully unwrapped it as he watched. Once the box was free of its beautiful wrapping, she opened the top of the box and gasped when she saw what set on top of the fluffy white cotton – two bracelets, both pearls, one with a rhinestone-encrusted cross in the center, the other a charm that spelled out “love” in script, embedded with more rhinestones that caught the different colors of the Christmas lights as they hit it.

“Oh, Lance,” she said as she pulled them out of their packaging carefully. “Oh...they're beautiful.”

“Now don't get freaked out, because we've only known each other a few days and here I am, giving you jewelry,” he said. “Because they're not from some mall store that sells engagement rings and stuff like that. But I've seen you wear different pieces of jewelry, so I knew you would like it. I have a friend that sells jewelry online, and I've seen her make some beautiful things, so I went and asked her if she could make you something that was just for you, something special.”

“They're perfect,” she said as she let him place the bracelets gently on her wrist. “They're gorgeous.”

She held her wrist up and twisted it slowly, watching the colors from the twinkle lights hit the rhinestones in the bracelets, creating multicolored sparkles in front of her eyes.

Suddenly, having a stocking at his house didn't feel so awkward. As quickly as things seemed to be moving, even with both of them resisting getting so serious so quickly, it only seemed natural compared to a few days ago.

She knew she was falling in love with him.

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Christmas Morning

“Daddy! Daddy! It's Christmas!”

Lance's eyes flew open when his bedroom door opened, banging against the wall behind it and Kayleigh came running to his side of the bed.

“Wake up, Daddy!”

He jumped up at about the same time that Rayne jumped up, pulling the sheets tight to her chest.

“Kayleigh, you're supposed to knock,” he said.

“What's Miss Rayne doing here?” Kayleigh asked.

Both adults looked at each other, trying to come up with an answer on the fly.

“Rayne and I just had...a sleepover, Kay,” he said.

“A sleepover?” Rayne whispered, and he shrugged.

“It's Christmas, Daddy!” Kayleigh yelled. “Come on! Get out of bed!”

She grasped the edge of the sheets tightly and pulled so hard that Lance and Rayne felt them move.

“Kayleigh! No!” he said, grabbing her arm before she could pull them off the bed. “Go downstairs and get a juice and a muffin. Give us five minutes and we'll be down so you can open presents, okay?”

“Can I have a cookie instead?” she said, smiling.

“Fine, just go downstairs,” he said, waving her off as she ran toward the door. “But don't you touch those presents yet, Kayleigh Jane!”

“Okay, Daddy!”

They held a breath as they listened to feet lightly pound down the stairs, releasing it when they heard the fridge door open.

“Caught red-handed,” Lance said with a smile.

“I shouldn't be here,” Rayne said.

“Don't leave just because of that,” Lance said. “Kayleigh is going to want you here, you know that.”

“Yeah, but it's not good for her – seeing you to have women in and out of your life like this,” she said.

“Who said you were on your way out?” he said, smiling as he leaned in and grabbed the back of her head, pulling her towards him.

When he placed an intimate kiss on her lips, she sighed in satisfaction.

“Kayleigh is just downstairs,” she said.

“She's my kid. She'll eat all those cookies before she ever stops at just one. We've got a good fifteen minutes,” he said as she laughed.

She let her head fall back onto the pillow as he kissed her, moving to the corner of her lips, then to her jawline, before burying into her neck.