Page 44 of Delinquent Daddy (Banks/Kincaid Family 2)

"He what?"

Ellie stared at Nora with wide eyes, thinking her neighbor had to be joking... praying she was joking.

Nora paused. "He took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's," she said slowly, as if talking too fast might get her into trouble.

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"Why are you looking so alarmed?" she added, starting to look exactly that way herself. "That was okay to let him take her, wasn't it?"

Ellie pressed a hand to the side of her head. Her daughter was gone, and she had no idea when she'd be home... if she'd be home.

"When did they leave?" she asked, walking in a slow circle to beat back the panic.

Boston had taken Cassidy. He'd come and gotten her and just...taken her away. She couldn't believe it.

"I...uh, it was between three and five. I don't know. God, I thought you knew he was doing this. You didn't mention anything at lunch, but...Cassidy knew about it, and he didn't act like it was some covert, undercover outing or anything."

"I had no idea," Ellie said numbly. She looked at Nora with such a pale face the woman reached out as if to catch her before she could fall.

"I am so sorry, Ellie," Nora gushed. "I just...well, hell. I was reading a book one minute and the next, this complete hunk was staring at me and smiling and...damn, I couldn't think." She paused to look at Ellie in awe. "I always knew you had excellent taste, but I thought that was just about clothing sense and shoes."

"Nora!" Ellie moaned. How could she talk about Boston's looks now? Her daughter was missing.

"God, I'm sorry," Nora started again, realizing they had a real problem on their hands. She cupped her face with her fingers. "It's just that I even talked to him yesterday, and he didn't have that effect on me. But then again, yesterday, he 111

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didn't smile. Today he did, and it was like...oh, wow, El. That man has some smile."

Ellie didn't need to be told this. She was already well aware of the power behind his stupid, charming smile.

"I think all I could do was stammer, blush and drool. I probably would've handed over my house, car,

and kidney if he'd asked. I guess I did hand over my kid, now that I think of it. And— Oh, my God!" Nora stopped blabbing and froze with a look of utter horror on her face. "He took Keller too,"

she said as if just now realizing that fact. "You don't think he'd keep Keller too, do you?"

Suddenly, she looked about as sick as Ellie felt.

The parking lot at Chuck E. Cheese's was packed, but Ellie spotted Boston's Infiniti among the family vans and SUVs quickly enough. She found a spot three places down and whipped in, jerking to a halt. In the passenger seat, Nora was out the door before Ellie had even tugged her key from the ignition. Though her friend was sprinting toward the entrance of the restaurant, Ellie could only sit there a moment and try to calm her breathing.

When Nora told her Boston had taken Cassie, she'd thought she would pass out from the fear. She'd feared she might never see her baby girl again. But now that she was staring at Boston's car and knew he'd at least been honest about where they were going, her fears subsided substantially. The relief was so overwhelming, she felt like crying, but for an entirely different reason, a more powerful reason. Moisture actually beaded at the corners of her eyes.

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He hadn't been trying to steal her little girl. He'd merely wanted to spend some time with her. And that was the only thought that kept her from leaping from the car and racing Nora inside. Cassidy had wanted to meet her father for months now, and it wasn't just one of those passing wants either—this was a deep-seated need, consuming her entire nine-year-old body.

Ellie'd be lying if she denied dreaming about Boston returning to them and making them a complete, happy little family: mother, father, and baby. She'd always wanted to see him look at Cassidy with an emotion she herself had felt so many times.

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