Daddy by Surprise Read Online Free PDF Page A

reading her thoughts. He looked more irked than sympathetic, but it was hard to tell, thanks to the two-day growth of stubble on his jaw and neck. A neck that had thickened considerably in the years since their divorce.
    “He had to take a crap when he and Tag were hiking and he used leaves to wipe.”
    “Ooh.” Kat cringed, remembering when something like that had happened to Tag. His genitals had become so inflamed he’d had to sit in a special soak for several days. “That’s too bad, Aiden. But it’ll go away with the right medicine.”
    Twin tears welled up in the boy’s eyes and his bottom lip started to quiver. Kat knew her ex-husband well enough to know he wasn’t cutting Aiden a lot of slack.
    Pete made a face when he looked in the rearview mirror, but he didn’t say anything. The scolding would come, Kat knew. Pete was as emotionally distant as Kat’s father, which was one reason she’d divorced him.
    “I’ll be back for Tag in a couple of hours,” he said. “I figured he’d be better off here than hanging around a waiting room.”
    She agreed, but she didn’t appreciate Pete’s treating her like a drop-in child-care center. “You should have called first, Pete. What if I wasn’t here?”
    He shrugged. “You know what reception is like around Deerfield Lake. It was faster to swing by. If you weren’t here, I’d have just taken him with me.”
    “I might have had plans.”
    He put the car in gear and eased back a few inches. “Do you want me to take him or not? I really don’t have time for this, Kat.”
    Well, neither do I, she wanted to shout. But she didn’t. Shouting was what her parents had done. Every time one had dropped her off at the other’s house there’d been shouting. She’d promised herself she wasn’t going to do that to her children—even if it made her look like a doormat.
    “He can stay, but keep your cell phone on. If I have to meet Char to pick up Jordie, I’ll drop Tag off in town.” She didn’t mention her potential tattoo client.
    “Whatever.”
    She waved at the sad little tyke in the backseat. Pete was always hardest on those he loved most, but how do you explain that to a six-year-old?
    She watched the car drive off, wondering as usual if she could have done things differently where both her ex-husbands were concerned.
    “Mom,” Tag called from the porch. “Jordie’s on the phone. He wants to stay longer with Char. He said he’s learning how to make arrowheads. How come I can’t do that? I never get to do anything fun.”
    Kat had to work to keep a straight face. “You were fishing and camping, remember?” she asked, dashing back to the house. She took the phone from his outstretched hand. “Char took Jordie to the powwow because I worked last night. You know that.”
    His bottom lip stuck out belligerently, but she sensed that his disappointment stemmed more from not being with his father than from not attending a Lakota festival. He shrugged and walked back into the living room, where he had a video game set up.
    Kat hopped up on the washer and put the phone to her ear. “Hello, son. Are you having a good time?”
    “Yeah. It’s cool. We ate Indian tacos last night.”
    Jordie loved food. “Mmm. Sounds yummy. What else have you been doing?”
    “Swimmin’. And dancin’, ’n playin’.” He bubbled on about his various activities in a way that made her smile. Her younger son was most like her, and the tenderness she felt toward him had the ability to bring her to tears at the strangest times.
    “I’m glad you’re having fun, honey. Can you put Char on? I don’t see any reason you can’t—”
    “Okay. I haffa go. We’re gonna make arrowheads. Bye, Mommy.”
    “Bye, honey boy. I love you.”
    There was a loud clunk followed by a laughing voice. “Wow, Kat, that kid is hell on wheels. How do you keep up with him?”
    “I don’t. That’s why I sent him with you,” Kat said, smiling. She slipped off her perch and tucked the