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Instant Daddy

By Carol Voss

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CHAPTER ONE
Why Peter had assumed Jessie Chandler would enjoy the limelight as much as her twin sister had, he didn’t know.
She stood as still as the lectern beside her, the toddler she’d been holding before Peter had called her to the stage still asleep in her arms, her focus frozen on Peter’s lower jaw.
Stage fright. Great.
He glanced at the red-robed graduates sitting in front of the makeshift stage. Beyond, a sea of relatives and friends lined the football field bleachers. Watching. Waiting.
Jessie’s parents perched in the first row, seemingly holding their breaths right along with him. He was sure sitting through the memorial to Clarissa was tough enough for the Chandler family. The lab fire had only happened a year ago. The grief over losing Jessie’s twin still had to be raw. And now by calling Jessie up on stage to present the scholarship in Clarissa’s name, Peter had made everything worse.
Just another reminder that he understood equations and hypotheses a whole lot better than he understood people.
He brought his attention back to Jessie.
Her gaze was still locked on his lower jaw, her eyes even bluer up close. And behind her stage fright, he sensed a compelling sadness that made him want to take her in his arms and comfort her. The breeze whipped her shiny golden hair around her face. She adjusted the sleeping toddler in her arms.
Why had she carried the boy to the stage with her? What if the kid woke up and started screaming or something? Wasn’t Peter just thinking things couldn’t get more awkward for the family? A screaming child would probably do it.
He needed to get this over. Quickly. He placed his hand over the microphone to prevent pickup. “If you want, I can read the name for you.”
She set her chin and drew in a shaky breath, still not meeting his eyes. “I can do it.”
He set the envelopes on the lectern. “Okay, the top envelope contains the recipient’s name. Can you announce it and give the second envelope to the graduate?”
“I’d like to say a few words first.”
He blinked. Apparently, she didn’t own that determined chin for nothing. He lowered the microphone for her and moved out of her way. “Go for it.”
She stepped forward, the crowd hushing to listen. “My sister would be so proud that every year, a scholarship in her name will help students who love chemistry as much as she did.”
Peter let out a fascinated breath. She was pulling herself together like a champ. Without her twin’s flare for drama, but with a vulnerability that tugged at him.
“Our family thanks Trenton Research Laboratories for their generous scholarship and Dr. Peter Sheridan for driving all the way from Madison to present it.” Her soft voice ringing clear and unpretentious, she took the sheet of paper from the envelope, her face crumpling as she struggled with her emotions.
Tensing, Peter took a step toward her to help her out.
But a teary smile broke free. “I’m thrilled to announce the first recipient of the Clarissa Chandler Scholarship is Stacy Meyers.”
The crowd erupted in a cheer. Several beach balls took to the humid air to be carried away by the breeze. Apparently, high school graduation in Noah’s Crossing, Wisconsin was a different animal from the quiet ceremony that liberated him from boarding school twelve years ago.
The sturdy boy in Jessie’s arms burrowed his face deeper into her neck.
Luckily, the kid seemed to be a resolute napper. Peter began to relax a little, the tension in his shoulders easing.
A tall, thin girl ran across the stage to the lectern, her face wreathed in smiles. She accepted the envelope from Jessie and hugged her without squashing the little guy in Jessie’s arms.
“I’m so proud of you, Stacy.” Jessie guided the excited teenager to the microphone, then stepped back alongside Peter.
Peter caught a breath of her scent. Fresh citrus. Very nice. He noted the same fair skin, patrician nose and high cheekbones as her twin, but Jessie let her hair hang free. Everything about her seemed gentler, warmer, less driven than her sister with the killer ambition and single-minded purpose. And Clarissa lovingly moving her hand over the child the way Jessie did? He couldn’t imagine it.
Stacy Meyers held the envelope aloft to give everybody a good view. “I promise to work hard and make Jess and her family and everybody in Noah’s Crossing proud of me.” She gave Jessie another hug, shook Peter’s hand as she thanked him, then ran off the stage and down the steps.
Peter finally breathed a relieved sigh. All was well that ended well, right?
The little guy Jessie held shifted and turned his head, the breeze tousling his reddish-brown curls.
Jessie stroked his back.
Peter studied the baby’s high forehead, his wide-set eyes, his prominent nose...and the small, diamond-shaped birthmark on the baby’s lower left jaw.
A birthmark exactly like his own.

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