Free Doorstep daddy by Linda Cajio

Java. Probably the day after tomorrow. The coaches have to stay with the team, you see, and he's not able to go by himself. As consul here, I have to escort him home. This is the sort of thing they pay me the big bucks for." He grinned wryly. "It'll take a long weekend at most. I hate to ask. I wish I had someone else to ask, but my mother's in Florida and she's not in the best of health. And frankly, she's not crazy about kids, so it's never been a good situation. That's why I was named guardian of the kids." He remembered her brother's birthday party. "Wait. You can't, anyway. You have your brother's party - "
    "Richard, don't worry about that," she interrupted. "I'd do it in a heartbeat, but wouldn't the kids be more comfortable with a family member?''
    "No, there really isn't another family member. I havel cousins in the area, but I haven't seen them in years, and the kids don't know them at all. But the kids know you, and I know you. We trust you, Callie."
    "Oh, God." Callie took a cookie and bit into it.
    "I'd take them if I could, but I can't. The trip will be grueling, and I can't care for them and the player, too."
    "I know. It just doesn't feel right for me to stay with the kids."
    "It feels very right to me." When he'd realized the player couldn't continue the tour and would have to be carted home, he hadn't known what to do with the kids - until he thought of Callie. Never had something seemed so perfect as leaving Amanda and the boys with her. "You care about them, Callie. They know it. So do I."
    "Richard." She sighed. "There are so many reasons why you shouldn't and I shouldn't. When do you leave?"
    He smiled, recognizing that the nightmare had a bright corner to it. "Not until the end of the week at least. Prang - that's his name - has to wait until the danger from the concussion passes. I'll pay you, Callie, whatever you want."
    She glared at him. "Don't ruin the moment with crass materialism. I might take you up on it."
    He smiled. "I owe you my life."
    "Now you're talking my language." She grinned back, then sobered. "I better go. I do have to work tomorrow, and I'll have a lot to do if I'm going to be out of the office for a couple of days."
    "Do you want me to talk to your boss?" he asked.
    "No. I can use my laptop to work from here."
    Good luck, he thought, knowing that, for him, carving
    | out work time among the kids was a lesson in frustration. I "I'll have the Javanese government give you a humanitarian award."
    She laughed. "I'd like that. Hey, I could be the Java I Woman."
    "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "Richard, are you sure you want to do this?" she asked.
    "Yes. I'm very sure I want the kids with you," he replied, finally taking a cookie. He bit into it. "Hey! This is really good."
    "I think that's the one Mark sneezed on."
    The cookie piece went dry as dust in his mouth until I he saw her mischievous grin. He swallowed and said, I "You love teasing me, don't you?"
    "Men are such prime candidates for teasing. By the way, do you have a potty chair for Mark?"
    Bewildered, he repeated, "A potty chair?"
    She looked at him with obvious exasperation. "You know what a potty chair is. Come on, that wonderful device for getting children out of diapers - "
    "Oh. Oh!"
    "The light has been switched on," Callie said.
    "Oh." The final exclamation came out as a groan. "I don't have one. Why?"
    "Mark's ready for training, I think."
    Training what? Richard wondered, even though he knew. He just wasn't sure he was ready for it even if Mark was.
    "I'll get one for you and train him while you're gone."
    "My God," he said. "Can you do it in a weekend?" "If Mark's ready."
    "How can you look at him and know he's ready?"
    "He reminds me of my youngest brother at that stage, and I trained him." She shrugged. "I don't know how to explain it. I noticed today that his diapers were dry for a couple of hours at a time. Well, we'll try and see how he does. If he's not ready, we'll stop. He'll let us know. Boy, will he