Free One Sexy Daddy by Vivian Leiber

angry. Looking back over his last two months, I think he willed himself to die. But he was surrounded by friends and family—and he never had to go into an institution.”
    â€œAnd during the eight years, you didn’t see anybody?”
    â€œA couple of boys from college came down to see me in the early months, but it was always difficult. I couldn’t leave Dad alone for more than a few minutes. Marion tried to help out, but she’s not good with sickness. And she had those boys. Don’t get me wrong. I love my nephews. But they’re a handful.”
    â€œAnd men from around here?”
    â€œThey steered clear—they knew being with me meant living with my dad. And besides, for the first year, I was trying to keep the business going. I ran it from home with a crew that had been with my dad forever. But dad was the genius at making plants grow, at knowing just the right fertilizer, the right time to prune back, the right time to water. He had an artistic sense of placement so refined he could make the plainest golf course look elegant.”
    â€œYour garden looks beautiful.”
    â€œBut without him on the job, we were just another lawn mowing service and we got underbid on a lot of projects. Besides, I couldn’t supervise the crew. Within a year, I closed down. And now with Dad gone…”
    â€œSo start your life over. Move to Chicago. Go back to school. Get a job.”
    â€œI can’t. I don’t know how to do anything. I don’t want to be a nurse—even if I could handlethe class work—because I can only do it for someone I love. And there’s one other thing.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œMarion’s asked me to come live with her and her husband Jim. Marion needs to spend more hours running the bookkeeping end of Jim’s plumbing business, and having me at home would help out. You know, with the boys and housework. It would solve the problem of what to do with me.”
    Adam narrowed his eyes.
    â€œAnd you’d never have a social life.”
    â€œProbably not.”
    He shook his head. “I can’t imagine being in this situation,” he said. “I’d never give up my freedom for eight years.”
    â€œBut you have already. Just in a different way.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œWith Karen.”
    He shook his head. “No, I’ve run away from being responsible for her.”
    â€œYou’re doing more for her than her mom.”
    â€œNot by much, but I’m going to learn. I’ve had housekeepers and my secretary helps out with interviewing a new one when one quits. When I’m out of town, I live life like a single man with no encumbrances.”
    â€œIn other words, a woman in every port?” she teased.
    â€œYou don’t have to put it that way.”
    â€œHow would you put it?”
    â€œI have relationships,” he said, catching her disrespectful look. “I do! They’re wonderful while they last even if they don’t have a future. I always make that clear at the beginning. The romance ends with the job.”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I want.”
    He stared at her. Rubbed his five o’clock shadow. Flicked his tongue over his smooth white front teeth.
    â€œThere’s something strange about this,” he stated.
    â€œWhat’s strange is you’re used to doing the pursuing.”
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œAnd setting the rules.”
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œAnd being in control.”
    â€œTrue,” he said. “I feel like a pickup man.”
    â€œMy pickup man,” Stacy corrected with a smile.
    He glanced down at himself, as if looking for sudden evidence of the swank immorality of a pickup. An Armani suit, perhaps. Or a flashy expensive watch.
    His suit was five years old, purchased at a small English-owned discount chain near his Chicago home. And his watch—his grandfather’s, which he kept even if it didn’t work