“Sometimes, precautions can fail. And Cora was pregnant. I did a little digging this morning and was able to find the original of Grace’s birth certificate.” Nick gestured to the papers, and Liam flipped through until he saw the birth certificate. Sure enough, Liam Bradshaw was listed as Grace’s father. And the little girl had been born in November, two and a half years ago. Liam counted back — he remembered he’d met Cora around Valentine’s Day. The bar had been decorated with brightly colored pink and red hearts, which they’d made fun of. The dates lined up.

  Liam felt like all the air had been sucked from his lungs. He was the father to a two-year-old girl whom he’d never met. He was a father.

  “So, you’re telling me that I’ll have custody of… Grace?” Liam asked.

  Nick nodded. “Exactly. She was placed briefly with a foster family while social services tracked you down, but now that you’ve been found — yes. Grace will be fully in your custody.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Liam said, his voice low. “I’m not cut out to be a father. And even if I were, I’m not ready. I don’t have any diapers, or bicycles, or whatever two-year-olds need.” Liam designed educational products for children, but only those who were school-age and up — not toddlers. He had no idea what toddlers were all about.

  “Liam. If I may speak candidly?”

  Liam nodded.

  “No one is ever ready to be a father.” Nick smiled distantly. “When I found out my wife was expecting our first child, I nearly tripped over my own feet trying to figure out what on earth I was supposed to do. Granted, I had a little more time to prepare than you do. But whether or not you feel ready isn’t important. What’s important is that there’s a little girl out there who needs you. And you need to be there for her, whatever it takes.”

  Liam recognized the truth in Nick’s words, even though he didn’t want to. Because of the company he ran, people tended to assume that Liam liked kids. But he didn’t. His experience with Jamie, the little ice cream-smearing boy, earlier today had only reinforced that. Liam didn’t particularly like children. He didn’t know what to do with them. And despite everything, he’d never wanted his own.

  And he still didn’t.

  Yet Nick had made an inescapably good point. This little girl needed someone — and right now, that could only be Liam. He could work this out. There were nannies and boarding schools and tutors.

  “You’re right.” Liam clapped his hands down on his thighs. “When am I meeting the child?” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say my daughter.

  “That’s another thing.” Nick looked slightly uncomfortable. “Social services were eager to get her settled. I urged them to give me a chance to speak to you first, but a social worker is playing with Grace in the park across the street. They’d like you to come get her now.”

  Once again, Liam felt that all the air had been knocked from his lungs. Not only was he suddenly, unexpectedly, a father, but he was supposed to meet his daughter right now. This was all too much to handle.

  Still, he found himself nodding. “All right.”

  In a trance, he followed Nick to the elevators and down into the lobby. They crossed the street to the park, where a thin woman with graying hair was sitting on a bench. She stood as Liam and Nick approached.

  “Liam Bradshaw?” The woman extended a hand. “I’m Margaret Holt. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Over the next half an hour, Liam heard a seemingly unending series of facts. Facts about his responsibilities. Facts about how social services would need to do a check on his home in the coming weeks, just to be sure that everything was ready, but how they wouldn’t be involved going forward since he was the child’s biological parent. Facts about Grace.

  Yet Liam could hardly force himself to focus on the social worker’s words. He’d spotted the little girl. She was sitting underneath the play structure, her knees tucked up to her chest. She had pale blond hair, which was tied back in two messy pigtails, and Liam’s blue eyes. Her chin was resting on her knees. Around her, kids ran and shouted and laughed, but Grace just sat, looking impossibly small.

  One thought ran through Liam’s mind, over and over. How am I supposed to do this?

  CHAPTER 3

  AMELIA

  Amelia took Jamie’s hand, which was still sticky despite two hand washings with soap, and resettled Jade on her hip. They were approaching Amelia’s sister Katie’s house. Amelia had already dropped off Ben and the twins with their respective parents, so this was her last stop of the day. After seeing Katie, Amelia planned to relax with a nice long bath and try to forget that she might have an enormous dry-cleaning bill coming her way.

  Katie opened the door with a big smile. She was still dressed in her usual office wardrobe of slacks and a blouse, which made Amelia feel a little out of place in her more relaxed jeans and T-shirt. She missed those days of professional clothes and office lunches, as much as she was happy to have more free time now.

  “Amelia!” Katie held out her arms for Jade, who was yawning and clearly ready for a rest. Amelia handed her over. “And there’s my Jamie. Want to come in for a bit?”

  “Sure. Unemployed people don’t have a lot of plans.” Amelia winked to show she was joking, but Katie shook her head.

  “Hey. You’re not unemployed. You’re taking a well-deserved break. And as soon as you’re ready to get back in the game, you let me know.” Katie had mentioned having professional contacts who could help Amelia get back to work, but Amelia couldn’t bring herself to follow up yet.

  “I know, I know. Anyway, I’d love to come in.”

  She helped her sister get Jamie and Jade’s shoes off. Katie disappeared into another room to put little Jade down for an afternoon nap, set Jamie up with a plastic race-car track, then joined Amelia in the living room with a glass of lemonade each. Seeing her sister with her kids gave Amelia another maternal pang. Too bad she was no closer to kids of her own than to another job.

  “How were the little rascals today?” Katie asked, taking a sip of her lemonade.

  “They were great. Although little Jamie here managed to get himself into a bit of a scrape.”

  “Oh?”

  “We were leaving the store, and Jamie accidentally smeared ice cream all over this guy’s suit. Of course, Jamie was immediately near tears, and the guy, a total businessman type, was more than a little annoyed by his new fashion statement.”

  Katie burst into laughter. “That sounds like our Jamie. He can never watch where he’s going. Was the businessman cute?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Amelia felt abnormally flustered by the question.

  “Nothing, nothing.” Katie waved her hand. “Just, you know, if this were a rom-com, that would totally be a meet-cute.”

  Amelia burst into laughter. “It was no meet-cute, that’s for sure. The guy was cute, and I met him, but he was also very unimpressed with my child-management skills. I can’t blame him for that, since he was wearing half a cone of strawberry ice cream at the time.”

  “But he was cute?”

  Amelia thought back to Liam. He had been cute, as she’d noticed at the time. No, cute wasn’t the right word. Cute was a word for babies and animals and sweet guys. Liam was much more than cute.

  “Yes. I suppose. But he also knew he was attractive. He’s definitely one of those guys who can get any girl he wants. Plus, even if he were interested in me, I wouldn’t be interested in him. I have way too much on my plate for romance.”

  “I’m not so sure.” Katie looked thoughtful. “You’ve put friendship and love and a social life on hold for years to pursue your career. Maybe you should take advantage of this break in your career to pursue some of your other goals.”

  “It’s not a bad idea.” Amelia sighed. “But to be honest, I don’t think this break is going to last much longer. I hate burning through my savings like this. I think it’s time for me to start looking for a steady source of income again.”

  “Just be careful,” Katie warned. “I saw how much Shondyn took over your life. The kids and I barely saw you for almost a decade. Don’t accept another job that will take over your whole heart.”

  “I don’t think there’s another job in existence that will take over my whole heart.” Amelia shook her head decisively. “I learned my lesson. I’ll keep my professional and personal lives separate from here on out.”

  “Cheers to that.” Katie raised her glass. “Whatever you want to do, career or family, just know that I’ll support you one hundred percent. As long as you’re smart about it.”

  Amelia rolled her eyes. “I’m twenty-nine. As much as I appreciate the big-sister wisdom, I think I can handle my own life.”

  “Sure.” But Katie didn’t look entirely convinced. Amelia took another sip of her lemonade and grinned. She would show her siblings that she could have a work-life balance. She was fairly sure that it was true.

  Whether or not she was about to get a multiple-hundred-dollar dry-cleaning bill that would send her running to the nearest company with an HR vacancy was a separate question entirely.

  CHAPTER 4

  LIAM

  “Grace.” Liam tried to give a friendly smile to the little girl across the table. “Don’t you want to eat anything?”

  Grace shook her head. Her blue eyes, so like his own, were filled with tears. In front of her sat a plate of all the kid-friendly items Liam had been able to scrounge up from his kitchen: mac and cheese from a box, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, some crackers, a glass of milk, and half a banana. So far, Grace hadn’t touched her dinner at all.

  “Do you want something else?” Liam asked. Grace shook her head again and crossed her small arms over her tiny chest. Liam took a deep breath to steady himself.

  “Just have a little sip of milk and a bite of banana. Okay?”

  Grace shook her head. Liam wanted to bang his own head on the table. How was it that he could run a multi-billion-dollar company with ease, yet he couldn’t get a two-year-old to eat a single bite of dinner?

  He couldn’t get Grace to do anything at all, really. After meeting her in the park, he’d taken her back to the office with him. Liam knew he needed to at least pick up some work to take home and do in the evening — it had been a packed day already and had been completely derailed by the unexpected arrival of the child. He’d set her down on the big armchair in his office, then started gathering his laptop and a few documents. Grace had immediately slithered onto the floor, crawled under his desk, and grabbed on to the leg of his chair. Liam had spent the next twenty minutes trying to coax her out.

  He’d gotten more than a few funny looks escorting little Grace out of the office, but he hadn’t stopped to talk to anyone. On the way home, Grace walked for about a minute, then bent down to examine a dandelion poking up through a crack in the pavement and refused to move until Liam had gently taken her hand.

  Then the little girl had burst into tears. Liam, shocked and worried about how it would look for him to cart a screaming toddler down the street, had put her back down and let Grace stare at the flower for a full five minutes before trying again.

  Now that they were home, he felt equally clueless. Liam didn’t have any toddler clothes or toys; nor did he have any food that the child would eat. But he couldn’t just let her go hungry, either.

  “How about a bite of the mac and cheese?” Liam asked. He leaned over with a spoon and took a bite. “Yummy, yummy!” His voice sounded fake and overly cheerful even to his own ears. As expected, Grace shook her head.

  Liam had no way of knowing when she’d last eaten. What if skipping this meal would have some dire consequences? She was so small. She needed to eat.

  Two-year-olds did eat regular food, didn’t they? Maybe he should have picked up a few jars of baby food or something. Or formula?

  Then, with a stroke of inspiration, Liam remembered the woman from the ice cream store. Amelia. Her nephew, Jamie, had been just a little bigger than Grace, and he’d been happily eating ice cream. It wasn’t the healthiest option, that was for sure, but it seemed better to get Grace fed than to worry about how healthy the food was.

  “How about some ice cream?” Liam suggested. He tried to make his tone light and excited without showing any of the worry he was feeling.

  For the first time, Grace sat up a little straighter. She lifted her intense blue eyes to Liam inquisitively, as if checking to see whether he was serious about the ice cream offer. She still didn’t say anything, but Liam could tell that she was interested.

  “Okay. Come on. Let’s get your shoes back on.”

  Grace slid obediently out of her chair, which Liam had padded with a large pillow so that she could reach the table. She landed easily and started for the door. Liam saw that her walk was less the toddle of a baby and more the confident stride of a young child. If only he knew more about what Grace should be able to do at her age of… he calculated in his mind… two years and six months.

  Grace sat down on the floor of the entryway and held up one of her feet. Clearly, she needed some help getting her shoe on. Liam knelt down, feeling his inflexibility as he tried to bend, and helped her slide her tiny pink loafer onto her even smaller foot. Once he had his own shoes on, he led the way into the fresh air outside.

  There was an ice cream store just a block or two away. Liam had never eaten there — he didn’t care for ice cream in his stomach much more than he did ice cream on his suit. But he was grateful that he’d noticed the store was there so that he was ready for today.

  At the store, Liam looked down at Grace, who had lifted her small hands to press against the glass case of the display.

  “What flavor would you like?” Liam asked. Then he realized the futility of the question. Grace hadn’t spoken yet. She probably wasn’t going to now.

  Sure enough, the little girl didn’t speak. She just lifted one hand to point.

  “Strawberry?”

  Grace nodded.

  Liam got her a cone of strawberry ice cream and led them both to a bench outside. It overlooked a small urban park, where businesspeople were walking dogs after work, and families were enjoying strolls. Grace clambered onto the bench, almost losing control of her ice cream, and finally, wonderfully, began to eat. Liam felt a sigh of relief escape him.

  Ten minutes later, the relief was still there, but it was more than a little subdued. Little Grace had managed to smear strawberry ice cream all over her hands, her face, her dress, and Liam’s shirt. For the second time that day, he was covered in pink ice cream.

  Despite himself, Liam couldn’t help chuckling. Earlier today, he’d judged Amelia for letting her nephew get ice cream on his suit, while she’d been expertly juggling five kids. Now, the exact same thing had happened under Liam’s own watch, with only one kid in the picture. He really owed Amelia an apology for what he’d said.

  Perhaps he should call her. He could apologize and, maybe, Amelia could offer some tips on what two-year-olds were supposed to eat and do. Maybe she could even recommend a good nanny.

  Liam reached for the piece of paper on which Amelia had written her contact information. It was still in his pocket. But before he could get it out, Grace slid off the bench and hurried off in the direction of a small play area. Liam rushed after her, all thoughts of Amelia momentarily replaced with making sure the little girl was safe and, preferably, not covered in ice cream and dirt.

  CHAPTER 5

  LIAM

  The next morning, Liam set his alarm for five a.m. It had been a few years since he’d forced himself to get up this early, but when he was just starting out, waking up before everyone else and getting a chunk of work done before the workday even started had been his routine. Liam’s ability to grind hard, running on coffee and ambition, was something he was exceptionally proud of and which had helped him immensely to get where he was today.

  Yet today, he just felt exhausted.

  After the ice cream dinner, he’d taken Grace home, gotten her cleaned up, and dressed her in one of his T-shirts, which had been comically oversized. The social worker had assured him that a suitcase of Grace’s clothes and toys would arrive soon, but for now, Liam had absolutely no clothes in her size.

  Once she was clean and fed, Liam had tucked Grace into the bed in his guestroom. She’d looked impossibly tiny in the queen-size bed, with the pillows almost as large as she was. Liam had tucked her in, wished her goodnight, and turned off the lights.

  That’s when Grace had started to cry, inconsolably. Liam’s heart had broken for the child, but he’d felt completely out of his league trying to comfort her. Finally, he’d found a very soft washcloth, wrapped it around a second cloth, and drawn a smiley face on the front. It looked more than a little strange, but Grace had hugged it close and finally drifted off to sleep.

  Now, after only a few hours of sleep, Liam was back up, trying to take advantage of the time Grace was sleeping to get some work done. And by work he meant trying to sort out her care. After less than twenty-four hours as a father, it was already abundantly clear to Liam that he was going to need help. A lot of help. In the short term, he needed a full-time live-in nanny — yesterday.

  Liam browsed the website he’d found with profiles of nannies looking for work. They ranged in age from college students to grandmothers and looked universally sweet and confident and helpful. Yet none of them jumped out to Liam. He couldn’t be the best parent to Grace, but he could at least hire the best. And none of these nannies felt like the best.

  Liam clicked on one promising-looking profile. Just as he was starting to read, though, his phone began to buzz. He was surprised — it was still quite early in the morning for anyone to be calling him.

  “Good morning.”

  “Good morning, Liam.” It was Ryan, his assistant. “Is this a good time?”