Page 1 of Daddy’s Pursuit (The Daddy Guard #1)
Chapter One
Iris Dawson studied herself in the mirror and sighed.
She wished her clothes weren’t so tattered. “Some people buy their jeans this way,” she said aloud. “They pay a lot of money for them.”
But the jeans she wore certainly hadn’t been expensive. In fact, they’d been free, given to her by a clothes-closet ministry at a local Episcopal church. Her t-shirt had come from the same place. Thankfully, unlike the jeans, it didn’t have any holes in it.
At least, no holes that were big enough to be seen at a casual glance.
Checking herself one more time, she sighed again.
“Why are you so worried about how you look? It’s not like you’re going to find a Daddy or anything.
” Her gaze shifted from the mirror to the stuffie who rested atop the beat-up dresser.
“I’m going to leave you here, Snuggles. Only because I might have to take the bus home.
You understand, right? I can’t risk losing you. ”
The plush bear simply stared back at her with its perpetual smile.
Snuggles understood.
Iris picked up the stuffie and hugged it tightly. “I’ll be back. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll make some new friends! I bet they have stuffies and we can all play together soon. You’ll have new friends, too!”
Leaving him behind and walking out of the small garage apartment, she looked to her left, toward the main house that took up the majority of the space on the urban lot. It was a two-story Victorian home that had at one time been grand. But the decades and a lack of upkeep had not been kind to it.
Now it just looked haunted.
The old woman who owned it seemed as ancient as the house itself.
But since the structure was built in 1906, that wasn’t possible.
She sure wasn’t young, though. And she was crabby!
Iris tried to limit interactions with her as much as possible.
The woman gave her a good rate on the garage apartment, though, so Iris couldn’t complain too much about her unfriendly nature, anyhow.
Iris walked along the sidewalk, shuffling past children on bicycles, an old man walking a scruffy dog, and a group waiting at the bus stop.
Various songs drifted from car radios, open windows of nearby houses, and one man was just sitting against an uneven, busted fence with an old-school boom box blasting something or another.
Iris couldn’t recognize any of the songs as they blended into one unintelligible noise.
It didn’t matter, she thought. She probably wouldn’t like any of them, anyway.
Her taste in music was quite unique for someone her age.
Most twenty-four-year-olds didn’t like oldies.
Iris, however, couldn’t get enough of them.
All the best music was at least fifty years old, in her opinion. Even older, really.
She waited at a crosswalk while the endless flow of Los Angeles traffic passed by. Once the light changed and she was given the go-ahead to proceed, she hurried across the street. Going another block, she ended up in front of a towering red-brick Catholic church.
Watching a white Honda Accord pull up, she grinned and climbed in the passenger side.
“Got here just at the right time,” she told the driver.
Behind the steering wheel, Elena Vasquez smiled as she looked over. “Yep. Though it wouldn’t have been a big deal if I had to wait. And just so you know, I don’t mind actually picking you up at your place.”
A familiar uneasiness spread throughout Iris. It wasn’t that she was uncomfortable around Elena or felt unsafe. She just didn’t want her new friend to know where she lived because it was… well… a bit rundown. To put it mildly.
“This is perfect,” Iris said. “I had some errands to run, anyway, so I was out and about.”
Guilt stabbed at her insides. Lying wasn’t something she enjoyed. A friend deserved better than dishonesty.
Elana brushed a strand of her long, black hair back. Her dark eyes lit up in a smile as she said, “I gotcha. Errands sound boring. You ready to go have some fun now?”
Iris’s guilt dissipated, replaced by sheer excitement. “So ready!”
Putting the car into drive, Elana checked over her shoulder before pulling away from the curb. “Then let’s go to paradise. Next stop, Auntie Athena’s West Hollywood Nursery.”