The Daughter He Wanted by Kristina Knight Page B

hit the meat counter and then the dairy section and this day would finally be over.
    Not that it had been a bad day. Three days after the barbecue, one week since he’d met her and Alex decided it was a Paige Day.
    He paused at the end of the aisle, looking left and then right to decide which way to go. He usually shopped at the grocery store in Farmington, but the past three days he’d been assigned to St. Francois Park rather than St. Joe, and the market in Bonne Terre was closer. He saw the sign for the meat counter and headed that direction, plucking a box of snack cakes off another shelf as he passed.
    Added benefit of shopping in Bonne Terre: he might run into Paige. If that happened it would really be a Paige Day, not just a Memory of Paige Day. She’d turned down his dinner invitation, but he chalked that up to the situation. First meeting with Kaylie. Tuck’s attraction to Alison. Paige’s parents. He had a feeling her parents had a lot to do with her insistence that they not go on a single date.
    What they needed was a little unexpected contact. Something that wasn’t set up around their daughter. The attraction he felt for Paige was...unexpected. Maybe slightly unwanted. But it wasn’t wrong. He’d convinced himself of that during a hike on Monday when he couldn’t get her out of his head.
    He kept hearing her laugh through the wind in the trees. Felt the brush of her fingers against his arm. Saw the sad smile she’d offered him after her parents left the barbecue.
    Even after the worst argument he’d had with Deanna, the one about going to the fertility clinic because she thought something was wrong, he’d been able to concentrate on the trails, his work. To get lost in nature and decompress for a few hours. He’d gone home that night and agreed to go with her to the clinic because whatever his misgivings, it was important to her.
    Monday, he hadn’t gotten lost in anything except his memories of having coffee with Paige, of the painting he’d seen in her home and holding her hand when Kaylie jumped off the swing set. Of his mouth going dry when Paige’s gaze locked with his after they found Tuck and Alison in the pantry together.
    That was the biggest distraction.
    He’d wanted to kiss her then. Wanted to follow her home after she left.
    Alex placed his order at the counter and then stepped back while the butcher wrapped everything up.
    He hadn’t followed her home because he knew what would happen. He would kiss her, probably scare her off. She wouldn’t go back on her promise to let him get to know Kaylie, but after only knowing her a few days, Alex’s priority was to get to know the mother as well as the daughter.
    To build a relationship with them both.
    And wasn’t that crazy?
    After Dee died, he’d thought that part of his life was over and that he was fine with it. How could a strange woman and a little girl bring back all of those emotions when he barely knew them?
    Alex added the paper-wrapped pieces of meat to his cart and continued down the aisle to the dairy section, picking up a package of lunch meat and a jar of pickles on the way. He spotted a sale on macaroni and cheese in another aisle and stepped away from his cart to grab a couple of boxes, but his cart kept moving.
    Alex raced after it but he was too slow and the cart rear-ended a shapely body bent over the egg case.
    Paige dropped the carton of eggs and whirled around as Alex squeezed his eyes closed and grimaced. So not the impression he wanted to make.
    “Hey,” he said, grabbing the cart and pulling it away from Paige. “I must have nudged it when I saw the mac and cheese sale.”
    Paige’s expression morphed from annoyance to mirth. She smiled at him. “You’re not who I expected.” She wore a pretty skirt with blue flowers on it, a plain blue tee and a jean jacket. It was still warm enough to wear sandals and he saw she’d repainted her toes a deep purple. He was staring, he realized, and focused his