Prodigal Daughter
Copyright© 2025 by DB86
Chapter 11
Marshall had come to the mall looking for Elise. He was desperate. He needed help with his son. Justin didn’t leave his side. And while that thrilled him on one hand, after a solid week of carting Justin around the farm, and him showing no signs of ever being willing to let him out of his sight, Marshall was starting to get concerned.
Justin hadn’t warmed up with his grandmother and refused to stay alone with her. Marshall couldn’t blame the boy. Bonnie Tucker was one intimidating woman, and her brusque manners had scared the boy.
There was work to do, and not all of it could be done with an eight-year-old boy standing next to him. Part of him wished he could just blow off the work and hang out with his son. He liked his quiet company and was enjoying getting to know him. He was a smart little thing and was as eager for love as Marshall was to give it.
But the reality was that while a crop could grow on its own, it needed a human hand to harvest it. The corn in the north field was ready to be brought in, and he just couldn’t see having Justin around heavy equipment. He’d taken a few weeks off from his part-time jobs, but eventually, he’d need to go back, especially with the added expenses of Justin’s needs.
He wished none of it were the case—that he could stay with his son day in, day out for a good, solid year or two to make up for lost time, but life didn’t work that way.
“There is Elise.” Justin pointed and waved, a broken smile crossing his face.
Marshall thought there was something ironic that the one person Justin had said he’d be willing to stay with was Elise Olson, probably the least likely candidate for a babysitter in all of Middletown.
She was sitting outside the mall looking like a top model even in her work clothes. She was not exactly the nanny-type. Could he handle a sexy babysitter? He doubted it. It had been too long since the last time he had been intimate with a woman.
But Justin seemed to have formed an attachment to Elise, probably because her first night in Middletown they had gone shopping with him. Like when animals bonded with the first creature they saw upon hatching, Justin liked Elise.
Whatever the reason, Elise was the only person Justin was willing to stay with, and Marshall had to figure out how exactly to ask her to babysit his son.
“She must be on a break,” Marshall told Justin.
Elise’s sad expression changed when she saw Marshall and Justin. She smiled and waved at the boy, patting the bench next to her for Justin to sit down.
“Hi, Justin. Is your dad taking you for ice cream? I’ve been told that the place across the street has fabulous twist cones.”
Then her eyes slid up to his. “Hi, Marshall,” she said, in a totally different tone of voice than the one she’d used for Justin, that had been friendly, cheerful. The way she said his name was ... sexy. Which made what Marshall was going to ask her even harder.
“Hey, Elise. Are you on a break?”
“A permanent one, I’m afraid. I got fired for dropping my coffee in some old lady’s lap by accident. Know anyone who is hiring?”
Marshall couldn’t believe his good fortune. Or misfortune, however you wanted to look at it. Elise didn’t have a job. He had one he could offer her. And he was almost desperate.
“I’m sorry Speedy Snacks didn’t work out for you. But I do know another job if you’re interested.”
“You do?” Elise was immediately suspicious. She wasn’t going to milk cows, feed chickens or anything gross like that. She had to draw the line somewhere.
“What’s the job?”
“Childcare and light housekeeping.”
That didn’t sound too horrible. In fact, it didn’t sound bad at all. “How many kids?”
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