Digitalis Read Online Free

“Your daddy is lost?” She tried to hide a laugh when the girl propped her hands on her hips.
    “Mm-hm. I told him I was going to look at the toys.” Her lower lip pouted as she pointed to a display of Gund stuffed animals. Fear trembled through her chin. “But then he just left.” Her voice cracked as she tossed up her hands. Puddles formed in the cobalt eyes.
    Crouching, Piper rubbed the girl’s arms. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him, sweetie.” She led her around to the white leather bars tool and helped her up. “What’s your name?” Folding the hat rim back, she brushed the white-blond bangs from the girl’s face.
    “Mickey.”
    “Okay, Mickey, why don’t you sit here, and I’ll call your daddy.”
    “You can’t.” She huffed with another quiver of her lip. “He forgot his phone at the house, and we live out in the country, so it’s too far to drive.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s not having a very good day.”
    The laugh bubbled up over Piper’s resistance. “Well, what about your mother?”
    “I don’t have one.”
    The matter-of-fact statement stunned Piper into silence—and drew out her own pain at that comment. She smoothed her hands over the pale pink Maxximum Girl jacket. “Why don’t I try to call your daddy through the speakers here in the store?” She lifted the phone from the cradle. “What’s his name?”
    “Cowboy.”
    Phone in hand, Piper paused and looked at the little cherub. The coral cowgirl boots matched the hat. Jeans. A cute white eyelet top. The name for her father shouldn’t have surprised Piper. But she couldn’t exactly use that over the intercom. “Does he have another name?”
    “Poppa calls him Colton.”
    Okay, that was better. Not much, but she could work with it. She pressed the number code for the intercom and shifted, facing the long aisle that reached for the escalator. A man darted toward the sliding staircase, his movements rushed and frantic.
    “McKenna?” he called as he spun and scanned several directions.
    It didn’t take a genius to know this was Mickey’s father. The black Stetson gave it away. Cowboy. Yeah, he had the jeans and boots, too.
    Piper replaced the phone and moved into the open. “Sir?”
    He spun, his eyes practically hidden by the tip of his hat. “Have you seen—” His gaze lit on the girl on the stool. “McKenna!” He rushed down the aisle, his strides determined and powerful. “Thank God!”
    Piper inched away, propping against the counter as the man swept his daughter into his arms. His hat flew off. Disbelief sent her composure spinning in a dozen different directions. This was the same man she’d seen in the store over the past several months. She couldn’t help but notice him because her typical customers were elderly ladies and young mothers with strollers. Not strong, muscular cowboys who bought towels.
    But watching him embrace his daughter … She choked down the lump rising in her throat. The moment felt painfully familiar. And yet so distant.
    He set his daughter on the floor and knelt. “Where’d you go?”
    “I told you,” his daughter said. “I went to look at the animals. But you left.” Her face then brightened as she pointed to Piper with a big smile. “I did like you told me, Daddy. I told this lady you were lost. And she found you!”
    How this man ever disciplined his adorable daughter, she’d never know. All Piper wanted to do was laugh.
    “Well,” he said, glancing at Piper, then back to Mickey as he replaced his black hat. “I guess we should tell the pretty lady thank you.”
    Pretty lady?
    Mickey nodded. “Yep, or Nana will make us come back to do it.”
    Piper choked back a laugh and quickly covered her mouth.
    The man rose, towering over her. His presence swallowed the entire aisle between the counters. A deep tan accented eyes born of the sky. Shadows from the rim of his hat skimmed his face and made him appear more mysterious. More handsome.
    “I’m sorry about all