Courting the Clown Read Online Free

escaped her woolen cap, and he pulled it better down around her ears. “Are you really coming to Lana’s birthday party, Iffy?” she asked.
    Nick looked at Sylvie, all three of them now silent and expectant, waiting for her reply. The trapped look in her eyes would have been funny if this wasn’t so damned important.
    Sylvie looked between the three of them, lastly at Lana, who looked away and started kicking the snow as if she didn’t care what the answer would be. Sylvie met Nick’s eyes, and he ignored her obvious plea of “let me off the hook” and instead tried to impart all the need that his daughter wouldn’t let show. It probably wasn’t fair of him to put her on the spot like this, but he didn’t much care about fair right now.
    She wouldn’t have the heart to say no. She couldn’t.
    He held out a hand to help her to her feet again. “So, what do you say?” he asked when the silence had dragged on forever.
    “I’ll think about it,” she mumbled. “I have to check my schedule,” she added and started to search her pockets. “So many pockets. I really should have business cards here somewhere. Susie said something about handing out business cards at every opportunity.”
    “This is opportunity.” Nick said cheerfully and she gave him a look.
    “Yeah. Only it should be someone else’s opportunity,” she grumbled, still going through her pockets.
    “Daddy?” Em’s voice piped again.
    “Yes, brat?”
    “Why’s Iffy got just one really big boob in the middle of her chest?”
    Nick’s gaze was draw to Sylvie’s chest before he could figure out a way to silence his daughter. He could see Emily’s point, but that wasn’t the issue. Emily and her big mouth. Why didn’t children come with a rewind function? Or better yet, a delayed play-back and a mute button. Maybe it was something he could look into inventing.
    “Emily!” he said weakly, knowing there was probably something he should be doing or saying right now to discipline his daughter. He’d just need a minute to figure out precisely the right reaction to comments like these.
    Sylvie looked down on herself, bemused. She reached into her suit and removed the wig. “It’s just the wig I stuffed down into my suit, Emily. See.”
    Emily craned her neck and stared at Sylvie’s chest. “Now you’ve gots almost no boobs.”
    Nick grabbed his younger daughter and covered her mouth with his hand, feeling mortified. Sylvie did have all the essential parts. Despite the bulky costume, he’d noticed, but obviously his daughter had a different taste in cup-sizes.
    He carefully removed his hand from his daughter’s mouth, and mercifully she stayed silent. He shook her gently, staring at her with his best stern-father look. The two of them would have to have a serious conversation when they got home. “Emily, you know better than that, don’t you?”
    Emily meekly nodded, small white teeth gnawing on her lower lip as she looked between the two adults. She hated to apologize, although she really should be in practice by now.
    “Well?” Nick said to his daughter, eyebrows raised.
    The child looked at Sylvie and mumbled an apology.
    “It’s okay,” Sylvie said. Her smile was brave, all things considering. She even reached out and patted Emily on the head – carefully, like she was petting a semi-wild animal at the zoo. Nick almost felt like chuckling. She really hadn’t been exaggerating her fear of kids.
    “I’m sorry,” he said to Sylvie. “Kids... you can never know what they’re going to say. I am trying to raise them better than this. I’ll have a serious talk with her when we get home.”
    Emily groaned and pouted. She flopped down in the snow next to where her sister was sitting, quietly creating a small arsenal of snowballs, and started one of her own. Nick kept a close eye on her. Lana would most likely use her snowballs to build a tiny family of snowmen. Emily, on the other hand, was likely to make someone