Marion Lennox
Misty and the Single Dad
A book in the Banksia Bay series, 2011
Dear Reader,
Many years ago, my mum took my little sister to the doctor. They waited for a long time. Finally my sister, small and cute, went to fetch something she’d left in the car-and she found Buster.
Buster had been thrown from a moving car. He was small and nondescript. He was skeletal. His back leg was broken, and he hung from my little sister’s arms, his huge brown eyes expecting death.
Back in the doctor’s waiting room, ten sets of eyes looked at my mum as my little sister sobbed and quavered, “Can we keep him?”
Buster gave joy to our family for fourteen years, and I’ve now reincarnated him as Ketchup. I’ve smiled as I’ve rewritten his story. Occasionally, I’ve cried. Follow Ketchup as he brings Misty Lawrence and Nicholas Holt together-and watch as their romance blossoms.
I wish you all a Buster or a Ketchup, and I wish you all the happiness he gave us.
Welcome to Banksia Bay.
Marion Lennox
With grateful thanks to Anne Gracie and her Chloe,
a matched pair of great friends; to Trish Morey,
whose skill with words is awesome;
and to the Maytoners, because we rock.
To Buster Keaton,
who loved our family with all his small heart.
CHAPTER ONE
HOW many drop-dead gorgeous guys visited Banksia Bay’s First Grade classroom? None. Ever. Now, when the heavens finally decreed it was time to right this long-term injustice-it would have to be a Friday.
Misty took her class of six-year-olds for swimming lessons before lunch every Friday. Even though swimming had finished an hour ago, her braid of damp chestnut curls still hung limply down her back. She smelled of chlorine. Her nose was shining.