You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO is from Stacie, who wants to find this contemporary romance:
The book I’m looking for is contemporary. It’s a baby on the doorstep book with a wealthy father and a daycare owner. The daycare owner is not the mother. The baby is dropped on the father’s doorstep and he calls for a nanny or something panicking. His fancy building actually houses the premier daycare for the city so someone comes right away. It’s the owner of the daycare. She has no one else available.
She tells the father to find someone else for tomorrow she has a waiting list and he can’t jump it. He pulls strings and his daughter gets admitted. Then he wants to find the child’s mother and he wants the owner to help him. There’s not that many women who it could be and they go to find the women. I think a PI was hired.
The mother is an older married woman with grown children. Her husband is important and can’t know so she signs the baby over to them thinking they’re a couple which they are by that point.
I read this in the last few years and can’t find it anywhere. I thought I bought it but maybe it was KU and I just think I did. Please help.
Can we HaBO?
Single Dad on Top
by
J.J. Knight
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Why in the world would wealthy not-the-father not simply report an abandoned baby to the appropriate social services?? Keeping a baby that’s not yours is not something I’d think a reputable PI *or* daycare owner would help anyone do. And where in the world does the baby’s bio father (not the bio mom’s husband, I take it, but how TF does her husband not notice she’s pregnant) have no parental rights?? Why in the world would the bio mother abandon the baby on some private citizen’s doorstep vs a safe-surrender location?? In what modern-day setting can a parent simply *sign a baby over* for adoption?? Sorry, I tripped over this whole set-up. If anyone knows what this book is, I’m kind of curious to hear how (or IF) the author turned something so deeply creepy into a romance.
Following for all the reasons @chacha1 mentioned above
May be JJ Knight’s “Single Dad on Top,” part of the Pickle series. I really enjoyed this one and the sequel, “Single Dad Plus One.”
@chacha1, it sounded to me like the wealthy guy IS the bio-dad. Which would answer a lot of your questions, except how bio-mom hid the pregnancy from her husband.
@chacha1: how TF does her husband not notice she’s pregnant
Ooh, ooh, I can make up an answer for that one.
Husband lost interest in his wife years ago and is in fact thinking of trading her in for a newer model, so she has an affair with someone who appears to appreciate her. When she gets pregnant and starts showing, her husband looks at her in disgust and says that now, on top of everything else, she’s getting fat. This, of course, just reinforces her idea that her husband isn’t worth thinking about.
Now let’s see how the author’s actual explanation for all of chacha’s points stacks up 🙂
@chacha1 – “The baby is dropped on the father’s doorstep”
@Louise I’ve got a better story and it’s true. The wife was a stout woman; the husband a department chair, an MD. She was late 40’s and did French cooking as hobby. She caters their Xmas dinner for the department, starts to vomit and cramp between main course and dessert. Cramping gets worse. Rushed to the hospital, sent down to imaging as she told them she had gone into menopause almost a year ago. She proceeded to deliver a term baby in the hallway
So, it can be missed. Including by a room full of docs.
@Louise & @Vicky: a friend of a friend (a real person I have met, not an urban legend) woke up one morning feeling very sick—back aches, stomach cramps, etc. Her menstrual cycle had never been regular, but she thought perhaps her period had started. When she went to the bathroom, she discovered a foot protruding from her vagina! Rushed to hospital and gave (breech) birth to a seven-months-gestation baby. She and her husband never had a clue. It can happen.
Holy hell to those surprise birth stories!!!
@MaryK thx 🙂 obv I totally missed that in my OMG R U Kidding reaction, despite re-reading the HaBO several times. But still: that’s not how you do it. Especially if he has to *hire a PI* to figure out who the bio mother might be.
surprise birth stories = more proof the female human reproductive system was not thoughtfully designed.
@Vicki “she had gone into menopause almost a year ago”
ahhhhhhhhh (eternal screaming)
I think I may have read this recently, if it’s Judith Arnold’s Father Found from the “Daddy School” trilogy (or extended series?). Wealthy-ish single guy humor writer Jamie finds his baby daughter Samantha left on his doorstep, is desperate to find someone to take care of it/ mother the baby so he can continue writing his weekly “how men think” humor column “Guy stuff” which is syndicated. Neonatal nurse Allison runs a program called “The Daddy School”.
I’m more concerned that the dad somehow pulled strings against the owner of the daycare…against her wishes? All I can think of is she has a business loan or rents her space and he threatens her business somehow. Please tell me I’m wrong!
Just finished the book Michelle said may be the Habo and the details match.
To answer some of the questions asked without spoilers:
CPS is mentioned several times by people, and they even discuss mandated reporter duties with regards to calling. But because the guy is rich, they let him slide a bit as he tries to do the DNA test to find out if he’s the parent. I guess this could be plausible, but as an actual mandated reporter, just no. What if that kid had been kidnapped and was dropped there? Call cps or the cops and file a report. Be a responsible adult.
As for the how did no one know. The explanation works but also relies on some “because they’re rich” magic. And the whole mystery is wrapped up well.
Overall, the mystery was good but the romance was meh. The guy was an ass and didn’t really get better. His faults just got glossed over at the end with magic baby dust. And there’s a bunch of low key not like other girl vibes.
@Michelle you found it!
Single Dad on Top is the book. Dell and Arianna are the characters. I even have a plus sign next to this in Calibre. I read it in 2017 but I have a good 8000+ books so I can never find anything. Thanks so much everyone! One day I will follow everyone’s advice and purge the freebies or at least the ebooks I acquired over 10 years ago that I still haven’t read.
If anyone still has doubts, my cousin had a surprise babies–a boy. He’s now 29. Suffered some from no prenatal care, but otherwise healthy.