The Single Dad

Hello, Jolene Navarro here today. Hope your day is going well. What are you doing today?
Me?
Oh, just some research for my current work in progress.  I know, I know...it's hard work.

Jensen Ackles and his daughter, Inspiration for my hero and his adopted daughter

Another of Jensen Ackles and his daughter.

My hero, Garrett, finds out he has a four year old, orphaned son and that son... has a daughter. To keep the kids together he is about to take custody of both children. He will be going from confirmed bachelor to single dad over night.. and does it without hesitation. Oh, he might have some doubts about his ability to do the job, but he never imagines not doing it. How can our heroine not fall in love with him?
Something about heroes and fatherhood that pulls at my heart strings, especially when the child is not even his but they love them as if they were.
We hear that fathers are the ones that establish how a girl will expect to be treated from her chosen partner. The relationship he has with his daughter will set the ground work for her future relationship. Sons watch dad to see how his mom is treated. Without this foundation life is so much harder...doable but harder.
My own heart still melted whenever my husband loves on our own daughters, twenty-three years ago or today.

Our oldest daughter never wanted to go to sleep.

Our second daughter is home from school and my husband makes sure to stop and give her a hug as he leaves the press box and heads to the football field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I also have a deep respect the men that are fathers when there was no father. Brings to mind the country western song, "He Didn't have to Be" by Brad Paisley.

As lovers of romance we want to see the character and heart of the heroes in our stories, and know they are honorable. The kind of men that steps in and does the right thing for those that are smaller and weaker than him.  And he loves with his whole heart, eventually. For our fictional heroes, there are always some issues they have to work through, but we know at their core, they are good men. Sometimes, they have to learn that too.
Some people say it's just fiction...that doesn't happen in real life.
But I see these men all the time in the real  world. There are a couple of men in my family that have become fathers when they didn't have to...and truthfully we forget they aren't the "bio" dad. They are the real-life heroes. Being a father is more than blood and DNA, it's loving and supporting a child into adulthood. How can we not love a hero that does this?

This summer it will be twenty years  that I suddenly lost my father. I still miss his hugs and crooked grin when he thought I was being crazy.

Daddy's girl - Jolene Guinther Navarro and Roger Von Guinther 1970

I would say that all three of my father's daughters thought of themselves as a Daddy's Girl.
So are you a sucker for a single dad story? Does the image of a man holding a child make you sigh? Or is it just me?