How far would you go to save your marriage and the man you love?

The following is an excerpt from "Numberless Dreams," the romantic suspense novel from Kelly Thacker. Get the book here.

Some days Jonathan Harris wondered at the sheer monotony of his existence. Juggling his keys and sleeping daughter, he unlocked the front door of his house. Carrying her, he walked down the hall, his eyes adjusting to the dim of the waning evening. A slow fatigue permeated his bone-weary body. He felt the bone-weary exhaustion of a life constantly on the road. Tonight he was late due to a three-hour delay for a two-hour flight. His daughter’s childhood seemed to be slowly slipping by.

He lay Suzie on her bed and gazed at her angelic innocence. Pushing the matted brown curls away from her face, he felt the softness of her skin against his fingers.

She seemed to be the only significant achievement of his life.

His daughter stirred faintly. "Good night, Daddy. I love you."

He tucked the flowered sheet around her. "Good night, my favorite girl. I love you too."

He couldn't believe she was already six years old. He hated being gone, hated missing all the small but important things her grandmother experienced on a daily basis. His was every parent's age-old battle, the size of his paycheck versus being away from his child. The paycheck always won. He justified how plenty of fathers traveled - salesmen like himself, long-haul truckers, men in the military. But those fathers had a wife at home. Jonathan didn’t. He knew his mother did a wonderful job of watching Suzie while he was out of town, but she was no substitute for a mother.

He looked at the row of stuffed animals on the white shelf and selected her favorite, a worn, brown teddy bear he had bought in the Atlanta airport.

Jonathan had planned it all out when he found himself a single dad. Suzie had been just a toddler. He would retire when she started her teens, by that time his savings would be secure enough to give her the best of everything. He leaned over and kissed her, switched on her night light and left the room.

He walked down the hall to the living room and turned on a lamp. If he could sit quietly for a moment, maybe the chaos of the day would subside. Dropping onto the leather sofa, he closed his eyes. Abruptly his eyes flicked open. Something was amiss. Struggling to decipher the almost indefinable memory - what was it, the smell of something fruity - elicited a powerful response of pain. Her fruity shampoo, one of his earliest attractions to her. Toward the end he detested it with all the contempt he had come to feel for her. And now that contempt had turned to fear.

The setting summer sun cast dark shadows across the living room carpet. Jonathan remained frozen in the chair, his mind wanting to take him in too many directions at once. He frantically tried to control his racing thoughts. Pulse increasing, heart pounding.

During their brief marriage he had learned to detect her manipulating behavior, the lies, the treachery. He knew he had to find a way to remain calm as the old feelings of shame and loathing washed over him. A floorboard creaked in the hall. She was here, in his house, the house they used to share.

READY FOR MORE? Download the rest of the first chapter of "Numberless Dreams" for free HERE, or get the book HERE.