The Daddy Clock - Hardcover

What happens when a woman who wants her freedom meets a man who wants to love, honor, cherish...and change diapers?  What happens when two right-for-each-other people meet at the wrong-for-each-other time?

Meet Charlie Feldman.  An almost-handsome, neurotic Chicago sportswriter whose biological daddy clock is ticking loud and clear.

At forty-four, he's been an uncle, a babysitter, a buddy, but never what counts most of all--a daddy.  Charlie Feldman--all-around good guy who goes to sports events for free and leads a life most guys would kill for--wants more than anything to be a dad.

There's only one catch.  He needs a woman.  And for Charlie, who would rather have root canal than a blind date and who's been out of the dating game for several seasons, finding a woman poses a major problem.

Enter Lacy Gazzar.  Sexy, feisty, thirty-something assistant to the Advice Ladies at Charlie's newspaper.  A mother herself at eighteen, Lacy's about to say good-bye to her college-bound daughter and finally dive into a grown-up life all her own.  But she is more than happy to help Charlie navigate the dicey dating scene in his frenetic search for the perfect mommy.

Though she doesn't quite understand Charlie's all-out assault on fatherhood, she's ready to lend an ear.  She's even willing to aid and comfort him through a hilarious and sometimes humiliating round of personal ads, relentless blind dating, and absolutely appalling encounters.  The one thing Lacy isn't willing to do is have Charlie's baby.  No way.  Not a chance.  But a funny thing happens along the way in the great mommy search.  Charlie and Lacy become friends.  Really good friends.  And then one hot, magical, full-moon night...

Well, let's just say accidents will happen.

Now Charlie wants it all.  And Lacy?  She wants none of it.

What happens next is cry-your-eyes-out, laugh-out-loud proof that the course of true love never runs smoothly--or predictably--and that the best-made plans between a man and a woman almost always go wonderfully awry.

Judy Markey has written a syndicated humor column in the Chicago Sun-Times for fifteen years.  She is also co-host of Chicago's top-rated midday talk show, WGN's Kathy and Judy.  She lives in Chicago and has lovely E-mail and telephone relationships with her two adult children.