Page 2 of My Dad's Best Friend

Dad bounces his knee under the table, making him and the surface shake as he thinks. “I don’t like this.”

“How do you think I feel?”

“No, I don’t like that we’re going away and you have a stalker who’s followed you home from college.”

A slice of cheesecake and coffee arrive for Dad, and I lean back to make space for the waitress who puts down my bowl of raspberry sorbet and fruit. I don’t want to be having this conversation. I don’t want to think about the guy I’ve been debating reporting to campus security for the better part of the school year, and now have to worry about in my hometown.

I ignore that Dad even said anything as we both take our first bites of dessert. I’m aware of how I’m holding my spoon, and how I’m actually putting the food in my mouth so as not to give that Cam guy any ideas, if he’s somehow still watching me.

Dad sighs. “No,” he says, poking at the cheesecake with his fork. “I’m not leaving you on your own while we’re in Alaska.”

“Don’t cancel because of me,” I say. “You guys have been saving up for this forever. I’m fine. I mean, Cam’s creepy, but he’s harmless. He’s not going to do anything.”

“You don’t know that. You don’t know this guy, and if he’s been following you around like you say he has, then he must want something. We’re not leaving you alone. But, your Mom and I are not canceling our cruise, either.”

He taps the plate with his fork while he thinks.

I’m twenty years old and he’s trying to come up with a babysitter for me, I think. How is this my life right now?

Dad nods to himself, as if he’s been in a discussion about his options. “That’ll work. I’m going to see if Conner is willing to stay at the house while we’re gone.”

“Conner?” I blurt out louder than I meant to. I clear my throat, as if somehow that’ll mask the excitement in my voice. My face grows warm as I blush and struggle to breathe.

Conner. His very name simultaneously sends chills through me and heats up every part of me. The man I’ve secretly had my eye on for years. Conner. Dad’s best friend from college. And Dad’s suggesting that he stay with me? Alone? In our house? By ourselves? For three whole weeks? Conner?

I focus on my sorbet as Dad pulls out his phone, trying not to show the red I can feel creeping into my face.

“I thought he was in Europe,” I say as casually as I can.

“He just got back a few days ago,” Dad says, scrolling through his phone. “This might work out. I was hoping to see him and catch up with him before we took off. This’ll kill two birds with one stone.”

I pull the bowl of sorbet closer to me, feeling hot enough to melt it just by looking at it. I’ve had a crush on Conner since I understood the difference between a boy and a man, since I was at least fifteen. But I’m just his friend’s kid. I’ll likely always just be his friend’s kid to him.

But I’m not a kid any more. I’m a college student. Legal age, and I know I’m not bad to look at, either. I’ve matured. I’m just over twenty, and despite being a virgin, I know I can handle a man like Conner. And if I can’t, my god do I want to go down trying. That is, if I could just get Conner to see me as more than the girl he used to fly as an airplane when she was in diapers.

I haven’t seen him in a few years. He’s been somewhere abroad, calling from time to time around the holidays. I feel like every time Dad mentions him, he’s in a different country, doing whatever it is he does. Conner’s job title sounds like a lot of business words that don’t actually mean anything.

So many times I’ve thought of what it would be like to be on the beach in Spain with him, or wine tasting in the south of France, or hiking in the Highlands. I doubt he’s done any of those things while he was away, but then again, maybe he has. He’s a rough man when he’s casual. But I’ve seen him take business calls, and he always changes his demeanor, turning into someone suave. It’s like there are two sides of him that are completely different from one another, other than belonging to that strong, intense, manly body of his.

I don’t even hear what Dad’s saying on the phone. I’m too wrapped up in the idea that I might have three weeks to myself with Conner, and who knows what can happen in that time?

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