Page 251 of Daddy's Pride

It wasn’t a big national chain; it was a locally owned restaurant that had been written up in the Portland Tribune last year. I remembered, because Juan kept making jokes about something the name rhymed with in Spanish at the time.

Was Owen right here in Oregon? Right here in Portland?

I sat down abruptly on the edge of my desk, my heart pounding so hard I’d have been worried if I wasn’t still too young and healthy for those kinds of concerns. Because for all that Owen occasionally teased me about being old, thirty-five was anything but, as far as I was concerned.

Although it was still fourteen years older than him.

Which had felt like a non-issue when he was out of reach, but now…

“Holy shit,” I muttered, scrubbing a hand over my mouth while I tried to come to terms with the need to rearrange my entire world view. Or at least, the part of my world that included Owen in it.

Objectively, I wasn’t sure why I was so shocked.

It wasn’t like he’d ever said he was in the midwest. As soon as I’d found out his phone number had a Wisconsin area code, I’d just assumed.

And maybe, if I was being brutally honest with myself, it had even felt safer to get close to him since I’d “known” he was out of my reach. Not just because he was a straight boy pushing the boundaries of being too young for me, but also geographically, physically out of reach. Someone who would never want a “real” relationship with me… even though he lapped up all the Daddying I offered and fulfilled that part of me better than any short-term contract or night at the club ever could.

My phone sounded off with another incoming message, jolting me out of my spiraling thoughts.

MONDAY 1:30 PM

Tyler says she said yes! Ha, but now he doesn’t know where to take her. It must be love since he doesn’t want to just take her out to a club like he usually does with girls.

I almost felt disingenuous sending my reply, but I had to know.

MONDAY 1:32 PM

How about the Hollywood Theatre on Sandy? They have themed movie nights sometimes, along with beer tastings if they’re both over 21.

MONDAY 1:33 PM

They are! That’s a great idea! I’ll suggest it to him, Daddy. Thanks :)

So he was here in Portland.

What did I want to do about it?

Something hot and possessive and—shit, fucking joyful flared to life inside my chest.

For about two seconds.

Before I realized that this really didn’t change anything.

Owen didn’t seem at all surprised that I recommended a local venue, so he must have realized, or at least already assumed, that I was here in the city, too. But he’d never suggested that we meet, so he must have had his own reasons for wanting to keep what we have confined to our daily texts.

And even if that weren’t the case, he’d never given any indication that he was anything but straight. Calling him a few pet names, knowing he liked it when I did, didn’t change that fundamental fact.

“So he isn’t for me,” I muttered, rubbing my chest. “Not like that. He never was, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”

As pep talks went, it sucked. I still felt an odd sense of having lost something, even if I’d never had it in the first place. But then again, maybe I just needed to look at it a little bit differently.

Maybe I’d gained something.

I’d been frustrated at not being able to help him more when his hot water heater had started leaking, but if I’d known he was right here in my hometown, I could have gone over and fixed it myself.

And I still could.

MONDAY 1:58 PM

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