Page 27 of Finding You

Goldfish. He felt like the worst dad in the world, but he gave in because the last thing he was going to do was send her to bed with an empty stomach.

Kylen’s phone buzzed beside him. He rolled over, his heart tripping over itself hoping that it was Dallas. Instead, he saw Dani’s name on the screen. It wasn’t the person he wanted to talk to, but he’d take it.

“Hey, babes.”

She laughed quietly. “You only say that when things are bad.”

It was true. When he was in a good mood, he usually greeted her with a long, drawn-out Heyyyy, bitch. He covered half his face with one hand. “It’s been a day. Gran’s still in the hospital, my sister’s still being a pain in my ass, and Flora’s putting up a food fight again. She ate Goldfish for dinner, which makes me the worst dad on the planet.”

“Best dad. Fed is best. She’s not going to get scurvy from having Goldfish a couple nights.” Daniela went quiet a moment. “What else aren’t you telling me?”

God, why couldn’t he be a little straighter? They would have made the perfect team. She knew him so well, and she knew how to gently crack him open so he didn’t bleed as he spilled his guts.

“I met a guy. I like him. And he doesn’t like me back.”

“As in…”

“As in he’s straight, and I think I fucked up in a big way.” Then the dam broke. He let go of everything. He was burning with humiliation when he was done, curled up under his covers with a pillow over his head. “I’m like some fucking high school nerd with his Canadian girlfriend,” he finished.

Dani burst into laughter. “Oh, honey.”

“Tell me I’m wrong,” he begged.

“I can’t. You so are. Except…I guess you’re not if he’s willing to play along.”

Kylen winced. “He is. I just feel like that’s going to make it worse. He’s Flora’s teacher, so if this gets weird, I’ll have to see him all year long.”

“Eh. Only for like six things, and he’ll be busy for most of them,” she said.

“No.” The decision was already made. He knew that. “He wants to go on a practice date, so I think I have to call it off when I get there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t you think that’s better than parading him around my family?” Kylen pressed.

Dani groaned. “I mean…yeah, probably. No one deserves to be subjected to them.” She paused for a long beat. “Honey, do you want me to see about a transfer home? Just until some of this stuff calms down.”

The offer was more than tempting, but he had always promised himself he wasn’t going to stand in her way. Their arrangement made them happy. The problem wasn’t Dani not being around. The problem was his weak spine with his family.

“No, sweetheart. As much as I miss you so fucking much, I can handle it. I’m going to call it off with Dallas, then I’m going to tell my family to stick their heads up their own asses instead of mine.”

“I like you this way,” she said.

He laughed. “Yeah. I like me too.”

She sighed. “Dad joke time.”

Kylen burst into laughter before putting his phone on speaker and holding it away from his face to open his email. He scrolled through and opened the latest message. “What do you call friends you eat with?”

“Oh, this is going to be bad.”

He grinned to himself. “Taste buds.”

“I’m hanging up on you now.”

“You asked for it,” he said, but she’d already made good on her promise. Smiling wider, Kylen opened his text, and in spite of telling himself not to, he pulled up Dallas’s contact, then copy-pasted the joke into two parts.

He watched the screen as it went from delivered to seen twice. Then three bubbles as he typed.

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