Page 34 of Finding You

There was no way he sounded disappointed. Was there?

“I don’t think my sister will do anything, but if she confronts you, tell her we’ve already talked. Show her the call log, okay?”

“Call…yeah. Call thingie. I miss you. Can I see you soon?”

Kylen squeezed his eyes shut. “We have a date soon, right?”

“Yeah,” Dallas breathed out. “How was flying?”

Kylen was going to get whiplash from the man’s drunken subject changes, as much as he loved it. “It was nice. I got asked out.”

“By whom?” Dallas’s voice was a growl, and it did things to Kylen.

“The guy who hired me. Don’t worry, I told him no. But if you know any really hot older guys who’d be into an attractive man with an accent…”

“Not you,” Dallas hissed.

Kylen burst into laughter. “No, honey. Not me. Older guys.”

“My brother,” Dallas mused, sounding sleepy all of a sudden. “Mm. Bronx. Got a kid though. Great kid. My nephew is awesome. Bronx is older than me. And he has more grey hair. Does that count?”

“You sound like maybe y’all should head home soon,” Kylen said.

“Y’all,” Dallas said with a laugh. “I like how that sounds when you say it.”

“Good. I’ll use it again. Get Adele to take you home. Have some water and ibuprofen, and get some sleep. You don’t have Audra, right?”

“Katie stole her.” Dallas sniffed, and then Kylen heard a muffled noise. “I want to go home.”

“Oh, honey. Go talk to Adele.”

“Yeah, but…can you tell me a joke?”

Kylen blinked, then snorted. “Sure thing.” He put it on speaker, then scrolled through his email for one he hadn’t sent Dallas yet. He cleared his throat. “What did the carpenter say when he finished building a house?”

“Um…”

“Nailed it!”

The silence was profound and lasted so long Kylen’s face began to burn. Then, there was a cough before Dallas burst into loud laughter.

“So not funny!”

“And yet, you can’t stop laughing. Now, get home and behave. You’re a teacher, for fuck’s sake.”

“Turn your card to red for potty language,” Dallas said. “See you soon.”

The line went silent again, and Kylen collapsed backward, his head thudding against the deck boards. What the hell was all that, and why? Why couldn’t the universe provide him with a man he didn’t want with every fiber of his being?

Why was he being tortured with a man he could never have?

Kylen hated to admit it, but he was going to miss having his sister around. Grace was an epic pain in his ass, and her low-key homophobia wasn’t something he wanted around his daughter, but she was a help. She respected his wishes not to talk about that kind of stuff in front of his daughter, and she was good with Flora.

It made him wonder if he really was fucking this single-parent thing up in epic ways. Flora seemed well-adjusted, but Kylen’s support system was small, and the stress was getting to him. He never would have been able to pull off the farce with Dallas. He loved his daughter, but she couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. And he would not survive humiliation in front of his family.

“Meeting the cheater?” Grace asked as he grabbed his keys.

Kylen gave her a flat look. “The guy’s name is Adele, and he and Dallas are not sleeping together. They’re in a single dad group, which he was part of before I met him.”

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