Page 46 of Finding You

Dallas laughed as he rubbed a hand down Audra’s back. Her body was limp and heavy in his arms. It was the most comforted he’d felt in a while. “No. He’s my best friend’s kid. We have a little club.”

“Ky told me. A bunch of hot single dads.”

Dallas snorted. “Not so single anymore. It’s about fifty-fifty now, but they’re my best friends. I’ve told him he’s welcome to join up. Flora can learn another language with Rex, and Kylen can get some downtime.”

“He’s not good at doing things for himself,” Dani said, her mouth turned down at the corners. “It was another reason I felt so guilty. I know he wanted this, but I haven’t been able to come around for all the hard stuff, and he just…he just takes it. He takes the bullshit from his family and the complicated parts of raising our daughter. He’s sacrificed hours at his job because his grandmother needs care, and his so-called loving family can’t be bothered to step up and help him. They’re happy to berate him for who he is, then use him for what he’s willing to do, and—” She stopped. “Sorry.”

Dallas shook his head. “Please don’t be. It’s nice to see a set of parents who aren’t together who care about each other this much.”

“Not your story, huh?” she asked with a small grin.

Dallas huffed a laugh under his breath and dragged his fingers through his hair. “Ah. No. Our situation was?—”

“Complicated?”

His grin widened. “It really is a versatile word, isn’t it? I don’t think it’ll ever get better. She likes having the ability to drop Audra with me anytime she needs to, and she also likes being able to take her away whenever she feels like it because she knows it’ll hurt me. It’s her form of revenge, I guess.”

“For cheating?”

“For not loving her the way she wanted to be loved,” Dallas said. He didn’t want to get into the details. They didn’t matter. “It’s hard. I have to fight her in court for every inch she tries to take away, and I’m exhausted.”

“Yet you find time to help a total stranger with his weird family,” Dani pointed out.

“He deserves it.” Which was the truth. Kylen did. He was a good man in a difficult situation, and if Dallas could spend a few hours and a few kisses making his life easier, he’d do it.

Even if the end of that story was them apart.

“You should tell him you like him. I know he likes you.”

Dallas bowed his head. “Yeah. It’s just…not that simple.”

“It never is. But people like Ky? They’re worth the fight.”

Dallas wanted to pretend like those words hadn’t put the biggest crack in his armor, but as Dani stood up to go talk with Frey and the kids, he realized it was all starting to break down.

Chapter Thirteen

KYLEN

Kylen’s phone immediately began to buzz the second he was back at the airport from a long flight. The texts came in one after another after another, which told him he was missing something important. His gut sank when he saw his sister and his mom on his notifications.

Grace: The hospital has been trying to call you.

Mom: Don’t you think you need to put Gran’s wellbeing ahead of your own? What are you doing right now that’s so important?

There were more like that—passive aggression, though Grace was kinder about it. Instead of messaging them back, he called the nurse’s station on the way to his car, and a tired-sounding woman picked up.

“Hi, this is Kylen?—”

“Oh, good,” she said, interrupting him before he could get the rest out. “Your grandmother is being discharged this afternoon, and we couldn’t get anyone to sign off.”

Kylen pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did anyone contact my sister?”

“She informed us she wasn’t comfortable making the decision to sign her discharge papers and take her home since you’re her caregiver.”

Fantastic. That was fantastic. Grace was in town with nothing to do, she knew he was at work, and she still couldn’t be bothered to help. He didn’t know why he was surprised by this anymore, but he was starting to reach the end of his rope.

He wasn’t sure he could do this anymore. His life was being eaten up day by day, and the only ones who even cared that his gran didn’t go to a care facility were his parents. They’d threatened to cut him off if he so much as considered it.

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