Page 45 of Surprise Baby for Daddy's Best Friend

"Didn't say that."

I sighed, and drooped my shoulders. "You're as bad a liar as I am sometimes. Just trust me. Nothing is going on between us right now."

"Good," he stabbed the fork at me in the air. "You deserve better than him."

"Oh?" I raised a brow. "Need me to find the richest man in the world then? I mean, I guess I could try, but I doubt he'd want to marry me either. I might be a catch, but I'm not gonna bow to just anyone." I flipped a piece of my hair over my shoulder.

He chuckled and took a deep breath, "You know what I mean. Just don't be getting with someone who might cause you heartache later on. I don't need to shoot my best friend because he broke my daughter's heart."

"I'll be fine, dad," I reached a hand out, and gently rested it on his. "Trust me on this one. If anything happens to me because of a guy, I'll make sure you're the first to know and get your gun ready for you."

He dropped me back off at my apartment later that evening with a box filled with desserts he demanded I order and take home to enjoy. I wasn't going to tell him no, but the idea of finishing them before they went bad wasn't what I would call a good time.

I collapsed on the sofa and propped my feet up on the worn-out ottoman stuffed with thick blankets and old textbooks. The plain gray of it matched the dust that had managed to collect over the week I was gone. Something else I needed to take care of later this week.

My phone buzzed with a text from my dad.

Made it home safely. Be good.

You too, dad.

I scrolled through to make sure I didn't have any other messages I hadn't responded to yet and paused on Jared's name. I was supposed to delete his contact from my phone while on the flight home. I wanted to forget about him and everything we had done during the wedding week. Just seeing his name sent my legs quivering.

I leave my text messages to get my mind off him, and moved over to Facebook. Most of my timeline was filled with photos from the vacation and wedding itself. A few times I saw photos of Jared and me sitting near one another or staring at one another. It was so obvious that something was happening between us, and no one had even realized it!

"Damn it," I shouted and tossed my phone to the corner of the sofa. "Seriously, why does everything have to be about him?"

I groaned and closed my eyes while listening to the clock on the wall tick away the seconds.

"Whatever," I growled and grabbed my phone again.

There was one surefire way of getting over him. Or at least distract myself from him. Find a new guy. It didn't matter if they were baby-faced at this point. Anything to just forget about who Jared was, and get on with my life. I downloaded the first hookup app I could think of.

"Name: Kim. Interests..."

I bit my inner cheek. I could list something generic like adventures or go into detail about how I wanted an older man. After a few minutes, I fell back on animals as my interest. At least if someone had pets of their own, even if they weren't a good match I could fall for their dog or cat.

The rest of the profile was easy to fill out. Listing any kinks I had or didn't have. Who I was interested in. And finally, it asked me if I had a specific age range in mind. While I wanted to say men over forty, I opened it to twenty-five just to have more options.

Within seconds, before I could even close the app, I received my first match.

"Seriously?"

I tapped on the notification and clicked on the guy's profile. He was barely older than me, fairly muscular, and it looked like there was a woman in the photo he barely managed to crop out. I hit skip on him. While I wanted to get over Jared, I didn't need to deal with drama from a guy that might still be with someone.

Another ding made me check again. It was like an addiction to see who was clicking on my profile. This guy was in his thirties. He wore a green football jersey and was hanging out at some bar. I flipped to another photo where he was out hiking somewhere. In his hand was what obviously looked like a leash so I flipped to the next photo and was greeted immediately by the snoot of a golden retriever.

My heart instantly melted at the sight of the dog and I let out an audible aww. I clicked ok on him and waited for a response.

Nothing.

Another match came in with a ding.

I continued flipping through the different matches I was consistently getting for another ten minutes before I decided to stop. It was getting a bit much, and I needed a break from deciding if someone might be a creep or not. Instead, I turned my attention back to my messages which were now filled with responses from some of the guys I had matched with. I started with the golden retriever guy.

Sup.

Hey, your dog is really cute!

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