Page 39 of Driven Daddy

The light was dim back here, but I didn’t want to scare her.

“Tell me you know the code.”

She jumped and her startled green eyes zeroed in on me. “What are you doing in here?”

“I have the same question, Green Eyes. What the heck are you doing back here?”

SEVEN

The lineof people just kept growing.

Colette had given me a head’s up that people had started lining up since early this morning.

Early.

This.

Morning.

What?

I hadn’t understood at all until I logged into my TikTok and saw that my photo of the gazebo had been seen by over a thousand people. That wasn’t impressive at all. There was absolutely no reason to have that many people show up. Then Colette mentioned she had a great response to her quick post with me—which, of course, was tagged. Add in her newsletter and…the BookTok network had lit on fire.

This was a nowhere town in the middle of New York.

That shouldnothave lit it up.

But add in the other two signees and…insanity.

I knew the line wasn’t all for me, but the crush of people had put me over the edge.

I rested my head against the door. “How does this keep happening to me?”

“What?” His voice came closer even if it sounded like it was behind a wall of clouds.

“How do you keep popping up?” I tried to drag in a breath, but it kept stalling in the middle of my chest.

“You okay?”

I shook my head. “Yes.”

“You realize you just said no and yes at the same time?”

I tried to breathe in, but I felt the panting start. My eyes shut against the darkness of the room. That would make it worse.

“Hey.”

He moved in front of me. I couldn’t open my eyes. If I did, I’d just go into full-blown panic.

Not that I was afraid of him. I just didn’t want him to see me like this. I liked being the mysterious and sexy girl.

Now I was the freak again. The one that no one wanted because I was too broken.

The panic didn’t let me think clearly, but I couldn’t stop the spiral.

“I’m going to touch you, okay?”

I stayed still as the panting increased.

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