Page 4 of Who's Your Daddy

“Those are very good questions, thank you.” And he rolled his eyes again. Some people just liked being ridiculous. “No pictures that he would’ve made. It was a standard, fairly blank card. You know, that’s kind of telling, though.”

“Why?” Reaching out, Leander took a sip of his beer. “Is one of them artistic?”

“The younger one. He’d definitely have made little pictures on it or done something like that.” At the very least he’d have put a smiley face on it.

He liked emojis and it was impossible to forget their conversation on that.

Some people were just too serious when it came to texting.

“Okay, so one down. What else?” Frowning, Leander looked a bit like he was a cranky detective in an old whodunit show. “There have to be other clues.”

He needed to watch more of the good kind of reality TV.

“Now that I think about it, Short Guy would be a bit more obvious if it was him. He’s got no poker face.” He’d thought the situation was funny, but he hadn’t looked guilty or overly turned on about the situation. “The body pillow comment got more of a reaction than my Build-A-Bear.”

Nodding slowly, Leander took my answer seriously. “Okay, that’s not as strong as the artistic information but we’ll move him lower down the list.”

I could see his logic, so I didn’t try to convince him he was wrong.

“Do you think a Daddy would be tall or frowning?” I wasn’t sure. “The only ones I’ve met have been either online or annoying, so I don’t have much to compare my Secret Santa to.”

Leander’s brain seemed to stop working because he stared at me with a confused, blank face for so long I reached over and waved my hand in front of him to restart his brain.

It worked.

Swatting at my hand, he sat straighter. “Stop that.”

No.

“Why are you being ridiculous?” Again.

He sighed, shaking his head and looking back up at the ceiling. “Really? This is the person you said should be my best friend?”

Had God told him to push me into the mud that day?

That was rude and it was no wonder I wasn’t more religiously inclined.

“Okay. I can do this.” Seemingly talking to himself that time, Leander took a deep breath and centered himself. “Why do you think your Secret Santa is a Daddy?”

Had he not been paying attention?

“Well, first of all, he bought me an expensive bear.” Duh. Regular guys would’ve rolled their eyes and bought something for five bucks at Walgreens. “And second, he signed the cardYour Secret Santa Daddy.”

He really needed to pay more attention in life.

I was starting to think the food mix-up hadn’t been my fault…he was definitely going to pay to make up for making me doubt myself.

Dinner was on Leander.

Chapter 2

Enzo

“He still doesn’t know who his Secret Santa is.” Carlo stepped closer, watching Terrence out of the window as he paced the backyard. “I’m starting to think he’s just going to keep all of us.”

“He doesn’t get enough sleep. His brain isn’t working enough to figure anything out.” Which was why he was talking to himself and throwing his arms up in the air like he was losing the argument.

The people in his head weren’t always nice to him.

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