Page 45 of Single Dad's Second Chance

I almost laughed. He could help by not bringing vapid, annoying women in for Henry to date. He could stop introducing gold diggers to the man I loved.

Yeah, right.I smiled and nodded. “I appreciate all that you’ve done for me,” I told him seriously.

As he walked away, though, I was hit with the conviction that he would always see me as a charity case. Something less than and needy. The young woman with a record he took under his wing when he hired me at Dunn Enterprises.

He’d never see me as a potential daughter-in-law.

I began to excuse myself, shoving my phone in my purse as I slipped away and left them to be a real family. On the walk down to the street level, my heart hung heavy with renewed aches.

I couldn’t dismiss this thought of never getting what I really wanted in life.

Eddie would never want me and Henry to stay together.

All Henry really had for me was a one-night stand. That had to be it. Now that we’d caved to the desire we’d put off for so long, that was it.

A tear streaked down my cheek at the yearning for something so far out of my reach.

There would be no repeat with Henry. I had no business wishing I could just be his and fit in with him in his home.

Stop the pity party, dammit.I wiped my cheek as the subway moved, bringing me closer to my neighborhood far from Henry’s skyscraper.

Torn with the ache to want the impossible, I tried to clear my head. I vowed to double down on doing what I was in control of. I couldn’t ever change the circumstances of who I was and who he was. I couldn’t erase my past. I couldn’t ask him to change the ethics policies at the office.

We simply wouldn’t ever work due to things I couldn’t change or control.

Instead, I could work on my debt. Make money. I could focus on expunging my record and getting over the mistakes of my past.

Maybe one day, I’d be able to feel worthy of someone else.

Not Henry Dunn.

I had a taste of him, but that was all that would ever be on the menu for me.

It was past time that I let that reminder sink in and stay in my head.

17

HENRY

Mia couldn’t have run out of my apartment any faster. I watched her all morning after we slept together, and every time I noticed her looking toward the door and seeming to feel uncomfortable, I wished that she’dwantto stay.

Sure, things were awkward. We’d messed up big time, acting on our desire before figuring out how to make it work.

I was confident we could. We had to. Two people could fit and make sense as well as we did without there being a chance of lasting.

I was the CEO, for fuck’s sake. If I wanted to enact a change to the ethics policies and scratch out the rules about not fraternizing, then I would.

But her eagerness to bolt disheartened me. My mood lingered, keeping me quiet and morose for several days.

It didn’t help that Jason was needier than usual. Ever since Ann opened her damn mouth and spewed that bullshit about a boarding school, I’d been facing issues. My dad noticed too.

“What’s with this sudden separation anxiety?” he asked one night when he came over to play with him.

I sighed then explained what Ann had said. His expression changed from a frown to a scowl. He shifted from frustrationand worry to anger. Then he frowned again, seeming sad. “She had no right to say such a thing.”

I shrugged, looking at him expectantly. He’d introduced her. I was the one who politely told her I wasn’t available. Part of this fell on him for insinuating that I had to give her a chance. “She had no right to be encouraged into thinking she had a golden ticket to belong in our lives.”

He hung his head. “I… I can see how she was a bad fit now.”

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