Page 101 of Bound By My Father's Best Friend

Which had made my Christmas so, so good.

“How are you feeling?” Hector asked, grabbing my hand and leading me to the bedroom.

“I don’t know.”

Eyes heavy, I sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned back on my hands. I wanted to pass out, but I wanted to be here when Evelyn arrived to make sure that she was awake enough to drive him back home.

“You need to sleep,” Hector said, pulling down the blankets. “You’ve had a long day.”

“But—”

“Get to bed, Heather.”

“Hector, I need to be here when Evelyn?—”

“What you need is sleep,” Hector said. “Now, get in bed.”

I sighed through my nose and crawled up the mattress and underneath the blankets to please him. But I didn’t have any plans to actually fall asleep until she got here. Dad and I really needed to talk, and I couldn’t if he got into a car accident and died.

Especially after Sierra’s Christmas tragedy a few years ago, I wasn’ttaking any chances.

Hector drew his hand over my hair, petting my head softly. “You did great today.”

My eyes widened slightly, a warm feeling rushing through my body. “I did?”

It wasn’t often a brat like me received praise, but I might’ve … sorta liked it.

“So amazing,” Hector continued, his soft touch making me relax on the pillows. “I’m so proud of you for the way you reacted when you saw your father. I thought you were going to start bawling, and I would have to toss him onto the sidewalk and bring you home.”

A giggle left my lips, and I closed my eyes. “You would not.”

“Ah, you say that now, but I was ready to hit him if he said anything to you.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, a small smile crossing my lips as sleep began to take me. “Thank you for everything, for today, for tonight, for the collar you gave me. I never thought I could mean so much to someone.”

He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “You mean everything to me, Heather. I love you.”

CHAPTERSIXTY-TWO

HECTOR

After the elevatordoors opened on Monday morning, I stepped out onto our floor, sipped my coffee, and headed straight for Jacob’s office. Evelyn nervously glanced at me from her desk, but I continued without saying a word to her.

Once I gave a soft knock, I opened the door and peered into the room. “Have a minute?”

Jacob nodded and stood, gesturing for me to sit across from him.

I hadn’t talked to Jacob since Heather had passed out the other night and Evelyn had come to pick him up from my guest room. But today, Jacob was sober and quieter than usual, something obviously on his mind.

Heather had mentioned that he asked her out for dinner tonight, but I needed to talk to him before then, in case he tried to talk shit to her about our relationship or about me. He wasn’t going to ruin the only good thing in my life.

“I’d like to talk about Heather,” I said, sitting down in front of him and making direct, firm eye contact so he would know that I wasn’t going to back down. We were going to talk like adults without any fists being thrown or fingers being broken.

Jacob cleared his desk, turned off his computer, and flipped over his phone so there weren’t any distractions between us. Then, he cleared his throat and sat up straight. “Before we start, I want to apologize for the other night.”

“For what exactly?”

“I shouldn’t have been here, drinking my life away,” he said. “That was wrong of me.”

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