Page 9 of Sweet Deception

As Mom shuts the sliding glass door behind her, Dad moves to sit next to me on the swing. I settle into his side and lay my head on his shoulder, thankful he's still here with us.

Dad puts his arm around me, squeezing me to him as he kisses the top of my head before putting the swing into motion. I enjoy these one-on-one times with him and hope for more. My emotions well up again, thinking about how I almost lost this.

"I want to thank you for everything you've done while I've been going through treatments. You've taken good care of us, and I'll always be grateful for how much you've stepped up. I love you, pumpkin."

"I love you too, Dad. You and Mom both." Shaking my head, I try to get rid of the fear. "I can't lose you. I'm not ready." My chest constricts at the thought and I suppress a sob, but I can't stop the tears from spilling onto my cheeks.

He pats my arm, his way of showing his affection. "You'll never lose me. Even if one day—a long time from now—when I won't be here … I'll always be here." He points to my heart to emphasize his meaning. "I'm so proud of the person you've become. You've been my greatest accomplishment." He squeezes me to him again, and it takes everything in me not to lose it.

"Oh, Dad. You're making me cry." I sniffle, grabbing his shirt to wipe my eyes. These tears are partially because I wonder if he will think the same of me if he ever finds out what I did today.

Chuckling, he moves his drink in front of me. "Here, only a little. It'll stop those tears."

I grab it and take more than I should've, causing a round of coughing from the powerful punch of alcohol. Dad bursts out laughing.

"Ugh. That brought more tears to my eyes," I say hoarsely, shoving the drink back into his hand. I glance up, catching my mom watching us from the kitchen window with the phone at her ear and a smile on her lips before she turns away, her attention snagged by the person on the phone.

"Come on. Let's go inside and pick a movie." He nudges me off the swing. I snatch Mom's glass and take it inside with us.

When the pizza arrives, my mom hands me money to pay the delivery guy. What she doesn't know is I sneak some money back into her purse when she isn't looking.

We settle on the first Bourne movie—a favorite series of ours, much to my mom's exasperation. My love of action movies comes from my dad and Mom always humors us.

I love when the hero saves the day, while my dad loves picking scenes apart. He can't resist telling us how the action scenes aren't possible in the real world. My mom just shakes her head and laughs at his comments.

It's one of the best nights we've had in a long time.

As I leave to head home for the night, I tease my dad one more time about accepting an invitation to a frat party this weekend just to rile him again, but it's also a subtle reminder to myself to take a step back. I don't want to worry them when I spend less time here and more time with myboyfriend.

The butterflies take flight in my stomach thinking about what I have to do, and it's all I can dwell on during my drive home.

When I unlock the door to the apartment, I can already tell Talia is out again. I take a quick moment to send her a text, letting her know it's done. I've signed the contract, and now it's time to wait. She responds with a thumbs-up emoji, telling me to stop stressing and to get my beauty sleep.

I snort. Yeah, right. Like I'll be able to sleep.

My mind races as I change into my pajamas and slide under the covers. I've got an early morning class and can already tell tomorrow will be torture. Lifting my head, I punch the pillow a few times, trying to reshape it while also letting out my frustration before turning on my side to stare out the window.

It's a long time before sleep comes. And all too soon, I wake from a dream about a man with intense eyes and sinful dimples.

Chapter five

Luca

"Boss." Rafael drops a file on my desk before sitting on the leather sofa against the wall.

He's prompt—getting here right at ten. Margaret already has my terms for Angel. I was a bit more generous with the payments since I'm taking away her chances of choosing any other sugar daddy. I didn't want her tempted to wait for anyone else to respond.

"What have you learned so far?" I pull the file closer, but wait to open it, wanting Rafael's take on the girl first.

He leans forward, resting his elbows on his thighs before rattling off the details he's collected. "Her name is Kylie Davis. She's twenty-three and a senior at the university where she's majoring in education. She took a gap year between her junior and senior year. It may have something to do with her father being diagnosed with throat cancer. He retired early from the police force after receiving his diagnosis and her mother is a schoolteacher. While Kylie has no debt due to a college trust fund set up by her grandparents, her parents have racked up some hefty medical bills, and it looks like they're on the verge of losing their house."

He shifts to settle back, laying his arm across the back of the couch and lifting his ankle onto his other knee as he continues his report. "She rents a two-bedroom apartment closer to campus with a woman by the name of Talia Henderson,who's twenty-six. Talia has been a sugar baby at Sweet Connections for four years—one of the first girls hired when you started the company, and has an excellent reputation with the men she's been assigned to. I didn't dig any deeper, but will if you want me to. Though she's almost due for her annual background check for the service." He arches his eyebrow in question.

"Do it. I want to know more about anyone close to Kylie."I move to the sidebar to grab the bottle of scotch before turning to face Rafael. With a raised eyebrow, I hold the bottle up and wait for his nod before pouring us both two fingers as I absorb the information he's rattled off.

"That explains why she signed on to be a sugar baby." Handing Rafael his glass, I move to stare out the window and contemplate her motives. "If she loves her parents, the threat of them losing their home could cause her to do something drastic like this."

"That would be my guess, as well." Rafael swirls his scotch before lifting it for a taste. "Damn. Is this the bottle the mayor gifted you?"

---