Page 38 of Hey, Daddy

I frowned at the toolset with the QR code attached to it.

I hadn’t ordered it, but that wasn’t unusual for me to get packages without me ordering them. Being an Amazon Reviewer, it meant that people could send me anything that they wanted me to review.

The packages were sent to my PO box, and my company then picked them up for me and delivered everything to my apartment. If I ordered it directly from Amazon, it would come straight to my door.

But sometimes, it was impossible to tell the ones I’d ordered, and the ones I’d been sent, apart.

I flipped the box closed with the tools still inside and placed it on the pile next to my office door where I would later review it. Though, there were quite a few things ahead of it, so it might be a while, especially after getting absolutely nothing done today.

A knocking sounded in the hallway, but I ignored it since it wasn’t at my apartment door.

At least it wasn’t until a long few moments later when the knocking moved from the door beside me to my own.

I walked to my apartment door, yanked it open, and came to a stop at the sight of the young girl on the mat right outside my door.

“Um,” I said, studying her swollen from crying face. “Can I help you?”

She swallowed hard and said, “My dad lives right next door to you.”

I blinked. “Really?”

That was the first bit of personal information I’d had about the “man” since I’d learned I had a neighbor.

The only reason I’d assumed he was a man was because of the beer bottles in his trash bag that I’d seen there once the day before trash day.

“Yeah.” She swallowed. “And he’s not answering his phone or his texts. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

I nodded and opened my door wider. “Come in.”

She looked frantic and lost, and there was no way that I was going to let her stay out there alone.

“I saw your dog toys and your doormat and felt like you were a safe option if you loved your dog enough to get that mat,” she said.

I swallowed hard and a wounded noise left my throat as I thought about all the stuff I now had that would likely need to be thrown away.

There was no way in hell that I was going to get another dog and go through this heartache again.

She looked at me strangely when I made that noise and started to back away, worry flashing in her eyes.

“It’s okay,” I swallowed again. “I just…my dog died today.”

Her mouth opened and closed. “What?”

I rubbed at the spot over my heart and said, “When I adopted him, I knew he was older. He was the sweetest yellow Lab with the whitest face you’ve ever seen. He was old, old. Seeing him there in that shelter broke something inside of me, and I just knew that I had to take Butters home. I just didn’t realize thatwe’d bond so hard so fast, or that he’d die after only a month of having him.

“What’s your dad’s name?” I asked.

Before she could answer, a knock sounded at the door.

I blinked and turned, surprised.

It was too early for deliveries. The only other person it could be was my next-door neighbor looking for his kid.

Without giving it much thought, I eagerly walked over to the door and opened it, expecting to find a “dad” on the other side. What I found was an angry young man who looked like he was about to kill me.

“Um, can I help you?” I asked.

“Did you see a girl come in here?” he demanded.

---