Page 5 of Tempt Thy Neighbor

I quirk my brow, peeking over at him. “Do you want me to lie?”

He shakes his head. “Dammit, kiddo.”

“What? Can you really blame me? I mean, shit, Dean, I had excellent health insurance, four weeks’ paid vacation—not that I was ever really allowed to use it—and my 401K was building up quite nicely. Don’t even get me started on my salary. There’s no way I’m going to be able to find something as nice as what I had.”

“Okay, sure, the benefits were great, but you just said yourself you had vacation time you weren’t allowed to use. You can’t even takeone dayoff from the job.”

“I could take time off,” I argue. “I just chose not to.” Mostly because my dad would have given me thatnot mad, just disappointedlook parents are so good at.

“Right, and how many emails have you forwarded to him since you quit?”

I bite my lip.Dammit. How does he know I’ve been doing that?

“See?” He scoffs. “That’s fucked up. He shouldn’t be doing that to you.”

“He’snot doing anything. I don’thaveto send him the emails.”

“Yes, you do.” He taps the side of his head. “Because he has you so twisted around up here thinking you need to bend over backward to help him and be this perfect daughter. You think you can’t disappoint him.”

“Trust me, I’ve disappointed him plenty by leaving.”

“And that’s the sad part of it all. The only thing you’re trying to do is make yourself happy, and he’s shitting on that. He’s your father—he’s supposed to support you, not drag you down even more.” He shakes his head again. “You can’t go back. No matter how alluring and easy it might seem, you can’t. Your mental health is worth way more than any of those benefits because at the end of your career, all you’re going to have isyou.”

He’s right.

Iknowhe’s right.

But that doesn’t make this any easier.

“Besides,” he adds, “it’ll be good for you to get away from that dreadful town.”

“It’s notthatawful, Dean.”

He wrinkles his nose. “I beg to differ. Those stuck-up people? All those stuffy events Mom made you go to? Those horrible dates she set you up on?”

Ugh. I don’t even want to be reminded of all the dates my mom has set me up on over the years. Especially not since I took a chance on the last guy she shoved my way. Look where that landed me.

“I won’t go back.”

“Because of the dates?”

“Among other things.”

He holds his pinky out to me. “You swear it?”

The corners of my lips tip up, and I wrap my pinky around his. “I swear it.”

“Good.” He pushes himself up, groaning as he stands. “Because I’d hate to have to duct-tape you to a chair and leave you in the closet.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Hey, you deserved it.”

“Oh my gosh. I unplug your Nintendo one time when you’re one hit away from beating Bowser and I somehow deserve to get taped to a chair and left to die.” I roll my eyes. “So dramatic.”

He narrows his gaze on me. “Brat.”

“Shithead,” I counter, finishing off the rest of my coffee to hide my grin.

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