Page 43 of Swiped By My Dad's Best Friend
I hadn’t told the frat brothers yet that I’d let them down. Simon would probably have to leave school next semester, thanks to me. The frat wouldn’t have any bragging rights, though that was easier to deal with. And people like Geraldine wouldn’t have access to a long-term, better-funded nonprofit program—only what I could continue to offer until I graduated and moved away.IfI graduated.
For so long, I’d embraced the role of fuckup. I knew I didn’t want to be in college, but I’d been okay going through the motions. But now there was more at stake than disappointing my dad, which had become second nature. Part of me wanted to walk away and never look back; but would that make me like my mother? My heart squeezed painfully at the thought. Maybe there was no avoiding the reality I was my mother’s son. I’d always had more in common with her than with my father.
“You okay?” Ace asked, checking in. He’d always been a nice guy. “Need anything to eat? Some munchies?”
I smiled weakly. I’d lit up a joint when I arrived, but I hadn’t smoked much. Certainly not enough to get the munchies. I’d just needed to take the edge off my panic spiral. It wasn’t just that I’d bombed one quiz; it was that I couldn’t see my way out of the hole I’d dug in my GPA up to this point.
“Nah, I’m not hungry.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Someone might, uh, show up here. For me. Unless…I mean, I could leave? I don’t know how long it will be. Hell, maybe not even tonight.”
“Stay,” Benji said, glancing up from the comic-style drawing he’d been doing. Sharp lines, long, flowing hair, and battle armor. It looked like an illustration for a fantasy story or something. “You can crash on the couch if you want.”
Ace nodded. “Yeah, crash here. I’m sure the frat sucks without me there anyway.”
I laughed. “It was all right, but then Jonas and Keith left too,” I said. “Now it feels I’m in a house with a bunch of children.”
Ace chuckled. “That’s just your senioritis talking. You’re getting old. Figuring out you want more out of life.”
If only. I had less clarity than half those so-called children I’d just complained about. Maybe the frat party scene was wearing thin, but where would I go if I left? I wasn’t like Ace. I didn’t have a degree, much less one that would land me a fantastic job. I didn’t have a sweet boyfriend to build a life with.
I didn’t have anything—and I wasn’t sure there was anyone to blame but me. I’d fucked off for so long that I had no idea how to go about being a mature adult. And the one time I’d tried to get my shit together, I’d still failed.
Fuck. Maybe I should have smoked more.
I felt about ready to rattle out of my skin. My head ached faintly, as if the worry and anxiety were a physical pressure pounding at my skull, looking for an escape. I clenched my jaw against the urge to yell or sob, I didn’t know which, and the ache grew more intense.
Just when I thought I might fall apart, there was a knock on the front door.
I jolted, heart lurching. Trace traveled every weekend for his side project, but he’d never said exactly where it was. I hadn’t imagined he’d really get herethisquickly.
“You expecting anyone?” I asked Ace and Benji as they glanced at one another.
Ace stood. “Don’t think so. Must be your visitor.”
My heart raced as Ace opened the door. There in the entryway was my Daddy. He looked tall, strong, everything I needed right then. I felt myself crumbling now that he was here. Now that I knew he would catch me.
His voice rumbled as he spoke to Ace, but the words were lost on me, and then he was there, arms holding me as I buried my face in his shoulder.
I wished I was better. I wished I was someone who didn’t let everyone down.
I wished my Daddy could love me the way I knew in that instant I loved him.
* * *
TRACE
Cooper trembled in my arms, breath hitching enough that I knew something was wrong. “What is it? What happened?”
He only shook his head and held me tighter. I glanced over his shoulder to Ace and the slim, willowy ginger at his side. They looked concerned—though whether they were worried about Cooper’s distress or the fact he was wrapped in the arms of an old, burly Daddy like me, I didn’t know.
I separated from Cooper enough to lift his face to me. “Talk to me, brat.”
He smiled, and relief swept through me. If he could smile, it couldn’t be that bad, could it? Cooper drew a deep breath. “I’m okay. Over-reacting. Just seeing you here, likereallyhere, along with everything else…”
I nodded in understanding. I wasn’t immune to being in his presence. I couldn’t seem to take my hands from him. I cupped his face, gazing into those eyes, and the desire to kiss him nearly overwhelmed me.
“We should talk about that,” I said gruffly. “That text you sent worried me.”
“I meant it.” Cooper glanced over my shoulder, where his friends tried to pretend they weren’t listening to every word. Not really their fault. We were in the middle of their living room.
