Page 216 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11
Getting some advice from my dad would probably be helpful. It would certainly be more helpful than my mom’s had been. But I didn’t want my dad to know that I’d kissed anyone. Or he might lock me in my room for good.
“Just...thinking,” I said lamely.
“Hm.”
A lot of people had that reaction to me recently. I took a bite of my hotdog as I stared at the red pandas. I kept staring at the two snuggling. I wondered if one of them had accidentally kissed someone else once. In a snake cage not meant for them.
“Are you okay, pumpkin?” my dad asked. “You’ve been quiet all weekend.”
I shrugged.
“You can talk to me, you know.”
I sniffed. His kind words made me want to cry again. I stared up at him. Maybe I could word this in a way that wouldn’t get me in trouble. “How did you know mom was the one?”
My dad’s eyebrows pulled together. “Well, first of all, I was in my late 20s.”
I sighed. Apparently my dad wasn’t going to be helpful. I took another bite of my hotdog. The zoo had been a mistake. It just made me realize that I wasn’t a kid anymore. And a few cute animals couldn’t make my day.
My dad cleared his throat. “But when I was with her it always felt easier to breathe.”
“Easier to breathe?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah.” He turned to look at the red pandas again.
That was actually very interesting. When I was nervous and my heart was racing, it was a little hard to breathe. That was how Axel had been making me feel recently. Or maybe being pissed at him made my heart race? I used to feel comfortable around him. And I still did sometimes. But recently I’d just been so confused.
But Jacob? He calmed me. He made it easier to breathe. I smiled.
The smile immediately fell from my face though. It didn’t matter if Axel or Jacob made it easier to breathe. I was pretty sure I hadn’t kissed either of them.
“Why do you ask?” my dad said.
I looked back up at him. “I was just wondering. Mom told me you were a dick to her at first.”
He laughed. “She did not say that.”
“I’m paraphrasing.”
He shook his head.
“But...were you?”
He finished his hot dog and sighed. “I tried to keep my distance because I didn’t think I was good enough for her.”
I wondered if maybe that’s what Axel was doing. Keeping his distance because he thought he wasn’t good enough for me. Ipressed my lips together. No. That couldn’t be it. He was the captain of the football team. He was a great student. Everyone loved him. He was amazing.
I swallowed hard. Maybe that was the problem. I was the one that wasn’t good enough for him. I really hated that thought. But it was a lot more likely that I was my dad in this situation. And Axel was my mom.
No, that didn’t make any sense either. BecauseIwasn’t being the dick.Axelwas. Thinking about dicks made me think about the one pressed against my stomach on Friday night.
God, I was such a mess.
I finished my hotdog and stared at the red pandas. The two that had been sleeping were awake now. And they were wrassling.
I wanted to smile and just get lost in their cuteness, but my head wouldn’t stop spinning.
All I’d gotten from this conversation was that sometimes when you were in love you acted like a dick. And when you were in love it felt easier to breathe.
