Page 20 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

She screws her eyes together for a moment. Then they pop open wide. “Oh! You’re reading my books.”

“I am,” I say with a nervous chuckle.

“Definitely some light reading, then!”

I shake my head. “No, not at all. I mean, compared to Tolstoy or Faulkner, but…” I close the book in my hands and look at the cover. Petunia’s Patience Problem. A classic. “You know, Jessica loves these. I’ve read them to her countless times. But I’ve never really stopped to think about what you were actually saying.”

“Hate to break it to you, Hunter, but there’s not a lot of symbolism hiding in my work. At least not compared to Tolstoy or Faulkner.” Her lips perk up at the end. A sad kind of smile.

“You shouldn’t undersell your work, Amy. You’re a talent. I’ve got a stack of books here that proves that.”

She flushes and rolls her eyes bashfully. “Well, thank you. That’s nice of you to say.”

“It’s not nice. It’s true.” My eyes meet hers briefly. Anything more I could say flies out of my head. Her beautiful eyes just take my breath away. This is so wrong. Even the girls I keep on rotation aren’t as young as she is. She’s just a girl, Hunter. “Your new one in particular is pretty…”

“Heavy,” she says, staring out at the pool. The pool lights illuminate the ripples on her face.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Amy sighs. “Because it is.”

I furrow my brow. Unsure what she means.

“It took a lot to get my editors to agree to even letting me write the book. Now they won’t let me forget what a big risk it was and how it’s causing a lot of readers to be up in arms.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Right?!” she asks, snapping back toward me. “She might be a porcupine, but the point is that she deals with real problems.”

I chuckle. “I see what you did there…”

Amy raises an eyebrow.

“The point? She’s a porcupine…” I trail off.

Amy bursts out laughing. “That wasn’t purposeful at all.”

“Sorry. I’m a dad, I think in puns.”

“Trust me, I’m familiar with that.”

Great, so now she’s thinking of me like she thinks of her dad. It’s for the best but way more disappointing than I’d like it to be. “Well, from one of your fans, I’m really glad you wrote this book.”

Amy smiles. “You don’t know what that means to me, Hunter. Thank you.”

I become very aware of my legs dangling in the pool, floating back and forth. There’s a chill now in the air and it’s starting to make me shiver. “I wish I’d had something like this when I was a kid.”

“That’s exactly what I said!” Amy then hesitates. “Were your parents divorced?”

I laugh dryly. “No, but they should have been.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I shake my head. “Don’t be. It’s my life. I have to face it. No use being sorry about it. Besides, they’re dead, so.”

Amy gasps. “God, I’m sorry I brought it up.”

I wave my hands. “No, no. I didn’t mean it in a sad way. It’s just a fact.” I’m sort of surprised she doesn’t know. Their death was national news. I guess maybe she was too young to care. Just another reason why I shouldn’t be having thoughts about her. I was in my mid-twenties while she was roaming the playground. “I’m just saying, like…it’s good to make kids face what’s real. Especially if it will help them cope with something. This one has quickly become one of Jessica’s favorites, so thank you.”

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