Page 97 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

While Stella continues to read the book carefully, word by word, we all crowd around Dad’s chair. He wraps his arm around me and kisses the side of my head. “Well done, Amy. That was the best one.”

“You say that every time,” I whisper.

“Because it’s always true! They just get better. Although this one might be my favorite.”

It goes without saying to everyone that the Petunia books are somewhat autobiographical. Stories, anecdotes, personality traits…there’s a little or a lot of me emblazoned in every story. So, I think it’s obvious to everyone that this one is about me through and through. No one needs to call it out. All they need to do is see it.

Gillian rubs my shoulder and Harley plops down at Dad’s feet, resting her head against his knee.

“You all are getting too big for this,” Dad mutters.

“Getting too big?” Dana scoffs. “We’ve been too big for a long while now, Dad! Won’t stop us, though.”

We all let out a loud laugh and immediately shut up when Stella glares at us.

Finally, Stella slams the book closed and exclaims, “Wowwowwow! Aunt Amy! That was good!”

“You sound surprised!” I reply, thankfully getting it all out before she bounds over to me and gives me a big hug, knocking the wind out of me.

“We always love you, Amy,” Gillian says.

“Yes, it goes without saying, however…” Kira says, turning her chin up thoughtfully as she leans on the back of Dad’s chair. “We could all afford to say it more.”

I smile at her. “To everyone.”

“Yes, definitely,” Dana says. “Let’s make a pact.”

We all agree and then collapse onto Dad’s lap from our various places on the easy chair. When we were little, we all would have given him our full weight until he jokingly, breathlessly would cry out, “Uncle! Uncle!” Now, however, we have to be a bit more controlled about it.

“Oh, my girls! Where has the time gone?” he remarks, hugging us all toward him, including Stella who is just the right size to burrow into his lap.

“Someone’s phone is buzzing,” Harley announces.

“Mine!” I cry out. “Let me go everybody, let me –”

We disentangle with some amount of effort. Dad’s not the only one getting older, after all. Once I get out of the mess and hop onto my feet, I check my phone. Text from –

“Hunterrr…” Gillian teases, looking over my shoulder.

My sisters all erupt in a chorus of “oooh” before Dad shushes them. “You’re adults!” Stella continues despite the joke having ended; she’s at that age.

“You know, adult doesn’t mean anything! Not really,” Harley says, tapping Dad on the shoulder.

I start to open the text but feel overwhelmed by everyone watching me. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Yeah, why are we staring at her?” Stella echoes.

“We’re not staring,” Kira says, quite obviously staring.

“Yeah, not at all,” Dana adds, doing a better job than Kira of lying.

I shake my head and turn around, finally opening the text.

Meet me at the gate? :)

I resist swooning, especially with twelve eyeballs glued to me. This has become a habit of Hunter’s. Inviting me out to meet him at the gate. Sort of demystifying it as a point of trauma in my memory. Associating it with something much better. Him.

The past two months of our relationship have been…more incredible than I could have imagined. The second we let go of all the things holding us back was the second we were able to fall into each other completely. I can barely remember my life before him. We’ve almost completely woven our lives together, a braid decorated with wildflowers of a life. I still live at home. Don’t want to give my dad a heart attack by moving too fast. Between the way Harley and Gillian have gone about things over the past year and change, I feel like he deserves a break.

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