Page 31 of Boss's Mate

Holding in a sharp inhale, Kayla finally dared to look her friend, but she didn't speak until Serena had beat a hasty retreat from the room.

The lump in Kayla's throat threatened to choke her, and Sarah's glowering at her certainly didn't help matters, though she was well aware of the fact that she deserved it.

“You…you remember WolfMan78?” she stammered, unsure of what else to say. “And h…how you practically set me up on a blind date with him?”

Sarah raised a brow. Her expression became confused. Then realization dawned on her. “The dating app? What does that have to do with the fact myfatherjust fucking kissed you as if you were…were…”

Sarah visibly shivered and started to shake her head. It was abundantly clear that she didn't want to think about where her mind was going.

“Because Lance Leafson, your father, is WolfMan78,” Kayla admitted, her heart hammering hard in her chest.

Sarah threw back her head then and laughed such a haughty laugh that Kayla might have joined her if not for the fact she knew her friend so well. The sound was filled with denial and it only made Kayla more uncomfortable.

When Sarah leveled her head again, she looked Kayla dead in the eye and said, “You're kidding me, right? My father doesn't date. He hasn't so much as sniffed at another woman since my mother's death.”

Kayla gulped. A week ago, she would have agreed with her. She had seen how Lance treated every woman who came into his office, with dignity and respect, looking at them admiringly if they showed the slightest hint of flirtation, but it was abundantly clear that he did it for the sake and confidence of those women. Not once had she seen him show a single ounce of genuine attraction toward a woman. In fact, there had been a point where she thought he might bat for his own team. After all, he was far too handsome, well-groomed and just plain dreamy to be so unlucky in the dating world.

Having had the pleasure of him inside her, Kayla could say without a shadow of a doubt that she had been entirely wrong.

“Your father loved your mother very much,” Kayla insisted. She blushed hard, so hard that it actually hurt her cheeks. Even to her own ears, her words sounded stupid, but she couldn't stop herself. “He talked about her often at work.”

It was then that she realized she had spoken in past tense. Kayla couldn't really remember the last time Lance had spoken of his late wife, save for when he had explained how she had died that night in her kitchen.

There had been a time when Lance had been quite reminiscent, where he would make small comments about how Kayla had done something that reminded him of Daisy. He'd smile and thank her for keeping her memory alive for him, and Kayla would feel slightly awkward but continue to do those things anyway just to put a smile on her boss's face. It wasn'tanything save for wishing to see a little less loneliness in the man's eyes, something entirely innocent.

Yet, Kayla couldn't remember the last time he had made such a comment. It certainly hadn't been for weeks, since well before any of this happened.

“Everyone has to move on eventually,” Kayla pointed out, realizing that was what had to have happened for Lance to have been on the app in the first place. “And I may have been too young to remember your mother too well, but I did know her well enough to know that she wouldn't have wanted your father to be alone for the rest of his life.”

“He isn't alone!” Sarah snapped. “He has me and Lewis and the rest of the pack.”

And me,Kayla thought silently with an odd sensation in her stomach. Ordinarily, she would have allowed herself to be lumped in withthe rest of the pack,but something about the way Sarah said it sounded totally off to her.

She was far more than that to Lance, and he was far more than that to her. What they were to each other, Kayla didn't rightly know, but it was definitely more than simply being cogs in the same machine.

“Sarah, you know what I meant,” Kayla said through gritted teeth. She forced herself to meet her friend's eye.

“I guess I did,” Sarah said, shrugging. She didn't even blink as she met Kayla's eye and said, “What I don't understand is, how does this story go from your learning thatmydad is WolfMan78 to him kissingyouon the forehead?”

The lump in Kayla's throat hardened.Here goes nothing.

“Before I explain, just remember it was you who encouraged me back into the dating world and you who plannedfor me to meet him in the first place, so if you had just kept your nose out none of this would have—”

“Kay, just get on with it already!” Sarah snapped. Normally, the two of them might have paused there a moment to laugh about how this always seemed to happen. Kayla would babble on and Sarah would order her to get to the point, they'd laugh, finally get to the point and go on discussing whatever it was they were talking about.

But today there was no laughter, only a stone-cold glare in Sarah's eye as she waited, her arms crossed over her chest. Even the sight of her with a thick wad of bandages wrapped tightly around her head wasn't enough to give the situation even a hint of comical relief. Even that was Kayla's fault. She wouldn't have even been there if it weren't for her.

“I waited at the bar for my date and almost chickened out,” Kayla began, struggling to get every word out past the lump in her throat and the dryness of her tongue. It felt too thick, too large in her mouth, as if she were having some kind of allergic reaction.

She wasn't. Kayla wasn't allergic to anything save for the usual werewolf crap like silver and wolfsbane. But there wasn't likely to be either of those lying around in an infirmary run by werewolves. The dungeons below them, maybe, but not the infirmary.

And yet, how she wished for just a reaction right now, something to stop her from having to break the only true friendship she had ever had in her life.

After this, she decided, she was going to start walking around with a silver coin in her purse for just such occasions. Not that she thought she would ever be stupid enough to land herself here again. But she had thought a week ago that shewasn't even capable of something like this. If future her had come back to the past and told her she would sleep with her best friend's father, she would have laughed in her own face, or maybe even attacked herself for suggesting such a thing.

And yet, here she sat on the edge of her friend's hospital bed, potentially about to blow up her entire life in less time than it had taken her to jump into bed with Lance in the first place.

“Just when I was about to give up, someone said my account name, LunaLover01, and I knew it was him,” Kayla said. She sighed deeply at the flutter in her heart she felt when she remembered that moment. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, and it only made her angrier with herself. “It was your dad. And as soon as we saw each other, I tried to leave. He offered to walk me home, but I declined. In the end, we had a drink—I mean, what's wrong with coworkers sharing a drink together, right?”

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