Page 5 of Baby for my Dad's Best Friend

And I couldn’t even claim that I didn’t need the job or that I hadanysavings stacked up, ready to float me through the next month. I was so broke that my best friend since childhood had thought twice before agreeing to be my roommate.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t live with your parents for a few months?” she’d asked bluntly. “Just until you’re on your feet?”

But there was no way I was going back to living with my parents. I loved them, but I was twenty-five years old. I needed to live on my own, even if that meant washing dogs, working up car insurance quotes, or whatever my dad had found for me. And what’s more, I was going to be grateful. And Iwasn’tgoing to think about how hard I’d worked for my marketing degree or how many hours I’d put in at my last job.

Trying not to feel sorry for myself, I hoisted my bag off the carousel and dragged it out to meet my dad.

Outside, the thoroughfare was a mess of cars jostling and jockeying, trying to get close to the curb at the right time to pick up their passengers. My dad slid through it effortlessly and jumped out to grab my bag. He even risked the other drivers’ wrath to give me a big hug before he threw it in the trunk.

“How was your flight?” he asked, slipping back into the hustle and bustle of traffic as easily as he’d slipped out of it.

“Good, easy.” I eyed him, trying to figure out where he might have gotten this job from so I could prepare myself when he announced it.

My dad shot me a grin, like he knew what I was doing. “Did you get my message?”

“About the job?” I kept my grimace inward. “I did. How exactly did you pull that off?”

I fully expected him to say something along the lines of, “Oh I was chatting with Kathy, you know, the woman who owns that coffee shop down the street, and she said she was looking for an extra hand.” Instead, he surprised me by saying, “Do you remember my friend Aiden Cross?”

I almost swallowed my gum. Did I remember Aiden Cross? He had only been my first crush. At the time I would have described it as firstlove,I was that crazy about him. The only thing that had stood between us was the fact he was seventeen years older than me, my dad’s best friend, and barely knew I was alive.

I mean, heknew, but he thought of me exclusively as Jack Davis’s oldest. He said ‘hey kid’when he saw me, even on the day I graduated high school and thought maybe, finally, he would really see me. I’d felt so mature, so poised, driving back to the house that day after the ceremony was over. All of my family and closest family friends were there. I had turned in my graduation hat and gown and was wearing a dark purple, short-sleeved skater dress that made my blue-gray eyes pop. My skin was tan, the neckline was scooped, and I had paired it with block heeled sandals.

I thought for sure that Aiden Cross would see me and realize that I was his dream girl, the same way I’d come home after volleyball practice my sophomore year to find him at the dinner table and realized I was going to marry him.

That wasn’t what happened, though. Instead, his longtime girlfriend Shara had been there in high heels, a dress I could never afford, and an engagement ring.

The shock of it, the way the color had drained from my cheeks, the way my heart had felt like it had been skewered on that huge, two-carat, flawless diamond ring came back to me now. A ghost of the initial pain, but still tangible enough to make my breath shorten.

“I remember,” I managed to say without wheezing.

“He started his own marketing firm, Cross Media, about twelve years ago.”

I remembered that, too. When Cross Media signed a big client that my dad knew through BU, Aiden Cross had bought him a car. My dad had tried to refuse, but a new car meant I could inherit his old Buick.

“Come on, Jack, do it for the kid,” Aiden had convinced him. “Besides, this is just your cut. You just made me a fortune.”

“Aiden is giving me a job?” I asked, putting the pieces together. I would have done it sooner if I hadn’t put Aiden in a box labeledoff-limitsnearly eight years ago and tried to forget he existed.

“He’s giving you an interview, which in my book is as good as a job offer.” My dad grinned again, the deep dimples in his cheeks forming easily. He was an interesting contrast to Aiden. Easygoing, a little fusty in his uniform of tweed jackets and argyle sweater vests. He leaned into the college professor look for sure. Aiden had a permanent furrow between his brows, and he mostly wore black. Black jeans. Black boots. Black leather jackets. An occasional white t-shirt, like maybe he ran out of black ones that day. It worked with his black hair and his shockingly blue eyes.

“An interview isn’t the same as a job offer,” I disagreed, trying to shove the image of Aiden in his black leather jacket out of my mind.

“Is it for you!”

I kept my sigh inward. It was hard to have your dad still believe you were the best thing since sliced bread when LA had taught you the truth. You were the best thing since that last underpaid intern, whatshername, now be a doll and get me some coffee. “I don’t know, Dad. This doesn’t seem right.”

My dad’s brow furrowed; an expression that was as unnatural for him as it was natural for Aiden. “What doesn’t seem right about it?”

“He’s like your best friend. He’s going to feel like he has to give me the job. Other people in the office might find out I’m a nepo-hire and resent me. It’ll get around in the industry that I got a job I’m not qualified for and my name will be mud forever.” I listed the reasons on my fingers but stopped short of adding the main reason–I can’t possibly work for someone that gorgeous if I can’t have them.

My dad shook his head and the car bobbed between the lane lines in time with the motion. “Aiden is my friend, but he’s not a charity. He won’t hire you if he doesn’t think you can do it.”

I wanted to argue, but I had a feeling he was right. It would be embarrassing to get a job because my dad pulled some strings. It would be devastating tonotget a job even though my dad had pulled some strings. There was no way I was getting out of this interview, and that meant I had to ace it.

A queasy mixture of excitement and trepidation swirled in my stomach as we got closer and closer to the apartment I’d be sharing with my best friend. I was going to see Aiden Cross again, and this time, Ihadto impress him. I had to make him see me.

Which meant I’d need to do better than a skater girl dress and a high school diploma.

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