Page 12 of The Single Father Upstairs

When everybody started to leave, I stood up and nearly toppled over. I hadn’t stopped drinking soon enough. Crap.

"I'm gonna get a rideshare." I half waved. “Thanks for inviting me.”

"My husband's coming," Barbara said. "We can drop you off."

"Um. No, I can?—"

She put her hand on my shoulder. "We'll drop you off." Which was good, because my next memory was me being woken up in the car, told that I was home, and asking if I needed to be walked in.

"Nah, I got this."

Most of the apartment lights were out. I wanted to see what time it was, but I feared if I stopped walking forward long enough to get out my phone, I was going to end up stopping altogether. I managed to get inside and to the stairs. Up and up I went. Each step felt like a chore, and there were so many of them. So, so many. Why did I live in a walk-up?

It was only one flight, but it felt like a dozen, each step I took was more difficult than the last. Finally, I reached the landing and pushed through the door to get to the hallway. I fished out my keys and fumbled at the lock.

“Why aren’t you working?” I tried again. “Please work, I’m tired.”

Would Jon be up now? Probably not. Fuck!

My head fell forward and hit the door with a thunk.Why won’t it open? Did they upgrade the locks or something?

And then the door swung open, and standing there was the father who hated me, the one who looked at me with disgust and ran away.

"You." I just stared at him.How can you be so sexy and so mean at the same time?

I bopped him with my fist halfheartedly.

And why is he in my apartment? Did Marmalade let him in?

7

STELLAN

A thunk on the front door while I was in bed reading had me drop the book and leap out of bed.

I wondered if someone had shifted in the building, which was against the rules, because it wasn’t the wind that made that huge noise. I didn’t need to grab a baseball bat or a lamp because if it was an intruder, I’d let my beast into my gaze and roar at whoever it was. That would scare even a shifter.

Flinging open the door, I was prepared to shout at whoever it was for disturbing me. But a scent,thatone, assaulted me before I could get a word out.

Dear gods, no. What was he doing here?

I closed the door behind me, not wanting the noise to wake Indigo, until I remembered she wasn’t here but at Rudy’s for the night. He loved having her stay over.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed.

Miles was weaving around, seemingly unable to stay still. He waggled a finger at me but swayed toward the stairwell, and Igrabbed him. He giggled but holding him against my body was a huge mistake.

His eyes tried to follow his finger, but he gave up and his head smacked onto my chest.

“Y-You.”

His slurred speech and inability to stand up was a huge red flag, telling me he’d been drinking. And he hadn’t just consumed a beer or glass of wine. He’d had much more than that, and I hoped he hadn’t driven home in the condition.

Miles reared back, though I still had hold of him because humans were such frail creatures and he was likely to hurt himself.

Right. That’s why you have your arms wrapped around him, my bear snarked.

“You are so so so m-m-mean.” He squinted, but I wasn’t sure if he could see me with the alcohol befuddling his brain. “M-ean, mean, mean.”