Page 80 of Space Daddy and a Boy Called Twink

Eric and Roger pushed to their feet, and Roger’s eyes widened.

Goose bumps prickled across my flesh as I feared the worst—that Sheila had somehow escaped from Krytonyet againandwas coming back to claim what was hers. Oh, if she just ended me now, I wouldn’t feel this unbearable pain.

Okay, definitely being dramatic…

When I turned, it wasn’t Sheila, though.

“Hey,Twink,” Carter said, like that was somehow an insult, but it did piss me off. He didn’t have the right to call me the name that brought me so much pleasure when Daddy said it.

Leo stood at his side, glancing around uncomfortably, like he wasn’t exactly eager to be coming here with his boyfriend.

Carter wore this cocky smile, looking full of himself the way he had when he’d interrupted Daddy and me on our date and tried to tell lies about me to make Daddy mistrust me.

But despite the excruciating pain that came with bonding with Daddy, there was, I discovered in that moment, onemassiveadvantage: I didn’t feel a fucking thing toward Carter anymore. No grief or betrayal. No jealousy of Leo. Not even anger at how he tried to turn Daddy against me. I was justannoyed as fuckthat he was even bothering to come in here after all he’d put me through.

“Hi, Carter,” I said.

“You sure you don’t want me to get this?” Eric asked.

“No, I’ll be fine. So, what can I get for you?”

“I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t order anything you can spit in.”

He waited for a response, which I didn’t give.

“Maybe you can tell me what the specials are?”

Oh, he was trying to eat this the fuck up, and I was having to fight back tears—that only had to do with Daddy, but obviously, I couldn’t start bawling in front of him because he’d think it was about him. I ran through the specials, including our buy one get the second pastry free, which he took me up on. Then he asked for two brewed coffees, I guessed because he figured he’d have to see me make them.

Eric and Roger watched me as though anticipating I was gonna snap any moment now. Fortunately, despite how worked up I was over missing Daddy, I managed to get through the order, and Roger helped me hand it over to them.

Carter winked. “Thanks, man. Good to see we’re cool.”

“We’re definitely not cool,” I said, and he pressed his hand to his chest, his mouth forming an O as he acted oh-so-wounded by my comment.

Leo’s forehead creased. He didn’t seem to know what to make of the interaction, and after a brief hesitation, followed Carter toward the exit. I felt bad for the guy—for real, this time. It couldn’t be easy being with such a prick, although, in Leo’s mind, given what Carter had told Daddy, who knew what else he’d told Leo to make me the bad guy in the relationship.

As they reached the door, Carter dumped his cup in the trash as he and Leo left.

Asshat.

On the plus side, I could finally let the tears break free again.

Eric and Roger, being the good friends that they are, consoled me, and I managed to push through my shift. At the end of the hour, Eric clocked back in and Roger had to head off to his latest temp job, leaving me to deal with all my emotions, which escalated quickly without my friends to distract me.

As my shift was coming to an end, I was refilling one of the carafes, when a sound caught my attention—a faint yet familiar yapping…followed by another sensation that moved through me.

With Daddy having been gone for so long, I hadn’t really experienced anything like this before, but I already knew what it meant even before I saw him walking alongside the store window, with Pluto on a leash, mostly barking at Daddy as though he was being dognapped, but still continuing to hound him like it was his job.

“Daddy.” I abandoned my work and started around the counter.

As he headed inside, he said, “Come on, Pluto, give me a break here,” before his gaze met mine and he flashed a pearly-white smile.

Fuck, how I missed that beautiful face…that perfectly groomed, sexy-ass scruff…those piercing blue eyes. Relief washed through me in an instant, and all the agony I’d been experiencing dissolved as I sprinted across the café toward him. “Daddy!” I called out.

Pluto went wild, growling at me, as though saying,Why have you been at work all this time instead of at home with me? Give me scritches!Something I’d had to get used to since adopting him.

As I neared Daddy, I was crying for a new reason—fuck, was being bonded gonna make me a massive sap?