Page 4 of Hot Dad Summer

Rat and the dads were in the living room watching a baseball game and the kids were at their feet in a tight circle, whispering and pointing at Hank. Hank, who’d planted himself in Wes’ lap, despite being too big for it. Wes didn’t look happy about it.

I shook my head and ignored it. Tyler still wasn’t there, I noticed with a growing sense of dread. “Dinner’s ready, everyone. Where did you say Tyler was?”

The mood shifted instantly. Even Rat looked awkward. He nodded to the side table where he’d plugged in my phone. “You should check it. I wasn’t trying to see anything, D, but it was right there when I turned it on.”

I wiped my hands on the apron I’d dug out of the pantry and crossed the room. “Why is everyone being so weird? What is it?”

Wes cleared his throat and then growled at Hank when Hank didn’t budge to let him up. “Move, dammit.”

I shot Hank a look and he grumbled but climbed down, deciding being worshipped by the kids was worth the move. “He’s stubborn but we’re working on it.”

“Hey, kids, why don’t you guys go wash up for dinner. Aunt Daisy made something that smells good and I’m starving.”

Him sending the kids away just made the sinking feeling worse. My hands shook when I picked up the phone and I had to try twice to get the screen to turn on. The message waiting for me was worse than I ever imagined.

Tyler: Don’t come to the lake, Daisy. I won’t be there. I’m going to Europe with Brooke for the summer. It just happened. Sorry.

I let out a confused laugh, my brain working overtime to convince myself it was a joke. “He said he went to Europe with Brooke. My sister? What…”

It was the look on Max’s face that finished the gutting that Tyler’s words started. He looked embarrassed. They all knew their brother had left me.

My voice shook as I looked back down at the phone. “My sister?”

No one answered me. No one had to. They were just waiting for me to catch up to what they already knew, to what they’d known since they’d seen me fall on my face outside. Tyler had ditched our plans to spend the summer at his family’s lake house to go to Europe with my little sister.

“My sister.” I sank down on the couch next to Rat and stared out the expansive windows lining the wall facing the lake. I could see someone tubing behind a bright yellow speedboat. “Oh, God. He left me for my sister.”

Rat put his arm around me and sighed. “I knew he wasn’t right for you. I’d never break your heart, girl.”

“Kid.” Max’s deep, gruff voice cut through the rest of my control.

“Keep it in your pants, Squirrel.” Wes growled at Rat while shooting him a dangerous look.

Rat deflated. “It’s Rat…”

“Don’t care.”

The first sob sent the three dads back a step. The horror on their faces as I lost it would’ve been funny if my heart wasn’t shattering. I leaned into Rat and stopped trying to contain the tears. I was sobbing on a teenager I’d only met hours earlier in the day, whom I owed a car, and there wasn’t any sign of it letting up.

Rat patted my head. “Want that cookie now, D?”

3

***Wes***

Iwrote the mouthy teenager a check and pointed towards the door. “Go home, kid.”

He took the check, looked at it, and whistled. “I’ll add you on my Insta, D. Feel better! Just remember, men ain’t shit, or whatever Lizzo says.”

Daisy slumped forward, her elbows resting on her bare knees and cried harder. The deep couch had forced the bottom of her dress to climb higher on her thighs and I was fighting for my life to not look at them. She was sobbing, for fuck’s sake.

I looked over at my brothers and nodded towards my youngest brother’s ex, trying to get them to do something. Someone needed to comfort the woman but I didn’t have a fucking clue where to start. Plus, getting closer to Daisy did not seem like a good idea. Not when I was noticing the way the apron she’d materialized did nothing to hide the way her full breasts were moving with each sob. Shit, I was an asshole.

“Oh, no! What happened to Aunt Daisy?” Poppy came running from the hallway powder room and jumped onto the couch with Daisy. “Aunt Daisy? What’s wrong? Does your knee hurt?”

Her knee? I shifted my gaze down her legs and swore when I saw the torn skin on her right knee. I couldn’t help with the tears but I could help with wounds. I stomped to the kitchen and cast a longing glance at the feast Daisy had cooked for us. She’d made enough food to feed the whole village while walking around with a bleeding knee.

“Crazy woman.” I huffed at the open kitchen, angry and out of my depths. When Tyler told me that he broke up with Daisy and told her not to come for her planned summer trip, I’d felt equally glad and furious. I didn’t need another day with the temptation that was Daisy Harper, much less a whole summer. But I wanted it. I’d never expected the woman to show up in her vintage dresses and never-ending curves they seemed designed to hug. “Fuck my life.”