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“Nope. And even if he did, he doesn’t know how to accept love, you know what I mean?”
I thought I did, unfortunately. But I was a glutton for punishment and I asked, “No, what do you mean?”
But that seemed to be the extent of her thirteen-year-old insight. “I don’t know,” she said.
I did. Brandon still had a wall up in front of him. He put his responsibilities first—his daughters and his job. There was no openness to taking a chance, to falling in love. He had to control the situation and he couldn’t control falling in love. So he just refused to do it. I also thought he had no clue how to accept that someone might want to support him, take care of him, love him unconditionally. He’d clearly never had that.
One true love.
Sigh. I had told Teri and Eloise I wanted to be his and, help me, I did. From the minute I had met him, he’d made me feel safe, protected. Appreciated.
I wanted to appreciate him right back but I didn’t know how to do that if we were just going to spend every day pretending we were having sex and nothing more. At some point, in the not-so-distant future, it would be time for me to move out and on with my life, and that would be that.
We would be nothing.
It made my heart hurt.
“I don’t want Dad to date anyway,” Willow said. “Because then he really wouldn’t have any free time.”
That was not reassuring.
“I don’t want Dad to date either,” Poppy said. “And I don’t want anyone living with us.”
This was interesting, and none of it good. “Don’t you want your dad to be happy?” I asked.
“He’s t
otally fine,” Willow said. “I told you he doesn’t even want to date.”
I guess she wasn’t even really wrong about that. We weren’t dating. We were having secret sex.
“You just said some people want to be alone and I said that’s how Dad is. He’s happy,” Willow said.
She had me there. “You’re right, you’re totally right. I stand by the fact that some people prefer to be alone.” Honestly, I didn’t know what Brandon preferred.
“Lena said Dad probably goes to escorts,” Poppy said, now beating her balloon against the refrigerator.
I gasped. “Poppy! You shouldn’t listen to anything Lena said.” Escorts. What the hell? “Lena sounds like she enjoyed being outrageous. She should have never said something like that to you, especially about your father.”
Unfortunately, Brandon had walked back into the room, carrying his gym bag. He looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel. “She said what?”
“That’s disgusting,” Willow said.
“Can we just all agree that Lena talked a lot of crap?” I said. “Just forget everything Lena ever said to you.” I had half a mind to find Lena and get an explanation. “Erase it from your mind.” I didn’t have the guts to ask if Poppy knew what an escort was. I didn’t want to hear the answer.
“I’m calling that agency Monday,” Brandon said. “They need to know. And for the record, I do not go to escorts. Never have, never will.”
I wasn’t sure he needed to make that proclamation. This little birthday breakfast had taken an odd turn. I wasn’t even sure how we had gotten there.
“Can I watch the video again?” Willow asked.
“Yes!” God, yes. Anything to get this back to normal. I handed her my phone and turned the volume up. Way up.
“Another girls’ night, huh?” Matt asked, shaking my hand as I let him into my apartment.
I was feeling lucky that the bye week had fallen on the same weekend as Willow’s birthday, meaning we didn’t have a game the next day. “Yep. I spent the day at the gym with Willow for her birthday, and we went to dinner, but then she wanted to do spa stuff tonight with Dakota and Poppy. I’m off the hook except for the bill. Which will probably give me a heart attack, to be honest. This is Manhattan.”
“Which is why I live in Jersey.” He glanced around. “I can’t believe you’re letting me see your apartment finally. I was starting to think you were lying about this place existing.”
