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“I think she’s cool,” Amber says with a smile.
Me too.
“Because she tells you about hacking?”
Amber places a hand across her mouth as she laughs softly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dad. What hacking?”
I chuckle. “I know you. I know you most likely pulled the puppy dog eyes on her, and she became your willing slave.”
Her laughter delights me. “I did no such thing. Yeah, she might have told me a few stories, but she was too scared of you to take it further.”
I frown. “Scared of me? I don’t want my employees to be scared of me. Respect me, but certainly not fear me.”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s respect. She had glowing remarks for you.”
My heart misses a beat. “Glowing remarks? What did she say?”
“That you were a good boss, and you loved having me around in the office. It made you more approachable or stuff like that.”
Hailey told herthat? I ache to see her, throw my arms around her. With a start, I realize I don’t want to see her only to take her to bed. It’s more than that. I want to be with her. If Amber hadn’t shown up today, I would have gone over to Brooklyn. She’s now the second most important person to me. Does that mean I’m falling in love with her?
“Dad? Dad?”
I jerk from my thoughts. “Sorry. I didn’t realize I was pushing too hard. I guess it took your presence to make me relax my tight hold on them.”
She shrugs. “I don’t think it’s that bad if she still had good things to say about you.”
“Glad to know.”
As my heart ponders recent events with Hailey, I realize that I’m indeed falling in love with her. Whenever she isn’t with me at the office, I find an excuse to seek her out. When I’m at home and I find myself missing her, I call her and we talk for hours about this and that. She's become such an integral part of my life that I can't imagine what I would do without her.
How did I get so careless to allow my heart to get involved? Again?
I wave aside my thoughts and focus on Amber. We play a video game where she shockingly thrashes me, then watch a Marvel movie.
As evening approaches, I drive her home.
“Thanks for a nice afternoon, Dad,” Amber tells me at the front door of the house we lived in as a family for seven years.
“You’re welcome, Pumpkin. Thanks for visiting.” Tentatively, I reach out to pat her cheek and she delights me by throwing her arms around me. Linda opens the door just then and interrupts us. I see the shock in her eyes before she masks her reaction with a wide smile.
“Go in, Amber. Your friends are waiting. Do you have a minute?” she asks me cheerfully.
“Bye, Dad. See you next week.”
“Bye, Pumpkin.”
Amber hurries into the house while I place my hands in my jean’s pockets, waiting for Linda to say her piece.
“Won’t you come in? Fred just finished preparing Dover Sole Meuniere. Your favorite.”
My brows form an arc as suspicion narrows my eyes. What is Linda playing at now?
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry. What do you want, Linda?”
Her face reddens. “I wish you would come in. It’s about Amber.”
“What is it?”
