Page 228 of His Hungry Wolf

My dad had always imagined great things from me. Yet, here I was unable to feed myself after having my heart broken by a guy. I wasn’t as special as he thought I was.

I sat on the edge of my bed in my towel for a long time. It had taken a lot of energy to take a shower. I needed to rest. When I received the text from Dad saying he had landed, I forced myself to get dressed.

“He emerges!” Lou said when I entered the living room.

I gave him a resentful glare. That didn’t stop him from running over and throwing his arms around me.

“And you smell good! I had my doubts about calling your dad on you, but look at my Lamb Chop now.”

I wasn’t resisting his hug. It felt really good, actually. But when the intercom buzzed, he let me go so I could reply.

“Hello?”

“Quin, it’s Dad.”

“Coming down.”

“You’re not going to invite him up?”

“Why would I?”

“So, I could meet him. Any tree that you fell from has got to be… yum!”

I gave him an annoyed look and headed for the door. The truth was that my whole life I have had people tell me how good-looking my dad was. I didn’t need Lou having fantasies about him and then telling me about it. Ewww!

I tried to leave Lou behind, but when I left the room, he did too.

“What are you doing?”

“Just making sure you get downstairs alright,” he said with a devilish smirk.

“Whatever,” I said not having enough energy to fight him.

Lou followed me downstairs with a smile on his face.

“Dad,” I said looking at my father just past the door.

Lou gasped. He didn’t need to tell me that I would never live up to my father. It was obvious. My dad went from being so poor that he and his mother couldn’t afford heat during Wisconsin winters, to having a billion dollar genetics company. On top of that, he looked like the guy sailing the yacht in cologne commercials.

No matter what I did, I could never measure up to him. And now Lou knew it too.

“And, who’s this?” Dad asked.

“This is my roommate, Lou.”

“Nice to meet you, Lou,” Dad said with one of his charming smiles. Lou giggled, and then pulled himself together and offered Dad his hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Toro.”

“Thank you for looking after my son. He needs some looking after.”

“Dad!”

“Of course. Anything for my Lamb Chop… I mean Quin.”

“And thanks for giving me a call. It looks like I came just in time.”

I looked at him confused and then looked down at myself. I thought I had done a good job of pulling myself together.