Page 25 of Hot Dad Summer

“I’m going to enjoy my time with you on my lap and you’re going to start acting like a scorned woman. Fuck their shit up, sweetheart.” Flynn closed his eyes and let his head drop back on the chair. He was the picture of relaxed, despite the erection I could feel growing under my thighs.

I looked down at the photo of my parents hugging Tyler again and let the rage come on full force. Flynn was giving me the green light to be the worst version of myself and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by.

“No one knows this but I pay Brooke’s rent. When the bakery took off Brooke came rushing back to the sister she’d once called her naggy second mom. She moved in and it was torture because she didn’t hold an ounce of respect for me, or my space. I put her in an apartment with the understanding that she’d take over the payments. She never did. Each time I asked she made me feel like I was being harsh and unreasonable. She played me each time and I kept paying her rent so my sister would keep pretending to love me. Pathetic, right?”

Flynn smoothed one hand higher, stopping just under my boobs, and the touch was oddly soothing. “It’s not pathetic. You were just being better than she deserved because someone taught you that you didn’t deserve to get angry when you were hurt. You were playing their game. You’re not playing anymore, though, are you?”

His words made me feel seen in a way that I wasn’t sure I liked. I stiffened and would’ve sat up if he hadn’t tightened his arms around me. It took mere seconds for me to melt into him again. Damn his muscles and body heat.

“Stop fighting me holding you, Daisy, and start fighting them.”

“What if I regret it?” I’d done plenty that I regretted so far that summer and I wasn’t sure how much space I had left for things I wished I’d done differently or not at all.

“What if you don’t?”

Something about that question loosened the muscles in my shoulders. If I blew up Brooke and Tyler’s lives and didn’t regret it… Had I spent my entire life fighting to earn the love and approval of people I wouldn’t miss if they walked out of my life? The freedom that came from putting down the responsibility I felt over their emotions was greater than anything I could’ve expected.

“I have to show you. I need someone to see the evidence of how hard I worked for her love before I stop it all.”

20

***Flynn***

Seeing the numbers behind Daisy’s constant sacrifice killed the erection I’d been fighting. My stomach sank with disgust at her family and horror at seeing just how much the kind woman in my arms felt she had to do and give to be enough. It wasn’t just an apartment that Daisy was paying for. There was even a monthly payment towards a credit card her sister was paying off. I sat up when I saw the total and, without meaning to, tightened my grip on her.

“Daisy…” It was breathtaking in the worst way; it was proof that Daisy had been willing to give everything she had for the smallest show of care. “Stop it all. You don’t owe her anything, much less all of this. She chose to hurt you after everything you do for her… That’s fucked up. Not even Tyler would stoop low enough to fuck over his own brothers.”

Her eyes dropped in shame and I felt her draw into herself. “Doing this will hurt him, too. I don’t have to do it if you’re worried about Tyler.”

She was trying to protect my asshole little brother for me. Those last two words were the difference between a lifetime on the outside and finally getting to feel the warmth of her full attention. She wasn’t worried about hurting Tyler; she was worried about upsetting me by hurting him.

“Tyler made his bed.” I pressed my lips to Daisy’s head and breathed her in. My blood raced through my veins because things felt different with her. It felt like I had a chance at everything I’d ever wanted and it scared the shit out of me. Just not enough to make me let go.

I watched as Daisy worked. She stopped payments and methodically worked her way down the list of things she’d carried for Brooke without ever being asked to, just expected to. Just when I thought she was finished she dialed a number and put the call on speaker.

My pulse thumped and my erection came back angrier and hungrier than ever. She looked like a fucking Goddess to me as she sat up straight and braced for battle. I didn’t understand the war until I heard an older woman’s voice answer the call and Daisy refer to her as mom.

Daisy grabbed my hand and took a deep breath. “I have bad news for your house guests, Mom.”

The older woman sighed and did nothing to hide how inconvenient she found the call. “What’s this about, Daisy? Your sister and her boyfriend are visiting and they deserve my full attention. If you’d just come see us, you’d get the same reception.”

I scowled at the phone. What the hell was wrong with the woman?

Daisy gripped my thigh with her free hand and tipped her chin a little higher. “Boyfriend? You mean the man who cheated on me with my sister and somehow still found the audacity to visit my parents?”

There was a tsking sound from the background and it seemed like Daisy’s mom had also put her phone on speaker. A man’s voice boomed over the line. “Now, Daisy. We’re trying to enjoy a nice visit. Whatever ugliness you’re talking about can wait until Brookey is back in Atlanta with you.”

Daisy let out a humorless laugh. “Well, that’s part of why I’m calling, Dad. Brooke is going to have a hell of a time getting back to Atlanta without the credit card I pay for. No matter how many times she tries to swipe for whatever fruity mixed drink Tyler wants to try at the bar tonight, that card isn’t going to do a damn thing for her. Just like I’m not going to do another damn thing for her. You should consider keeping her on the island with y’all. That way you can guarantee that she gets everything you think she deserves.”

My dick was a twisted, twisted thing because hearing Daisy cut her bitch of a sister off had it hard as stone.

“Daisy Harper!” Her mom screeched, losing all of her aloof coolness. “You can’t do that. She’s your sister. We didn’t raise you to turn your back on family.”

“You didn’t raise me at all.” The words seemed to fall out of Daisy’s mouth before she could catch them. She went rigid but instead of backing down or taking it back, she pushed on. “And then you left me to raise Brooke but you two had already done enough damage that I couldn’t bring her back from the selfish brat you’d made. I’ve carried her life for over a decade. It ends today. The fact that all of you expected me to continue funding her life after she slept with my boyfriend shows just how little you truly think of me.”

“You’re not being fair, Daisy.” The bravado was gone from her father’s voice. For a moment he sounded like a man watching his daughter slip away. I could feel the hope in Daisy as she sat up a little straighter. She was waiting for him to say something, anything that would soothe the part of her still waiting for a father. I wanted to scream and beg the man to be there for her, to support her, to say something that wouldn’t crush the shy hope I could see on his daughter’s face. “They’re in love.”

That one sentence was a bomb going off in the middle of Daisy’s small bit of hope.