Page 4 of My Boyfriend's Protective Daddy

“You’ll think I’m an idiot.”

“I won’t.”

I sigh and try to fight off the waves of embarrassment that batter me. “I moved out here because I met a boy online.”

My voice trails off as I hear just how stupid it sounds coming out of my mouth. I’ve laughed at people who’ve moved across the country for a boy or girl before, thinking it’s the stupidest thing a person could do. And yet, here I am, I’m the idiot now.

“It didn’t turn out the way you thought it would, huh?” he asks.

I shake my head miserably. “He’s not the person I thought he was.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No. Nothing like that,” I tell him. “But online, we were a great match. We had so much in common and I thought we shared the same values. I thought…”

My eyes sting and my vision shimmers as tears well in my eyes. I use my napkin to dab at the corners of my eyes, shame and stupidity crashing down over me again.

“The fantasy didn’t match the reality, I’m guessing,” he says gently.

“In some ways, it did. But not in the ways that matter to me.”

“Like what?”

My hand trembles as I pick up my coffee mug and take a sip, doing my best to keep from humiliating myself even further by breaking into a crying fit. Rather than judging me for being a stupid, naïve girl, Cash just looks at me with kindness in his eyes.

“I thought we were on the same page about sex. I’m not like a prude or anything, but sex isn’t something I take lightly. Before I came out here, I told him I wouldn’t sleep with him until I thought the time was right. Until I was ready. He said he understood.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t understand.”

I shake my head. “He’s been pressuring me to sleep with him. I kept saying no and I could see him getting angrier and more frustrated,” I tell him. “It all came to a head last night. We were out, and he started going off about us not having sex. I told him I just wasn’t ready, and he lost it. He started screaming at me, calling me a tease, basically telling me I owed him sex, and he started punching the dashboard of his car. It terrified me. I jumped out of the car and ran. And that’s how I ended up… here.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“Did he force himself on you?”

“No, not at all,” I tell him. “He was just so angry with me. It scared me to death.”

“I’m sure you were. This guy… he sounds like a real asshole.”

“He didn’t start out that way. He was sweet. Thoughtful,” I say. “But he changed.”

“Or maybe he was that guy all along and tried to make you think he wasn’t.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

As the reality of my situation settles down over me, my chest tightens and I have trouble breathing, almost as if I’m suffocating beneath a thousand-pound weight. I bury my face in my hands and do my best to staunch the tears. I would’ve had better luck trying to hold back the tide.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I say. “I can’t live there with him anymore. Not after last night. But I still haven’t found a job…”

I sniff loudly and wipe my face with my napkin, doing my best to keep myself from falling apart in front of Cash…or from falling apart any more than I already have. The tears streaming down my face only add to my humiliation. I take a couple of moments to collect myself, and when I finally raise my eyes, the expression of sympathy I see on Cash’s face breaks my heart all over again.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Honestly? Not really,” I say, appalled at the way my voice quavers. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” he begins. “I need help in the bar. I’m going to hire you as a server here. I’ve also got a spare room in this place that you will use until you get on your feet and get your own place.”

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