Page 15 of Accidental Dad's Best Friend

“No!” Ethan barks. “Your dad doesn’t know anything about this. I have a job offer for you. A real job.”

“Find someone else,” I cut him off. I’m ready to hang up. But Ethan keeps talking.

“No one else can do this job, Izzy. Not like you can.”

I bite my lips and pace back and forth in the small bathroom that Jaxon and I share. And as I look around at the dinosaurshower curtain and the light up toothbrush and the bathtub full of toys I think about what Ethan is offering. A journalism job, no matter what kind of writing it is, would pay enough to get us out of here. To get Jax and I our own place and me my own bathroom. No more dinosaurs and rubber ducks and bubblegum toothpaste.

I bite the bullet and close the toilet seat and sit down. “I’m listening.”

Chapter 6

Ethan

The green mountains stretch nearly to the heavens creating an enclosure around the Glenwood Hot Springs Resort. At over four hundred feet long, it’s the largest hot spring pool in the world. Between the view, the old stone architecture of the hotel and the steam rising from the dark, still water, it’s absolutely stunning. But it’s nowhere near as stunning as Izzy.

As we sit side by side at the mountain resort, I can’t believe she agreed to meet me again. Her only request was that it was neither in Denver nor Grand Junction so we wouldn’t see anyone we knew. My request was that she accept an overnight stay, with her own room of course. There was no ulterior motive involved. If I had to guess, Izzy doesn’t do things for herself and with her relationship with her dad being obsolete, I worry she has no one looking out for her.

As soon as she saw the pool, her eyes lit up. I insisted she put on a bathing suit, making her a deal that if we met at the pool we could get the meeting over with and I’d leave her to enjoy the getaway in peace. At first I didn’t think she’d go along with it. But Izzy’s eyes have changed since I saw her last. She looks happy but tired, more tired than a woman her age should look.

“This is amazing,” she sighs as the hot water pools around us. We are sitting on a step, away from other people. The resort has two pools. One of them, the larger one, is more bathwater temperature. Warm enough to be comfortable even in cold weather but not hot enough to make you sweat. The other pool, the one we are sitting in, is hot and I can already see beads of perspiration on the nape of Izzy’s neck where her hair is pulled up into a knot.

My mind trails momentarily at what it would be like to kiss her neck again. But I immediately shove myself back on track.

“Thank you for meeting me.”

“Must be some kind of job if you are willing to leave your fancy condo for it.”

Alright so she’s going to be sassy about it. I can roll with that.

“Here’s the thing, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she cuts me off and I grit my teeth.

“Alright. Here’s the thing, Izzy. Your dad is a piece of shit.”

“I’m getting a sense of déjà vu,” she says with a salty smile. Meanwhile, she’s leaning back on the steps, letting her feet float out in front of her. Her purple bathing suit hugs her in all the right places, places that look even more voluptuous and edible than last time. Her body has changed…but in my opinion, it’s for the better.

“Yeah well, he’s gotten worse.”

“Worse? Worse than getting off on fucking over other journalists and bashing his daughter enough that she can’t find a job in magazine journalism to save her life?”

I clench my fist under the water at that. The way he treats Izzy alone is a reason enough for me to propose what I am about to propose.

“So I’m going to be honest with you, Izzy. He’s still doing that but that’s not the entire reason I came looking for you. Your dad is attacking the League. He wants to destroy them entirely.”

“For what reason? They’re just a sports news review. What threat do they pose against NBT?”

“They offered me a job,” I answer and Izzy’s blue eyes widen. “As chief editor. And they were going to pay me…more. A lot more. And when I told Liam about it?—”

“He sabotaged it.” She nods, her smile tight. “I’m not surprised. He’s always been like this. Competitive to the point of being narcissistic. He has to win at everything, even if it means cheating or hurting other people in the process.”

“And that’s why I want to do the same thing to him.” I say and Izzy sits up.

“What do you mean?”

“I want to do exactly what he does. I want to write an article that exposes him. And I want to publish it in NBT without him knowing.”

Izzy’s throat bubbles in a laugh. “You’re crazy. You’ll never get away with that. You’ll lose your job.”

---