Page 12 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
CHAPTERFOUR
LOTTIE
“What do you mean,someone keeps breaching the Hotline’s security?Andyou’re getting threatening emails?” Rowan asks. She’s been with me since the very beginning of the Single Dad Hotline, and until recently, she was my very best helper.
But once again, my personality test matched not only a single dad with a nanny, but if my hunch is correct, a man with his future wife.
I don’t begrudge them their happiness, but this is happening far too often for it to be coincidence, and now I’m forced to rethink my entire business model or lose it to thieving dickless assholes like my father.
The Single Dad Hotline was supposed to be a way to match single dads, and soon single moms, to the helper they need so they can be their best, present parent selves. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, my process works better for lifetime partners.
“Sebastian, get in here,” she yells to her boss-slash-maybe-boyfriend.
“That’s really not…”
“Lottie’s having cloud security breaches, and she’s getting harassed by, hold on. How many companies, Lottie?”
“That’s not the point, Row. I just needed someone to vent to.”
“Everything okay, Lottie? Have you spoken to Elijah?” Sebastian asks, and I internally die a thousand deaths.
Elijah is not only my older brother but one of Sebastian’s business partners.
“No, I haven’t. And you’re not going to either. I have this handled. I was simply confiding in my friend, who has an overactive imagination.”
“Lottie.”
My doorbell rings. Probably the Scuttlebutts again.
“Listen, I’ve gotta go. Everything’s fine. It’s just a bad day is all. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Before Rowan can respond, I hang up and toss my phone on the sofa, while closing out of the offending email from JW Technologies on my laptop.
The real mindfuck here is that JW Tech is owned by Thane Wilder’s asshole of a father. But in all my research, Thane appears to be the apple that fell far away from his father’s tree. That’s the only reason he was even allowed into the Single Dad Hotline program when he first got custody of Kara.
And now that I know him a little better, I’m happy to say that my instincts about him were correct. He loves his sister…but he can still be a pain in the ass.
I have an email and a text chain to prove it—each one more probing than the last. For every three messages he sends me, I send one in return. He intrigues me in a way that most people don’t, but regardless of how interesting I may find him‚ I don’t foster relationships with clients. Ever.
As long as he’s not tied to JW Tech, or trying to acquire my company, we’ll be fine.
Shutting my laptop, I race to the door, knowing the Carvers will be here any second, and because they’re impatient, they won’t be waiting in my office next door. I must have accidentally locked my door, otherwise they would have walked in here like they own the place.
It’s what everyone does in Sweetbriar. Six years later, I’m still trying to get used to it.
“Mrs. Carver, I…” My mouth snaps shut as my mind attempts to make sense of what’s happening on my front porch.
The man who has taken up far too much real estate in my mind lately—for my liking anyway—strides into my home with freaking Hercules strapped to his chest.
Thane Wilder is in my home.
When I close the door, I find him glaring as though he’s about to pick a fight with me.
“Are you ill?” he barks.
The urge to look behind me is strong. This can’t be happening right now.
“Ah, no. What ar?—”
