Page 30 of Island Daddy

Carrie screeches through the device loud enough it could be heard halfway across the Pacific. “WHHHHAATTT?!?”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “Apparently Reid’s friend’s—cousin’s—whoever’s kid ended up convincing an incredibly drunk Kragen Darling to snort something he wouldn’t have otherwise touched with a ten foot pole if sober.”

Her eyes grow wide. “Oh you didn’t, Kragen?” She asserts more than questions. “Your moms would be so disappointed.”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t,” I admit earnestly. “Daddy Rei—erm—I mean Reid—stopped me just in time,” I stammer, scratching the nape of my neck. “God, why do I keep calling him that?” I ask aloud, mostly to myself out of embarrassment.

“Because somebody has feelings for the guy,” she replies in the same fashion any supportive friend would. “That picture has so much chemistry,” she adds, her eyes growing ravenously. “Is he as hot in person as he is in those commercials?”

My head couldn’t be skewed any farther left. “What picture?” I reply, thinking she’s dreamed up some image from my description. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Carrie coughs as if she spoke out of turn. “So youhaven’tseen the Sploosh website?” She asks, interrupting our video feed to share her screen with me. “This one, Krae,” she says, scrolling to a screenshot she’s saved in her camera roll.

I’m instantly taken aback once my best friend enlarges the photo. It’s a picture of him and I kissing on his private beach, at the precise moment the waters turned translucent for a brief period of time. Of course the headline above it has to turn my stomach into a raging mess.What the actual fuck?!?!

“What the actual fuck?!?!” I screech aloud, covering both eyes with my palm. “How did they—”

Carrie interrupts me instantly as I see her face return to the screen. “Kragen, they’re paparazzi,” she hisses. “He’s their favorite meal in a lake of hungry piranhas.”

Oh my God. Allen is gonna see this picture and think I’m falling in love with Reid. Which I am. And for the love of all things holy, Candace and Tuti are gonna have a shitfit when they see this. If they haven’t seen it already.

As I finish battling the rapid thoughts to swarm my mind, Carrie pipes back up with snapped fingers to jolt me back to the present.

“Dude,” she snaps. “Is anyone in there?”

“Yeah” I sigh. “I fucking like this guy,” I add, glaring at the sorry echo staring back at me in the FaceTime window. “And yet, there’s something about him that makes me feel like I couldn’t write anything which would have a negative impact on his life.”

“Ohhhh honey,” she says in the same fashion as Tuti would.

I glance out the window to see it’s rapidly getting dark. Either there’s about to be a brief storm, or the sun is bidding us farewell. Ultimately, if I have any hopes of getting in touch with Reid, I must catch him before he moves onto another person.God only knows how often he’s on Grindr. Is he already over me? Has he found another boy within the last few hours?

“Okay I gotta let you go, Care Bear,” I sigh again, shooting an uneasy look into my front-facing camera. “I’m gonna install Grindr on my iPad and message him that way,” I add, raising my forefinger. “Can you forward me that screenshot you just showed me?”

We’ve wrapped our video conversation so I could download Grindr to this device. I’m about to fire off a quick message with this screenshot, wondering the entire time if Reid’s even seen it yet. Surely he has. His publicist must have some instant Google Alert set up to detect any mere mention of his name online within a New York minute.

No sooner do I press thesendbutton, when a loud knock damn near rattles me off this bed. After shuffling up to the peephole, I’m fast to identify the ravine which Tuti’s neck takes the appearance of. She’s definitely frailer than she’d be willing to admit.

“Hey Momma,” I greet her, sliding the door ajar. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Tuti clicks her tongue as she extends both arms to offer a giant hug. “Your Mimi, Tessa, and I have been worried about you,” she mutters softly. “We saw that photo and no doubt the tabloid couldn’t be any more wrong about the situation.”

“Yeahhhhhh,” I sigh. “I figured you guys probably saw that.”

I pull away from Tuti’s embrace to look her square in the eye as she swallows hard. “Where’d you run into the likes of Reid Fairchild?”

Well now that you put it that way.A dry cough escapes my throat. “Well, actually Ididrun into him in the lobby when I left Tessa’s reception on Friday night.”

“Oh,” she responds. “And it was some love at first sight?”

My head wavers from shoulder to shoulder. “Not at all,” I assure her. “At least, I ran away from our encounter because Allen has assigned me the duty of digging into Reid’s company while we’re here.”

Tuti swallows hard another time, but I interrupt her before she can respond. “Don’t tell Mimi this, but I technically met him through Grindr,” I confess, reaching my hand to her shoulder. “But I didn’t know it was him until meeting for lunch on Saturday.”

“He’s the friend Candace mentioned?” She replies, raising a brow. “I wouldn’t tell her you’re on that seedy app,” she adds, pinching my cheeks. “We encourage you to seek a partner of your own, and she just wants to ensure you do it safely.”

I attempt to offer a reply when I hear a faint ding coming from my iPad on the bed. “Ohh I bet that’s him.”

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