All Chapters of In Bed With Daddy’s Best Friend : Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

LAYLAMy dad texted and called when I was in the air, somewhere between LAX and Logan International. I hadn’t even tried to get on their complimentary Wi-Fi, so I didn’t get his messages until we landed. Then I had to read his text three times before I gave up on deciphering it and listened to the voicemail he’d left.“Good news,” he announced cheerfully. “I’m leaving for the airport in an hour, so I’ll absolutely be on time.”I smiled a little. My dad had a lot of great qualities, but being on time wasn’t usually one of them. I’d originally asked my brother to pick me up, but when my dad heard about it, he insisted on coming himself.“And I found you a job! Can’t wait to see you, sweetheart.”I held the phone away from my ear and blinked at it, wondering if I’d heard him right. I went back to his text messages and now it made sense. He’d gotten me a job. I groaned aloud, causing a couple of my fellow passengers waiting at the baggage carousel to shoot me sideways looks.While I waite

AIDEN Iwas running late because even though Shara and I were divorced, she still managed to fuck up my morning. She was asking for an increase in alimony based on inflation. “I told you not to give her alimony,” my lawyer and friend, Darren Wilkes, said. “I told you it wasn’t necessary. I told you–” “I know.” Irritated, I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath. “I should have listened.” “–you didn’t even have kids,” Darren barreled on, undeterred by my interruption. He had told me, and he was going to make sure he told me so on all counts. “We didn’t have kids because I didn’t want kids. Hence, I felt guilty enough to pay her alimony.” That wasn’t the only thing I felt guilty about, but it was the easiest to explain. Shara had wanted kids, and I hadn’t, and now she was thirty-eight and looking into her options. Alimony had felt like the least I could do for wasting ten years of her life. Now, though, I wished I had listened to Darren. “The judge will laugh it

LAYLAMy new apartment was only a fifteen-minute drive from Cross Media. I took the long route though, and made it take thirty. I shouldn’t have wasted the gas, but I couldn’t face going straight home. My best friend worked from home, so she’d be there waiting for a full report. Then my brother was supposed to come over after his afternoon class, and the three of us were going out tonight to celebrate.I was looking forward to it, but right now, I just needed some time alone. I needed to process what had just happened. I needed to convince myself that it hadn’t.I hadn’t just felt the same lurch of helpless lust at the sight of Aiden Cross.We hadn’t stared at each other longingly as the elevator doors slid closed.I hadn’t just taken a job where I was going to be in close proximity with him five days a week.I played the radio loud, trying to drown out the truth, but I heard it in every song. Unrequited love. Hopeless love. Bad choices. I should have switched it off the country stati

LAYLAMy first weekend back in Boston was exactly what I wanted it to be. Bran spent most of the weekend with us. On Friday night, we went out to the bar that was a short walk from our apartment and had a little too much fun. Bran crashed on the sofa that night, then went home in the morning with his head between his hands. After he left, Liv and I took the same short walk we had to the bar, but now the side street was closed down for the weekly farmer’s market.“What are you doing?” Liv asked when I came back with a mini cheesecake and macarons.I looked down at the reusable bag she’d reminded me to bring. “Shopping?”She clucked her tongue and rustled her own bag at me, which was overflowing with baskets of strawberries and broccoli and long bunches of carrots. “Layla, you go to a farmers’ market for the fresh fruits and vegetables. You know, things with micronutrients that youneedfor the week.”“Ineedthis cheesecake and macarons.” But as we began ambling back the way we came, I sto

AIDENI’d always been good at math, so on Monday morning, I sat at my desk and calculated exactly how little I could interact with Layla without Jack thinking I was being an asshole. I decided it was pretty damn little, especially if I stepped back from this Blake Morten thing and let Maureen run the show, like I usually did anyway. Sometimes I went with the team to the new employee lunch, but I decided that this time I wouldn’t. For one thing, I didn’t want it coming up that Layla and I already knew each other. That wasn’t a good look for her first day, even if she had earned the job completely on her own merit. For another thing, I didn’t want to spend an entire lunch hour sitting across from her, or God forbid, beside her. It was better for my sanity if I just checked in with her at the end of the day, made sure everything was going well, and then avoided her completely.It was a good plan, but it didn’t account for the layout of the office. Cross Media had the top three floors of