I don’t really know.

All I know is that if I end up pretending to date Brenden for a week, my dad can’t find out about it. Maybe I could come out to him someday, but I’m not ready to make the decision now. And there’s no point in coming out for a fake relationship anyway.

CHAPTER FIVE

BRENDEN

Looking up from my phone, where I’ve been busy triple and quadruple-checking that everything is ready to go for tomorrow morning’s events at the inn, I realize that May has already scarfed down half of her burger and fries while I was too distracted to even order anything. Day one of the corporate retreat went off without a hitch, but that hasn’t stopped me from sending check-in texts to Danny and Addison every fifteen minutes since I left. I’m not sure I’ll sleep tonight, because I’ll be dreading some sort of emergency call from the night staff.

Maybe I should go sleep there. There are no available rooms, but my desk chair is comfortable enough.

Yeah, no. Sleeping hunched over my desk would definitely fuck up my back.

I just need to relax and... focus on the other thing I’m stressed about.

Elise and Grant are coming tomorrow evening, and I’ve barely had time to prepare for them because of the retreat. And I haven’t talked to May because I’m a big fat pile of chicken shit, so I haven’t been able to tell Travis whether or not we’re actually doing this, and—

“Dad?”

“What?” I croak.

“You looked weird. Are you breathing?”

“I think so.” I am now, at least. Forcing a smile, I ask May, “Are you excited to see your grandparents?”

She sucks down some of her orange soda, then nods. “Yeah, it’ll be fun.”

Nope. Not the word I’d use.

“How are you?” she asks. “I know sometimes you get uneasy around them.”

Damn, she’s too perceptive and knows me too well. “I’ll be fine,” I lie. This would be the perfect transition into asking her to do the biggest, most absurd favor I’ll hopefully ever have to ask of my daughter. Instead, I steal a fry off her plate and jam it into my mouth.

“Get your own food,” she complains.

I pout at her. “Travis is busy now.”

Most Saturday nights, there’s another server helping him. But tonight he only has Sullivan in the back cooking, and he’s handling everything else alone. I take a glance around the packed diner to locate him. It’s the middle of the dinner rush, and he’s been running around since we got here. I know this because I was sneaking occasional peeks at him while I was on my phone.