Page 14 of The Daddy’s Girl

She’s holding my phone in her hand, biting her bottom lip as she types something out.

“Okay…likes red wine and French jazz, looking for a committed relationship and emotional vulnerability…”

I chuckle at her. “Delete that.”

“Well, I can’t write hookups and one-night stands in here,” she argues.

“Why not? That’s what I like.”

With a groan of annoyance, she throws her head back. “Matis, that is not what you’re going for anymore, remember? You want to find a real partner. Not just someone to woo for an evening.”

“But I’m good at that,” I reply with humor.

There’s a blush to her cheeks, and I notice the way her eyes won’t meet mine. Amelia might have been born into a progressive world, but she is still a girl at heart. Whereas I’m now an old man, and there’s not much that can make me blush anymore.

She rests my phone in her lap. “Make it make sense. You’re a total Casanova and an expert flirt, so why is dating so hard?”

“You really want to know?”

“It might help me in making this profile for you.”

Dragging air into my lungs, I heave a deep sigh and prepare myself to be more vulnerable than I was intending to tonight. I consider Amelia to be my friend, the same as the rest of her family, but she might not look at me the same way. I’m her godfather. She sees me as more of a father figure than a friend.

So this might be uncomfortable to hear.

“I lose interest in people as soon as I sleep with them.”

She winces, baring her teeth in an uncomfortable grimace. “Ouch.”

“I don’t know why. I think I’ve just…conditioned myself to want sex and only sex. I like going home alone. I like eating alone and traveling alone and drinking alone. Or at least I used to.”

“But not anymore?”

“No,” I reply sadly. “Now it feels like I’m being punished for only caring about myself for so long. I’m reaping what I sowed, so to speak. Now I’m just a lonely man, and I fear it’s too late to find someone to spend the rest of my life with—however much is left.”

Amelia makes a dramatic scene of rolling her eyes with a loud groan. “You’re not ninety!”

She makes me laugh and I chuckle silently as I stare at her. Amelia reminds me of myself when I was younger, with so much life and energy. But I see fear in her too, and I wish I didn’t. I have no doubt she could conquer the world if she put her mind to it, but she holds herself back.

I remember the struggles Ronan and Daisy went through to get Amelia everything she needed as a child. When she was diagnosed with ADHD, I watched as my friends fought so hard to help their daughter succeed. Finding the right medications, the right schools, the right teachers. They did everything they could for her.

And now it makes me happy to see how well she’s done. Her ability to create new designs and pieces of art that evoke such emotion is nothing short of brilliant. But I know she could do more. I fear it’s not the diagnosis stopping her but herself.

I will be rooting for her until the day I die.

“Okay, so what about…?” She picks up my phone and screws up her lips as she thinks. “Looking for a partner and would like to take things slow.”

I shoot her a look of concern. “How slow?”

“Slow enough that you can actually build some feelings for the person before having sex with them. I mean, have you tried that?”

“Of course I have.”

I haven’t.

With a skeptical look on her face, she shakes her head and returns her attention to my phone. “Now to take a picture.”

“Here?” I ask, straightening up and looking around. “Don’t I want them to know I have money and can afford a car?”