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Daddy like.

Hopefully, he’d still feel the same when he was sober.

BLAKE’S ALARM HAD gone off too fucking early, and despite the water he’d chugged and the Excedrin he’d tossed back, he was moving like a lumbering ox. As he jogged along the trail, sweat pouring off him despite the chilly January morning, he tried to focus on his breathing and the Three Doors Down track currently playing through his earbuds.

Anything but the nightmare that had jarred him awake that morning.

He should have known better. Every time he drank too much, she crept into his dreams. This time, he’d been there that day at the Base Exchange instead of safe at home with his friends. He’d stood only a few feet away and watched helplessly as a faceless man had held a gun to his pregnant wife’s head.

And then he’d shot her. The sound, the warmth of her blood spraying across his face and hands had felt so real that when he’d woken up, he’d been screaming Jenny’s name.

Despite the forty-degree temperature outside, his long-sleeved T-shirt clung to his chest and arms, drenched with sweat. His breath fogged out in front of him as he passed by several women walking toward him, not even glancing their way. He tried to remain focused, tried to push the dream and all the events from the night before far away.

Suddenly, someone slammed into his shoulder from behind. He stumbled forward as Bryce spun around, grinning at him as she jogged backward. He pulled out one of his earbuds and glared at her.

“The fuck, Bryce?”

“Kline, you’re moving like an old man today. Best get to stepping. I see a little flab showing up on your midsection.”

Blake grimaced at Bryce’s taunting. She was like the annoying little sister he’d never wanted, and as much as he usually liked and respected her, he was still pissed about the sneak attack set up with her friend.

“Ha-ha, I get it, payback’s a bitch. Well, you’re on my shit list now. Maybe I’ll let Slater know about how you hijack my runs just to go on and on about how hot he is.”

Blake reinserted his earbud, so he didn’t hear exactly what she said, but he was pretty sure it rhymed with hick.

Despite his obvious foul moo

d, Bryce kept up with him, and he had to give her props for not giving up when he took off on her, trying to outrun his dark thoughts. He finished his run and walked off the trail, Bryce right beside him.

He glanced her way and pulled his earbuds out, finally addressing her again.

“You’re a brat—you know that, right?”

“So I’ve been told,” she said. “Listen, I didn’t hijack your run to bust your balls. I wanted to apologize before we got to work, because I do not want Best to know that I even know how to say I’m sorry. But I am. You’ve told me that you aren’t ready to date, and I didn’t listen to you. It’s been pointed out that I never listen, so I’m sorry, and I will not try to set you up anymore.”

“What about my runs?”

Bryce grinned and punched him in the arm, exactly the way Sparks did. “Oh no, I’m still crashing the hell out of those.”

Blake laughed; he couldn’t help it. She was incorrigible, but it was hard not to like Bryce. They reached his car, and he glanced toward the front of Dale’s Diner. He’d read through Hannah’s text this morning, chuckling at the titles of some of her suggestions, but he’d ordered the first one to read on his Kindle app before he left the house. He wanted proof that he wasn’t just blowing smoke up her ass about wanting to read what she enjoyed.

As he stripped off his sweaty shirt, Bryce whistled. Blake glared at her as he pulled a clean T-shirt over his head.

“Oh, Kline, I just love it when you get all broody on me.”

He shut the door to his car and locked it. “Thanks for the apology. I’ll be sure to remind you of it when I need blackmail.”

As he headed up the steps toward the diner entrance, she called after him, “Aren’t you going to invite me to join you?”

“Hell no.”

Bryce laughed and waved as she climbed into the red Civic next to his car. He waited until her car disappeared out of the parking lot before he went inside. Anywhere else, he would have invited Bryce in to join him, but Dale’s was special.

Plus, he didn’t want her teasing him about Hannah or embarrassing him in front of her.

He walked through the glass door and passed by the SEAT YOURSELF sign to his usual booth. He looked around for Hannah and saw her come out of the kitchen, wagging her finger at the cook, Kenny, a wide smile on her face.

There was something different about her appearance, and he couldn’t put a finger on what. Her hair, instead of being in its usual ponytail, was loose with the front twisted along her temples and gathered at the back of her head.