Page 49 of Use Me

“He’s very handsome.”

“Then if I tell you that we’re dating, you’ll be happy?”

Her eyes widened, and she smiled. “Yes.”

“Then we’re dating.”

“Who are you dating?” my sister-in-law Jessica asked. She was married to my older brother Ethan.

I turned to her, a potato in my hand, and proceeded to tell them that Rhys and I had just started to date after weeks oftalking. That conversation led to my dad and brothers begging me to get them free tickets to a Blackhawks game until it was time to eat. Now that I was dating someone in the industry they assumed I had perks. I wasn’t even sure if Rhys could get free tickets, so I just told them I’d see what I could do.

“Hey, Daddy,” I greeted, coming into the living room where he and my brothers were watching football. Their wives and my mother were in the kitchen getting the pies ready, and my three nephews were doing something somewhere else in the house.

I’d snuck away from the kitchen because I wanted to talk to my dad for a few minutes. He used to be a police officer and then a detective for Chicago PD for most of my life. He’d retired almost seven years ago, but he’d know what to do. Ethan was currently a detective, but I didn’t think I needed to involve him yet. I just needed advice from my father.

“Kiddo,” Dad greeted back and draped his arm around my shoulders.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

I raised up and turned slightly to face him. “When you were on the force, did you have any stalker cases?”

His steel-blue eyes widened. “Why? Do you have a stalker?”

I swallowed. “I’m not sure.”

“What did you just ask Dad?” Ethan asked. I’d assumed he was too engrossed in the game to hear me talking to our father.

“Its fine.” I waved him off.

“It’s not fine,” my other brother Carter snapped, joining the conversation.

I sighed. Sometimes I hated having older brothers. Ethan was six years older than me, and Carter was three. It was great in school until all my friends wanted to date my older brothers, especially when they went off to college. My high school friends loved the fact that they knew college guys. Little did they know that my brothers were assholes. At least to me. Now that we’re all in our thirties, we loved each other, but they could still be jerks. They never missed an opportunity to tease me about something.

“Who’s stalking you?” Dad asked.

“I’m not sure if he’s stalking me, but I went on a date with this guy, and the whole thing was creepy.”

“I thought you were dating Rhys Cole?” Ethan asked.

“I am. This was a few days ago before Rhys and I made it official.”

Ethan leaned toward me from where he sat on a loveseat. He’d apparently forgotten about the football game and was now in detective mood. “How was this other guy creepy?”

I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.”

“Ashtyn, you better tell us,” Dad threatened.

“I’m a big girl.”

“And there’s a lot of sick fucks out there,” Ethan stated.

“Do we need to pay this guy a visit?” Carter asked.

I rolled my eyes. “No. I don’t know anything about him or where he lives. I don’t even know his last name or phone number.” I’d thought I’d at least get his phone number on our date, but since that was cut short, I literally knew nothing about him except his first name and that he worked as a nuclear engineer. I didn’t know where either.

“Just tell us why you asked me about stalkers,” Dad pressed.