Love Notes & Lifelines

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The job was simple.</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Always answer the phone-no exceptions-then solve the caller's catastrophe as efficiently as possible.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The rules were simpler.</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> They contact you not the other way around. Never give them your real name number or any personal information not required to help a newly single dad keep his head above water.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And never </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>ever</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> get involved with a caller.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>Simple right?</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Becker Hayes was not who I was expecting to call during my shift with the Single Dad Hotline. He's my boss's boss. In the boardroom he's rich powerful detached. In my calendar he's the enigmatic one-time kiss I was never supposed to see again. But on the other end of the phone he's vulnerable and reeling from becoming guardian to his young nieces.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I'm not thinking straight when I offer him a little help off the books. Not when my mother's illness is winning the battle and I'd give anything for a distraction from the loneliness.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>So when the Single Dad Hotline blows up my life what's a girl to do but say yes to everything he's offering?</span></p>