Pretend I'm YoursA Single Dad Romance

by Vivian Wood

  “Okay, okay! Bye Boss Lady, see you tonight.”

  As Addy put the phone away, she was startled by a monstrous snore from her father. He timed it perfectly, right in conjunction with a ding from the washing machine. She switched the wet load to the dryer and began broiling vegetables for her father’s dinner.

  The crockpot full of beef had started to permeate the entire house. As she prepped a chilled salad and kept an eye on the vegetables, a jolt of pleasure shot through her when she realized it would all be done at once—the beef, the veggies, the salad, and the clothes in the dryer.

  Addison fixed a plate for her father and put it aside to cool. Everything else she stored in Tupperware and neatly stacked in the fridge. Addy looked at her watch. One hour to get ready. That was more than enough.

  “Dinner’s on the table,” she said loudly to her father.

  “Thanks, Jan. Love you.” It was the usual response from her father’s beer-laced sleep, but her mother’s name always made her wince.

  She went through her closet carefully and considered every option. Jeremy would probably be there—with Shannon. Everyone went to Dusty’s.

  What exactly does one wear to show your workaholic ex that he’s missing out?

  She sighed when she found nothing besides work clogs, jeans and t-shirts. Addy padded down the hall toward Kenzie’s room, and stopped short when she saw her parents’ bedroom door open and the light on.

  Her dad sat on the bed and absentmindedly ran his hand across the bedspread. He’d slept in the guest room on a small twin bed ever since her mom had died.

  Addy knocked softly at the door. Her dad smiled up at her.

  “Your mom loved the Fourth of July,” he said simply.

  Her eyes immediately filled with tears. He almost never talked about her mom.

  “Are you going out?” he asked.

  “I-- I was going to meet Kenzie downtown, but I’ll stay and keep you company if you like. Dusty’s really isn’t my thing, anyway.”

  He shook his head and looked out the window.

  “There’s a plate for you in the kitchen if you’re hungry,” she said.

  He didn’t reply and she tiptoed out of the room. It felt like an invasion on her part, like she’d stumbled into something sacred.

  In Kenzie’s closet, she flicked through the designer jeans carefully hung on wooden hangers and sorted by wash. She flipped through and picked out a distressed, skintight jean skirt. Then she paired that with a tight knit tank top with an American flag embossed in gold on the front.

  No one will accuse me of not being patriotic this Fourth of July, she thought.

  She slipped into Kenzie’s navy blue ballet flats. Something was missing. She held her own gaze in Kenzie’s mirror and released her ash brown hair from its high ponytail, letting it cascade down her back. That was better.

  As she drove to Dusty’s, she couldn’t get the image of her dad out of her head. He looked so lost, so small in that room. Yet she’d understood that he wasn’t being a martyr or stubborn. He’d truly wanted to be alone that night. It made her sad, though.

  She had to park on the street three blocks from the bar. Even from that distance, she could hear the music as it blared into the night.

  The bouncer, a quiet boy she’d gone to school with, nodded at her and she began to weave her way through the packed crowd. Most of them were local drillers and their families, vaguely familiar faces she’d seen at Target throughout her life.

  Dusty’s was packed wall to wall, but Kenzie was easy to spot. Her sister had scored a table, of course, an arm’s stretch from the bar. Two pitchers of beer sweated on the table, and Kenzie was surrounded by people she’d never seen before.

  “You made it!” Kenzie shrieked as Addy approached. She jumped up and hugged her tight. “Lemme get you a drink. Stella! Pour my big sister a drink. Here, I’ll introduce you—”

  Kenzie named a few people she knew, but two she didn’t—Jack and Philip.

  “And these two, they’re the new doctors in town. And they both look like they just walked off the set of General Hospital,” Kenzie said with a grin. She was already slightly buzzed. “Don’t they look so young!”

  They did both look like movie stars, Jack with his dark hair and dark eyes to match, Philip with lighter hair and an easy smile that lit up the room. They were both tall and broad, dwarfing Addy when they stood over her and shook her hand.

  “I’m twenty-nine,” Philip said with a laugh. “Hardly old.”

  “That’s close enough to thirty,” Kenzie said. “But most importantly, they’re single. Be still, my heart.”

  Philip gave her a warm smile and a nod, but Kenzie immediately pounced back on him. He was skilled at this whole thing, and knew just what to do with a much younger admirer, Addison could tell. But it was Jack, the brooding one of the pair, that made her draw closer.

  Addy had never been good at these kinds of things. She clutched her beer like it was a life raft and settled onto one of the recently vacated barstools. It was still warm from the previous owner.

  She sipped at the too-warm beer and looked around the table. When she scanned back to Jack, he looked at her openly. She both smiled and laughed silently at the awkwardness.

  “Oh, I love this song!” Kenzie said as Halsey began to pour out of the speakers. “Come on, let’s dance!”

  Philip jumped right up and let Kenzie grab his arm. Her entourage followed suit. In seconds, the table was nearly empty, save for Addy and Jack.

  “Looks like it’s just the two of us now,” he said.

  The accent. Oh lord, the accent. It was Australian, and properly heartstopping.

  “Are we really supposed to sit around doing this until midnight?” she asked.

  He laughed. “I dunno. This is an American holiday, so you’re in charge. But I think if we stick together, we’ll be able to make it.”

  She blushed.

  “I think you’ve picked the wrong American party leader,” she said.

  “Well. It might also help if we get tanked.”

  “Agreed. Do you like tequila?”

  His eyebrows shot up, and even she was surprised at her own forwardness. But it was too late now. She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the bar. As soon as she stood up, the beer she’d sucked down shot to its full power. She was tipsy and emboldened.

  “Four shots of Cuervo,” she said to the bartender, a girl she recognized from high school. The bartender gave her the staple nod of the town, the one that said, “I got you, because we’re in this thing together.”

  “I’ll have the same,” he called. Addy laughed.

  She chuckled. There was no way she could drink all that and still be standing, but she would go along with it. If only to keep Jack looking at her like that…

  Chapter Two

  “Cheers,” she said. “But to what?”

  “Well first, you have to make eye contact when you cheers,” he said. “Otherwise it’s bad luck. And second, let’s cheers to a different reason each time.”

  “You go first,” she said.

  “Cheers,” he said as he clinked her glass and held her gaze. “To American holidays. To your country’s unabashed love of blowing things up, and pies made with Crisco.”

  “Nobody uses Crisco anymore,” she said.

  “Okay, then. Cheers because… honestly it’s this, or I’ll have to let Philip try to set me up all night.”

  She felt a small burn of jealousy go down with the yellow liquid.

  “Cheers because I’m so fucking awkward,” she said as she raised her glass.

  “Hear, hear,” he said. He made it look like it was Sprite he was shooting back. “Cheers because I signed a contract to be in this town for at least a year. God help me.”

  “Hey!” she said. “It’s not so bad.”

  The second shot somehow went down even coarser than the first, and she pulled a face as she bit into the lime to cut the burn. From over Jack’s shoulders, she caught sight of
Jeremy and Shannon slow dancing as Paradise City began its first strums.

  “Can’t handle it?” he asked with a smile. “I thought pretty American girls could drink.”

  She blushed. He called me pretty.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t normally drink tequila.”

  “You ordered it.”

  “I ordered four.”

  “I know, so did I.”

  She gave him a look, and he grinned. She was nearly knocked down by that smile, so she raised another shot glass.

  “Right. Okay, then. Number three. You ready?”

  “Are you?” he asked.

  “Cheers because my ex is here and it looks better to be talking to you than to be by myself.”

  “Wow, thanks,” he said. “But I’ll take it.”

  He downed the shot easily. “Why is your ex an ex?”

  A laugh bubbled up from her chest.

  “Uhhh… it’s a long story. Basically he works all the time, and says he doesn’t have time for a needy girlfriend. Except now he’s with Shannon, I see him everywhere, all the time. Doing all the things he told me he didn’t have the time to do. So…”

  She ran her finger around the rim of one of the empty shot glasses, feeling an acute shot of jealousy burn through her. Or is that just the tequila?

  “My turn,” he said. “Cheers because what else do I have to do other than to help a girl get back at her ex.”

  “I’m not trying to get back at him,” she said, too quickly. The taste of the tequila on her tongue made her cut her defenses short.

  “Cheers because tequila makes everything better,” she said.

  It was true. As she took another shot, she felt the warm glow spread outward from her chest.

  “How right you are,” Jack said. “You’re on a roll. Your turn again.”

  “Cheers because … it’s better to be drinking than to be running everyone else’s lives,” she said.

  He gave her a curious look. “Are you the mayor or something?”

  “Hardly,” she said with a laugh. “I work at a restaurant. I’m like the manager, but without the title or the pay.”

  “Ah,” he said. “So you’re the queen of your hive, then.”

  Briefly she wondered what he meant by that, but the tequila had started to turn her brain to mush. They slammed their glasses down on the table in unison.

  “So you’re a doctor. Do you love it?”

  He ducked his head. “I do. I’m in emergency medicine, and there is nothing like the rush of adrenaline that accompanies helping someone who’s experienced a trauma.”

  “So you do it because you’re an adrenaline junkie?”

  He grinned. “Partly. The other part is because my father was a doctor, and his father before him, and his father before him… so it was sort of expected that I would follow in their footsteps.”

  “Gotcha. You’re fulfilling familial obligations.”

  “That may have got me into med school, but I had to pass the classes and work the crazy thirty hour shifts.”

  “I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t earn the right to call yourself a doctor.”

  He nodded, raising another shot glass.

  “Shot number four,” he said. “Ready?”

  “As ready as I’m gonna be.”

  “Cheers because … because … shit, I don’t know.” They both broke into laughter. The tequila had worked its magic. “How about we switch back to beer?”

  “Oh, wow. Did I really outdrink an Australian?” she asked.

  “I’m impressed. I figured you’d think I was British.”

  “Why?” she asked. She felt his arm at her waist as he directed her back to the table.

  “Most beautiful girls hope I’m British,” he said with a shrug. “Something about that accent.”

  Omigod, he called me beautiful. Either I’m really drunk, or he’s interested in me.

  “I don’t like Hugh Grant,” she said as she slid onto the barstool.

  “Good to know,” he said with a laugh. “So, tell me your sob story.”

  “What?”

  “It’s the Fourth of July and you’re at a table with a veritable stranger. You have to have a sob story. Why are you here?”

  “At Dusty’s?”

  “In this town.”

  “Oh. I was born here.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Hey!”

  “I’m sorry I said it like that! I just arrived, I shouldn’t make any judgment calls.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. She realized their heads were inches apart, but it was the only way to have a conversation with the music and the crowd. Somehow, it felt like they were the only two in the room. “Actually, I moved to Santa Fe for college as soon as I could. I couldn’t wait to get out of this town.”

  “Why’d you come back?”

  “I found out my mom was dead.”

  “Wait, what?” She saw the shock swim out of the buzz in his eyes.

  “Sorry, I’m not good at this,” she said. “I mean … she’d been sick a long time. Breast cancer. But I … I didn’t make it back in time.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Truly.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I know how it feels—and I’m not just saying that. My dad died when I was thirteen. I was there, but I wasn’t. You know? I was a kid.”

  “Let’s cheers to that,” she said, and they tipped their beers toward one another. “But you still didn’t tell me why you’re here. I mean really here.”

  He shrugged. “I was in Chicago, doing my residency. I didn’t want to go back to Melbourne, so I came here.”

  “Quite the trip from Australia to Chicago to Tahoe City.”

  “Maybe. So you told me why you came back. You never told me why you stayed.”

  She sighed. “I came back … you know, to take care of everything. And then I got stuck. There’s no other way to put it. I was taking care of my dad, my little sister, the whole ‘estate’ or whatever. Then … I started dating this guy.”

  “Jeremy?”

  “Yeah. How did you know that?”

  “You said his name earlier.”

  “Oh, right. Well, we started dating, and I’d always had a crush on him since I was fifteen. He paid zero attention to me in high school, so when he hit on me… I don’t know. I thought it was another reason to stay.”

  “And now?”

  “Now he’s with Shannon. And they’re rubbing it in my face, even if they don’t mean to. I don’t know. Maybe it was a mistake to stay so long.”

  “Well, there’s good news.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m completely comfortable with you using me to make him jealous.”

  “You are?” she asked with a laugh. “You seem pretty confident.”

  “I don’t want to come off as arrogant, but trust me, Addy. I know what I look like. And I’m willing to use it.”

  “Wow,” she said. “Better watch that humility. Don’t want you getting low self-esteem.”

  He laughed. “It’s just the truth. It’s luck, genetics, whatever you want to call it. You should know how it is.”

  She bit her lip and looked into the depths of her beer like it held the answers.

  “Besides,” he continued, “you’re way too pretty to be so concerned with him anyway.”

  She looked up at him. God, he really is gorgeous.

  “What about you? Where’s your family?”

  He smiled. “Well, my mum is in Melbourne, sitting on the board of various charities. No doubt, plotting my marriage to some Australian princess who will be blonde and perky and easy for my mother to control.”

  “Whoa. That’s… unexpected.”

  “If you were thinking that I’m an adult who has total autonomy over my own life, you’d be right. But you also wouldn’t be my mother.” He sipped his beer and looked away, but Addy saw a flash of bitterness in his expression. “God knows what she’s going to do when there are grandchildren in t
he equation.”

  “I’m glad that you ended up here instead of Melbourne. And that you’re single.”

  He lifted his brows. “Thanks.”

  Addy flung her hand over her mouth. “The tequila is talking, more than I am.”

  He laughed, reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear. “For what it’s worth, anyone who dumped you is a total jerk.”

  “Cheers to that,” she said, and lifted her beer.

  Somehow, another pitcher of beer arrived, but Addy hardly noticed. She was pressed against Jack’s side as he showed her funny videos from med school. She showed him her Instagram, flipping faster past old photos that showed her and Jeremy embracing or kissing.

  “I think your ex is going bald,” he told her, pointing out several photos where it was beginning to be obvious.

  “Fireworks!” someone yelled above the din. “The fireworks are starting.”

  En masse, the bar began to rush outside and bottleneck at the entrance. She felt Jack’s hand on her hip as he steadied her. The blast of cool evening air shot across her face when they made it outside and she breathed in the Tahoe air.

  “Over here,” he said, and led her to an isolated spot beneath a staggeringly tall tree.

  He wrapped his arm around her as the lights exploded in the dark. The crackle, the explosions, the excitement of the night—it all came to a head in her as she looked up at him. His eyes slid toward her mouth and she braced for a kiss, but something stopped her.

  “Hey. What if… what if we pretend to date?”

  He blinked. “What?”

  “Just listen. I’m trying to make my ex jealous, you have your mom breathing down your neck about settling down with someone…”

  He looked at her face, scanning it for something. She felt like her honesty was being gaged, more than anything.

  “Just try it out! You know. We’ll see—”

  Jack leaned down and kissed her, sure and strong. God, he tastes good.

  As he began to pull away, she fluttered her eyes open. Jeremy stared at her from the corner of his eye. He looked nonplussed, even with Shannon’s arm wrapped around his waist.

  Well, good!

  “How’d I do?” Jack asked. “Think he’s mad?”

  “You want another drink?” she asked with a smile.