Hollywood Daddy (A Single Dad Romance)

by Naomi Niles

  As the car pulled up outside our home, I got a little bit excited at the thought he was inside. Since he was literally nowhere at the hotel, he had to be back home.

  But as I walked through the front door, and I ambled through the downstairs rooms of the house, the only person I came across was Brad, sitting at the kitchen table drinking the largest mug of coffee that I’d ever seen.

  Even though he was my stepfather now, I still felt uncomfortable around him, and that aura clung to me like a bad smell.

  “He=hello,” I stammered, feeling my face heat up as the embarrassment started to consume me. “Are you all right?” I needed to change this, to make things easier if we were going to be a family forever, but that was going to take some time.

  “Yes, fine thank you,” he replied easily enough, but because I was stone cold sober, whereas he had obviously been drinking, I could easily spot that he was being fake.

  “Where is everyone else?” I moved to sit at the table with him, then thought better of it at the last minute. I didn’t want to commit to a sit down conversation with someone that I really didn’t have anything to say to. I needed to be able to make my escape if needed.

  “Your mom is upstairs getting changed out of her dress,” he said. I nodded slowly, waiting for him to continue, to tell me where Rhett was, but he stayed oddly silent, and he continued supping his drink.

  “Where’s Rhett?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Did he travel back with you?” I was already pretty sure that he hadn't, but I wasn’t sure how else I could form that question without making myself sound guilty.

  “Oh, didn’t he tell you?” he asked innocently, but he was smirking a little to himself, which made me incredibly suspicious. “He came back before everyone else, and he packed his stuff to go home. He told me that he wanted to get back quickly, to get back to his real life. That now the wedding was done, he had nothing to stick around for.”

  “What?” I gasped in utter shock. I knew that didn’t sound like something Rhett would say, but I couldn’t work out why Brad would lie. Sure, he had some issues with his son, but that still didn’t explain why he would make that up.

  So did that make it real? Would Rhett actually say that? And where did that leave me? I couldn’t believe that all the self-doubt was back with a vengeance–I was back on the rollercoaster once more. “Really? He’s gone?” I no longer even cared that I was giving our little secret away by our over the top emotions–not even when Brad sent me a knowing smirk that should have sent terror coursing through my veins. “Why did he say that?”

  But I didn’t even bother to wait for him to respond. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, not when he was giving me that look; I just needed to find Rhett to find out what the hell was going on. Once I spoke to him, nothing else would matter; we could sort everything else out afterwards.

  But as I got to Rhett’s room, it was clear that Brad was telling the truth. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, Rhett was gone. He really didn’t see me as worth sticking around for. Somehow, I’d managed to get everything so messed up in my mind, clearly seeing emotions that weren’t there.

  As everything that had happened between us spun through my mind, I tried to work out exactly where I’d misread the signals, but I couldn’t. It was all so real, and I couldn’t accept that he was that much of a player that he would have me believing things that weren’t there. No one was that good.

  I wandered around his room, not seeing anything that suggested he was ever even there. It was as if he never even existed in this room. It was spic and span, not a trace of anything Rhett related. He’d officially vanished.

  Did I really mean nothing to him?

  Tears pricked my eyes as I realized that everything I’d assumed was real was a lie. And that despite everything, I was going to be raising this child alone, after all.

  With my heart pounding and my fingers trembling, I grabbed my phone from my bag and called him right away. If he was gone, then I needed to know why. I demanded an explanation, which I thought I rightfully deserved. There was no way that he could just go, and not say anything. I couldn’t imagine him as that bad a person.

  But the phone just rang out.

  What the hell? What was going on? This made absolutely no sense!

  I peeked out of the window to see his car still sitting there on the driveway, but he was still not here. Of course, he wouldn’t have been driving after drinking at the wedding, but that didn’t stop it hurting to see that one small remnant of him still there. There was no denying it, however much I didn’t want to accept it: Rhett was gone.

  For some reason, he’d left me behind, and I absolutely had to find out what that reason was. What was so important that he had to just vanish like that?

  I raced back down the stairs with my mind racing all over the place. I was so desperate to find out was going on that nothing else mattered. All I needed were my answers, so when I bumped into Mom on the landing, who was now dressed comfortably in her pyjamas, I grabbed her by the arms and I begged her to tell me truth.

  “Where’s Rhett?” I pleaded her, no longer caring what she suspected or thought. I was in full panic mode, and that was that. “Why has he gone?” Our conversation from earlier flicked back into my memory–the one where she commented that it was a shame we were now stepbrother and sister–but it was too late to back track now.

  “Oh, Brad said he got a little overwhelmed by the wedding and he went home to see his mom.” She looked at me a little concerned, so I nodded quickly as if I understood and that made perfect sense, but really I didn’t believe a word. Brad was lying and I didn’t know why.

  “Right, okay, thank you,” I gasped, before spinning on my heels and racing into my room. I needed to be alone, to deal with this by myself.

  Then I grabbed my phone, and I started to call Rhett again. Something had happened, and I really needed to know what. There was no way we could go from the intense moment on the dance floor, to him running away. There was something I was missing, and I wouldn’t rest until I found out what.

  But he still wasn’t answering, and I thought that I might just end up going insane.

  ‘Rhett, please talk to me. Please tell me what’s going on? x’ I texted before ringing again, but he was still ignoring me.

  I felt devastated. What the hell was going on now? How had I ended up back in this area of the unknown? I thought we were solid now. I slumped my body back on the sheets trying to figure out what I didn’t know. I was pretty sure that Brad might know more than he was letting on because of that fakeness and the smirk, but I couldn’t exactly go down there and ask him. I didn’t even know the guy. And there was no way that he’d tell me anyway.

  It was a whole God damn mess.

  ‘Rhett, please let me know what’s going on. I’ll help you; I’ll do whatever I can. Don’t shut me out–I thought we were over all the crazy game-playing now? Please x’

  I wanted to tell him that I loved him, because I was pretty sure that was exactly how I felt, but it didn’t feel like the right time or way to do so. It seemed more like the thing I should say to his face, not in a message when he wasn’t even talking to me.

  Why did he have to leave before I could finally say what I needed to say?

  I lay down, still fully dressed in my wedding gear, with the phone clutched tightly between my fingers just waiting for him to reply. He would eventually, for sure, if I meant anything to him. I would just have to wait.

  But the wait might just kill me.

  The tears that threatened to come earlier finally cascaded down my cheeks. It was obvious now that we could never be together, that the universe was never going to aligns to allow that to happen. It was too complex, too much and that was the end of it. I’d been naïve and idiotic to assume otherwise.

  All my dreams and my fantasies came crashing down around me as a cold, stark reality hit. We could never be a couple with the blessing of our parents; we could never be us and be happy. That was a pip
e dream that would never be anything more.

  I was an idiot. I’d got sucked in by a romantic dream, and for that I was a fool. I only had myself to blame.

  From now on, it was just my baby and me, and that was that. The sooner I accepted that, the better. And now without the distraction of the wedding keeping my mind occupied, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else.

  Plus, there was no longer anything holding me back from telling my mom the truth. I was going to have to finally confess that I was having a baby, although I wouldn’t be able to tell her who the father was–especially now.

  But I wouldn’t do it yet, I would wait just a little while longer until the wedding faded from memory. That wasn’t an excuse this time, I just didn’t want to be a thunder stealer. And to be honest, I wanted a little bit of time to recover from this heartbreak first.

  Shit was about to get real, certain things were about to be revealed, and I was just going to have to deal with that in the best way I could.

  Chapter Thirty

  Rhett

  As I sat on the night bus home, ignoring my ringing phone knowing that it was Danica calling me, I hated myself and my life. I was such a coward, and I regretted being that, but I was so scared that my dad was going to use Danica to hurt me, and I couldn’t have accepted that. This was our problem, not hers. She shouldn’t have to be affected by my dad and his threats.

  I wished that I wasn’t so terrified, but I was. There had just been something so frightening about him in that bathroom that I couldn’t have stayed even if I wanted to. There was no way I could live under his roof, knowing what he thought of me, and how badly he wanted to hurt me.

  I might have been a coward, but I hoped that I was doing it for the right reasons.

  I should have left a note, I knew that I should have, but I couldn’t because I assumed that would count as communication. I even wrote one, but I didn’t leave it behind. I balled it up and shoved it in my pocket, just as I was racing out the door.

  I pulled it out now, just to have one last look at it, just to remind myself what an idiot I was.

  ‘Danica,

  I’m so sorry that I have to leave. I can’t explain why, but just know that I really don’t want to. This time with you has been the best of my life, and I will never, ever forget you. Just know that you’re absolutely amazing, and that you’ve made me happier than anyone ever has before.

  I love you–I wish that things were different so that we could be together, but they aren’t. I’m sorry.

  Rhett x’

  It was probably a good idea that I hadn't left the note behind, actually. Telling Danica that I loved her for the very first time in a note that basically said goodbye forever was the worst idea I’d ever had. I didn’t want to be even more of a head fuck than I’d been before. Sure, a clean break was harder, but in the end, it would probably make things much less painful for both of us.

  Although, I couldn’t actually see any moment where it wouldn’t hurt like hell.

  My chest was in agony at the thought of not seeing Danica again, but I hoped that seeing my mom would help me to clear my head. She was wise–despite the fact that she’d been wrong when it came to my dad–and I needed to hear her words of advice. I would tell her everything, and it would be nice to get some of that off my chest.

  Danica was going to hate my guts, but unfortunately, that was going to be the sacrifice I would have to make to keep her safe. I hated that my dad controlled everything, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about that. He was Brad Fronton, the powerful man who played with everyone like puppets, watching them all do his bidding, and I had unfortunately become one of those playthings for him.

  As the bus raced through the countryside, back towards my home, there was only one person that I wanted to speak to. Well, aside from my mom, but I was going to have to speak to her face to face.

  I needed her to understand that Dad threatened me, and that I would never be speaking to him again, and that was the reason I’d left. She needed to realize how deadly serious all of this was and I didn’t think a late night phone call was the best way to do that. Plus, the mood I was in, I would probably come across as emotional and irrational anyway.

  “Hello?” James replied sleepily, making me feel a little guilty. It was so clear that he was asleep, and that I’d woken him up to rant on about my problems. “Rhett?”

  “Sorry, James, did I wake you?” I asked, already hearing the sadness in my tone. “I didn’t mean to. I’m on my way home.”

  “I thought today was the wedding?” How could he remember such important details? He always seemed so spacey, but he was more switched on than anyone realized. Or maybe it was just that he actually cared about me and my life. He’d always been there for me, when no one else had and I really appreciated him for that.

  “It was,” I replied simply, not sure how detailed I was prepared to go with this just yet. “I left right away afterwards, got on the first bus.”

  “Why?” He was clearly more awake now, panicking just a little bit. “What the hell happened?”

  The events span through my mind–my dad, the threats, Danica–but I didn’t say anything. It felt too awful to go over, too soon to speak it aloud without getting emotional. “Urgh, you don’t want to know,” I insisted, shaking my head as I spoke.

  “I do; please tell me.” I sighed deeply, wondering if I was doing the right thing by remaining silent. “I can help you. You don’t have to deal with everything by yourself.” There he went again, knowing me too well. “Is it the girl?”

  Of course, I’d already mentioned a bit of the drama already; maybe I could just go off that, act like she was the reason I was running away.

  “Yeah kind of,” I was tired and emotional, and I needed to unload at least some of it. “It all went a bit tits up, to be honest.” That was vague, but at least it explained my mood.

  “Oh I’m sorry, man,” he sympathized knowingly. “That sucks.” James had been through his fair share of women troubles, but it was normally girls liking him more than he did them. He liked too many chicks to settle with just one, which had caused him no end of drama in his life, but nothing like this. He’d certainly never had his heart broken.

  “Cheer me up,” I finally begged. “Tell me all about your exploits. How was the trip in the end?” I needed a distraction, and James’s stories were always guaranteed to cheer me up.

  “Man, I actually think that I found the one.” His words cut far too deep for my liking. How had my player friend managed to settle down before me? And at such a dreadful time in my life? It wasn’t fair at all. “And the best thing is, she lives back home. I met her on the trip, but she actually lives a few streets down from where I do. She’s a surfer chick, too; you’ll like her.” He paused for a second, before continuing, making things even more difficult for me. “You’ll have to come and meet her. We’re all going out for a few drinks tomorrow night.”

  “Sounds great,” I said with an emptiness in my tone. “I could do with a good night out.” I could do with a few beers with the guys sure, but I wasn’t fully ready to meet the girl who had tamed James. Not now, not when my heart was so shattered.

  “So…you don’t think you’ll be seeing your dad again?” he asked cautiously. “That part didn’t go well, either?”

  “I will not be seeing him again.” I felt bad that I got distracted and that I hadn't kept up my mission to find out some evidence against my dad. I really should have done–he hadn't changed at all, and I could have stopped the wedding before Lyla got in too deep. But it was too late for that now; I was on my way home with my head between my legs.

  I was an idiot. Seriously, a complete idiot. I felt very ashamed of myself.

  “Okay, man, well, at least you tried.” There he was, trying to find the good in a terrible situation. I couldn’t help but smile to myself at his attitude–he just seemed to see the world in such a positive light. “Hey, you want to come surfing before the pub tomorrow?”


  I knew this was his way of getting me alone in case I wanted a decent heart-to-heart chat, for which I was extremely grateful. I might just take him up on that offer; I would see how I felt in the morning. “Sounds good. I can’t wait. Not too early, though; I don’t know what time this damn bus will get home!” I glanced out of the front window, but it was too pitch black for me to work out where I was.

  “All right, Rhett, see ya,” James chuckled. “I’ll be round your house at about eleven-ish.”

  “Bye!”

  As he hung up the phone, I settled down into my seat to try and get some shut eye. If I was going to throw myself wholeheartedly into my old life to distract myself from everything that I’d lost, then I needed to be refreshed. I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in misery–even if I had done a shitty thing. I just needed to get up and move on. It was too late to do anything else now.

  ‘Rhett, please let me know what’s going on. I’ll help you; I’ll do whatever I can. Don’t shut me out–I thought we were over all the crazy, game playing now? Please x’

  Danica’s message burst onto my screen, and I felt myself fall to pieces all over again. This was the most difficult thing that I’d ever been through, and I had no idea how I was going to recover. I wanted to reply, to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know if my dad was somehow monitoring communications, and there was no point in me leaving if I was going to then put her at risk anyway. I absolutely needed to keep my distance.

  Even if it killed me.

  I thought back over our time together, just piecing everything in one place as a memoir that I was having to say goodbye to. All those stolen kisses, the time spent alone, the internal torture that it took to get us to a place where we both finally happy, finally ready to accept being together…just to have it torn apart by the one man that seemed determined to ruin my life.