by Thia Finn
Thia Finn
Hayden’s Timb
Companion Book to Assured Distraction Series
By Thia Finn
Copyright 2017 Thia Finn
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under the International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
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WARNING: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book contains graphic language and sexual content and is intended for mature audiences, ages 18 and older.
ISBN13: 978-0-9973407-6-1
Edited by Nicki Kuzn Swish Design & Editing
Proofreading by Kaylene Osborn Swish Design & Editing
and Kim Ginsberg
Book designed and formatted by Swish Design & Editing
Cover design by Jason Lee Photography
Cover photo model: Jonny James
Cover photographer: Wander Aguiar Photography
Cover image Copyright 2017
STOP!
Don’t swipe right.
My dad needs a date.
He’s thirty single, a musician, and hot—at least the women in the audience think so, eww.
He’s a great dad. He’s fun, the best friend everyone loves, and can keep up with a twelve-year-old guy like myself.
You’d be getting a keeper with him.
So click and give him a try.
What kind of kid sets his dad up on online dating? His dad must be desperate. No, that would be me. I’m the one in a hopeless situation. Some jerk cost me my job and my life dominoed in a downhill slide from there.
The calamities begin from the moment Hayden and Timbre meet, but the complications in their lives could prove too much to make a relationship last.
Read the conclusion to Hayden’s story where old friends are supportive, and surprises return to haunt him in this companion book to the Assured Distraction rock star romance series.
To Deborah Orlowski,
My counselor, my supporter, my crew, my confidant.
My Friend.
Thank you for always believing!
Blurb
Dedication
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Playlist
Acknowledgments
Connect With Me Online
About The Author – Thia Finn
“Crew? Dude, what’re you doing?” I might have been yelling upstairs, but my mind thought this time. I swear the boy was easier when he was a five-year-old.
“Playing a video game, Pops,” he yelled back down. The name ‘Pops’ happened about the time he turned five, and it stuck. He’d heard it somewhere and he and Tucker, his cousin, thought the name fit me and had a cool sound to it. When you’re twenty-three and have a five-year-old, you don’t argue too much when he thinks it’s cool.
“Dinner’s ready. So stop and come down here. We need to eat because I have to leave in a few minutes.” I heard him drop the controller and then heavy footsteps coming down the steps.
“What’s for dinner?” He fell onto the barstool at the island.
“Does it matter? You’re gonna eat whatever I feed you.”
“But I like to know what my choices are before I begin inhaling them.” His eyes perused the stovetop as he spoke.
“It’s chicken spaghetti.” I took salads from the fridge and slid one down the granite countertop to him.
“Ugh. Why do you fix something good like spaghetti and ruin it with this green stuff?”
“Because you need green stuff if you’re expecting to fill in those long legs you’ve spent all summer growing. Besides, you know you like everything in that bowl. So eat.” I sat down next to him and picked up my iced tea for a long drink before I dug into my own.
“What’re you doing tonight that we have to eat so early? Seems like I just got home from football practice.”
“I have a date.”
“Great, and I get to stay home and do homework alone.”
“Sorry, dude. I have to go when we’re both available. Laurel’s not in town that much. I want to see her when she’s here.”
“Yeah, I get it,” he mumbled this to himself, but sitting next to him he knew I would hear.
“What do you get, Crew? That I like to spend time with Laurel? Yes, I do like to spend time with her. She’s beautiful and fun and interesting.”
“And female.”
“Yes, she’s a female. So?”
“So, Pops, I get it. You need women in your life. You’re old, not dead.” He grinned as he said it.
“Thirty isn’t old.”
“Right, keep telling yourself that.” I didn’t miss the smile before he shoved another huge fork of food in his mouth.
“Dude, you really need to rethink your table manners before you decide to have a girlfriend. I know we’ve taught you better. Peri would die if she saw you now.”
“What makes you think I don’t already have a girlfriend?” He kept his eyes trained on the fridge across the room as he said it.
“Oh, yeah. Who?” I hoped this news would be a long time coming, but I guess it won’t wait until he’s twenty-two or older to have a girlfriend.
“You don’t know her.”
Even worse news.
“Try me or are you making this up?”
“No, Pops. Her name’s Reign.”
Hmm. Strange name.
“Interesting name.” Her parents must be old Austin hippies.
“It’s a family name or something like that. I don’t know. Who cares, anyway? She’s pretty, she’s fun, and the best thing is she likes me.” He jumped off the barstool and filled his entire plate with spaghetti. I didn’t remember eating like that at twelve.
His comments about the girl mimicked mine, which scared the hell out of me. I described what I liked about Laurel in terms I thought sounded respectful. To another adult I’d have said she’s hot, she’s adventurous in the sack, and she never ceases to amaze me when we’re fucking. He couldn’t possibly mean the same thing
as me. I mean, we’d had ‘the talk,’ but his interest didn’t even exist at the time. He acted like he couldn’t care less about sex when we chatted. Could a lot happen between ten and twelve?
I’d kissed a girl on my twelfth birthday. He hadn’t done that, had he?
Without looking up from my plate, so I don’t look overly anxious. “Have you kissed her yet?” Please say no, please say no.
“Uh, is that something you really want to know?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”
“Why?”
Did he ask me why? This was not how I wanted this talk to go.
“No reason. Just wondering if you’d already kissed your first girl.”
“Pops, please. I kissed a girl at the football game last year when I was eleven.”
Oh shit. Not the answer I wanted to hear at all.
“Yeah? How was it?”
“What do you mean how was it? It was a kiss.”
“Like a little peck on the cheek?”
“Pops, give it up now. I’m not going into details with you about kissing.” He took another huge bite. “What about you? Do you just kiss Laurel on the cheek?”
“This isn’t about me. I’m an adult. You’re still a kid.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t like girls because I do. A lot.” He gave me a smirk that worried me even more. He’d hung out with his uncle and all the guys from Assured Distraction for so long that I knew he’d picked up things he probably shouldn’t have along the way. He knew more than necessary at an early age. We all tried to keep the language and rough talk under control around the boys, for no other reason than Peri would hand our balls to us in one quick jerk.
Crew and I moved out of Ryan and Peri’s house about the time he turned eight. I wanted to move sooner but mentioning it literally made Peri ill, so Ryan begged me to put it off as long as possible. My life stagnated in a holding pattern not too long after my son came into this world, and I quit touring. I wrote music for several bands, worked at 13 Recordings as a studio musician, and made a good living for the kid and me. Not rockstar money but enough to live a great life.
I don’t regret my decision doing the right thing for Crew. But now I feel like it’s time to get my life back. He understood and had been encouraging me to date for a few years now. Maybe that was when he started looking at girls.
“Well, that’s good to know, kid, but you need to remember all the things we’ve discussed. Respect is the number one thing you gotta have for girls. And another thing you need always to be thinking about is… no means no. Do you remember me talking to you about all of this?”
“Yeah, Pops. I remember what you said. Respect and no. Two important things. Tell me again, what exactly is she saying no to?”
Oh shit. Yeah, this is all about to get real. “Well, Crew, anything she isn’t comfortable with and says no to. It’s gotta be like a big red light going off in your head.”
“But what if she doesn’t say no. Everything’s good then?”
Was he really asking me this?
“Dude, you gotta make up your mind what you’re comfortable with, too. Something else you have to understand is that everything you do has the potential for consequences. Some are worse than others. Right now, Crew, the consequences are things like her dad catching y’all and being angry. I’d skin you alive if it was my twelve-year-old daughter.”
“Well, that’s where you’d be wrong, Pops. You see, she ain’t twelve. Reign is fourteen, and she’s had a boyfriend already before me.”
HOOOLLLYYY shit. This could not be happening. Okay, gotta keep my cool here. This had the potential to head downhill rapidly.
“Fourteen, huh? Is she in seventh grade, too?” Safe question.
“No, Pops. She’s in eighth grade. Why’d you think she would be in seventh grade?”
“Crew, a lot of guys your age like to go out with girls their own age. How did you score an older woman?” I laughed when I said it but only to lighten the situation. I didn’t feel like this situation fell under light-hearted at all.
“She’s a cheerleader, Pops. I’m a football player. We naturally go together, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. They go together, sometimes. Does she only like you because you’re a football player?”
“No, Pops. She likes me because I’m a big, strong football player.” He stood and flexed his biceps giving it maximum effort if the face he made was any indication. Then he grinned from ear to ear causing me to howl with laughter.
“Yeah, you show her those big ol’ muscles every time, and she’s gonna laugh in your face.”
“Nuh-uh. She likes my muscles. I show her all the time, and she likes squeezing them right before she lays a big wet one on my lips.”
Well, damn, this gets worse with every word from his mouth.
“Boy, she better not be laying anything on your lips at school. That shit’s for private.”
Please tell me he didn’t kiss her at school.
“No, I didn’t kiss her at school. She kissed me after the football game last week.”
“I was at your football game, and I didn’t see any kissing going on.”
“No, you didn’t because, remember, kissing and other stuff like that is for private.”
“Oh, right, for private. Uh, Crew, there better not be any other stuff going on. You’re twelve years old, and kissing’s enough for now.”
“Awe, Pops, I know. I’s just yanking your chain.”
“Well, good, because there’s a lot more consequences that you have no business dealing with at your age. So think hard before it’s more than kissing, please.”
“Right. You’re telling the truth. You should hear some of the stuff those guys in the eighth grade are doing with their girlfriends. No, wait. You don’t want to know what they’re doing, do you?”
“Probably not, but I want you to know that if you decide you want to tell me this, I’m always here to listen to whatever you have to say, Crew. Always. No matter how good or bad it is. I’m here for you. We can talk about anything you want. No laughing, no judging, just talking. Got it?”
“Got it, Pops.” He stuck his fist out for bumping, but I pulled him in for a hug. “Love you, kid.”
“Love you, too, Pops. Now go see your pretty girl and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said walking away.
“Not funny, dude. Not funny.” He laughed all the way to his room.
I never intended to be a dad so young but shit happened, and I loved that kid to pieces. I don’t know what my life would have been like without him, but times like this one scared me shitless. I quickly learned kids didn’t come with instruction manuals and being a parent happened more from learning as you go, but I had great role models with my mom and grandparents. I relied on what I was taught from them to raise Crew. So far, it’d all been fine.
Him turning into a teenager next year will hand me some tricky moments. I’ll have to stay one step ahead, though. My work was definitely cut out for me for the next six years or longer.
“Ugh, could this day get any worse?” I darted through the crowd on the sidewalk racing the bus to the stop. I left my apartment this morning with no sign of rain, and now I was soaked to the skin. I should’ve listened when my roommate mentioned rain. He had this sixth sense about the weather.
The bus pulled up as I stepped under the stop’s awning. With the wind blowing, it didn’t do much good, though. Stepping on I saw no open seats, and heaven forbid some nice guy let me have his. Oh well, I only had to go a couple of miles. The bus took me downtown close to where I worked. I’d have to do some damage control on my hair and clothes before I slipped into my cubicle.
I stepped off the bus as the light changed causing me to wait to cross the street. When the black Ford pickup truck screeched to a halt beside me, I had just enough time to make eye contact with the driver before the wall of water covered me from head to toe.
“Damn, damn, damn,” I screamed to no one, and water dripped from the e
nd of my nose. The driver’s door opened and he hopped out holding a towel.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize the water was that deep at the curb.” He started wiping me dry with the huge beach towel and then stopped and wrapped it around my shoulders. “Please, let me take you somewhere to change or clean up. I feel terrible about this.”
He towered over me and when he wrapped me in the towel, I felt like a newborn being swaddled from the tightness of it. He used the ends to wipe my face since my arms were incapacitated. Golden fingers shooting through the light brown of his eyes like sunrays mesmerized me to the point I didn’t answer.
I knew he thought I’d lost my hearing or ability to speak because I simply stood and stared. He asked me questions, and I stared. He made comments about my appearance, and I stared. He held me by my shoulders and spoke directly in my face, and I stared. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Uh, no. No, I’m fine.” I stared.
“No, you’re not fine. You’re wet and muddy. Your clothes look ruined. I did this, and I need to make it right.” I stared. “Miss, are you okay? Did I hit you or something, too?” He shook me ever so slightly.
“No, uh, no. You didn’t hit me.” I started wiggling my arms under the enormous towel he cocooned me in until it finally let go enough for me to get my hands out. I pulled the corners away from my dress and looked down. “Holy shit. What did you do to me?”
“I know. I’m so sorry. Please, tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it I can take you home and then bring you back to work, or I can pay to have your clothes cleaned while you wait for them… or hell, I don’t know what to do. You tell me.”
“You can take your hands off me, to begin with.” He removed his hands from my shoulders.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that already.” My senses rushed back into my addled brain. “I’ll have to go back home and start over. My hair and makeup are ruined, too.”
“Right. Again, sorry.” He looked me over from head to toe. This only served to embarrass me. “I can take you home right now.”