Chapter Five
~Chloe~
I had no idea when I moved in with Carrie that she was an American Muscle fan. Up until now, I had made a point not to watch it. You know, for self-preservation. The first few weeks after I left Matt were hell. I couldn’t listen to the radio, with its overwhelming array of sappy love songs, without bursting into tears. Couldn’t lay in bed without wishing my head was resting on his chest. Couldn’t pass Ricci’s without thinking of the night he and I broke bread. And I sure as hell couldn’t watch the TV show that Matt had agreed to be part of.
Even after months of close friendship with Carrie, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about him. His memory was still too fresh. Still too devastating. The thought of him made me too emotional. Gave me more sadness and regret than I could deal with.
“Wouldn’t you rather watch Dancing with the Stars or something?” I asked as I scrubbed the final dirty pan from our supper. I couldn’t help but grin; if only Matt could see me now. I never cared about messes before, and I certainly never cared about dirty dishes, but since moving in with Carrie, I wanted to do everything I could to carry my weight in her home, including washing dishes.
“Hell, no,” she replied from the couch. “Have you seen the men on this show? I thought once Marc Davis left, I’d have no reason to watch it, but have you seen the new guy? Max? He’s literally a work of art. When God made him, he took his sweet time. Threw in all the bells and whistles. Every sexy, sculpted, inked inch of that man is a freaking masterpiece. He’s just so beautifully…big. I’m telling you, that man could fix a flat with one hand and take care of business with the other, if you know what I mean. And that package. The man is seriously packin’, you can just tell.”
Girl, you have no idea…
“It’s Matt,” I smiled.
“Huh?”
“His name. It’s not Max. It’s Matt.”
“Uh, okay. Whatever. Did you know he’s from here?”
“That’s what I hear.”
“So, I’m just supporting the local boy. And if he’s ever on Dancing with the Stars, I’d support him by watching that show too. But for now, I’ll put up with the car details and lingo just so I can see him all greased up and…”
“Mom, seriously! I don’t need to hear you talking about greasing some strange man up. Just ew,” Piper said as she entered the living room, scowling at her mother.
Carrie raised her hands in surrender, “I’m just telling it like it is, people.”
Piper rolled her eyes and opened the fridge, pulling out a stick of string cheese. As she opened the wrapper, she walked toward her mom and took a seat next to her on the couch. “Honestly, Mom. Why are you so weird?”
“Weird?” Carrie replied. “I prefer ‘awesome’.”
“Definitely weird,” Piper answered. “My friends’ moms don’t drool over reality stars.”
“Most of your friends’ moms are old ladies. I’m young and vibrant,” she teased. “I thought you loved that about me.”
Piper bowed her head in defeat and sighed, “I do.” Looking back up at her mom, eyes pleading, she added, “Sometimes I just wish we were a little more…normal.”
Carrie’s shoulders drooped. She looked over at me as if to say, Where is this coming from? Our evening had been fantastic so far, our dinner conversation rolling along effortlessly as the three of us planned our next girls’ day in. Until now, Piper’s mood had been fine. Happy, even. What on earth had happened to change that?
Carrie sighed and pointed the remote at the TV to turn it off. Putting on a reassuring smile that did nothing to cover up the heartache in her eyes, she pulled Piper close and whispered, “There’s no such thing as normal, sweetheart. Please try not to compare what’s in here,” she pulled away and placed her palm on her daughter’s heart, “to everyone else’s outside. Chances are, most of the kids in your class don’t feel normal either, even if their reasons are different than yours.”
After a moment, Piper, nestled in her mother’s arms, whispered, “I miss Daddy so much. All my friends have dads except me.”
My own heart swelled as Carrie’s hold her on her daughter tightened. The moment took me back to the loss of my own parents and the countless lonely moments that followed —as if nobody in the world could possibly understand what it was like to lose the two most important people in my life. Brynn was the only other person in the world who knew what I had gone through during that time in our lives, and I had no intention of ever speaking to her again. But every time I broke down after they died, she was there to put me back together. Just like Carrie was doing now, for Piper.
“I miss him too, baby,” Carrie said as she slowly rubbed her hand up and down Piper’s back. “So, so much.”
Piper’s face crumbled as tears slid down her cheeks. As she pressed her face into her hands, her voice was teary and muffled. “I’m so afraid I’ll forget him.”
“Piper, look at me.” Finally, their eyes met. “I’ll always wish things could have stayed the same, that I could have somehow put your daddy under a big bubble and just kept him safe, right here where he belongs. But you will always have Daddy. But instead of walking around on the outside where we can see him, he’s inside us. He’s in our minds when we think of him and in our hearts every minute of every day. He will always be with us, sweetheart. He’ll always belong to us and we’ll always belong to him. You may forget some things, but I promise you, you’ll remember all the important stuff, the little things that make him your daddy. Forever and ever.”
Piper nodded with a sniffle, swiping at a tear. “This is our new normal, isn’t it, Mom?”
Our new normal. My heart squeezed tightly, emotions crashing into me with so much force, I could barely breathe. I knew this moment was theirs. I knew I should’ve left the room to give them their privacy. But as my thoughts flashed back to my own childhood—to that moment when my sister said those same words, it’s our new normal, to a fourteen-year-old me—I couldn’t rip myself away.
“Yes, sweetheart. It is. We all have our own ‘normal’, and this is ours now. Your friends have theirs too. And that is wonderful! It’s as it should be. How boring life would be if we were all the same? Our life is ours to live, and because you lost your Daddy and I lost…” Her voice faded away as she struggled to regain her composure. “Well, we know how to make the most of each moment, every day, don’t we?” she said, smiling through tears of her own. “We wouldn’t want our normal to be like anyone else’s. So, what do you say we live it with all our heart and soul, appreciate every moment, and never ever let Daddy be a reason to not have the best damn life ever. It won’t always be easy, I know. But Daddy would want his girls to be happy, so let’s show him just how happy we can be. Do you think we can try that together?”
Through her tears, Piper let out a tiny laugh, “Okay, Mama.”
"Mama" was a term she only used when she was hurt, sad, or so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. Piper rested her head on her mother’s shoulder for a while, and eventually said, “You can turn the TV back on, Mom. I’m okay. Besides, I kind of like the new guy on that show too. He’s nice.”
“Are you sure, sweetie?”
“Yeah. Watching him makes you happy. Daddy would want you to be happy too.”
Carrie laughed, “I’m not so sure Daddy would want me to find happiness by watching some guy on TV. How about we play a game of Pick-Up-Sticks instead?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Piper shouted as she bounced up and down on the sofa.
Carried turned to me, “What do you say, Chloe? Are you in?”
“Yeah,” I said, after taking a moment to find my voice. “I’m definitely in.”
~~~
After Piper went to bed, I told Carrie about Matt. Everything from the moment I met him, until the moment I left him. She gasped when I told her he was the same Matt as the one on her favorite TV show. After apologizing profusely for leering at him every week for the last couple of months, she listened to th
e whole story and held me as I cried. And, God bless her, she cried right along with me, still raw from her heart-to-heart with Piper. Talking about Matt, saying out loud how I felt about him, loosened the tight grip I had been keeping around my heart, giving me the freedom to feel again and my tears permission to fall.
Chapter Six
~Matt~
Flanked by cameramen, I walked into the shop, hand-in-hand with Dalton’s daughter, Ava. Having my every move captured on film had taken some getting used to, but after a few weeks I barely noticed. Aw, hell, who was I kidding? These guys were annoying as hell, although it helped that none of them spoke. Ever. Not when I asked their names. Not when I asked how they were doing. Not even when I’d ask them the time.
No matter what, they remained silent. Disconnected flies on the wall, only observing, never participating in the lives of the American Muscle cast.
Ava glanced up at me nervously. Like her brother, she not only had the Davis family’s striking good looks—dark hair, blue eyes, and perfect skin—but like the men in her family, she knew cars too. Had a natural talent for knowing how to fix them. And like me, this was her first season on the show and her first time working alongside the other American Muscle mechanics. She had spent the last few years overseas in the U.S. Air Force so she hadn’t been around for the rise of the American Muscle empire. But she was tough as nails and had quickly become the media darling of the show.
Between our similar military backgrounds and our love of cars, we had become fast friends. Together, we learned the ropes of the show and the shop, and in doing so, formed a close friendship in the two months since filming started.
“You ready for this?” I whispered to her as the guys in the shop, including her father, stared at our interlocked fingers.
“Not really,” she said. “But—” She turned to me with regret in her eyes. “—my dad’s been through enough in the last few months. Finding out would kill him.”
“He’s going to find out at some point,” I gently reminded her. “You know it’s just a matter of time, right?”
“Of course. Just not yet. It’s not the right time yet. Thank you so much for agreeing to this, Matt. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “You’d do the same for me.”
“I would. Whatever you need, Matt, I’m here, okay?”
“I know—”
“No. Fucking. Way!” Bobby shouted in disbelief through his thick black beard. The middle-aged man emerged from under a silver ’64 Aston Martin. His weathered eyes alternated from our tightly clasped hands, to Ava, to me, and back again. “You two? You fucking two are shacking it up?” He turned to the other shop staffers in the room to ask indignantly, “How did I not know this?”
Anyone in the shop who hadn’t noticed us yet sure noticed us now. Heads turned. Hoots and hollers echoed around the expansive garage as the audience of mechanics clapped and catcalled. Ava’s face was flushed as I slung my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my side. Everyone seemed to be happy until Ava raised up on her toes and kissed me on the cheek. That’s when her father’s voice cut through all the merriment like a buzz saw.
“Langston! Ava!” Dalton shouted. “Bathroom! Now!”
The bathroom was the only place cameras weren’t allowed and mics could be turned off. Being called into the bathroom by Dalton was rare. But when it did happen, it meant shit was about to get real. I had heard that it happened a lot when Marc was around, usually a result of him showing up to work high or hung over, but it hadn’t happened since I’d joined the show’s cast.
To a chorus of ‘Aw, you’re in trouble now’ and ‘Nice knowing you, buddy’, Ava and I followed her dad into the single-stall bathroom. It was clean with fancy fixtures, not typical for a shop bathroom. The warehouse-style building may have been nondescript on the outside, but inside it was state-of-the-art all the way, with the latest tools and equipment—pristine and impeccably maintained to stay that way.
The moment the door closed, Ava blurted, “What the hell, Dad? That was so unprofessional! I don’t see you calling Bobby into the bathroom the minute you see him holding hands with his wife, and I’m not about to put up with—”
“Shh!” Dalton raised his hand up, shushing Ava. “Turn your mic off.”
With a huff, she did as she was told, Dalton and I doing the same. As soon as the mics were off, Dalton’s calm demeanor vanished.
“Wife?!” Dalton blustered as he threw his hands up in the air. “Please tell me you two did not get married in the last twenty-four hours.”
“No, sir,” I said while at the same time Ava replied, “Of course not.”
He seemed to relax, but only slightly. “But you’re…together. Am I right? Or was this,” he pointed back and forth between Ava and me, “hand-holding expression of love our producers’ idea?”
Ava and I looked at each other. Her eyes pleaded for help, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie to Dalton after he had been so good to me, taking me under his wing and treating me like family after I had moved out here to Vegas. Apparently, she found it difficult to lie to her father too.
“I wanted to tell you first, but Jackie thought it would be better for ratings if we walked into the shop holding hands,” Ava explained, telling Dalton of the conversation we had with one of the producers just before walking into the shop. “I didn’t want to, but you know how persuasive she can be.” Her dad rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement. “By the time we were done talking, I practically thought it was my own idea. I’m sorry you had to find out this way, Dad.”
Dalton paused, taking it in. “So you’re the one in the tabloids? The one she’s been sneaking around with?”
Since the moment Ava’s involvement in the show was announced, the paparazzi had taken a liking to her. At first, it was because of her unique position as the only female mechanic on the show (a female mechanic with sexy ‘1940’s pin-up’ curves that had all the male fans of the show turning into lovesick teenagers. But a few short weeks later, rumors from an unidentified “source” had surfaced about the mystery man that Ava had been seeing.
Everyone, the media and fans alike, wanted to know who this mystery man was and why she was keeping it such a secret. Ava had denied the rumors until photos of her leaving a hotel room late one night had surfaced a few weeks ago, which only added fuel the speculation. In a moment of overwhelming emotion, she took to Twitter:
My love life is nobody’s business but mine.
That tweet fueled the rumor fire with a thousand tons of kerosene because, without intending to, she had confirmed the existence of a love interest, which she had previously denied. She quickly deleted it but it was too late. The image of her tweet had already been re-posted pretty much everywhere.
Having plenty of experience with how dishonest the media can be, Dalton had blown it off, giving Ava his full support while the paparazzi hounded her for answers. But two days ago, she had been photographed on a balcony of her home, in the arms of a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap. Ava’s face was clear in the pictures, but the mystery man’s face had been turned at just enough of an angle not to get captured.
Upon seeing the photos, Dalton had demanded answers that Ava refused to give. Tension had mounted between the father and daughter until the strain was palpable in the usually-relaxed atmosphere of the shop.
The media had a field day. The photos popped up in social media feeds, morning talk show segments, and had been thoroughly discussed on the radio airwaves. Headlines emerged: American Muscle Sweetheart has Secret Affair; Mystery Man Strings Along America’s Sweetheart; Ava Davis’ Mystery Man is a Martian. Yep, we had a laugh over that last one.
I knew who the mystery man was. And I understood why Ava didn’t want anyone, especially her father, to know about her relationship with him. But appreciating her reason for discretion didn’t make it any easier for me to lie to Dalton, so I replied to his question with the only honest answer
that came to mind: “I care about your daughter, sir.”
And I did. I cared about Ava a lot and was becoming increasingly concerned about the pressure-cooker her life had become. But I didn’t care about her in the way I was leading Dalton to believe. She was more like a sister, so when she came to me and told me about her predicament, I held her while she cried. Unfortunately, she confided in me in a restaurant, a public place where someone had taken a picture of our so-called “intimate” moment. The photo was leaked to at least one major entertainment “news” outlet. The media had assumed that I was Ava’s mystery man. We just hadn’t denied it yet.
Ava and I braced for the verbal slap-down that was surely headed our way…but it never came. Instead, Dalton’s expression morphed from pissed, to shocked, to—happy?
“Ava, baby, why didn’t you just tell me?” He laughed, picking her up into a hug so tight that it lifted her off the floor. “You know how I feel about Matt. Why would you think your mom and I would be anything but happy for you?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” she said tentatively as her father put her down. “I just wanted to keep it private.”
Dalton turned to me, extending his hand, “Matt, you know you’re already part of the family. I couldn’t be happier to have it be a bit more official,” he pulled me in closer. “Now, I’m sure we don’t need to have the old ‘father to daughter's boyfriend talk’, do we? I know you’ll treat my girl right, won’t you, son?”
“Always.”
It wasn’t the first time Dalton had called me ‘son’. But this time, with pride and acceptance warming his twinkling eyes, the term seemed to have taken on new meaning. As he looked at me now, I could practically feel him envisioning my future with his daughter. Me—as his son-in-law.
When I agreed to help Ava, I did it without a thought. But now, as Dalton beamed with elation, I wished I had considered the consequences. Because the happier he became, the shittier I felt. With a lie like this, the longer it went on, the more difficult it would be to tell him the truth later. Ava was right when she said he’d be devastated when he found out who she was really in love with. That was going to be bad enough, but now that Dalton thought it was me, the truth would eventually hurt him even more. He’d been nothing but good to me, so being anything less than honest with him hurt like hell.
The Fragile Line: The Complete Series Box Set: Parts One, Two, & Three Page 25