Indebted To A Daddy
Once Upon A Daddy
Kelli Callahan
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Daddy’s Best Friend: Sneak Peek
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Also by Kelli Callahan
Chapter One
Chloe
“We really shouldn’t be doing this…” My eyes adjusted to the dark, and I carefully put one foot in front of the other as I crept along the edge of the road.
“We never do fun stuff like this anymore.” My best friend, Daniella, motioned for me to continue following her towards the woods.
“We’re too old to be creeping around in the dark—and way too old to be skinny dipping in someone’s swimming pool!” I grimaced when my toe hit a rock that was slightly higher than my flip flop.
“Nobody will see us. Besides, we never worried about that when we were in high school.” Daniella looked back at me and smiled before she darted into the woods.
“We were young and stupid then.” I sighed as I continued following behind her.
And we always chickened out at the last minute—maybe this will be one of those times.
When I was younger, there was a certain thrill associated with being rebellious—sneaking out of my best friend’s house when her parents were asleep—wandering the neighborhood and basically just looking for trouble. As a nineteen-year-old college student with an apartment and responsibilities, it was more worrisome than exciting. There was no thrill—I was just scared of getting caught and terrified of spending the night in jail. Daniella didn’t care about all of that. She just wanted to cross skinny dipping in the Hawthorne’s pool off the so-called bucket list we made when we were kids. It was cute and devious back then—like most things on that list—but we were definitely too old to be crossing things off it.
“Almost there…” Daniella grabbed my arm and pointed to the fence that ran along the perimeter of the Hawthorne family’s property.
“What if someone is home?” I gave her a worried glance. “What if they have a security system—or dogs? Like, really big rottweilers that want to eat us.”
“They go on vacation every year.” She shook her head back and forth. “You know they don’t have a security system—or dogs.”
Yeah, but neither of us should actually know that…
Daniella made it to the fence first and started climbing. I hesitated when I got there, but when I heard her hit the ground on the other side of the fence, I started climbing too. That was no easy task in flip-flops, but I managed to get to the top without losing either of them. I landed on the other side of the fence next to Daniella, and then we started walking towards the swimming pool. I was beyond nervous, and my pulse was racing, but I followed behind Daniella until we got to the second fence that surrounded the pool. Thankfully, the gate was unlocked, so we didn’t have to perform another feat of acrobatics to get past it.
“See, the house is dark—nobody is home.” Daniella pointed to the back of the large mansion. “I’ve been driving past the house every day since I got home for the summer, and I haven’t seen anyone except for the workers that take care of the property.”
“Okay…” I sighed and nodded.
Daniella and I used to play in the woods near her house a lot when we were kids. One day, we discovered that the trail led all the way to the back of another neighborhood—with much nicer houses. After playing in that neighborhood a few times, meeting some of the kids that lived there, and doing a lot of exploring, we realized that one of the houses seemed to have a lot less activity than the others. It belonged to the Hawthorne family. The kids we met told us that the family always went on vacation at the beginning of the summer and they were usually gone at least a month. They had workers that came by during the day to check on the house and manage the upkeep, which included a very large swimming pool, but once they were gone, it was deserted.
The kids we hung out with weren’t very interested in the house, but Daniella and I hopped a fence a few times to look around before we went back to her place. We even got to look around the inside of the house once when a worker left the back door unlocked—we always checked it after that, but never got another chance. We were never brave enough to go for a swim in broad daylight, but we always said we were going to sneak out of the house one night and go skinny dipping in the pool. I wasn’t even sure why we planned to go skinny dipping instead of wearing our bathing suits—it was probably tied to the rebellious streak that we were right in the middle of back then. Neither of us had actually been skinny dipping before, and it became synonymous with the thing that never got checked off our bucket list.
“Let’s go!” Daniella stripped down to her panties and then kicked those off before she dived head first into the deep end of the pool.
I’ve come this far. I guess I can try to enjoy it…
I peeled off my t-shirt, kicked my flip-flops over near one of the chairs, and started removing my jeans. Daniella swam close to the edge and tried to splash me a few times as I worked up the courage to actually remove my bra and panties. It was a lot easier to write that down on a bucket list than to actually go through with it. Daniella’s rebellious, carefree attitude never went away like mine did. I felt like I grew up a little bit after I got my own place with adult responsibilities, but Daniella didn’t have those worries. Her parents were footing the bill for everything while she acted like college was a sequel to high school.
“Stop being a chicken shit.” Daniella splashed my feet. “We’ll swim for a few minutes, and then we’ll leave.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” I sighed and started removing my bra. “But if you splash my feet one more time, I’m going to dunk you!”
“There’s the fire I remember.” She laughed and splashed my feet again.
“You’re going to get it…” I narrowed my eyes and pointed at her.
I threw my bra on the chair next to my jeans and stripped off my panties. Daniella splashed me a couple of times before I could get in the water. The water was cold when I got in, but my body quickly adjusted to the temperature. She splashed my face before I had a chance to submerge my head, so I returned the favor—and dunked her after I blinded her with a little bit of water. Within a few minutes, we were swimming around, splashing each other, and I finally started laughing.
The worry that I had before I made it into the pool went away, and I felt like a kid again—without all of the responsibilities of the adult life I had been living with since I graduated from high school. It was a nice feeling, and I didn’t realize how much I needed to let off a little steam until I actually did it. I was proud of my accomplishments, but it was rare for me to laugh or have a good time while I struggled to balance everything.
“When you said we were going to relive the old days, I thought you meant watching horror movies after midnight while we binged on soda and popcorn.” I splashed Daniella with a bit of water and dodged her attempt at revenge. “Or maybe sneaking a drink from your dad’s liquor cabinet and replacing what we took with water.”
“We will.” Daniella giggle
d and finally managed to hit me with another one of her wild splashes. “We’ve got the whole summer ahead of us!”
“You do…” I shook my head and laughed. “I have rent to pay and a job to get back to.”
“You hate that job, and I know you get extra money with your student loans—you deserve a vacation. That’s what summer is supposed to be!” Daniella swam closer.
“I’m saving the extra money in case there’s an emergency.” I narrowed my eyes. “If I save enough, I might be able to get a better place once I graduate and get a real job.”
“You need to live in the moment—you’re nineteen—stop trying to be an adult. Besides, I heard about a killer party next weekend. You should come with me. We could see all of our friends from high school…” Daniella smiled and nudged me.
“I’m perfectly fine not seeing anyone from high school until the ten year reunion.” I shook my head back and forth. “Except you, of course.”
“Jeff might be there.” Daniella tried to make a seductive face. “I bet he still has a thing for you…”
“He never had a thing for me.” I rolled my eyes. “It was entirely one-sided, which is why he took Bethany to prom and I went alone.”
“You didn’t go alone,” Daniella scoffed. “You went with me!”
“No, you went with Mark—I was the third wheel,” I sighed. “Besides, I thought Jeff and Bethany got married right after graduation…”
“They did—then they got divorced. Aren’t you friends with him on Facebook?” Daniella raised her eyebrows inquisitively.
“Yeah, but I think I blocked his feed after Bethany started posting engagement photos.” I shrugged.
“You missed the epic meltdown then—and his diatribe about how you can’t marry the class slut and expect her to change after she gets a wedding band on her finger. It was quite a scandal…” Daniella laughed and shook her head. “Maybe there’s a chance for the two of you now.”
“Jeff was fun to crush on in high school, but I’m over that now.” I swam close to the edge of the pool. “I don’t need a boyfriend anyway. I need to focus on college.”
“Why?” Daniella swam up next to me. “Do you want a house like this one day?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” I looked over at her and laughed. “I don’t really care about being rich; I just don’t want to struggle for money every month like my mom does. I want a better life than that…”
“What about getting married and having kids? Don’t you want a family?” She raised an eyebrow. “I’d rather get my world rocked every night than have a house like this.”
“That’s because your hierarchy of needs is different than mine.” I rolled my eyes. “You’ve never had to worry about money or real world responsibilities.”
“So what? I know what I want—do you really know what you want? You spent so much time lusting over Jeff in high school that you didn’t even get your cherry popped before graduation.” Daniella gave me a gentle nudge. “Maybe you want sex—you just don’t know it yet.”
“There’s more to life than that…” I exhaled sharply. “I hope.”
“You won’t know until you try it.” She swam away from me. “You spent a whole year at college, and you’re still a virgin. That’s practically unheard of, Chloe!”
Maybe, but I want to meet the right person first…
Daniella and I always had different opinions on sex. Daniella couldn’t wait to find a steady boyfriend and lose her virginity. It was on her personal bucket list, even if it didn’t make it on the one that we shared. I was more reserved, and while I fantasized about Jeff several times, I wouldn’t have gone all the way with him if the chance presented itself in high school. I knew it wouldn’t last. He was on-again-off-again with Bethany every few weeks, and I would have just been a conquest during one of their off-again periods—especially if one of their on-again periods took them to the altar after graduation.
I considered high school to be the prequel for the real world, and college was the beginning of it, not a sequel for the years I wanted to forget. I watched the way my mother struggled every single day—even as a child, I understood that we didn’t have much. My father wasn’t in the picture, and I had never even met him. My mother sued him for child support after I was born, but he never paid a dime—he just dropped off the face of the earth and disappeared. My mother worked long hours, so I learned to be self-sufficient at a young age.
While other kids were sleeping in on the weekends, I was delivering newspapers. When I turned sixteen, I got a job and worked as many hours as the law would allow so I could save up for college. My small apartment near campus wasn’t much but being on my own meant I wasn’t a burden to my mother anymore, and I knew she appreciated it, even if she was too proud to admit it.
Wait a minute—what was that?
“Hey Daniella….” I lowered myself past the edge of the pool. “ I swear I just saw something move in one of those windows.”
“What?” She moved closer to me and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t see anything.”
“It was a shadow…” Before I could finish my sentence, several lights came on and the pool area was lit up like it was the middle of the day.
“Shit! Run!” Daniella grabbed the edge of the pool and hoisted herself up.
“Wait for me!” I pushed myself up and groaned when my foot hit the concrete a little harder than I expected. “Ow! Fuck!”
“Come on!” Daniella grabbed her clothes and started running.
Oh god—we’re definitely going to get arrested.
Chapter Two
Corbin
Two weeks ago
“Okay, Mr. Hawthorne. If you’ll just sign here…” The lawyer sitting across from me pushed a piece of paper across his desk.
Everything my father worked for—gone with a few flicks of a pen.
“How long until I have to get everything moved out of the house?” I looked up at him after signing the document.
“The Andersons don’t plan to move into the house until the fall, so they’re in no rush—they want to be close to their daughter once she starts college.” He pulled the paper back to his side of the desk. “This starts the process—it’ll take some time to work out the rest of the details, but I’ll handle that. I know you’re anxious to get back to Chicago.”
“Yeah.” I leaned forward and started to stand. “Thanks for taking care of this.”
“That’s what you’re paying me for.” He stood and extended his hand.
I wasn’t as anxious to get back to Chicago as I let on, but I did want to be done with all of the business related to my father’s estate. I barely even knew the man, but he made me his beneficiary for some reason that I didn’t really understand. He had two other kids with his second wife, but they didn’t seem to care about anything except for their share of the proceeds once the house was sold. They didn’t say more than two words to me at the funeral, but they made sure to have their lawyers reach out once the will was read to stake their claim. I had no interest in a legal fight to determine whether or not my father should have updated his will after they were born—I just wanted the entire thing to be over.
They could have had it all if they asked—it would have saved me a fucking trip to Los Angeles.
My father was three months post-divorce from the mother of his other two children when a heart attack took his life. Perhaps that was poetic justice for a man who broke so many hearts before his own took him out of the world—or maybe I just had a twisted way of looking at things. Either way, his untimely demise didn’t bring me to tears. I lived through the years of grief my mother went through after he decided that he didn’t want to be her husband anymore, so my compassion for the man who left her in that state was practically nothing. My mother was the sweetest, most loving woman on the planet, and he decided that a pair of silicone tits meant more than the vows he made on his wedding day. He made those same vows to his second wife—eventually they were broken too, but not before they playe
d house for a while and had a couple of kids.
Based on their reaction to his death, I’m guessing he wasn’t much of a father to them either—even if they did have him in their life.
After the business of selling the house was out of the way, I had to figure out what I was going to do with all of my father’s shit. I tried to convince the Andersons to just buy the place fully furnished and deal with it themselves, but they wanted the place empty when they moved in—they were so determined to make that a condition that they threatened to pull out of the deal if I didn’t agree to it. I didn’t want to deal with trying to find another buyer for the house because that would just delay things, so I decided to just take care of it myself. I was torn between starting a bonfire in the backyard to burn everything and actually paying someone to haul it all off. I had some time to figure that out, and while I pretended to be anxious to return to Chicago in order to hurry things along with the lawyer, I wasn’t really in a rush.
The joy of being able to retire comfortably at thirty-two—and having no idea what the fuck you’re going to do with the rest of your life.
Los Angeles wasn’t a bad city, but it wasn’t home. I called it home for four years while I went to college, and I had a few friends that I was going to meet up with before I left, but I needed to take care of my obligations first.
* * *
Present day
My father might have been a selfish man, but he had excellent taste in whiskey and a fondness for illegally imported Cuban cigars. Both of those probably contributed to his untimely demise—and it scared me a little bit when I realized we shared the same vices. That didn’t stop me from partaking in the stash he left behind after I discovered that there was an abundance of both. My plan was to sort the stuff in his house and give most of it to charity. That seemed more responsible than burning it, and while I might have gotten some pleasure from watching it get hauled to the city dump, there were probably some people that could use the shit that was useless to me. I cleared the plan with my half-siblings through their lawyers, and they were fine with it as long as I sold the stuff that had real value—it would take longer to deal with that, but I could manage. My half-siblings took everything they wanted when their mother moved out, and nobody on my side of the broken family tree wanted any of his shit.
Indebted To A Daddy: Once Upon A Daddy Page 1
