Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance)

by Caitlin Daire

  “I know. But really, aren’t you glad this happened now?”

  I frowned. “Why would I be glad?”

  “Well, imagine if you hadn’t found out what a psycho he was for another ten years. Imagine if you were married with four kids by then. It’d be a lot harder.”

  “I guess so,” I said. She was right, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

  “Being with the wrong person can help you find the right one,” she said, patting my shoulder. “Because now you know what things to look out for. You know the red flags, and you won’t ignore them next time.”

  “Because there won’t be a next time,” I declared. “I’m done with men. They’re all wrong for me, and Mr. Right doesn’t exist. It’s a myth made up by movie studios to sell tickets to romantic comedies.”

  “My, my, aren’t you cynical,” Angie replied with a snort. “Just because you work for all the movie studios doesn’t mean you know more than me about this issue, and I can tell you that what you just said is bullshit.”

  “Oh yeah? Then why are we both still single and miserable with no one in sight?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Speak for yourself. I’m happy being single for now. And you know I’m only really into stable, boring guys. It’s hard to meet them in this city. Or anywhere, really. Guys like that don’t go out much.”

  “Well, I’m sure there’s a stable, boring accountant or computer programmer out there for you somewhere,” I said. “I’m sorry about all the cynicism. I just feel so shitty.”

  “I get it. When I broke up with Jax last year, I thought I’d never meet another man again. But I know I will. And you’ll get there too. You just need some time to be upset and get it out of your system.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said quietly.

  A mischievous gleam lit Angie’s eyes all of a sudden. “I just had an idea,” she said.

  “Oh no. I recognize that look in your eyes.”

  “Hear me out,” she said. “Do you remember my friend Bonnie?”

  “The one with no hair?”

  “Yes, her. She shaves it. Anyway, she’s an exec producer at Meridian Studios.”

  “Oh?” I said, my interest piqued. Meridian Studios was an indie production company based in Silver Lake. They weren’t as big as other production companies, but they made good, solid movies which always proved to be hits.

  “I was having coffee with her the other day, and she mentioned that they’re going to start production on a new movie soon. A sports movie called Fourth Down.”

  I nodded. “I’ve heard of that. It’s going to be huge for an indie-produced film, apparently,” I said in a wistful tone. “I wish I could work on it.”

  “I had a feeling you might say that. Anyway, Bonnie said they’re actually still looking for a decent sports consultant. Someone to make sure it’s all accurate.”

  “So my job, then?” I said, arching a brow. I’d worked for Delos Consulting for three years now, helping movie studios with their productions. As a consultant, it was my job to research key parts of the scripts and ensure they were as close to reality as possible, and despite my college major of biology, my specialty was actually sports. My father had always been a huge sports buff, so I learned everything I knew from him, and I was lucky enough to be able to apply my knowledge frequently in my career.

  Angie nodded. “Yes, they need someone like you. I had a brain fart at the time and forgot to recommend you,” she said. “But anyway, back to my idea....”

  “What’s the idea?”

  “I’ll call her and recommend she gives the contract to your company with you as the hired consultant. But there’s a catch.”

  I groaned. “Go on, then. What is it?”

  “You need to get dressed and go out with me later tonight. The first man who displays interest in you, you need to get a date with. And then you need to go on that date and see it through to the end. That’ll help take your mind off James—getting back in the saddle right away.”

  “What if no one asks me out?”

  She snorted. “Have you seen yourself lately? You’re hot, lady. Trust me. A guy will try to snap you up in seconds, especially if you let me do your makeup to add some extra oomph.”

  “Okay, but what if I do get asked out, and then the date turns out to be terrible? Can I leave?”

  She shook her head. “No. The deal is that you see it through to the end, whatever happens with the guy, no matter how many dates it even takes for whatever it is to end. And it will end. It’s a rebound; it has to. But your job is to concentrate on him and only him for those few hours—or days—that it takes. It will help you.”

  “I don’t see how. If it’s terrible, it’ll just reinforce my new belief that all men are awful bastards with hearts made of coal.”

  “No, it’ll help you move on. Rebounds work, Nora. There’s a reason it’s such a cliché.”

  “I guess,” I said reluctantly.

  “Look, do you want the contract for Fourth Down or not?” Angie asked, one eyebrow quirked up.

  “Yes, I want it.”

  “Then do we have a deal?”

  I groaned again and grudgingly stuck my hand out. “Deal,” I said. “But you’re paying for my drinks when we go out tonight.”

  “Done.”

  “I guess I better go shave my legs, then,” I said with a heavy sigh, finally lifting myself off the sofa for the first time in hours.

  Angie grinned at me. “Yeah, go get yourself ready. These men aren’t going to know what hit them!” she said. I gave her a disbelieving look, and she stuck her tongue out at me. “Come on,” she added. “This’ll be nice.”

  “Yeah. Nice.” In the same way getting stabbed in the face would be nice.

  Truth be told, I had absolutely no desire to go to a bar and have sleazy men circle me like a flock of sexually-frustrated vultures, but I wanted that consulting job on Fourth Down more than anything, so no matter what it took and no matter what I had to do, I’d do it.

  That contract was mine.

  Chapter Three

  Nora

  “So, baby, do you come here often?”

  A blond man in an expensive suit shot me a smug smile to accompany his horrendously outdated pickup line, and Angie waved a hand at him. “Move along,” she said. “We can see your wedding ring.”

  He looked dejected but did as Angie said, slinking away to the other side of the bar, and I sighed. “So much for men trying to snap me up in seconds. He’s the only one here who’s even looked at me so far. Do you think it’s the outfit?”

  I sat up straight, patting my stomach, which felt quite hard—not because I had killer abs but because I had two layers of killer shapewear underneath my dress. Yep, tonight I was going full Bridget Jones.

  Angie shook her head. “You look great. I just forgot that it’s sports night tonight. All the guys here are more interested in staring at that screen than staring at your tits in that dress,” she said, motioning toward a large plasma screen on the far side of the room.

  “Maybe we should come back tomorrow,” I suggested.

  Raffles was our favorite bar, and we’d been coming here at least once every couple of weeks for the last few years. The place had good food, good cocktails, and most importantly, it had good lighting. I was a firm believer in the idea that a woman should never underestimate the power of great lighting. As a great scholar once said—I believe it was Socrates—no one ever successfully picked up a man or a woman under fluorescent light.

  Okay, it wasn’t really Socrates who said that, but my point still stood.

  “We need to keep trying,” Angie insisted with a shake of her head. “Surely there are some men in the world who couldn’t give a damn about sports.”

  “Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I’d even be interested in a guy who hates sports,” I said. “Considering how I love them.”

  Angie rolled her eyes. “You and that football addiction of yours…you may as well quit your job and run a f
antasy football league full-time,” she said with a teasing grin.

  “I wish,” I replied with a smile. “If my current job didn’t let me talk sports so much, I probably would do that.”

  “And I’d probably do that. Or him, I should say,” Angie said, her eyes gleaming as they wandered over my shoulder. “Don’t look now, you’ll make it obvious. Jacob Archer just walked in.”

  “Who?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

  She gave me an exasperated look. “Seriously? You claim to work in the movie industry and you don’t know who Jacob Archer is?”

  I shrugged. “Remind me.”

  “Tall, dark hair, nice eyes. I guess he’s more of a TV actor at the moment.”

  “Well, that’s why you know him, then. You write for a TV show,” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, I know who he is because he’s one of the biggest names in the city right now. Jacob Archer! You really haven’t heard of him? He’s the guy from that hospital show on CBO. Oh, and he’s been having threesomes with that bikini model and what’s-her-face from Saturday Night Social!”

  Before I could reply to any of that, she huffed and grabbed her cell phone from her purse. With a few swift taps, she brought up a photo of the man on Google Images, and she handed the phone to me. “That guy! Remember him now?”

  Oh, him. Tall, gorgeous, lots of muscle, dark hair and piercing grey eyes. Yummy. I definitely remembered him now. I’d had a little crush on him for a few weeks last year when I had the flu and became far too involved in a medical drama called Code Grey while I relaxed on the couch with a seemingly never-ending bowl of chicken soup. The reason I hadn’t remembered him by name was because I knew him by his character’s name—Dr. Easton West.

  I snorted as I recalled the name. Easton West? Ridiculous. But Code Grey had won all sorts of awards, so I guess people appreciated the silliness.

  “You don’t think he’s hot?” Angie asked, misinterpreting the snort. She looked down at the screen and squinted. “Maybe it’s just a bad picture of him.”

  “Oh, no, he’s definitely sexy,” I said with a vehement nod. “I was just laughing at his character’s stupid name in that doctor show.”

  “I agree, it’s pretty stupid,” a deep masculine voice said from behind my back.

  Angie and I looked up and turned around, and with horror, we saw Jacob Archer himself standing there. Apparently he’d chosen to come and stand at this exact spot at the bar, and he’d seen the photo of himself on Angie’s phone screen, which was still in my hand.

  My cheeks flamed, and I shut off the screen and handed the cell back to my friend. “Uh…sorry.”

  He gave me a dazzling smile. “That’s okay. Like I said, I agree. For a while I was worried they’d reveal that my middle name was North.”

  “Well, if they did that, the ratings might go south,” I said before clapping my hand over my mouth. “Oh my god, that was terrible.”

  “I thought it was funny,” he replied, flashing grey eyes lingering on me and almost making me gulp. “Can I buy you ladies a drink?”

  “You can buy her one,” Angie said. “But I just remembered, I have that…thing.”

  “What thing?” I asked as she grabbed her purse and stood up.

  “You know. The thing. Sorry, I have to go,” she said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Good luck,” she whispered in my ear.

  I glowered after her as she made a beeline for the exit. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for the night. Jacob Archer was simply being polite in offering to buy a couple of fans a drink, that’s all. He wasn’t going to be my rebound. Hell, I’d be lucky if he even spoke to me for longer than five minutes.

  “What are you drinking tonight?” Jacob asked, flashing me another panty-melting smile.

  I figured I may as well enjoy his attention while it lasted. “Cosmopolitans,” I said with a sheepish smile.

  “Sex and the City fan, huh?”

  “I was when I was younger. Not so much anymore. But I still love a Cosmo.”

  “Well, that’s because they have cranberry juice in them. Cranberries are amazing,” he said. “Best part of Thanksgiving is cranberry sauce, in my opinion.”

  I smiled. “I agree. Best part.”

  “Well, look at us, having things in common,” he said before nodding at the bartender and ordering our drinks.

  I laughed. “I doubt you and I have much in common apart from our mutual love of cranberries.”

  “We’ll see,” he said. “Sorry, how rude of me. I didn’t get your name.”

  “Nora Valencia,” I replied. “And I already know you’re Jacob Archer.”

  “That I am,” he said with a wolfish smile.

  “So what are you doing here alone?” I asked as our drinks were speedily set in front of us. “Aren’t you meant to be having a wild threesome with a TV host and a model? Oh, there’s something else we have in common, by the way. I also have regular threesomes with models.”

  He chuckled. “You’re funny. And no, that threesome rumor is exactly that. A rumor, and nothing more.” He clinked his tumbler of whiskey against my cocktail glass. “To answer your question, I was meant to meet a friend here, but he canceled at the last minute. I was about to go home, but then I saw you from across the room, and I had to come and talk to you.”

  I looked down at my drink, embarrassed, and then I pretended to lean down and fix a strap on my left shoe for a second as my mind raced. Was this guy for real or was Angie paying him to hit on me? Yes, that had to be it. She worked as a TV writer, so she must’ve met him at some point, and then she must’ve slipped him five dollars to pretend to be my rebound tonight.

  Wait, no, that didn’t make sense. Famous actors don’t need five dollars, I chided myself, rising back up. Whatever his interest in me was, it was real, and I needed to enjoy it while I could.

  “Why’d you have to come and talk to me?” I asked coyly, stirring my cocktail with the straw and looking up at Jacob through my eyelashes.

  “Because you’re beautiful,” he said. “Sorry, that sounds shallow, but it’s true.”

  “Well, I suppose you can’t exactly see someone’s personality from across the room, so it’s not that bad,” I replied with a smile as my cheeks glowed from the compliment. “And thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

  “It’s more honest than kind. You’re smoking hot. I’d really love to take you out for dinner sometime, if that’s not too forward,” he said.

  Oh. My. God.

  Jacob Archer was actually asking me out.

  Shit, I needed to grab this bull by the horns while I could. What rebound date could be better than one with a famous actor? It made me feel giddy with excitement, and on the off chance James saw me out and about with this sexy man, he’d probably feel like shit, thinking I’d easily upgraded from him to a Hollywood star.

  “How’s this for forward?” I replied, leaning closer. “Why don’t we have dinner tonight? As in right now. It’s still pretty early. Oh, and your friend canceled on you and mine just left, so it’s not like either of us have other plans.”

  He raised his eyebrows with surprise, obviously not expecting to have received such a keen response. Most women probably played hard to get with him, but I wasn’t going to do that. Nope, I was getting on this ride as soon as I could and making sure I stayed on long enough to nab that rebound date.

  “Sure,” he said, wide grin lighting his handsome face. “There’s a great seafood restaurant a few blocks down from here. It’s one of my favorites. Wanna go there?”

  “Yeah, I love seafood,” I replied, throwing back the rest of my drink. “Let’s go.”

  And with that, I walked out of the bar and into Jacob Archer’s world.

  Chapter Four

  Jacob

  This was like shooting fish in a barrel.

  I’d never met a woman so eager to be with me. They were all eager, of course, it’s just that they usually acted coy and played hard to get for a while, so Nor
a was knocking the concept of being forward right out of the park. I hadn’t expected to score a date with her so soon, but here I was, already walking her to an expensive seafood restaurant up the road from her favorite bar.

  I guess James was right about her after all. She really was a man-eater. Either that or she simply didn’t mess around and got straight to the point, which was a quality I’d actually deeply admire if she wasn’t such a hateful, dog-thieving human being.

  So far she’d come across as funny, witty, and clever in an adorably dorky kind of way, and it was difficult to see how such a monster could lurk underneath that beautiful, charming façade. But I knew it was there, and by the end of this date, she was going to regret screwing with any man, ever, because I was going to show her what sort of assholes could be out there waiting for her if she kept screwing over all the nice guys. By the time I was done, I was going to have her tearfully crawling back to James, begging for his forgiveness as she realized what a good guy she’d used and thrown away….forgiveness that wouldn’t be forthcoming, of course. She didn’t deserve it, and she wasn’t going to get it, but still, it would be funny to see or hear about her begging him.

  I didn’t forget about the dog, either. I was going to find out where she lived over dinner and figure out a plan to steal him back.

  Overall, tonight was going to be the icing on the cake of what’d been a great day for me already. My agent had called me earlier to tell me that Meridian was giving me the lead part in a new sports movie that was starting production soon, and I couldn’t be happier. It was tipped to be the biggest sports movie of the decade—a biopic about Walter Simmons, a recently-deceased former star football player—and scoring the lead was going to be a major coup for my acting career.

  Hopefully my acting prowess could also help convince Nora that I was a truly terrible person.

  I was nice enough to open the door for her and pull out her chair when we arrived at the restaurant, and I made polite and friendly small talk with her for a few minutes until a waiter arrived to take care of us. After that, all bets were off.