Then I Met You: A single dad romance (Love in Everton Book 6)

by Fabiola Francisco

  Once we’ve ordered our ice cream, we take a seat at an empty table. I lick the same strawberry and cheesecake scoops I ordered the first time Gavin brought me here, and Penny comments how we’re twins with the same sprinkles.

  “Sutton, can you sit next to me at church tomorrow?” Penny’s eyes widen in a plea, and a convincing pout marks her lips. When she bats her eyelashes, I laugh and nod. She’s good.

  “Yay!” she cheers with cotton candy ice cream dripping down her cheek. I reach for a napkin and wipe her face.

  “Thanks,” she mumbles as she takes another bite of ice cream.

  I look across the table at Gavin, who is watching me with a lazy smile.

  “You’ve got a little something here.” I point to the side of my lip.

  “Are you going to wipe my face, too?” His lifts a brow, an underlying teasing tone moving between us.

  “I’ll do it, Daddy.” Penny gets her wadded-up napkin and swipes it across his face.

  I chuckle and shake my head, biting down my lip. Behave, I mouth. My heart thumps a joyful beat as my chest swells with an indescribable emotion. This man has me wrapped around his finger, and I’m falling hard for him.

  My phone vibrates in my pocket, but I ignore it. I don’t want any interruptions right now. I smile between Gavin and Penny as they engage in a conversation about their horse. Penny has been begging Gavin to let her ride alone, but she’s too young still. She’s hellbent on learning, though.

  “How old were you when you started riding horses?” Penny looks at me.

  I hate to be the one to burst her bubble. I purse my lips and say, “Without my dad guiding me, eight.”

  Penny furrows her eyebrows and lifts her eyes to the ceiling. She counts with her fingers and frowns. “That’s like three years away.”

  “Yeah,” I scrunch up my nose. “But I had great practice since I would ride with my dad, so by the time I got to ride alone, I knew exactly what to do,” I add.

  Her eyes light up. “Can we ride tomorrow, Daddy? Do you want to come with us?” She looks back at me.

  “We’ll go after church,” Gavin nods. “You’ll come?” His eyes meet mine.

  “As if I could turn down the offer to go horseback riding,” I smile.

  When we finish our ice creams, Gavin drops me off at home. I promise Penny I’ll sit with her at church tomorrow when she reminds me, and we make plans to go horseback riding afterward. I’ll spend as much time with them as I can.

  When I look at my phone again, I have three messages, and two missed calls. With furrowed eyebrows, I swipe my screen and read the message from Knox.

  Knox: Can you come by? We need to talk to you.

  That’s weird. I read the next message from Ainsley.

  Ainsley: Call me when you can

  Something isn’t right. I call Ainsley as I grab my keys and hop in my car. I tell her I’m on my way over. My heart pounds in the base of my throat, as so many scenarios run through my mind. Anything from you’re fired to your mom died crosses my mind. My rational mind knows my mom didn’t die, but their messages were laced with worry.

  When I get to their house, Harris’s car is parked in the driveway.

  “Hey,” I say when Ainsley answers the door. Lines mark her forehead as she pulls me into the house.

  “What the…” I trail off as Knox and Harris appear. “Okay, y’all are freaking me the fuck out. What’s goin’ on?”

  Knox takes a deep breath. “Let’s sit in the living room.” My nerves are shot by the time we take a seat, and he hands me his opened laptop.

  “This was published today.” I stare at the headline: Small-town love for big country star.

  Big country star? I almost laugh at that if it weren’t for the pictures staring back at me. Photos of Gavin, Penny, and me at The Mad Batter this past week appear on the screen. They didn’t even bother to blur out Penny’s face. She’s there for all the world to see. More pictures of us on the sidewalk as Penny grabs my hand. This is ridiculous.

  I read the text on the website, fuming.

  Rising star and Knox Bentley’s protégé, Sutton Wright, has found love in a small town. While we know from her social media accounts that Sutton moved to Everton to be closer to Bentley Records, something tells us that decision was made more with the heart than the mind. Tell us what you think. Is this single dad good enough for our Country Sweetheart?

  “What the actual fuck?” I roar. A million thoughts run through my mind, the primary one being that Gavin isn’t going to like Penny’s picture being on the internet one bit.

  “They don’t know Gavin or Penny’s names yet, but it’s only a matter of time. For all we know, another site has already published them.” Knox’s grim expression tells me this is just the beginning.

  “What do we do?”

  “Unfortunately, not much,” Harris says. “We can’t control the media.”

  “I hate this,” I slump back against the couch and look at Ainsley.

  “It’s hard. It sucks,” she shakes her head. “I went through it when Knox and I first started dating, and I’ll admit it wasn’t pretty. This is nothing compared to how brutal they can be,” she points at the screen.

  Ainsley continues speaking, “I’d talk to Gavin, though. Let him know what’s going on. That is his daughter, and that’s what worries me the most in this situation. He’s a single dad, and I’m sure he wants to protect his daughter’s image from the world.”

  I nod and sigh. “Why do they even do this? What’s it to them what I do in my personal life?”

  “It sells papers. You’re the most observed rising star at the moment,” Knox says. “It doesn’t help matters that you signed a contract with me after all the controversy I’ve been in the last couple of years.” His lips press into a straight line.

  “Gavin is going to flip. If it were just me, that’s one thing, but to post pictures of the two of them…” I trail off. I know this career calls for zero privacy, but I wasn’t expecting this so soon, or for Penny to get caught up on it.

  Harris’s phone pings, and he looks down, frowning. “There’s another one.” He holds his phone up to show us the alert. It reads similar to the first post.

  “So they have photographers camped out in Everton?” I ask.

  “Probably. Two country stars and a label living in the same small town. It’s an easy target. The other day they published a picture of Ainsley with Lia, saying they had planned to get pregnant together.”

  My head whips toward Ainsley. “I’m not pregnant,” she shakes her head. “They just make assumptions. Take one picture at the wrong angle, and boom, I’m going to be mother of the year,” the sarcasm drips from her words.

  “Goodness.” I cover my face. This could be a deal-breaker for Gavin. He’s protective of Penny, with good reason. I wouldn’t want my own child to be exposed for all the world to see.

  “Can you email me those links and any others that come up?” I look between Knox and Harris.

  “Of course,” Harris responds. He taps on his screen. “Sent.”

  “Thanks. I need to talk to Gavin. This involves him as much as it does me. I chose this path, but he didn’t, and it isn’t fair to get pulled into it by being associated with me.”

  “This will get better,” Harris assures me.

  “Yeah, but in the meantime, their privacy is disrupted. The last thing I want is for Hadley to come back to town and try to take Penny away from him because of this,” I speak the fear that’s swimming in my head.

  “That won’t happen,” Knox shakes his head.

  “We don’t really know, do we?” I lift my eyebrows. “I need to call him and see if he can talk. He has to hear this from me and not someone else who stumbles across it while searching the internet or social media.” I stand and thank them.

  My good mood has been deflated, and I feel like I have a gray cloud pouring down on me as if any minute I’ll be struck by lightning.

  Ainsley walks me to the door and
pulls me in for a hug.

  “Knox and I went through this. It was really hard,” she admits. “It almost broke us apart, but it’s possible to overcome it, and it does get better. It may not seem that way now.”

  “Or you get used to it,” I counter.

  “Yeah.” She nods, pinching her lips together. “The media loves to scrutinize what’s new. These sites want to be the first to share the juiciest news, even if not that juicy, so they can drive people to their sites. It’s what they live off of. After a few weeks, news of you and Gavin will be set aside and replaced by the next couple splitting up or hooking up.”

  I know that what she’s saying is true, but no amount of planning prepares you for this. No music lessons, meetings, or conversations really train you to read about your personal life online.

  “The thing is, you didn’t have a child to protect.” My lips straighten, and anger fumes inside of me like a raging fire. I won’t let this career ruin my happiness. It’s why I signed with Bentley Records in the first place; they honor happiness.

  Gavin

  I’m filled with confusion when I pull into Sutton’s house. As soon as I heard her voice over the phone, I knew something wasn’t right, but she refused to tell me and promised we’d talk in person.

  My heart thumps wildly in my chest. Even though we’ve only been dating a few weeks, I care a lot about her. I don’t know what could’ve gone wrong between our time together earlier and now, but the idea of losing her so soon slams into my chest like the hoof of a stallion. I take a deep breath and scrub my face before hopping out of my truck and making my way to her house.

  Sutton opens the door before I have a chance to knock.

  “What happened?” I rush out when I come face to face with sad eyes.

  “Come inside. I’ll explain everything.” She steps aside for me to enter her house.

  “Let’s sit.”

  I shake my head. “Just tell me what’s going on,” I demand, pacing through the living area.

  “Gavin.” Sutton holds my hands and stills me. “Please,” she begs. Her usually bright eyes seem as if the light’s been switched off. Her entire body seems that way.

  I give in and take a seat on the sofa, waiting for her to explain what’s going on. Sutton takes a deep breath, exhaling through her lips. When her eyes find mine, I know that whatever she’s going to say isn’t going to make me happy.

  “We were photographed one day while we were out. It’s a couple of pictures of you, me, and Penny when we went for cupcakes last week. They’re speculating about our relationship.”

  My insides freeze as I hear her speak. “Pictures?” Is she talking about the paparazzi? As I try to grasp what she’s saying, my mind goes to Penny.

  “Yes,” Sutton sighs. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea they would come to Everton to see what I was doing. I don’t know if someone tipped them off and told them we were dating. I don’t know anything except that I hate this.”

  “Can I see them?” I run a hand through my hair.

  “Yeah. Harris sent me links to both articles published. He’ll also forward any new ones that may come out.”

  Any new ones.

  As she passes me her laptop, I skim the articles and stare at the pictures. Sure enough, Penny, Sutton, and I are walking down the sidewalk, laughing. I close my eyes and run a hand down my face.

  “What are you thinking?” Sutton whispers.

  “I don’t even know what to think. I’m stunned. How did they take such clear pictures without us noticing them?”

  “They have professional cameras that can shoot clear photos from further away. We also weren’t searching for them. Trust me that if I’d seen them, I wouldn’t have stayed quiet.” Her eyebrows knit together, and her face is etched with worry.

  After staying silent, Sutton adds, “Tell me what to do. If you want me to keep my distance, I will. I hate this, and I’d hate not spending time with you even more, but I’d understand. Penny comes first, and I can only imagine you’d want to protect her from being photographed in the future.”

  I don’t even know how I’d begin to explain this to Penny. I’m hoping I won’t have to.

  “Can you say something?” Sutton’s small voice snaps me.

  “I don’t know what to say. I’ve never gone through this. You’re right that I want to protect Penny. I sure as hell don’t want these creeps taking pictures of my daughter. Isn’t it illegal or something?”

  Sutton shakes her head. “As long as we’re in public property, anyone can freely take pictures. Knox, Harris, and Ainsley guarantee it will quiet down after a while.”

  I remember everything Knox and Ainsley went through when he moved back to Everton. I feel as if I’m living a parallel experience to theirs. If it were just me, I’d push through, but I can’t risk Penny’s privacy. The last thing I want is Hadley to see this and come back, demanding her daughter. Daughter. I scoff at the idea. Hadley’s as much Penny’s mom as the next stranger.

  “I need to process this,” I say. “This is the last thing I was expecting. Hell, I thought you were going to break up with me. But this…” I shake my head.

  “I don’t want that,” Sutton shakes her head and swallows thickly. “I’d understand if you do after this, though. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d understand it. This career isn’t for everyone, even if dragged into it by association.” Her hazel eyes cloud with tears, and I pull her into me, inhaling her sweet scent.

  “I wouldn’t want that either, but I need to figure this out.” She nods against my shoulder.

  “I’ll stay home tomorrow. You can tell Penny I didn’t make it to church because I wasn’t feeling well. That will be easier than me going and sitting on the other end of where you are. Besides, we don’t know if the photographers are camped out around Everton waiting to catch us together again.”

  I nod even though I hate the idea of disappointing Penny. She’s excited about sitting with Sutton during service and going horseback riding together. I was excited to spend the day with Sutton. This is one situation I was never prepared for, and I’m not sure if there’s a solution that includes keeping Sutton in our lives.

  …

  My shoulders are tight, and I grip Penny’s hand while I scan the area outside of the church. I’ve been on watch duty since my conversation with Sutton yesterday, seeking out the creeps that are documenting our relationship and my private life.

  So help me God, if I spot one of those photographers.

  “Why isn’t Sutton coming?” Penny tugs my hand. I bend down and look at her in the eyes.

  “I told you she wasn’t feeling good. She’s sorry she can’t sit next to you today.” I hate lying to my daughter. Penny pouts but accepts my answer with a nod.

  The entire time I sit in church, my mind is preoccupied with this fiasco. I have no idea how far these photographers will go, and if they are only interested in photos of us when we’re with Sutton or if they’ll follow Penny and me around as well. I’m on edge knowing people are invading our privacy this way.

  By the time we walk out of the church, I have no idea what the sermon was about. I went through the motions without being fully aware.

  “Hey,” Knox says.

  “Hey.”

  “How are you doing?” He looks at me directly in the eye, knowing what it feels like to have your life spread out in the open.

  “Good.” I nod toward Penny next to me, and Knox picks up on my signal.

  He nods in understanding and claps my shoulder. “If you need anything, give me a call.”

  “Thanks.” I nod once and look around before heading home.

  Since I have no idea how far these people will go to get a story, I decide to ride with Penny closer to the barn in the ranch since this is private property.

  While I walk Penny around on Dusty Buckaroo, we spend the morning talking about the summer camp she’ll be attending once school ends next month. It will be her third summer going, and she loves it.

  M
y phone buzzes in my pocket, and I stop the horse to look at it.

  Sutton: Hey, how’s Penny? Was she upset?

  Gavin: Hi, she understood. She said when you’re better you can sit with her

  Sutton: I’d love that. How are you?

  Gavin: I’m…

  I pause typing and take a deep breath. How am I?

  Gavin: I’m okay. A little on edge and looking over my shoulder. I’d love nothing more than to keep Penny out of this

  Sutton: Me too. I’m meeting with Ainsley in a bit to see what we can do and if anything else has come out. I’m sorry, Gavin. I feel terrible

  I sigh. It isn’t Sutton’s fault, and I hate that she’s taking on the blame. I knew what her career was when we got involved, but I didn’t think this would happen. Not so quickly. I especially didn’t expect Penny to be involved. I want nothing more than to keep her safe and away from this attention. I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be if Sutton already had the status some of these other celebrities have.

  “Who is it?” Penny’s curious eyes pop open.

  “It’s Sutton. She was asking about you.”

  “I want to see her. Maybe we can take her a cupcake to make her feel better.” I smile at her innocence and kiss her cheek.

  “Maybe tomorrow. We’re going to eat lunch soon and then have to get ready for the week.”

  “Fine.” An exaggerated pout turns her lips down.

  I chuckle and continue our ride, giving her pointers as we go. Thankfully, Penny keeps my mind distracted. However, I’m still worried about how far this media attention will go and how much more involved Penny will be in all of it.

  Sutton

  I rub my temples and close my eyes, focusing on my breathing. When I met with Ainsley yesterday, there wasn’t a new article posted about Gavin and me. Ainsley and I were sure that the first few articles were simply curiosity about my love life, and that was it. Now, I stare at a cluster of words that I know will change everything.