by Frankie Love
Craving Cinderella
My Curvy Valentine
Frankie Love
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue 1
Epilogue 2
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Copyright © 2021 by Frankie Love
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Chapter One
Ethan
"Hey, can you pass me the frosting?" I ask my six-year-old niece, Tallie, as we sit at the breakfast bar in her parents’ house, surrounded by the scent of fresh-baked cookies and the last remnants of the cupcakes that we’ve already decorated for tomorrow’s party.
She hands me the tube of baby-pink frosting, and I bite my tongue between my teeth as I start to draw out a little heart on the round cookie in front of me. She watches, her head tipped to the side just the same way her mother, my little sister Valerie, always does when she’s judging me.
My sister thinks it’s time I settled down, but how can I when I’ve haven’t met the right woman yet? It’s hard to find the kind of woman I crave when I’m always on a movie set. The ones I meet in the Hollywood scene are not the marrying type. And call me a sap, but a one-night stand won’t do. I want forever.
"What do you think?" I ask Tallie, lifting the sugar cookie up so she can see what I’ve attempted – but the cookie is so hot that the frosting nearly all slides right off. I laugh, shake my head, and hand the cookie over to her.
"Let me show you how," she tells me indulgently. I nod, and watch as she starts to get down to work, her eyes screwed up as she carefully traces out the shape on the cookie in front of her.
Valerie and her husband, Don, are out of town till Saturday morning, which is also Valentine’s Day. It's Thursday now – and I’ve been enlisted to help out so they can sneak away for a few nights as an early Valentine’s gift to themselves.
Not that I mind. Truth is I’m jealous. They are the epitome of happiness and I’m ready to get my hands on that kind of love.
And since I have a break between shoots, the timing worked out. They get some adult time, and I get to hang out with my favorite little girl in the world.
She always asks to see the movies that I’m in, and I have to keep telling her that when she’s older, she might be allowed to see them. Though I doubt that her mother is much interested in ever letting her watch the stuff that I’m starring in; I know that Val herself sometimes has a hard enough time accepting that people actually want to watch me take my shirt off, and she’s hardly going to expose her daughter to the same thing.
When I’m at home, though, when I’m with Tallie like this, I know that it’s the only thing that matters. Sure, I love my job, and sure, I’m glad that I’ve found something that makes me happy and that I seem to be good at – but these nights with my niece are about the best things in the world.
"So, do you have a date for the party?" I ask her playfully. We are preparing snacks for the little Valentine’s Day thing that her first-grade class is throwing tomorrow, though I imagine most of the kids are going to be more focused on the cookies and cupcakes than the hearts and flowers. She pulls a face.
"No!" she exclaims, wrinkling her nose up. "I don’t want to go to a party with any boy!"
I laugh. It’s strange to think that, in ten years or so, she’s going to be pleading with her mother to let her out with any boy she can get her hands on. That’s what it’s like, growing up, I guess.
Or what it’s like for most people. As Tallie and I clean up, and I put her to bed, I can’t help but wonder how long it’s going to be before I get to experience something like this for myself. It’s not that I’m unhappy with my life as it is, far from it, but there’s still this craving inside of me, something urgent and forceful, that tells me that I should be working towards something like this. A family. A partner. Someone I can come home to at the end of a long day. Someone I can take care of.
I check that Tallie is asleep before I retreat to the guest room, where I’ll be sleeping. I’m happy for my sister, I really am; I know that this is what she’s always wanted, that she has never craved the enormity of my life.
As I lie in bed, I stare at the ceiling, thinking about the frosted pink heart-shaped cookies in their Tupperware boxes, ready for Tallie to take to school tomorrow. I don’t have anyone to give those kitschy little gifts to. I wish that I did.
But I know that everyone I meet is coming at me with more than the purest intentions. Part of the game – ever since I got cast in the Mandolin series, I’ve been dealing with the stress of having to second-guess everyone who comes into my life. I get it, I do – with fame and power and money comes people who want to take a little part of that for themselves. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bug me. And that doesn’t mean that I feel any better about being alone at night when I wish I could be spending it with someone else.
I wake up early the next morning. The sound of Tallie shuffling around her room has me sitting upright, knowing I need to get her off to class. It doesn’t matter how used to early starts I am, getting up for school still brings me back to being a kid and wishing that I could do anything but drag my ass out of bed and into school once more.
I’ve never been the guy who’s good with being told what to do. Unless it’s to jump out of a plane for one of our major stunt sequences, of course. Then, I don’t have so much of a problem with it.
"You got everything?" I ask Tallie as the school bus draws up outside the house.
She nods. "I think so!”
"Then you have a great day at school," I tell her. "And I’ll be there to pick you up later, okay?"
"Okay!” she replies. She bounds out of the door after giving me a quick hug and takes off towards the bus. I smile as I watch her go. I don’t know how she’s got so much energy. I need a little injection of that for myself right now. I take another drink of coffee before heading back inside to clear up after the breakfast that I made for Tallie. I've never been much of a cook, but Mom taught Val and I to make pancakes when we were young, and I’ve never forgotten how.
Just as I am dunking the pan under the cold tap, I realize something – the cookies we decorated are still sitting in their containers on the table, shiny pink frosting waiting to be taken to the school party where they belong.
"Shit!" I mutter to myself. I don’t want to have made all these for nothing. I grab them off the counter, knowing that I don’t have long to get them there before the day starts and the teachers are not going to want to have to deal with someone like me.
Slipping on running shoes and pulling a down vest over my long sleeve t-shirt, I decide gray sweats are fine for a school drop-off and head out to my car.
I get in my Jeep and head the few miles to Tallie’s building. When I get to the school parking lot, I see the playground is still full of students. Good, the school bell hasn’t yet rung.
The cupcakes and cookies are on the seat beside me and I gently ease them out, making sure not to do any damage to any of Tallie’s hard work. I balance them in my arms as I head towards the gate, surrounded by
a flurry of teachers and students and parents, looking for Tallie so that I can give them over to her.
Before I can, someone else catches my eye entirely. A woman. Curvy and blonde, with blue eyes that sparkle in the February light. She stands by the gate, her shoulder-length hair bouncing perkily as she chats to the person in front of her. Her face lights up with a slightly crooked smile as she laughs, and I can’t help but reflect it on my own lips.
As soon as I grin, she glances over at me – and when our eyes meet, it’s like something has given way inside of me. And I know that there is no way that I am going to be able to contain myself for another moment.
I’ve been looking for a woman who would stop me dead in my tracks – and this Cinderella seems to have swept me off my goddamn feet.
Chapter Two
Ellie
Okay. There is no way that can be who I think it is, right?
But the longer I stare at him, the more sure I become that, yes, that really is Ethan Parker. As in, the Ethan Parker. The guy who stars in the biggest action movie franchise on the planet. How many times have I seen him on posters, in ads on TV, his muscles rippling in his trademark black tee, his muscles barely contained behind the fabric of his shirt?
He’s looking right at me. Likely because I’m staring at him. But he doesn’t just expect me to turn away and pretend like I don’t see him, right?
It’s Ethan Parker for goodness’ sake.
There are a few other people glancing around in that moment, checking him out, double-taking to see if it’s really him. And I can’t for the life of me work out if I have lost my mind with the stress of the first-grade Valentine’s party and started to hallucinate or not, but it sure looks like the man of my dreams. My biggest celebrity crush of all time.
Okay, I have to find out one way or the other. I gather up my courage and tell Rita, one of the moms that I’ve been chatting to, that I need a second.
"Sure, sure," she replies, waving her hand, distracted. I often used to joke with her that she wouldn’t notice if a meteor hit this playground, she’s so focused on her kids – and honestly, I’m right. Because Ethan Parker is the human equivalent of a meteor. And he’s standing there, looking at me as though he might just recognize me, too.
"I’m sorry to bug you," I blurt out to him as I approach.
Wait, am I talking too loud? Or too quiet? He smiles as I get closer. God, his smile is perfect – white teeth, his green eyes lighting up against his tan skin. And the more I take in his smile, the more I relax.
"Are you Ethan Parker?" I ask.
He chuckles, eyes me for a moment, and then nods. "Yeah, I am," he replies, then leans in to whisper, "Just don’t say it too loud. I’m undercover."
"What are you doing here?" I ask, finding that I’m shifting a little closer to him, even though I have no good reason to.
"I’m dropping off some treats that my niece and I made for the class Valentine’s party," he explains, holding up the boxes that he has in his arms. "Tallie Thoms...?”
"Oh, she’s in my class!” I say, forcing myself not to grin like a fool, probably more excited about this information than I have ever been in my life.
It’s like a fairytale, seeing the man who has filled so many of your dreams… fantasies… in the flesh. And god, how does he smell so good? Like pine and orange and cloves, all mixed up together.
Maybe that’s just what Hollywood stars smell like. Either way, I like it. Like him.
"Well, then, if I was to give these to you, you’d know where to take them?" he asks as he hands the boxes to me.
Tallie’s his niece? I’ve met her parents, and neither of them mentioned being related to someone like Ethan Parker. Though maybe they want to keep things on the down-low. Maybe they don’t want the whole world to know that they’ve got one of the biggest stars on the planet in the family.
"Yes, I would," I reply. We stand there, staring at one another. I keep waiting for him to make his excuses and then leave, but he doesn’t.
Instead, he leans on the gate, not taking his eyes off me. He has this cool calmness about him, oozing off him in waves, and I wonder how he manages it. If he’s always been this confident. It’s wildly attractive, and my own insecurities fade. How could I question anything about myself when his eyes are locked on mine?
"Must be hard wrangling that many sugar-hyped kids at once," he remarks.
I nod. "It can be, but I love it," I reply. "Especially when they bring in treats to share."
"Tallie’s been telling me how much she’s been looking forward to this the last few days," he chuckles fondly. It’s hard to believe that little Tallie Thoms could really have spent any time talking up an event that I planned to someone like him.
But some of the shock begins to wear off as he stands in front of me. He’s here, just like the rest of us. Maybe I can figure out a way to wrap my head around it.
"If you could use a hand, just let me know," he remarks, and I giggle and shake my head.
Giggle? Since when do I giggle? I’m going to start twirling my hair around my finger if I’m not careful...
"I think I’m good," I reply. I’m not sure if I could handle being in close contact with him for so long without losing my mind a little bit.
"Anything you say," he replies, and then he tips his head to the side, keeping his eyes on me the whole time. I know that the bell is going to ring soon and I am going to have no choice but to go inside and get back to work, and this strange little interlude is going to be over. But there’s something about the way that he’s looking at me that’s making it hard to think about anything other than how much I want this to go on a little longer.
Before he turns away, he gives me a half smile, the one that has graced so many magazine covers. "You have plans for Valentine’s?" he asks.
I shake my head. "Unless you count the party," I offer in return, and he laughs.
He’s got a nice laugh, full, open. Like he’s got nothing to hide. He pauses again, and then flicks his gaze up at me.
"How about I take you out tomorrow night?" he suggests.
I swear, I have to keep my jaw from hitting the floor right then and there. I’m sorry, did he just... did he just ask me out? I’ve trained myself never to curse when I’m this close to the kids, but I feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue right now.
"You’re serious?” I blurt out, before I can stop myself.
"I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t," he tells me calmly. Surely he has to see how crazy this is to me. For me. I’m just – I'm just an elementary teacher who’s being asked out by a major Hollywood star. And I feel as though my head is about to pop with the sheer downright shock of it. It’s like my life has turned into a Hallmark movie.
"Uh, yes," I manage to reply, finally. I keep waiting for him to burst out laughing and tell me that he’s just kidding, but he doesn’t. Instead, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out his card, and hands it to me.
"Drop me a message when you get a chance," he tells me, as I look down at it, not sure that I can really be living this right now. When am I going to wake up?
But the bell rings, and I know that I would never include that in some indulgent fantasy.
"I will," I breathe, and I find my eyes widening as he nods to me and turns to head back to his car. There’s a slight swagger to the way he walks, and I can’t take my eyes off of him, the way his grey sweatpants hug his ass. I groan at the thought of what’s beneath the fabric.
Did he really just... did he really just ask me out?
"Ellie, are you coming in?” Simone, my teacher’s aide, calls to me. I glance over at her, blinking, remembering that I have a whole day ahead of me yet.
"Yeah, yeah, coming," I mutter, and I tuck the card he gave me away and head over to start my work for the morning.
I can’t believe this has just happened.
I have a date with one of the most desirable men on the planet. And suddenly, it looks as though this Valentine’s Day is going to be
one to remember.
Chapter Three
Ethan
As soon as my sister walks back through the door on Saturday morning, I practically pounce on her. She’s about the only woman in my life that I trust, and I need all the womanly intuition that I can get right now.
"Hey, baby!” she calls to Tallie as Don nods to me in greeting, heaving the bags in from the car and heading towards the bedroom. Tallie sprints towards her mother and practically jumps into her arms, and I smile as I watch the two of them reunite. They’re so sweet together.
But right now, I want my sister all to myself. And I intend to make sure that it happens.
As soon as Val has headed to the kitchen to make a coffee, I round on her.
"I need to ask you something," I tell her.
"Like what?” she asks with a yawn. I frown. She should be more rested considering she spent the last few days at the spa. Then I run a hand over my jaw, tensing. Not wanting to think about why my little sister didn’t get much sleep. Damn, I need a woman. The woman. Ellie.
"What can you tell me about Ellie Dawn?”
Val pauses for a moment, screws her eyes up at me in confusion. "What about her?" she asks. "Tallie’s teacher?"
"Yeah, that’s the one," I reply. "What do you know about her?"
"Not much," she replies. "I know she moved here a couple of years ago, after her parents died, and she’s been teaching at the school since then. Why?”
"Because I have a date with her tonight," I explain. "And I don’t want to mess it up."
"A date?” she exclaims before glancing over her shoulder to make sure that her daughter isn’t listening in. She hurriedly pushes the door shut behind us and rounds on me.
