Pretend I'm YoursA Single Dad Romance

by Vivian Wood

  She dug through the pantry and checked the bread for mold. Fortunately, it looked like King had done some adequate shopping en route to the cabin. Effie grabbed the Tillamook cheese, gouda, and whipped butter along with the black iron sandwich maker.

  “I haven’t done this in forever,” King said as they prepared their sandwiches fireside. “Not since …”

  “Yeah, me either,” Effie said, cutting him off. She already knew what he was going to say. Not since we were together.

  They both stared into the flames and turned the sandwiches slowly.

  “Poker?” King asked suddenly.

  “What?”

  “Cards, do you want to play cards?”

  “Oh. Sure,” she said.

  “Watch mine,” he said, and pulled himself up to search through the game closet. “Sorry,” he said and tossed the deck to her. “These must have been from the bachel—it doesn’t matter.”

  Effie looked at the deck and almost laughed. Each card featured a nude woman looking coyly between thick lashes.

  “It’s fine,” she said. She pulled their sandwiches out of the flames and peeked inside. “Perfect.”

  She slid them onto plates and set them aside to cool.

  “Hey,” King said as he expertly shuffled the deck. The cards moved like magic between his deft fingers. “You want to make this interesting?”

  “Sorry, no money,” she said.

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  “I am not playing strip poker,” she said defiantly.

  “Nobody asked you to. Here’s the deal. For every hand I win, you answer a question. And vice versa.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. Consider it truth or dare without the dare.”

  “Okay, fine,” she said.

  Effie had forgotten how good he was at this. King had become even better at bluffing, or maybe she just didn’t know him like she used to.

  With his first win, he asked her, “Tell me honestly, do you like your job and what do you like the most?”

  “That’s two questions, but I’ll answer. Yes, I love my job. My favorite part is seeing how much happier the animals are when I can help relieve their pain.”

  She thought he let her win the next hand, but she wasn’t going to complain.

  “How’s your mom?” she asked. “I mean, really. I… didn’t see her much with Thorne and it was always with him around.”

  “She’s okay,” King said quickly. “Honestly, I don’t see her much either.”

  Halfway through their sandwiches, there was a shift. The questions delved deeper. With a winning hand, King gathered the cards to re-shuffle.

  “Who was better in bed?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Me or Thorne, choose.”

  “It’s… been a long time,” she said quietly.

  “You’re staring at the barrel of a gun, you have to choose.”

  “Shoot me, then,” she said.

  He let it go and she dealt her hand. Adrenaline pounded through her body, and somehow she gave herself a full house.

  “What do you miss the most about me?” she asked, though she couldn’t meet his eyes. She was too distracted by the lack of space between them. How he smelled clean, like cedar.

  “Everything.”

  Her cheeks warmed at his answer. This game is too intense for us right now, she thought.

  As soon as she could, she pled fatigue and settled down with a book. All the words danced in her vision, though. Try though she might, she couldn’t stop thinking of King.

  6

  King

  King curled up on his side of the bed and tried to will himself to sleep. It wasn’t just the uncomfortableness of clinging to the side of the bed that kept him awake—it was her. Knowing Effie was right behind him, and the past couple of days with her, it brought back all those old feelings.

  What the hell is it about her that makes me so hard?

  He’d spend the majority of the past day trying to hide his excitement from her, and it hadn’t been easy. When that little card game in front of the fire got out of control, it was like he couldn’t stop himself.

  King couldn’t remember ever being that straightforward and honest with anyone, himself included. Fortunately, Effie had brushed aside the flirtations like they didn’t impact her at all. Maybe they didn’t.

  When he looked at her now, years after their breakup, he still saw a traitor. After all, what had she expected? That they’d stay together while he moved across the country for college?

  I’m doing both of us a favor, he reminded himself.

  Back in high school, technically, he’d only had her once. But it was a night he’d never forget. While they dated, the passion had been undeniable, but he was older and Effie had been a virgin.

  For months, they did “everything but,” and there were times he wished they hadn’t pushed the envelope so hard. It might have been easier to forget her if they hadn’t danced around the flame for so long.

  King had been with countless women since Effie, but none of their memories clung as tightly as hers. He could still remember their one real night together like it had just happened.

  Effie had just turned eighteen and it was his senior prom. She still had another year of high school left, and although she’d been poking around for hints of what was to come, King didn’t have the nerve to tell her it was over just yet.

  He never wanted to go to prom, but the glint in Effie’s eyes when she talked about limos and dresses made him give in easily. The dance itself was a blur of streamers, balloons, and awkward poses for the camera crews. However, it was the sneaking away to the family cabin—this family cabin—that had replayed in his mind for the past few years.

  King remembered their shared nervousness as they tiptoed inside, afraid that maybe Thorne had taken his own date to the cabin. However, it was all theirs. King had stoked the flames while Effie struggled to find a casual-looking pose on the couch in that tulle princess skirt. His prom king crown perched on her head, he watched her chew at her lip out of the corner of his eye as the flames grew brighter.

  He remembered the desperate kisses on the couch and the way she squealed when he picked her up with ease and carried her into the master bedroom. It was the same master bedroom where she slept now.

  King could still remember the catch in her breath when he entered her. He couldn’t get over how tight and wet she was. It took all his willpower to go slowly, ease her into the rhythm, and not spill himself inside her instantly.

  It wasn’t just the mindblowing sex that he missed. It was all of it, the entirety of their short years together. Mostly, he remembered it fondly, although the memories of her mom and “Yaya” were another story.

  Her grandmother was senile and seemed innocent enough, but right below her mom’s surface was a manipulative kind of fury he’d rarely seen before.

  And that’s saying something considering my family, he thought.

  Yet being here with her stirred up small details he thought he’d tucked away for good. Like how she sang old Supremes songs in the shower. Effie’s flirtatious rendition of “Baby Love” mixed with the aroma of her rose shampoo in the evening was enough to put him over the edge.

  King had stood outside that bathroom door and considered for about a good five minutes bursting in there and taking her right in the shower. He could almost taste how good it would be, but managed to stop himself.

  There was no way in hell he was going to take second place to Thorne. And there was no way he could forget how easily she turned down his ultimatum.

  For the entire second half of his senior year, he knew exactly how everything would happen. They would have his prom, then his graduation, and in between commencement and his big family dinner he’d ask her to go with him. She was eighteen, and she could finish her senior year anywhere. King hadn’t prepared himself for anything beyond a yes.

  He’d been at the wheel of his cherry 1967 Mustan
g, en route to his family home, when he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “So, I’ve been thinking…” he’d started.

  Effie looked over at him with a grin. “Yeah?”

  “I mean, I know we haven’t really talked about it, about us, with me moving to California for college and all.” He took her hand, and she looked down at their clasped fingers. As always, his hand engulfed hers. “But why don’t you come with me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He pulled into the massive driveway. “I mean, come with me. You can finish your senior year there.”

  “I… you know I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  She stared at their clasped hands while tears pricked at her eyes. “I just can’t.”

  “Of course you can. You’re eighteen, it would be easy—”

  “I can’t, King!” she cried out. That opened the floodgates and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Can’t we just… I don’t know—”

  “I won’t do the long distance thing, Effie,” he said with a shake of his head. “I watched what it did to my parents—”

  “We’re not your parents.”

  “Just say you’ll come with me. What’s the big deal?”

  “I… I can’t,” she said.

  He heard the finality in her words and felt the hot pricks of tears at the corner of his eyes. It felt like his heart dropped into his stomach. Never did he think she’d refuse.

  He didn’t know how either of them made it through that family dinner. There were so many people and distractions it kept both of them busy. King didn’t even have a chance to talk to Effie afterward. He’d been pulled into a conversation with a group of aunts and uncles, and the next thing he knew she was gone.

  “Where’s Effie?” he’d asked his mother.

  “I think she had a headache. Thorne drove her home,” his mom said, tipsy before dark on vintage wine.

  From that point onward, he never heard her name without it being intertwined with Thorne’s.

  It wasn’t immediate, of course.

  His stubbornness kept him from reaching out to her, and as far as he knew she just walked away cold on graduation day. Two months later, right before he left for Los Angeles, his mom handed him a glass of wine as the two of them sat down for lunch in the courtyard.

  “What’s this about Thorne and Effie dating?” she’d asked. It was the first he’d heard of it.

  King flipped onto his back and clenched his fists.

  Don’t you dare fucking get attached to her again, he warned himself. Who cares if she’s more gorgeous than ever? She’s also a fucking terror.

  It had taken him years to get over her. Now, it seemed like all he’d done was push away those attachments. They’d been lurking right below the surface this whole time.

  He held his breath as Effie rolled towards him.

  “You awake?” she whispered.

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you… ever wonder what our lives would be like if I’d left with you back then?”

  Was she a fucking mind reader?

  “No,” he said brusquely.

  “Really?”

  “No,” he said with a sigh. “Not really.”

  “I never got a chance to tell you this, but I wish I would have gone.”

  Too little, too late. “That’s easy to say now.”

  “I know. But I just wanted to tell you.”

  “So why didn’t you, then?”

  “You know why.”

  “No, I don’t. You never said anything except, ‘I can’t’.”

  “It was my family. Is my family,” she said. “I mean, you had to have known that. Did you think I just didn’t want to?”

  “I don’t know what I thought, or think,” he said as he stared up at the cathedral ceiling lit by the full moon. It was easier, talking like this in the dark. He didn’t have to look into those probing eyes. “All I knew is that I was so certain you’d say yes, and when you didn’t… I didn’t know what to do. I thought the future was set.”

  “So did I,” she whispered.

  “Your mom treated you like shit, Effie,” he said. “Maybe that’s not true anymore, but—”

  “It is.”

  He listened to her steady breathing. It was the first time she’d ever admitted it.

  “But somebody had to look out for Yaya. It might have been easy for you to walk away and forget your family, King, but I don’t have the means to just forget mine.”

  “Right,” he said with a mean chuckle.

  The silence between them was palpable. This isn’t what he wanted. After all these years, talking about graduation day, it wasn’t how he imagined.

  “You know what, how about we just forget for a few days?” he asked. “Just until the snow clears up.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know. Shit, I don’t know what I’m saying.” He shook his head at the soaring ceiling.

  “Do you mean, like, you and I…”

  “No! Jesus, Effie, no. I don’t know what I was trying to say, forget it.”

  He felt her eyes on him, exploring his face in the dark. When she rolled away from him and faced the soaring window, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  Way to go, you fucking idiot.

  7

  Effie

  Effie put down her romance book and stretched her neck. Outside, flurries continued to fall.

  “I’m dying to go outside,” she told King. He looked up at her from across the kitchen table where he nursed a cup of steaming hot coffee.

  “We should be able to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We still have the snowmobiles out back.”

  “Are you serious? Why are you just telling me about this now?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not like we can take it into town, it’s just for playing around here.”

  “Well, then come on! Don’t you have cabin fever yet?” Effie jumped up.

  King laughed at her excitement. “Okay, okay. I think my mom has some spare snow gear in the mud room closet. Go find something and I’ll get ready.”

  She rushed towards the closet and began to pull out the slim pink snow pants and matching puffy jacket. His mom’s boots were half a size too small, but the pinch would be worth it.

  King appeared in the hallway in perfectly fitting all-black gear. “You look like a snow bunny,” he said.

  “At least you didn’t say I look like your mom.”

  “That’s a blessing for both of us.”

  She rolled her eyes and punched him lightly.

  “Hey! I like your mom,” she said. “And you can’t say she doesn’t look fantastic for her age.”

  He wrinkled his nose as he held the front door open for her. “Please don’t talk about my mom that way.”

  Effie delighted in the sound of the frozen top layer of snow that crunched beneath the boots. She followed King around the side of the house to the little shed that was built to look like a miniature version of the cabin. He kicked a pile of snow out of the way and eased open the door to reveal two snowmobiles draped in cloths.

  “I totally forgot about the snowmobiles,” she said.

  “Well, in your defense, the times we spent up here weren’t exactly spent on outdoor recreation.”

  Effie felt herself blush, but pretended not to notice his words. Instead, she watched as King easily fired up one of the snowmobiles. The other he struggled with while it remained silent and cold.

  “Sorry, looks like you’ll have to ride bitch,” he said as he hopped on the purring machine and patted the seat behind him.

  “Hey! Why don’t you ride bitch?” she asked, but dutifully climbed on behind him.

  “My cabin, my rules,” he said.

  She nearly slipped as she made her way onto the machine and grabbed King’s waist to steady herself. Even through the thickness of their snow gear, she thought she felt a spark of heat between them.

  Effie was thankful for the roar of the mot
or. As she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek into his back to protect her skin from the cold, she felt drunk as she breathed in his scent. It was so natural, so normal. She’d forgotten how easily they fit together.

  She watched the stunning scenery fly by. The trees heavy with sheets of white provided an almost unbelievable magical backdrop. Effie squealed as she watched a deer race between the trees.

  She had to admit, this was something she’d missed. Just being with King, the ease of it, and how it felt like they had the world to themselves.

  Effie snuggled into his back and took deep breaths. King smelled the same as she remembered, a manly musk with just a hint of salt. She remembered that he tasted like his scent, crisp as the ocean.

  Thorne was always marinating in cologne, she thought.

  In fact, Effie didn’t have a clue of what Thorne’s natural scent was. All she knew is he was nothing like King.

  King brought the machine to a halt near the ridge they used to hike in high school. When he killed the engine, she could still feel the vibration between her legs. Effie hadn’t realized how turned on she’d become on the ride.

  He slid off the snowmobile and held out his gloved hand to help her. For a little too long, they kept their hands interwoven. He dropped her hand right as they approached the ridge, just before she could mistake it for actual hand-holding.

  “I forgot how beautiful it is,” she said as she peered down.

  Below them, a veritable winter wonderland unfolded. The snow was pristine, perfectly untouched. The snow glittered in the sun. A thick, taupe wild rabbit loped from one bush to the next.

  “It really is,” he said, though she thought she saw him sneak a look at her as he spoke. “It reminds me of a Vivaldi piece.”

  Effie grinned and looked at him. “You always did like that kind of stuff.”

  “It’s classical,” he said. “Everyone likes it.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Just because you haven’t given it a fair shake. Too busy with your nose buried in those books and singing Diana Ross songs.”

  “Something doesn’t have to be old to be beautiful,” she said. Effie nudged him with her elbow. “You should be grateful for that, old man.”