Pretend I'm YoursA Single Dad Romance

by Vivian Wood

  “Okay.” Effie grinned up at him and he kissed her gently. The crowd around them had dispersed. The shop owner had retreated and there were no sirens in the air.

  “Come on, we better go get Yaya. Who knows what she’s put in the basket on her own.”

  “How’s she doing today?” King asked.

  “Okay,” she said. “Not nearly as good as the past two days, but you know it comes and goes.”

  King followed her into the store, the wheels in his head spinning. He watched as Effie covertly put back the random items Yaya had placed in the basket. He’d grown used to watching her as a caretaker. It highlighted what a great mother she’d be, though he never had any doubts about that.

  Any reservations he had about bringing her grandmother with them had vanished. It seemed natural. Yaya helped to balance them out. She grounded them, and it was something they both definitely needed.

  At least until we have kids, he thought.

  Just the two of them, it was all fireworks all the time. That could be a hell of a lot of fun, but it wasn’t realistic. Maybe what they’d needed before was a little more common sense.

  I’m working on growing my own, King thought. But it was baby steps, and he still had a long way to go.

  King had always known he was a dreamer. When he was a child and his mother indulged him with fairytales, he’d noticed the way his father’s face clouded.

  However, it was nothing compared to how Thorne was treated when he asked to watch Sleeping Beauty instead of a more “appropriate, masculine” movie as their father put it.

  He sighed. All the signs he’d been blind to all his life started to pile up. He had no idea how he’d taken so much for granted. All this time, he thought he was the black sheep of the family and Thorne the golden boy.

  Maybe his father liked that he was the rebellious one. It cemented his manhood. After all, that’s how men were supposed to be. The entire time, Thorne had done everything imaginable to win their parents’ approval, and he still fell short.

  There was no point trying to untangle everything now. King knew that, and the damage had been done. A part of him hurt that he knew he’d never be able to reunite with his family. However, one look at Effie with her hand on her grandmother’s shoulder, and he knew that wasn’t right. She was his family now—hell, both of them were.

  Who says your family is who raised you? he wondered.

  He may be able to burn his past and leave it all behind, but that doesn’t mean she has to. He hated the idea of forcing her into the same fate as him.

  After all, King wanted to. There was nothing of his family to salvage. His dad, and then Thorne, had seen to that. It could be a lonely life, and one full of regret, except for the fact he knew it was for the best and that Effie was his family now.

  However, he didn’t want to act too quickly. If there was something of Effie’s family that could be saved, it had to happen now. King knew too well how much damage time spent stewing could cause.

  It was too late for him, but there was still a second chance. If he made the right moves fast enough, maybe he could give her the real fairytale ending she deserved.

  Now that King understood happy endings weren’t just about money, he might be able to work a miracle or two. Effie put up a brave front, but he knew her. And deep down, she wanted more. She deserved more. This was King’s chance to make things right without putting their relationship at risk.

  Who says you can’t have it all? And Effie deserves everything.

  25

  Effie

  Effie breathed out deeply. She was beyond nervous about the impending cross-country move. She knew it was right, felt it in her bones, but that didn’t make it any easier. When she’d told Renee, her best friend flipped out.

  “What? Seriously, the last time I talked to you, you were planning your wedding with Thorne and now you’re back with his brother?”

  “I know it sounds crazy,” Effie said. She wished she could have told Renee in person, but it just wasn’t possible. “But you have to trust me, this is the right thing. I’m doing the right thing.”

  “I don’t know,” Renee said. Effie could hear the worry in her voice. Renee had been her confidante back in high school when she’d broken up with King. “I just remember how upset you were back then—God, you didn’t leave your room for days. Are you sure this isn’t just wedding jitters because of the wedding?”

  Effie let out a laugh, it was so ridiculous. “Renee, I know it’s asking a lot, but please try to support me with this.”

  “Okay, okay,” her friend said. “I mean, I do have to admit you sound happy for the first time since forever. It’s nice hearing the old you back.”

  “You didn’t think I was happy?” Effie asked. Why didn’t anyone say anything?

  “Effie… after you and King broke up, you were a mess. I mean, I thought that you’d just changed forever, you know? You seemed a little better when you hooked up with Thorne, even though it was totally messed up. And you never acted like you liked him much when you were with King. I don’t know, we were eighteen! I didn’t know anything, but you seemed like you knew what you were doing.”

  “I wish you would have said something,” Effie said.

  “Would it have made a difference?”

  “No, probably not,” she admitted. “But promise you’ll say something in the future? If it looks like I’m going off the deep end.”

  “Okay, but just for the record I did just say something about this. But let me clarify: it sounds crazy, but you seem genuinely sound happy. So if you need a best friend approval, consider it granted. Can I tell you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “King was always hotter.”

  Effie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s totally how you choose a life partner. Hotness.”

  “Well, beyond that, I liked him so much better anyway.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. Effie, Thorne was weird! I mean, he was loaded, so that helped, but totally weird. And I can’t believe he cheated on you.”

  “I can.” It felt strange to say it aloud, but also cathartic.

  “Okay, well I can, too. He was always ogling other people. It was so overt, it’s like he wanted to get caught. I gave him the stink eye when I could, but he didn’t seem to notice.”

  “I dunno, I thought that was just part of his whole macho act,” Effie said. “It didn’t bother me. But I guess I didn’t realize it didn’t bother me because I really didn’t care.”

  “He hit on me once. I never told you,” Renee said.

  “What? When?”

  “About a year ago. And before you ask, I didn’t say anything because it was super subtle. It’s not like he propositioned me or anything. You guys were moving towards engagement, and it didn’t seem like a huge deal. Maybe it was just flirting, I dunno.”

  “What happened?” Effie wasn’t mad about it, but she needed to know. There were all these pieces to a puzzle she didn’t even know what sitting in front of her.

  “It was that time we went to the martini bar for your birthday? You were super drunk and I’d just helped you into the Lyft. He was adamant that you’d be fine on your own and tried to tip the driver like an extra hundred to help you to bed.”

  “And?”

  “And… well, he told me that I should stay. He said why ruin a fun night out just because you couldn’t hold your liquor. It was so weird, and I asked him why he’d want me to stay. It’s not like he and I were friends or ever hung out without you.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “Something like, ‘Oh, I always thought you were gorgeous, I’d love to get to know you better’. I told him that was inappropriate, and he touched my hand in this weird way and said, ‘Don’t act like you’ve never fantasized about it, I’ve seen how you look at me’.”

  “Oh, my God,” Effie said. “I’m so sorry. I don’t remember that at all.”

  “Don’t be sorry, he was an asshole. I just wrote it off
for him being drunk that night, but I guess I was wrong.”

  Effie shook her head, incredulous when she thought of what Renee had told her. There were signs all over the place for years, and she’d never looked.

  But she wasn’t the only one. Both Renee and King had assumed that things were largely okay. It was only Yaya who had seen Thorne for who he really was.

  The day they packed for the airport, shortly after King had beaten Thorne to a pulp outside those shops, it seemed surreal. Effie had dreamt about this since the first time King asked her to go to California with him. Of course, at the time it had seemed like sheer fantasy.

  Who could have known that it would really come true?

  She sat in the back of the taxi with Yaya while King sat in the front and chatted with the driver. Everything the three of them owned fit into the trunk. It was strange, since Effie thought King had overspent wildly on their last-minute shopping outings.

  Effie watched the airport exits grow closer. She pulled in her breath as the taxi pulled into the Departures area. Yaya held her arm as she helped her out while King paid the driver. He brushed her away when she protested and tried to carry at least one of the bags.

  “Ready?” Effie asked uneasily as she walked slowly with Yaya into the ticketing area.

  “No,” King said. He put their things down gently. “I think there’s someone you should talk to first.”

  “What?” Effie turned and saw her mother approaching her.

  Effie’s heart started to pound, but she felt King give her hand a squeeze. Without saying a word, King headed towards the ticket booth and left Effie with her mother and Yaya.

  Clem approached Effie cautiously. Effie didn’t pull away when her mother slowly embraced her, but she felt frozen. Yaya patted Clem’s arm with a smile.

  “Be well, my two girls,” she said before she followed King with a slow gait.

  Effie turned and looked at her mother.

  “Well, obviously you know that I’m moving,” Effie said. She couldn’t keep her mother’s gaze.

  Why would King do this to me? Effie also couldn’t read her mother’s expression.

  The rage she’d seen boiling beneath the surface for so many years had subsided. There had been a generous dose of fear in there, too—and that had also subsided.

  “And with King, no less,” her mother said. She crossed her arms and looked into the distance. “At least this time you got what you wanted.”

  Effie looked at her mother, curious. There was a hint of wistfulness in her tone. “I did. I love him.”

  Her mother squinted into the distance. “I never told you this, but I went on a few dates with King’s father when I was very young.”

  “Wait, what?” Effie asked.

  Her mother never talked about her past, at least not before Effie’s father. Clementine’s past before Effie was sparse, and Yaya never spoke of it either.

  “Yes, I was very young. Obviously,” her mother said. “Considering when I had you… but I thought… I thought I was in love with him.”

  Effie was speechless. She searched her mother’s eyes for answers, but her mom seemed lost in another era.

  Clem’s lip quivered.

  “King’s father was… well, much older, so… it was easy to forget him when I got pregnant with you. But when I found out that he was your boyfriend’s father… when I found out that he had a son just like him… I thought that you had a chance to do things over. Do them right. Do what I didn’t.”

  Clem shook her head.

  “It was stupid, but that’s what happens when you have kids. Right or not, you see them as a part of you. Little do-overs of you. I couldn’t help it.”

  “So, that’s why you liked Thorne so much? He… God, I never realized how much he looks like his dad. Acts like him, too.”

  Effie had never considered it much. Sure, she’d realized that Thorne was his father’s spitting image, and once or twice she’d envisioned what Thorne would be like when he got older. The two of them even had the same mannerisms.

  When Thorne and King told people they were brothers, they often weren’t believed. King got his mother’s genes in full force, and left Thorne to be the doppelganger of his father.

  “I don’t… I don’t know how to take this all in,” Effie said.

  “I’m sorry if I pushed too hard for you to date Thorne. You know, I didn’t even realize who King’s father was when the two of you got together. With a surname like Smith, it’s not like I thought much of it.” Clem shrugged. “I didn’t even see Thorne for months after you and King got together, and at first I thought it was just a coincidence. That’s… I don’t know if you remember, but that’s why I started digging and asking you about King’s parent back in high school. When I happened to meet Thorne, it was like going back in time.”

  “I remember,” Effie said. “Yeah, I… I mean, I thought it was weird. You’d been so flippant about everything to do with King for so long, then all of a sudden you got this huge interest in him. Oh, my God, I remember. I remember how you looked when you asked his parents’ names.”

  It was another sign she’d missed. Effie had been so wrapped up in figuring out how to do her hair for the winter formal, she hadn’t thought anything about her mom’s sudden interest in her boyfriend’s parents. Or why she turned white as a sheet at his father’s name.

  “I should have known. At least known something was up,” she said as she shook her head.

  “Effie, I’m sorry,” her mother repeated. “He seemed heaven sent when you were all broken up about King leaving… and he looked so much like his father. When I… when I said he was older, it was right before I got pregnant. I was sixteen and he was twenty-one. Obviously, it wasn’t going to work out. I had this dream, you know? When I was in high school? That his father would swoop in and save me when I got pregnant. That never happened. So when Thorne… when he offered to take care of all of us…”

  “That was your do-over,” Effie finished.

  She couldn’t imagine her mother being a scared, pregnant teen. She also couldn’t imagine King’s father being the white knight, and of course he hadn’t been.

  “Effie,” her mom said as she took her hands gently. “I was blinded by it all. By Thorne looking like his dad, by his promises to save us. I thought everything had finally come full circle. And before that, when you were head over heels for King—”

  “Am. I am head over heel for him,” Effie corrected.

  “Okay, you are. I just, I saw the heartbreak coming. Puppy love doesn’t last. I… I didn’t want you to get hurt like I was. And I certainly didn’t want you to rush off and get pregnant by someone who would leave you just to lick your wounds.”

  Effie’s heart dropped. She’d never realized her mother actually cared.

  “But King has filled me in about his brother’s… issues,” Clem said. “God, I’m so sorry. I wish I’d known. I just thought, you know, you were being too sensitive. Exaggerating. I should have listened to you.”

  Effie teared up and blinked fast to wash them away.

  “Maybe … you know, maybe you can come visit me in California. When we’re all settled in.”

  From the corner of her eye, she could see King and Yaya waiting.

  “I have to go,” she said. This time, when her mother pulled her close, she melted into her arms.

  The tears had gone by the time she made her way to King. He held her close and Effie tipped her head up for a kiss.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Much better.”

  “Much better, me and you,” he whispered. “Love you forever.”

  “Love you forever.”

  THE END

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  Addiction

  1

  Sean

  Sean groped for the vibrating alarm. Wa
s it ten already? He didn’t need to look at the iPhone to turn it off. For a second, he considered keeping his head under the pillow and sending a passive fuck you to the shop.

  But he didn’t. Your sponsor would be so proud, he thought as he blinked into the morning light that streamed through the window.

  I really need to buy some curtains. Or something, he thought. Shirtless, he made his way to the shower with its clawfoot tub. “All original!” the leasing agent had crowed at him. Obviously, he’d wanted to reply, but he needed that apartment.

  It wasn’t much, but it was his. Even through the steam of the shower, he could smell the pizza joint on the first floor of the building. Every goddamned morning. No amount of musky soap could overpower wood-fired pizza.

  His stomach growled. Pizza. And an ice-cold beer. Or two—or a six-pack. Stop it, he told himself. Weak ass.

  As he toweled off, his phone blinked at him, the blue light of a text message. “You better not be late,” his boss had said.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, and turned on the read receipt function just to let that asshole know he saw it.

  “I’m serious,” came the second text. “You know we can see you up there, right?”

  Sean sucked in his breath and turned off the read receipts again. You were an idiot, getting a job in the same building where you live.

  He pulled on a black, fitted tee-shirt and ripped jeans. One of the perks about being an upper-level apprentice at an ink shop is nobody gave a shit what you wore. The clothes perpetually smelled like pepperoni thanks to Dolce Vita downstairs, but it was a hell of a lot better than being a trust fund kid. Like dad, he thought. Or Connor.

  He knew that wasn’t fair, that his big brother had made it on his own. Eventually, he added as he finger-combed some product a hot piece of ass had sold him through his hair.

  Sean glanced at the biggest mural in his little apartment while he gathered up his keys. Thank god for landlords who never check in, he thought. Sure, he’d promised himself he’d paint over whatever he did in here. A nice, safe egg shell just like when he’d moved in. But he knew he never could. Even when he moved out—if he ever moved out—there was something about art that lasted forever.