HeartBreaker: A Single Dad Romantic Comedy (Heart Duet Book 2)

by Magan Vernon

“Does your mother know you’re here?” I blurted, raking my hands through my hair.

  This was about more than just Rachel and me and my anger toward her at this point. Now I had a teen girl standing here. If her mother called the police regarding her disappearance, this would be a whole new shit show. One Trish had been trying to avoid since all of this happened sixteen years ago.

  She shook her head, her eyes focused on the floor. “No.”

  I sighed, taking a step closer, watching her shoulders sink beneath the thin fabric of her light pink shirt. “You need to call her.”

  “She’s going to freak, you know? I mean she didn’t want me to find you, always saying it was just donor sperm, but you know, she should have done a better job of hiding the paperwork for your blood tests.”

  “Oh.” I wished I had something better to say, but all of this was like a sucker punch to the gut. For the first time, I was grasping at words.

  “This was stupid. Dang it, so stupid. Mom’s gonna kill me.” She looked down at the floor, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

  Gently, I put my hand on her tiny shoulder, a small gasp escaping her lips as she looked up at me with genuine fear in her eyes.

  “I’ll call with you.”

  What the hell?

  How did I get the courage to say I’d call?

  Guess I was still a good actor.

  “Oh-okay,” she said, her lips trembling.

  I motioned with my free hand and led her into the kitchen where she dropped her backpack on one of the stools at the island, her eyes wandering around the room.

  “Where does your mom really think you are?” I asked, grabbing two bottles of water out of the fridge and handing her one.

  Maybe it was a distraction, or maybe I just really needed something to do with my shaking hands. Last time I was this shaken was when I found out Ally was cheating.

  I called my sponsor back in L.A. a dozen times, knowing I was inches from a relapse. The only thing that saved me was having Juniper by my side. The more time I buried myself in her activities and work, the less time I had to think about the other problems.

  But now Juniper was at her grandparents, and I was staring a deep secret right in her bright blue eyes.

  Cheyenne held the cold bottle in her hand, her fingers fidgeting. “My friend Carmen’s. I told her we were going camping for the weekend. She’s going to be really pissed when she finds out, but…I had to see you. I guess I just didn’t realize what I was going to do after this moment.”

  Not sure what to do either, kid.

  Her shoulders slumped as she finally sat in one of the chairs, peeling back the label on the bottle.

  “You know, you’re a really hard guy to find,” she said with a laugh that had no humor to it.

  “Not that hard I guess,” I mumbled, my fists clenching involuntarily at my side.

  The worst-case scenario that went through my head as soon as Brent emailed to tell me that my photo was on some online gossip magazine was that digging me up again would then have people looking into my past.

  And Trish.

  Then Cheyenne.

  So, I stepped away from the spotlight to try and prevent this.

  Now the girl was standing in front of me, and I knew I was in for a whole lot of trouble.

  I may have been a drug-addicted tool at the time I signed all of those papers, but Trish never took my shit. Even when I got out of rehab and tried to contact her, she made sure I wouldn’t get any farther than getting booted out of the front door of her studio, dubbed TrishTown.

  “It was at first, actually. I think you’re the only person in the world that doesn’t have any kind of social media. Just a wiki page with an old photo from the ’90s.” She muttered the last part, still staring at her bottle.

  “At first?” I asked, wincing because I already knew the answer.

  “There was a sponsored post with your photo on it. Not that I would have known your old show or anything if it wasn’t for my mom. She never wanted us to watch her old episodes though. Which I didn’t mind, because it felt weird seeing my mom young and making out with some random dude on TV. But now I’m thinking she probably didn’t want me to watch the show because she didn’t want me to either see how corny it was or the similarities in my features to you.”

  I put my hand up. “First off, the show wasn’t corny. We won Emmys, and it was called groundbreaking to talk about a young, interracial family adopting.”

  She rolled her eyes, something Juniper was just starting to do, and I hated the little motion. “At least they didn’t try to say a Latin woman and a Black man somehow had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white boy.”

  I nodded. “You have a point.”

  “Your mom told you all about me once you figured out who I was?” I asked, catching my breath as I waited for an answer.

  All I could do was stare at her, noticing the little twitch of her lip when she was trying to hold back a smile that was eerily similar to my own.

  She shook her head. “No. She didn’t tell me. Not until I did one of those DNA tests with my friend Carmen.”

  “Like those ones they advertise on TV? That told you we were related?” I raised an eyebrow, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I wondered how the hell my information would even get on there.

  She smiled slightly, shaking her head. “I mean, no it didn’t say you were my dad, exactly, but Mom didn’t want me to go to NYU’s Tisch acting school like she did. Even though she got to be a young Hollywood actress and now upper successful, she kept steering me away from it. I thought she was just being overprotective.”

  She sucked in a breath before letting it out slowly. “So, Carmen and I did the tests, hoping it showed me that I had something other than Latina. Maybe I could get a minority scholarship if there was something else in my DNA.”

  Her words trailed as her eyes went to the window, lost in thought before she shook her head again. “The tests came back showing mostly Swedish descent. I had a feeling a woman named Teresita de la Peña wouldn’t pick out that kind of sperm donor. So, I asked, flat out, if it was really a donor or if my dad was out there. Then she told me it was a fling with a former co-star but that you two went your separate ways.”

  Wouldn’t have exactly called it a fling, but I wasn’t going to say it was just a quick rendezvous in the back room either.

  “So, you didn’t tell her you were coming to find me then?” I asked, tentatively.

  “I told her I wanted to, but she told me there were some legal contracts and that we’d done just fine without you in our lives anyway, so why would I want to meet you…but…”

  She finally looked up, sadness brimming in those bright blue eyes. “I guess I just wanted to see you. So, Carmen and I came up with a plan that we’d say I was camping with her. Then I bought tickets here to Dallas, found your house with a Google search, and got an Uber. I didn’t have any other plan once I got here and now, I’m probably in pretty deep shit with my mom.”

  I nodded, the next words out of my mouth surprising even me as I blurted them. “Maybe I should call her and talk first.”

  “You’d do that?” she whispered, her eyes widening.

  Forcing a smile, I put my hand out, even though my palms were sweating. “Yeah.”

  She pulled her phone out of a pocket on her backpack, scrolling through the device before handing it to me as if it were a delicate flower I had to try not to crush.

  I stared at the phone, the number already ringing.

  The woman’s icon was an older face than I remembered, and not airbrushed like it was in the magazines, but it had been permanently ingrained in my memory forever.

  Not just because I worked with her for ten years…or had a quickie in the back room.

  But because of the last day I saw her.

  The way she looked at me as if I were no better than a bug, she’d squashed with her Manolos.

  The dark hair pulled back in a bun.

  Wide brown eyes.


  Turned-up nose.

  Now I had to talk to her for the first time in over sixteen years.

  Quickly, I put the phone to my ear, clearing my throat as I racked my brain for what the hell I was going to say.

  I thought she might not answer, but on the tenth ring, I let out the breath I was holding as a soft voice came over the receiver.

  “Cheyenne, is everything okay?”

  Wow, she never spoke like that to me. With a soft voice. Such sincerity. Even when we were acting, and I was supposed to be her kid.

  I guess time and motherhood can change a person.

  Clearing my throat, I stood straighter, with my shoulders back, even though she couldn’t see me. “Hi, um, Cheyenne’s mom.”

  What a freaking tool. Couldn’t even say her name.

  Her voice deepened, back to the usual thick demeanor I was used to. “Yes, this is Ms. de la Peña. Is there something wrong? Is my daughter with you? Who is this?”

  Swallowing hard, I tried to ignore the prickling of my skin as a cold chill washed over me. I was a trained actor, so I kept my tone normal and my face neutral. “Yeah. She’s here with me. It’s Lennox. Lennox Reign.”

  A guttural gasp came from the other end of the phone.

  “Len… I… Wha—”

  “I was just as surprised as you, Trish.” Her name felt funny on my tongue, and I closed my eyes, trying to right myself in the moment. “She showed up at my door and explained everything.”

  “She told me she was camping. I should have known…” Her words trailed as small sobs escaped her lips into the phone receiver.

  “She’s safe here. But just tell me what you want me to do, and I can get her on the next flight home.”

  “No. I’ll come to you. Um…I just need to get a hold of work.”

  My mouth and heart reacted before my brain could catch up. “Whatever you need, just tell me. I’ll get the tickets.”

  Cheyenne’s eyes widened across the table. “What? No! She can’t come here!”

  What the hell did she think was going to happen? That her mom wouldn’t freak out?

  I guess that’s what being young was about. Like her, I thought I was invincible as a teen. And if anything proved me wrong, staring at my now teenage daughter was it.

  If this were Juniper, I’d give her “the look” to tell her it wasn’t the time to interrupt. But even though Cheyenne was my daughter, she was a stranger to me. She didn’t know the looks or the rules.

  “Can you at least give us a few days?” I asked, smiling at the girl across from me who only blinked in return.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said firmly.

  I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the counter as if it could hold the weight of my words and the gambit of feelings running through me. “She’s obviously here for a reason, and what could it hurt for us to get to know each other a little?”

  “But…the paperwork…our lawyers…” The tough demeanor was gone, and she floundered over her words.

  I nodded even though she couldn’t see it. “I’ll call Brent today and have him talk to your lawyer. Just give us a day at least. That’s all I’m asking.”

  She let out a deep breath. “I’ll fly out tomorrow evening. No later.”

  “Okay.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, Lennox.”

  I didn’t, but looking at the girl across from me, I knew I had to at least try.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Trish. Bye.”

  Chapter 2

  “Are you sure everything’s okay, Len?” Mom’s worried tone was evident at the other end of the receiver.

  “Yeah, just have some work things going on. Just keep Juniper a night or two.”

  The lies slipped so easily. My parents had no idea what happened all of those years ago. I was eighteen and technically an adult, thinking I could handle my career myself with my agent and lawyer.

  How fucking wrong I was.

  I knew I owed them the truth about everything, but right now wasn’t the time.

  And I had no idea when the hell would be.

  “Would this have anything to do with those photos my hairdresser said have gone viral?”

  I swallowed hard, glancing over my shoulder at Cheyenne, who had now completely torn the label off the water bottle and was digging into the sticky residue with her fingernails.

  It was all bad timing. The photos coming out as soon as she found out I was her dad. Now…here she was.

  “Kind of.”

  “Okay, honey. I understand there must be a lot to go over with Brent, but let us know if you need anything else, okay?”

  “Yeah, I will, Ma. Thanks. Bye.”

  I ended the call then turned around to face the girl sitting at my table.

  “So…wanna get some coffee? Do you drink coffee? I guess this place up in Highland Park also has hot cocoa if you’d prefer that.”

  She smirked. “I drink coffee. Just not when it’s this hot out. Seriously, why is it still in the hundreds here when it’s October?”

  “Hey, L.A. isn’t much better this time of year, and you aren’t a real coffee drinker if you can’t drink it in any weather.”

  Her smirk turned into an all-out smile, flashing a pair of straight white teeth that I’m guessing her mom had to spend some money on. Like the braces, I had for two years, and the show worked into my storyline.

  “Sometimes you sound like my mom.”

  I winced. “Good or a bad thing?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Well, then, what do you want to know? We don’t have to leave here. We can talk, and I’ll make a pot of coffee or sweet tea. Or we can not talk and just sit here. Each playing on our phones and silently staring at each other.”

  She laughed, and it warmed something deep in my heart. “I’m sure you’re good at the silent, brooding thing.”

  I leaned forward, folding my hands on the counter between us. “Took years of practice. Though I don’t think anyone would have hired me as a brooding lead male back in the day, or even now at my age.”

  “Hey, you never know. Silver foxes are in.”

  I almost choked on the air, blinking once then twice. “I don’t have any gray.”

  Absently, I ran my fingers through my hair, wondering if maybe there was a spot or two.

  Dammit, why did I care?

  It wasn’t like I was still in Hollywood where I had to bleach my hair and have it styled almost every other week to play up a character and persona.

  She laughed even harder. “Now you really sound like my mom.”

  I smiled in spite of the aching in my gut. “Yeah, she used to talk like that when we were on the show together. I guess she wasn’t expecting her first big gig to be playing a mom. Even if her character was a young, adoptive mom.”

  Her face fell as she looked to the table. “Mom doesn’t talk much about her time on the show. Even in interviews, she tends to avoid it. Now, looking at you, I guess she didn’t want to have you brought up and something slip.”

  “Yeah, I don’t talk much about the show anymore, either,” I muttered.

  “Is it because of me?” she asked quietly.

  I sucked in a breath, letting it out slowly as I thought on the answer. I could have lied. Could have used my acting skills on this girl I may never see again. Instead, I did what my heart wanted. “I wasn’t getting any parts after the show was canceled. Sunk me into a deep depression that had me in and out of rehab. At that time, your mom’s career was rising, and I wasn’t going to muddy that with my problems, so I figured it was better to step away and finally learn from my mistakes.”

  “Rehab? Mom didn’t mention that…” Her face tensed as if she’d tasted something sour.

  “There’s a lot of effed-up things that went through my head after the show ended. Something I thought I’d be stronger to handle. Just figured Hollywood would be knocking on my doorstep and I’d get every role I wanted. Didn’t h
appen that way. I guess it kind of spiraled from there.”

  Absently I traced the lines of the dragon tattoo crawling up my arm, the one whose scales hit the tell-tale track marks. “It was easier to walk away.”

  “You don’t feel like you gave up?” she blurted, honestly. Something I’d thought about so many times before.

  I shook my head slowly. “I think giving up would have been if I stayed in L.A., going after auditions, and every time I didn’t get a part, sinking more and more of my money and pain into toxicity.”

  I met her eyes across the table, hers wide with worry and mine slightly narrowed, wanting her to know how serious I was. “It wasn’t always easy being a child star. Long hours. A lot of social pressure. When I moved back home after my last rehab stint, my parents insisted I did online college if I was going to stay around. That’s when I realized I was a decent guy with my finances, but most of the people I worked with weren’t. I figured I could still stay connected by doing accounting for people like me who had more money than they knew what to do with and were spending it stupidly, or like me, had agents that weren’t great with it either.”

  She swallowed hard, her head bobbing. “Well, when you say it like that, I guess…”

  I smiled, letting a quiet laugh escape through my nose. “Yeah, I know it’s a heavy response, but I don’t want to feed you any bullshit. You deserve the truth.”

  “Are you going to start telling the truth about me to people?” she asked, fidgeting in her seat.

  I chewed on my bottom lip for a second, mulling on the answer. “You know, that’s something I’ll probably have to talk about with your mom. I’m not sure the best thing for either of us would be to publicly say we had a kid together. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be here for you. Whatever you need.”

  My palm twitched, and I itched to put my hand out to her and offer some comfort, but with that wide-eyed look still on her face, I knew it wasn’t the time.

  “How can you say you’ll be there though? I mean really, Mom’s going to take me back to L.A., and you have your own kid now,” she muttered the last part, her eyes drifting back to the table.

  I blew out a big breath before standing straighter, rubbing the back of my neck. “Honestly, I have no idea how in the hell to answer that. I wish I did have a straight way to say it, but I don’t. I just know that I can only do as much as you and your mom let me. You’re still under eighteen, and before you were born, I signed a contract saying I wouldn’t talk about you or reach out to you as my daughter. For the past sixteen years, I’ve kept that promise.”