by Magan Vernon
“He’s not like my dad, dad, Car. And, really you can stop talking and making this pounding in my head any worse,” Cheyenne whined.
I knelt down in front of her, her eyes closed tightly, flecks of gold glitter reflecting off the lamplight. “Want some water or anything?”
“Tacos would be great,” Carmen chimed.
“Sound good to you?” I asked, looking at Cheyenne.
With her eyes still closed, she nodded slowly.
“Okay. Yeah, I’ll put in an order.” Standing up, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, stepping onto the balcony as I tapped on the delivery app.
Just as I hit the “send order” button, the girls’ gasps caught my ears.
Moving as fast as I could, I threw the door open, expecting to see, what I wasn’t sure. But it wasn’t the two girls hunched over a bright pink phone, staring at it wide-eyed with their mouths gaping open.
“Everything okay?” I asked, taking tentative steps toward them. Way slower than my heavily beating heart.
“If by okay, you mean, something on that phone has Cheyenne’s headache magically disappearing?”
Cheyenne’s gaze slowly went to mine; her eyes unblinking. “If you call some people on Instagram saying we’re a couple.”
The hairs on my arms pricked into little spikes as my entire body went rigid. “What?”
She held out the phone, and I crossed the room with a few steps, grabbing the device.
There, staring back at me was a photo of my arm curled around Cheyenne’s waist, a wild look in my eyes as the flash went off on the camera in front of me.
Instead of reporting on the photographer, everyone was more concerned about the guy in his mid-thirties out with an underage girl at the club.
The last thing I wanted to happen.
The thing that had my body going from ice cold to boiling over.
“How many times has this been viewed?” I muttered, scrolling down the page, watching the number continue to rise.
Shit.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, of course, my phone rang. Trish.
“Who is that?” Cheyenne asked, bouncing between my face and the phone like a ping-pong.
“Your mother,” I said firmly, sliding the phone to my ear.
“Hi, Trish. Didn’t expect to hear from you this late.” I kept my voice light, but my heart was racing faster than the bouncing of Cheyenne’s knee.
“Do you know what it’s like to get called by my publicist while I’m in the middle of a re-write and have her tell me that my daughter and one of my new cameo actors have been spotted leaving arm-in-arm from a nightclub?” Her voice cut through me like a knife.
“Trish…I can explain…”
“Save it, Reign, and just bring my daughter home. I should be back there in about twenty minutes.”
Our daughter.
I didn’t voice that though.
“I just ordered some food, but I’ll bring her home right after, okay?”
“Are you serious right now? You should be calling a cab or a car service right now. Wait. Forget that. I’m coming to you. We don’t need another media frenzy.” Keys jangled in the background along with the shuffling of papers.
I looked around the room that had been cleaned by the maids at some time during the day, but with the pocket door open to the bedroom, it was still painfully obvious I was a dude with a bunch of clothes and soda cans covering a hotel room.
Way to make Trish see me as a devoted father who couldn’t even keep a hotel room clean.
Or walks his illegitimate child out of a club.
“Okay. I’ll see you here.”
Disconnecting the call, I sucked in a deep breath, picking up a few random cans of soda and a pair of socks that had somehow crawled out of the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” Carmen’s voice whipped through the room.
“Well, since Cheyenne’s mom is on her way up here, figured I’d clean up a bit.”
“My mom?” Cheyenne squeaked.
“Yeah,” I replied quickly, throwing away a few items.
“How does she even know where we are? And your hotel room? Are you two still a thing or something? Carmen asked, her lips moving a mile a minute.
Shaking my head, I tried to control my breathing as I threw some clothes in the bedroom before shutting the door. “I’m working on Trish’s show. Her publicist called and said she saw the two of us out together, so she’s coming to pick you both up.”
“Both of us?”
I looked up to see the girls staring up at me with wide eyes. “Yes. You both need to go home since you have school tomorrow.”
Carmen rolled her eyes before flopping on the couch. “Man, I thought your dad was cool when he ordered us tacos.”
“He’s not really my dad, dad,” Cheyenne muttered.
“Is someone going to explain any of this to me?” Carmen looked between the two of us with her arms out.
Glancing at the new message on my phone, I swallowed hard before answering. “Maybe after tacos, they’re here.”
“Oh, sweet.”
At least the Mexican fast food got the girls to stop asking questions. And we got a little bit of silence in between bites of food.
Until the knock sounded at the door.
Cheyenne’s eyes met mine tentatively across the small coffee table, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.
“I’ll get that.”
I stood slowly, every move like pushing through wet cement as I made my way to the door.
Trish donned black pants and a long black shirt; her hair covered with a Dodgers cap pulled low over her eyes hidden by a pair of aviators.
“Way to play incognito.” I smiled, stepping back as I opened the door wider.
“You should take a lesson in it,” she grumbled, pushing past me to stomp her four-inch heels into the carpet.
“Cheyenne Ximena de la Peña, what on earth do you think you were doing? You were supposed to be staying at Carmen’s.”
Trish halted in the middle of the room, and I almost ran into the back of her.
Luckily, I didn’t because she had her hands on her hips, eyes, and nostrils flared as she looked at the two girls. “Carmen? How the hell did you two girls even get into a club? Then just left with a stranger?”
“He’s not a stranger, Mom,” Cheyenne muttered, keeping her head down, her long black hair covering her face like a curtain.
Trish whipped around, her eyes shooting daggers in my direction.
“How many people have you told?” she hissed.
“Don’t worry, Ms. de la Peña, I’m a steel trap,” Carmen said, way too bubbly for someone who was trying to convince the woman she was good at keeping secrets.
Trish sighed, shaking her head. “I’ve got a car waiting at the back entrance to take you two back home.”
“My home?” Carmen squeaked.
“No. You can stay at our house and until I can get this stuff scrubbed from the internet.” Trish’s eyes narrowed.
Her words may have been spoken to Carmen, but they were aimed right at me.
I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by Trish putting her hand up, the other pulling her phone out of her pocket and holding it between us.
Her eyes widened slowly as she smirked. “Well, Mr. Reign, it looks like you’re trending. And so is your guest spot on the show.”
“Really?” I asked, pulling my own device out of my pocket, a million alerts flashing across the screen.
With each little notification, adrenaline pulsed through me. More than I had in all my years of acting. They say no publicity is bad publicity, but after the shit show that had been going down, I didn’t know what to think of all of this.
The pain in my chest was back as I also thought what Rachel would think of this. Did she see the news? Would she finally talk to me again? Or would this push her further away?
Trish shoved her phone back into her pocket. “We’re going to spin this as you seeing
my daughter out at a club, and you being an old friend, decided to help me out by bringing her home.”
I swallowed hard, my fists clenching at my side. “You’re serious?”
She put her hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “Lennox, we both know how things can be spun in this town. Let’s just make sure it goes our way and hope this doesn’t happen again, okay?”
I glanced at Cheyenne who quickly looked in my direction. A flicker of something crossed my face. A pleading look. But what was that for?
What was she trying to ask? That I fight harder? That I say, she should stay the night. We both knew all of that was a bad idea and it was better for her just to go back with her mom. I was doing this for her, and she had to know that now.
“Okay, Trish. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that, both girls stood, heads down as they followed Trish out of the door, leaving me alone, again.
But this was a different feeling this time. One that had my heart sinking deep into my gut.
Chapter 13
My phone rang too damn early the next day.
My call time wasn’t until noon, so I figured this was probably my lawyer calling about the photos and a paparazzi with a lawsuit.
Not looking at the name on the screen, I unlocked the phone then pressed it to my ear while still keeping my head on the pillow.
“Hullo?” I yawned.
“Lennox Reign, the former teen dreamboat returns to Hollywood,” Ally’s whiny voice carried through the speaker.
I lurched forward, sitting up so fast that my brain spun as I fumbled awake.
“Hey, Al.”
“Oh, don’t try and get all nice with me. Not after you promised me, you’d talk to Trish, and instead, you’re traipsing around L.A. with her daughter? What’s gotten into you, Len?”
The hair stood up on the back of my neck. “Ally…”
“Like, I know,” she interrupted, the sound of her heels clicking on the wooden floor in the background. Of the condo I was still paying for, of course.
“…that Chad is younger and all. But seriously, that girl’s like a teenager, Len. And I thought you were with that Rachel chick? What happened there? Get too brooding, talking about your past life being your past life, and she dumped you, and that’s why you’re hate-taking this role?”
My fists involuntarily clenched at my side as I sucked in a breath, then let it out slowly. “Ally, I know you’re talking out of anger right now, but seriously, you need to stop.”
She laughed, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor to it. “Of course, you’d say that. Always trying to still everyone else, using some past no one, even your ex-wife knows about as an excuse.”
I sighed, raking my fingers through my hair as if that would produce the correct answer.
I knew Ally well enough to know that she was just going to keep talking no matter what I said. But unlike when I was trying to get our marriage to work, now I didn’t have time for her bullshit.
“Oh my gah…” her voice trailed.
Scrubbing my hand over my face, I debated even asking her what that noise was about.
But Ally’s next words sliced through me.
“Her eyes. The girl in the photo. They’re the same color blue as Juni’s and yours,” she whispered the last part.
I swallowed hard, my heart stopping in my chest. There wasn’t any way I could talk my way out of this one. So, it was time I came clean.
“Yeah. Cheyenne’s my daughter.”
For the first time, possibly ever, Ally was silent on the other end. Until a strangled sob ran over the line.
All of the warmth left my body as I slumped over, running my hand over my face, I sighed. “I wanted to tell you so many times. But it was a long time ago, and I hadn’t been in Cheyenne’s life until recently. Her mother didn’t want me there.”
“Teresita? You had a relationship with a woman who played your mother?” she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
“It was one night, sixteen years ago. Well, more like about thirty minutes in a back-room closet,” I muttered.
“I don’t know if that makes this whole thing any better or much, much worse.”
Blowing out a deep breath, I shook my head. “It doesn’t make this anything. I was young and stupid. Trish had me sign a contract and non-disclosure agreement. She wanted to just raise Cheyenne, knowing how much of a fuckup I was. And it would have probably stayed quiet if that photo of Juni and me didn’t pop up. That’s how Cheyenne found me. Literally showed up on my doorstep.”
“That explains why Trish was visiting you… Is this whole thing blackmail? Is that what this is? Do you need me to call your lawyer?”
I sighed. “He already knows. So does my former agent.”
And Rachel. But I wasn’t about to tell her that last part.
She laughed, sniffling at the end of a long bubbled, giggle. “Seriously? Does everyone know but me then?”
Licking my lips, I tried to control the heavy beating of my heart while I scrambled for the best answer. “No. Not everyone. It’s actually been kept quiet. That’s why I’m here. Not for blackmail, but as a favor to Trish…”
The lies came so damn easily.
There was a time when I would have told Ally everything. But now she was the last person I wanted to talk to. The first wasn’t far from her. The one I still hadn’t talked to after everything went down the night before. And now I ached not just to talk to her, but to see her, feel her.
Yet there was no way in hell Rachel was going to talk to me.
“Listen, Ally, I’ve gotta go,” I interrupted her blubbering rant, which, honestly, was justified.
I was a shitty husband. Shitty person, really.
It was time I started being honest with everyone. I’d always wanted to put the past behind me, but now that it was out there, I had to stop hiding.
I just couldn’t do that without talking to Trish first.
But when I hung up with Ally, instead of dialing her, I pulled up a video call.
The screen vibrated until Rachel’s face came on the screen. Her eyes covered in a pair of bright pink glasses and her hair in a messy ponytail on top of her head.
Still fucking gorgeous.
And I couldn’t help staring at the face I’d missed for so long, now looking back at me. Finally.
“Hey, Len, wow, I wasn’t expecting you to call. Or video for that matter. I mean…after you left after saying you wouldn’t…” Her fingers went to her face, pulling off the glasses as if I didn’t just see her in them.
“Or else you wouldn’t have worn your own brooding spectacles?” I smiled for what felt like the first time in forever.
“They’re computer glasses, smartass, and a nice way to deflect and try to change the subject.” Her words cut through me.
I winced involuntarily. “Take it you saw the posts this morning?”
Her face fell. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say the first thing Amy showed me this morning was her phone and an article about you and Cheyenne. Complete with photo. She asked if she needed to drive to L.A. for me and cut off your balls. I said I’m sure we’d hear all about it when you come back. If you do plan on coming back, that is.”
Sighing, I leaned my head back against the bedpost. The worry that was once just on the surface now bubbled and coiled deep in the depths of my stomach.
I didn’t want people to know that I had another daughter and now instead of thinking that, it was that I was some kind of predator, out with a fifteen-year-old girl.
And not just faceless, random people behind keyboards. But ones I knew, like the fucking PTA president.
But how the hell did I even begin to set that straight?
“What did you say?” I asked, swallowing hard.
“Nothing,” she muttered.
“Nothing?”
She shrugged. “I mean I just said it was probably some sort of Hollywood rumor thing. I didn’t say ‘oh no that’s just his secret daughter’ o
r anything if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Rach, I would never think that…”
“I didn’t say you did. I just…” She sighed, running her hand over her face as she shook her head, letting out a slow breath. “It’s like you have two separate lives and I’m finding myself in between them. I’m a terrible secret keeper, but for you, I’m trying. Even though things are strained between us, I’m not just going to turn my back on you and seek revenge. That’s not the person I am.”
My stomach lurched as I stared at the woman on my screen. I never asked her to keep my secrets, and yet she was. She wasn’t just running form me anymore, but one of the few people there for me. Both parts of me. Not just as a former teen heartthrob or current dad. But just me as Lennox.
Closing my eyes, I slowly opened them, connecting with hers through the screen. “What am I going to do, Rach?”
“I don’t know, Len. I’ve never been where you are. All I can say is that, even though I’m still pissed at everything that’s gone on between us, I’m not going to turn my back on you. Whether we like it or not, we’re kind of stuck together, at least in the way of being parents of kids who are best friends.”
Her words covered me like a warm blanket; her smile brightening up the entire room.
“Thanks, Rach. I just wish I knew what the hell I was doing too.”
“Are you coming back to Texas?” she blurted.
I glanced down at the wrinkled button-down I never took off the night before, instead of meeting her eyes. “Yeah. In another week I should be back. In time for the bake sale.”
She laughed, and I looked up to finally see her smiling, which had me grinning in return. “You’d better be. After you left, I got pissed and signed you up for at least ten shifts. All with Pam.”
I shook my head, still unable to wipe the smile off my face. The first one I felt like I had in days. “I guess that’s one way to get back at me for being an asshole.”
She shook her head. “You’re not an asshole. You just…well…you’ve got some shit to figure out.”
“And when I come back…can we figure it out together?”
She sighed. “As much as I want to say ‘no,’ that I’ve given you so many chances, I also know that there’s something between us. Something more than just being parents of kids who are friends. And if we’re both willing to work on it, maybe it’ll all find its way to us being together.”
