Book Boyfriends Wanted 15: His Curvy Muse

I wiped the floor of the bathroom clean as I backed out of it, careful not to leave any marks on the floor. It was perfect. As perfect as it could be in a week. It was good enough for the new tenant who would be living there for the next three months.

The rest of the place was functional. The stark difference between the newly remodeled bathroom and the rest of the apartment was almost laughable, but it was going to have to be okay.

Piper insisted the tenant said they were fine with something that wasn’t fancy, so I went with it. If they didn’t like it, Piper would let me know. As my boss and best friend, she wasn’t shy about telling me the truth.

I was the one keeping secrets lately.

I took one last pass of the apartment and let myself out the door. The cleaning crew would be in first thing in the morning, and the new tenant would move in tomorrow afternoon.

And in less than two weeks, my dad was coming.

I had to stop thinking about my dad. I was dreading the visit, but like everything else that came with him, catastrophizing only spun me tighter than a professional ice skater at the Olympics.

“Hey!” Haley said, startling me as I made my way to my apartment.

“Hey, Haley. How are you?”

Haley was a good friend. We’d gotten to know each other over the last year, and she was the only one who knew my dad was coming for a visit. She got it out of me a week ago, and I’d been avoiding Piper since because I felt guilty for telling my new friend and not my oldest friend.

“I’m good. How was your day?”

I shrugged. “Good, I guess. I finished the bathroom, so it’s ready for the tenant to move in once it’s cleaned.”

“Nice. How about the other thing?” Haley knew talking about my dad upset me, so she tiptoed around the conversation. Which wasn’t really any better.

“Fine. He’s supposed to be here a week from Sunday.”

“And he’s staying with you?” she confirmed again.

I nodded. “He said he’s not sure how long he’ll be here. I thought about asking Piper if he could stay at MacKellar Cove Inn, but I felt bad asking since he’s not always the most considerate guest. And summer is busy. I don’t want him taking up a room that someone else could use.”

“That and you haven’t told her yet,” Haley said, her voice lifting in question at the end.

“Yeah, that, too.”

Haley sighed. “Sofia, you need to tell her.”

“I will. I need to get through the new tenant moving in, and then I’ll think about my father.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yeah. But right now, I need a shower. Have a good night, Haley.” I waved and hurried away before she could invite me to have dinner with her or something.

Yes, that was a bitchy move, but I didn’t mean it that way. I had a limited capacity for people on any given day, and some days my capacity was the size of a thimble. On a good day, it was closer to a bathroom cup. Haley? I don’t think she had a unit of measure. She was one of those people who was blessed with the gift of communication and was never at a loss for words. It made it easy to be friends with her, but exhausting when it was a thimble day.

It was definitely a thimble day.

I let myself into my apartment and let out a breath. My apartment was my sanctuary. When Piper lived with me, my room was my space to decompress and let out all my emotions, but since she moved out a few years ago, the entire apartment became mine.

And in under two weeks, that would change again.

“Ugh.”

I shook my head and stepped away from the door. I locked it and pushed away from the door, tugging my tee over my head as I walked toward my room. I tossed my dirty clothes in the hamper in my bathroom and turned on the shower as hot as it would go. Steam filled the space as I tried to think of what I’d eat for dinner.

Takeout would be nice, but that would mean talking to someone. Maybe there was a frozen meal somewhere in the back of my freezer.

I stepped under the hot stream of water and let it wash the day away. Something crusty was in my hair, hopefully leftover grout and not something from the garbage disposal I replaced first thing that morning. I scrubbed my hair twice, just in case, then dragged conditioner-coated fingers through my hair, working it to the ends.

I leaned against the wall of the shower and sighed. My bathroom needed a remodel, too, but not when my dad was there. I had a two-bed-two-bath apartment, but there was no way in hell I was going to share a bathroom with my father.

Shaking free of the thoughts, I finished my shower and dried off. I wrapped my hair in a towel and grabbed my fuzzy robe. I’d worry about clothes before I went to bed.

I lucked out with one frozen dinner left. While it heated up, I found a sappy rom-com that I knew would leave me in tears, but it was a happy cry kind of night. Happy tears were better than sad or frustrated tears.

After the movie, and the tears, I tossed my plastic tray in the recycling and put myself to bed. Tomorrow was another day, and I would only be ready for it if I got lots of sleep.

“Sofia! Sofia!”

I rolled over and groaned. Weird dream. Piper was calling me.

My bedroom door burst open. “Sofia! Are you okay?”

I jerked upright, looking around my room to figure out what the hell was going on.

Piper sat on the edge of my mattress, her gaze assessing and concerned.

“What are you doing here?”

“The new tenant moved in today.”

I nodded. “Yeah. He’s supposed to be here at ten to sign the paperwork.”

“It’s noon, Sof.”

“What?” I threw the covers back and jumped up, making Piper jump at the same time.

“I already met with him,” Piper said, stalling my frantic movements.

“You met with him?” My brain was fuzzy, like I went on an all-night bender. Except I knew I hadn’t. What the hell?

“He was staying at the Inn last night. When he checked in, he mentioned he was renting a place, and we ended up talking. He’s really nice. Cute, too.”

“You’re married.”

“Happily. But you’re single.”

“And not interested.”

Piper sighed. “Are you feeling okay?”

I shook my head. “Just frazzled. So, you gave the new tenant his keys yesterday?”

Piper shook her head. “When he checked out, he said he was on his way here to meet with you. He called when you weren’t around. Said he called and texted you, even knocked on your door, but you never answered.”

I shook my head. It was not like me to sleep through my alarm. At all.

“Are you okay? You’ve been out of it lately.”

I looked up at my best friend and knew I needed to tell her everything. The guilt was eating me alive, and she would find out soon enough anyway.

“My dad is coming here in two weeks.”

“Your dad?” she blurted. Piper knew the significance. Mostly, at least.

I nodded, the fringes of my hair getting in my face. I pushed them back and searched for a hair tie. “He called a few weeks ago. Wanted to come see me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I laughed mirthlessly. “You know why.”

“Because you didn’t think he’d actually show up.”

I nodded. It wasn’t the first time my dad said he was going to come visit. But this time, he had flight arrangements and a rental car. Not that he couldn’t cancel both, but it was more than he’d done before.

“And you think he’s actually coming this time? Where is he staying?”

“With me.”

“And then I added this new tenant and made the time before crazier, and eliminated your escape. Shit, Sof. I’m so sorry.”

I shrugged. I finally found a hair tie and wrapped my loose blonde locks into a ponytail. “It’s fine. You didn’t know. And he still might not show up. But I’ve just been a little all over the place lately.”

“I can understand. Well, don’t worry about the new tenant. Gavin made sure the apartment was all set up. The cleaning crew did a great job, and the movers had everything loaded in as soon as the cleaners were finished. The apartment is fully furnished and Daniel is moving his stuff in now.”

“Now?”

Piper nodded. “Yes, which means you’re fine to relax.”

“I should go apologize to him.”

“Gavin apologized and explained this isn’t like you. Everything is fine. I’m sure you’ll meet him soon. And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.” She leveled me with a look that said she saw through my attempt to get out of the conversation we needed to have.

I scowled at my best friend and accepted that I owed her better than I’d been giving her lately. “Fine. But I have no food, and I’m starving.”

“As it happens, I know where we can find some food. Just Tacos?”

She knew how to get me. My stomach rumbled in response, and Piper chuckled.

“Get dressed and we’ll go. You can tell me all about dear old dad’s impending visit.”

I cringed. There was so much to tell her. And I was out of time. She needed to know the whole story.

I just didn’t want to tell it.

Piper’s tacos sat on her tray, untouched and forgotten. My story was that good.

Or bad, depending on your perspective.

“Okay, wait. So, your dad is a famous musician. Your mom had a fling with him on the road one night, and you were the product of that one-night stand.”

I nodded. “Yep. He denied it, refused to give her anything. When I started middle school, something changed. I’m not really sure what, but maybe he grew a conscience or found religion or something. Anyway, he started coming around. Said he was sorry. Agreed to a paternity test. Set up a custody agreement that included back payments for child support.”

“Wow. That’s kind of impressive.”

“I guess. My mom never spent that money. She saved it for me. Wanted me to have it. She was angry, and hurt. She was doing her best to take care of me. The night she died, she was going from her day job to her night job and was hit by a drunk driver. Since I was only fourteen, the state made me go live with my dad.”

“On the road?” Piper confirmed.

“Yep. There was proof he was my father, but only a few people knew who I was.”

“Was it fun? To be on the road and tour with a band?”

I thought back to that time. My feelings around it were so muddled that I wasn’t sure I could answer that question without telling her the rest.

“At times, yeah. The first year, I was pretty lost in my grief over losing my mom. She was my best friend, and going from having her there to having her stolen from me was hard. I was nasty to my dad. Our relationship was tentative at best anyway, and I didn’t make it easier.”

“I would think that’s how almost anyone would have handled what you went through.”

“Maybe. After a year, I got some help. One of the guys got married. His wife was really sweet. She and I would spend time together. She’d lost her mom when she was young, too, and she helped me to heal. She also helped me to see that I was treating my dad as the bad guy instead of accepting that he messed up and was trying to be there for me.”

“She sounds pretty great.”

“Maddie was amazing. I don’t think I would have survived without her. When I turned seventeen, Maddie had a baby, though, and she stopped touring as much. I was still in school, so I had to go with them. I couldn’t stay home alone as a minor. That’s where I met Nate Catalan.”

As predicted, Piper’s brows shot up. “You know Nate Catalan?”

I pursed my lips into a smile. “I knew him. Or, I thought I did.”

“What happened?”

“I fell victim to the oldest trick in the book. The starstruck kid falls for the sexy, alluring rocker and gets her heart broken.”

“I feel like there’s a lot more to the story than that.”

I laughed. “So much more. We were kids. He was eighteen. He joined the tour as a backup singer for one of the opening acts. But it was obvious he was going to be a star. He had that presence that everyone knew would make him famous eventually. And he liked me.”

The sourness of that time in my life turned my stomach. The regret and pain and hatred seeped into my bones.

“What happened?” Piper asked softly. She lifted her taco and took a bite.

I watched as a piece of chicken slowly tipped over and fell from her taco. It hit the tray with a soft splat. “I fell in love with him. I thought he felt the same. He was my first, and I was sure we were building a life together.”

“But?”

“But on my eighteenth birthday, the night we were going to tell my dad about us, I caught him with someone else.”

“No.”

I nodded. “He tried to tell me she didn’t mean anything. That all the guys screwed other women all the time. That it was just a part of being on the road and I would have to get over it if we were going to be together.”

“What an asshole,” Piper breathed.

“He wasn’t wrong, though. I’d been on the road long enough to know how it was. No one was faithful. Maddie never came back to the tour because she knew what she’d find. She was bitter and angry the next time we talked. Anyone who tried to settle down with any of them were the same.”

“Oh, Sofia.”

I drew a breath and let it out slowly, willing the pain to go with it. “I left after that leg of the tour. My dad no longer had an obligation to keep me there. He said he wanted me to stay, but it was too hard for me.”

“You were heartbroken.”

I nodded. “I was. And I was stupid because I fell in love with a man who would never love me back. He was a great actor. Talented and smart and magnetic. All the things that are said about him now.”

“Well, I’ll never watch another one of his movies or go to one of his concerts.”

“He’s one of your favorite actors,” I said, knowing she’d never stick to it.

“Not anymore. Not now that I know what he’s really like.”

“It was more than twenty years ago,” I said.

“Once an asshole, always an asshole. I just wish I’d known. All the times I begged you to watch one of his movies with me.”

“I was so ashamed. I hated myself for falling for his lies and for believing he cared about me. But when my dad shows up…”

“You’re not going to be able to hide everything. And you know I’m not going to judge you. We all fall for someone we shouldn’t at some point in time. There’s nothing we can do about that.”

“I’m just happy I was never part of his behind-the-scenes stories or something. I was hidden. But that’s part of why my relationship with my dad isn’t better. He never understood why I left like I did.”

“You never told him?”

I shook my head. “He knew parts of it, but I don’t think he ever really understood the whole story. Nate was a friend before we started seeing each other. My dad was the one that introduced us. When it ended, I was just his ex. I had no claim to him, and even if I did, what difference did it make? I asked my dad to kick him off the tour, but he didn’t. I told my dad I couldn’t be around Nate anymore and that it didn’t make sense for me to stay on the road with him when I was a legal adult. He didn’t try very hard to change my mind.”

“Shit,” Piper whispered. “I’m still baffled I never knew any of this. I never knew your dad was famous, or that you dated Hollywood royalty.”

“I wish none of it were true. I wish I were just an ordinary person who lived in a small town and no one knew me at all.”

“Well, your secret is safe with me. As far as anyone else knows, that’s exactly who you are.”

“Until my dad shows up. Then everyone will know.”

Piper scowled. She knew I was right. And that there was nothing I could do about it.