Chapter 1
Kayla
It was time to visit Daniel, my stepfather. He had been messaging me for a couple weeks now, saying he needed to catch me up on some news from my mom. I had delayed visiting saying I needed to give notice to take vacation time from Greens, The Realtors I worked for. He was bound to know I was bullshitting him, he had never been a dumb ass. As I threw clothes into my suitcase, Haley, my roommate hovered in the doorway.
“I’m going to miss you, Kay. It’s going to be so weird being on my own in the apartment.”
“Hey, it’s only two weeks Haley. You can spend the time masturbating away as I won’t be here to listen to any rude noises. You can have a good scream.”
She rolled her eyes. Haley was used to my ways as we had lived together a while now. Up until a year ago, there had been three of us, but our other friend, Tiff, now lived next door with her husband, Brandon. I had taken over her share of the apartment, meaning I had two good sized bedrooms and my own bathroom. We still saw Tiff every Monday when we had our girls night where we ate good food, watched a movie and gossiped.
I had never told them much about my stepfather though. Or about my mom. They knew she had paraded me through a stream of Stepdaddy’s as she chased money. My mom couldn’t live her life without wealth and I had been an unfortunate incident for her. Her relationship, if you could call it that, with my father, had been the catalyst for all the drama that came after. He had left her penniless and she had sworn it would never happen again.
Out of all my stepfather’s, Daniel, who I had met when I was seventeen, had been the only decent one. The only one who had realised I existed, beyond being a hanger on. He had told me I always had a place at his home, and even after my mother had worked her way through most of his wealth and moved onto Chuck, the Stepdad that came after, he still reminded me I could stay anytime. I had never fully worked out my mom’s relationship with Daniel. They had never seemed hooked on each other like she had with some of them. Her public displays of affection with one or two had made me feel nauseous. Largely, through my life, I had kept my head down and done the best I could with my education, given the fact I was never at one school for very long before she had us on the move again. Once I turned eighteen, she had moved on once more and this time she told me she was done raising me and I was on my own now.
It wasn’t the shock it could have been. Like I said she had been absent most of my life anyway. I graduated and eventually started at Greens where I made my good friends and I never looked back. I’d had a couple boyfriends but no one special. The girls were used to my cocky manner about guys but to be truthful I was more talk and no action if you get me. I’d not had much experience, though I was no virgin. I was kind of jealous of my friend, Tiff. She had been enjoying a ménage the last year. That woman walked around the whole time like she still had a cock up her pussy. I swear she always wore a shit-eating grin. Jealous, me? You better believe I was.
Anyhow, I couldn’t put off visiting Daniel any longer as he had said my mom had been causing chaos again and he needed to update me. I had hoped she wasn’t hanging around for his money again as he had recently recovered his wealth, having had some of his art bought by a prestigious gallery. When I had first met him, when he and my mom hooked up, he was the owner of a string of tattoo parlors. He had secretly painted on canvas, using the talent that had drawn designs on clients, until he had finally got the guts up to show them to someone. They loved his work and taken a couple pictures to try in a gallery, where they had been bought by a collector the same day. He now had a new profession, which was great because my mom had nearly caused him to go bankrupt with his tattoo business.
I hadn’t stayed at Daniel’s much. Instead, a school friend’s mom had practically let me move in there, knowing my background with my own mom. No, I hadn’t stayed at Daniel’s very often for good reason.
I had always had a huge crush on my stepdad. There was no way I could have lived with him and my mom. If they had kissed I would have wanted to punch something. I knew that was stupid. Girls got crushes all the time. But Daniel was something else. He was ten years younger than my mom and had been twenty-eight when I first met him--eleven years my senior. He had dark shaggy hair back then and the darkest eyes. When he smiled he always looked sexy and goofy at the same time. His face all kinda crinkled up. He had these really plump cheeks when he smiled. I had always wanted to reach out and touch them. I was sure that whenever he spoke, heat rose in my cheeks. I guess that was when I had started to become the brash kind of Kayla because I hadn’t wanted to appear all young and innocent around him. I always felt he was trying to save me, you know? Always telling me I had a home with him, even after my mom almost ruined him. He had got this look in his eye like he hadn’t wanted me to lose touch and even though I had tried to cut contact with him over the following years he had never given up. Still texted, called, sent me birthday and Christmas cards and checks I never cashed. When I did visit I would do it on the way somewhere else and not stay long because I couldn’t. Being too close to him killed me. But now, I had to go and he had told me I would need to stay a while—at least a few days, so somehow I was going to have to work through this crush I had. I was twenty-four now. It had been six years since my mom had hitched a ride with her next victim. I had never seen or heard from her again, yet now she had done something that affected Daniel and me once more.
I zipped up my case and turned to the doorway. I had been so lost in thought, Haley had left. I went out to spend some time with her before I drove to Daniel’s. She was my best friend and I was gonna miss her while I was gone.
The drive to Port Jeff was less than a couple hours which made my lack of visits there even lamer I guessed. I swung into the large driveway of Daniel’s colonial. He was so lucky to have not lost this amazing property. His four bed, four bathroom home in Harbor Hills looked out over the waterfront and had its own private beach. I exited my car, leaving it in front of the double garage and walked to the front door where I rang the bell. After a couple minutes the door opened and Daniel stood there.
He looked as hot as ever and I felt
my cheeks burn again. Why was I so goddamn sensitive around him? His face broke out into his signature smile and he stepped forward and embraced me in his arms. The heat from his body enveloped me. I didn’t want to move, but he then outstretched those strong arms and looked me over.
“Hey there, Kayla. It’s good to see you. You look well.”
I half smiled at him, feeling uncomfortable.