Beautiful Abyss (California Dreamers #3) (10 page)

No. Everything about her turns me on. A lot.

Just as I’m about to kiss her there’s a knock on the door. It startles both of us.

It’s late, and I know she’s not expecting anyone, so I get up and head to the door with her just in case. You can’t be too safe.

After she looks through the peephole she lets out a huge sigh. “Shit.”

“Who is it?”

After a long pause she says, “Dex.”

Her asshole ex. What is he doing here?

“I have to get it,” she tells me. “Sorry.”

She only opens the door a crack. Is it because she doesn’t want him to see me? That puts me on edge.

“What are you doing here?” I’ve never heard her be so short with anyone. Abby seems to be sweet with everyone except her ex.

“Spring Break,” he announces.

“Sadie’s asleep already,” she tells him. “It’s nearly eight.”

“I didn’t come here to see Sadie.”

“It’s not a good time,” she tells him.

He laughs.
What a prick
. “It’s your aunt and uncle’s date night. That’s always a good time.”

Without giving her a chance to respond he pushes his way into the house. Luckily I’m right there to meet him in the entryway.

The look of shock on his face is priceless. For several moments his jaw moves up and down but no words come out.

There’s a reason they invented the word
douche
: for guys like Dex.

I have no idea what she found attractive about the guy. He looks like a rat. He has little rat eyes and a pointy rat nose. The only thing he’s missing is a tail. Or maybe it’s hiding in the cargo shorts he’s wearing.

“Who are you?” He points a finger at me. He’s got the smallest hands I’ve ever seen on a guy. And you know what they say about guys with small hands.

Little hands, little heart.

Apparently there are other parts of his body that are supposed to be small as well. I don’t know. I don’t go around comparing dick sizes with other guys.

No one has ever complained about my package, and that’s all that I care about.

“Who are you?” I fire back at him just to see what he’ll do.

He crosses his arms in front of him. The guy couldn’t even intimidate a rat if he tried. We’re the same height, but Dex is a skinny thing. He’d blow away in storm if he wasn’t tied down.

“I’m…I’m…” he stammers. What is he going to say? He’s not Abby’s boyfriend. I wouldn’t even call him her lover. He’s the father of her child and an occasional fuck. That’s it.

I raise an eyebrow and glare at him as I wait for him to do more than sputter.

“This is Dex,” Abby says finally. “Sadie’s dad.”

“Dex, this is Chris Rhodes.” I deflate a little when she doesn’t call me her boyfriend. I realize we haven’t been together that long, but we have been intimate with each other.

“What is he doing here?” Dex directs his question at Abby.

“We’re dating.” I grab Abby’s hand and lace our fingers together just to piss the prick off even more.

I’m extremely happy when Abby gives my hand a squeeze. She just as easily could have pulled away. That would have been embarrassing.

Dex’s nostrils flare. Then he jabs one of this little girl fingers at Abby. If he gets any closer to her with that finger of his I’ll shove it somewhere else for him.

“Are you fucking him?”

Abby gasps in horror. As much as I want to slug the asshole he’s such a dick that he’d probably call the cops on me. Even though they say all publicity is good publicity I don’t really think getting arrested would help me land the acting job I’m up for.

“Dude.” I snap my finger in his face to get his attention. “I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”

His little rat eyes narrow until they almost disappear into his ugly rat face. The guy is so angry I can actually feel the heat being released from his body. Did he think Abby was just supposed to wait around while he had his fun at college and then be thankful for the scraps when he came home on his breaks and felt like fucking her?

“I’ll always be Sadie’s father,” he barks.

When I laugh in his face he turns red with rage. I can actually see the veins in his neck bulge.

“You have no idea what it means to be a father,” I bite back. “If you really cared about Sadie you wouldn’t have run off to Yale to go to college. You could stayed here and gone to UCLA or USC and actually helped to raise your daughter. If you had stepped up to the plate and shared the responsibility of taking care of Sadie, Abby probably could have gone to college too.”

His mouth is now gaping, and I’m not even close to being done with the asshole.

“She said she didn’t want to go to college,” he mutters.

“For a guy who is supposed to be so smart, are you that stupid?”

He starts to blink really fast, like he’s confused.

“Every time she talks about college she sounds like she’s talking about the best ice cream in the world that she’s been craving for years, but just can’t have. Of course she wants to go to college. She just doesn’t know how to make the dream a reality because you bailed on her and she has to raise your daughter on her own.”

“You’ll never be Sadie’s father.”

I really want to slap the smug look off the guy’s face, but I decide to hit him with words instead. It’s time for the final blow. “You’re right. I wasn’t the sperm donor. But I’m here now, which is more than I can say for you. I never knew my biological father. He took off and I was raised by my step-dad. He’s the one I call my father, not my sperm donor. I’m not going to lie and say that my step-dad was the best parent in the world, but he never abandoned me. He was right there with my mom every step of the way. I consider him a real man, which is more than I can say for you.”

All of the color has drained out of Dex’s face. He looks like a ghost. He swallows before he says, “Maybe I’d better go.”

“Do what you do best,” I tell him just to kick him when he’s down.

He doesn’t say anything else. He just turns and walks out the door.

Abby is quiet for a few really long moments. Then she puts her arms around me and gives me a big hug.

“I had no idea…”

“You don’t have to say anything.”

“Dex is kind of a jerk, isn’t he?”

“The guy is seriously
diluted
.”

She raises an eyebrow. “
Delusional
?

“Exactly.”

“Did you really mean everything you said to him?”

“Every word.”

“I can’t make Dex something he’s not and probably never will be. I guess I just realized that.”

“I know it’s not an easy pill to swallow. For years I thought my bio dad would come back for me. I think I was ten before I finally accepted the fact that he was never coming back and that he really didn’t care about me.”

“Do you ever think about him?”

I shrug. “Sometimes. It’s more curiosity than anything else. I found him on Facebook. He sells insurance in San Jose.”

“Did you ever think about contacting him?”

“Nope. I figured if he wanted me in his life he’d figure out a way to find me.”

“What are your mom and step-dad like?” she asks.

I give her a quick kiss. “You sure have a lot of questions.”

“I don’t mean to grill you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. I guess I’m just not used to it.”

“No girls have asked you stuff about yourself before?”

I shake my head. “No. Definitely not.
Should we use your condoms or mine
has been the extent of my conversations with women.”

She places her hand on my face. “That’s sad.”

“It is what it is,” I tell her. “But what we have is different.”

“How so?”

I try to swallow, but my throat has tightened. “I’m here for the long haul,” I somehow manage to get out.

“I don’t think you should say that until you really know what you’re getting into,” she tells me.

“I have a pretty good idea.”

She kisses my cheek. “I appreciate everything you’re trying to do. But you don’t have to pick up the pieces of my broken life because Dex isn’t willing to do it.”

“I want to be here for you. And I want to be here for Sadie.”

“It’s a lot more than feeding her applesauce,” she says pointedly.

“I know that. And I know I’m not an expert on babies. Hell, I don’t know anything about babies. I don’t actually know much about anything other than football and acting…”

“You know about sex,” she interrupts.

“Okay. I’m an expert on sex. That’s true.”

She laughs. “And you’re so modest.”

“My point is that I’m willing to learn whatever I need to know so I can be with you and Sadie.”

She gnaws on her bottom lip for several seconds before she replies. “The reason I haven’t dated anyone since Dex left for school is because I was afraid having a baby in the mix would be too much for most guys to handle.”

“Were you just going to wait to date until Sadie turned eighteen and left home?”

“I was going to wait until she was a little older. Or until I was a little older and it would make sense to date guys with kids. Not many nineteen year olds have children.”

“And some don’t bother to take responsibility for them.” I know it’s mean to get a jab in at Dex while he’s not here to defend himself. But even when he was here he didn’t really defend himself so I don’t feel too bad about the insult.

“My point is that even when I tried to dissuade you from dating me, you wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“That’s because I’m not
detergent
.”

Abby finds this hilarious. She laughs so hard she actually snorts. “You’re not
easily deterred
?”

“That’s exactly what I said.”

She kisses me. “Do you still want to watch the movie?”

I never actually cared about watching the chick flick. “Not unless you do. Did you have something else in mind?”

“We could make out on the couch like teenagers?”

“You are still a teenager,” I remind her.

She grins. “Exactly.”

***

The sound of my cellphone ringing wakes me up. When I reach for it on my nightstand a book falls off my chest. I must have fallen asleep reading the book Abby loaned me:
The Big Fat Everything Baby Book
. 

The book is very fat.
Massive
. And it does seem to have everything you’d ever want to know about babies, and even stuff you don’t want to know. The person who wrote it wasn’t lying with that title.

“This is Marta Myers. The casting director for
All About Ava
.”

My heart starts to beat wildly. This is it. I have to get this part.

“We’d like to call you in for a reading with the actress whose been cast in the leading role.”

“Great,” I somehow manage to say even with my incredibly dry throat.

She gives me the details for the callback. It’s this afternoon.

This is it. My big break. I know in my heart I’m going to get this part. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because I know how unpredictable show business can be. But if the show does well, and they like me, it could mean a steady paycheck.

I could do a lot to help Abby and Sadie with that kind of money.

I read online that Mae Russell was cast as Ava. It was big news. She’s the new Hollywood
it girl
. I’ve got to do whatever it takes to impress her and impress the casting director.

Mae Russell has dark hair and dark eyes like I do. I don’t have siblings so I have no idea how much a brother and sister are supposed to look alike.

Once I’m dressed and ready for the day I head into the kitchen with my baby book. Maybe I can get a little reading in while I eat breakfast.

Nellie and Roscoe are already seated at the kitchen table eating toast and drinking coffee when I enter.

“You’re up early,” Nellie observes.

“And you’re reading a book?” Roscoe adds, obviously surprised.

“I have a callback for the MTV show this afternoon and I want to get ready for it.”

“Is the show about a baby?” Nellie points to the book in my hands.

“No, this is a book Abby loaned me so I could learn more about parenting Sadie.”

Nellie and Roscoe eye each other. Then Nellie says, “Are things moving that quickly with Abby?”

Not as quickly as I’d like, but I don’t tell Nellie that. I don’t want to tell anyone because they’ll think I’m nuts. I’d marry Abby in a heartbeat if I could. That’s weird because before I met Abby I didn’t think I’d ever get married.

“Do you think I look like Mae Russell?” I ask.

“That’s a random question,” Roscoe replies.