Fake Daddy ( Single Brothers #2) Read online

  Fake Daddy

  By

  Stephanie Brother

  © 2017 Stephanie Brother

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

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  Fake Daddy is a 25,000 word novella, suitable for 18+ readers.

  About Fake Daddy…

  A play date for my nephew and play time for me. Pretending to be a daddy seemed like the perfect solution.

  Olivia, my sister asked me to check out a new preschool. She couldn’t get the time off work. I went along thinking that it would be boring, Joshua was only six-months he wasn`t going to get a thrill from the preschool tour.

  That was until, I saw her sea blue eyes, long legs, and blonde hair. Ivy was a hot temptress, and from the moment I found out that she was a single mom. All of a sudden preschool started to get interesting.

  A play date for Joshua and play time for me in the bedroom.

  Being a fake daddy was going to work out for the pair of us, in more ways that one…

  Author’s Note:

  Chad is Noah’s best friend from the novella, Single Daddy. Book 1 doesn’t need to be read in order to enjoy Book 2. They are both standalone novellas. This novella is short and steamy with enough sexiness for you to enjoy.

  Chapter One

  Chad

  Fuck, why are strollers so fucking hard to control?

  I thought that with modern technology they would have made them easier, not fucking impossible. I bet my sister, Olivia, paid a small fortune for this fucking monstrosity. I was an IT guy, I built apps, developed programs, but that was fucking easy compared to trying to fold or unfold a stroller.

  “Do you need a hand?”

  A guy asked, as I parked outside the preschool for the last ten minutes trying to figure out how to unfold the stroller so I can take my nephew around in peace. I could just hold him. I had the carrier, but as I looked at that in the back, I decided that was just as fucking complicated as trying to unfold the stroller. When Olivia handed it to me, I told her that I wasn’t going to put myself in that straight jacket. Besides, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with Joshua being strapped to me. He was safer in a stroller. If I could fucking unfold the damn thing. Besides I was only an uncle, not a dad. Noah had taken on the role like a duck to water. He could write a book on it, along with Martin. They acted as if they couldn’t breathe if they didn’t know everything there was to know about being a dad. It was like a fucking disease with those two. They fed off each other about the latest bottle warmer, stroller and anything else that came out and they just had to fucking get it!

  “I could do with a hand. These things are so fucking complicated,” I sighed and he looked at me in horror as if I had just spit on his fucking shoes.

  Fucking parents, they hate cursing and anything that’s in line with the real world. I bet he’s already regretting trying to help me out. One button, one swift foot movement and the stroller unfolded so fucking easily. It was like watching Bumblebee from the Transformers change from a car to a robot.

  “It’s easy when you know how to do it.”

  He said it with a smug smile. And then he left my side to join his wife or girlfriend, whatever she was to him. The blonde version of a Stepford wife was covering her baby’s ears. As if he heard or even understood what I said earlier.

  I nodded and said, “Thanks.”

  He didn’t wait for my reply, as with the rest of the parents they started to head into the preschool like a colony of ants as if their lives depended on it. I stood watching them, forgetting that I was early when I came and now I had a feeling that I was late.

  “Shit!”

  I looked at my watch and realized that I was no longer thirty minutes early. If anything, it was nearly five minutes until the damn tour started and I said that I would help Olivia out today and do the tour of the preschool.

  I suspected that she asked me because she was desperate. I wasn’t exactly daddy material, but she had it in her head that it would create a good impression for Joshua to see the place now. He was only six months old. I tried getting him to sit up last week and got bored watching him fall back about five times. I knew he wasn’t interested and as much as I love looking into his brown eyes and hoping that his smile was a result of us playing together. I knew that the only time he did smile was when he saw a bottle of milk. That was the only time that I saw him giggling and waving his chubby legs up in the air, ready to take his bottle.

  I didn’t understand the whole thing, they’re only babies. It was as if society put so much fucking pressure on parenthood these days. All Joshua needed was a bottle of milk to make him happy. I heard the way Kylie and Noah talked about Richard, it was as if he was ready for college. They had a fucking map and once in a while they would consult Candy about it. She would simply nod her head and agree with them. She had no fucking choice. Every time I tried to talk to any of them about the pressure that they’re putting these poor babies, through, they would quote the same fucking line like robots, “The children are our futures. We need to make sure that we look out for their futures. Or we are all doomed.”

  I grabbed Joshua in my haste and locked the door of the jeep. I was desperate to make a good impression seeing as I was taking tomorrow’s child around the preschool. I needed to make sure the six-month old was ready to sleep in a different place while I showed him his future. I couldn’t believe it as I strapped him in and started to head towards the doors.

  Everyone had a fucking carrier, I was the only one with a baby in a stroller. It didn’t take long for the pretty dark-haired lady to point out the obvious. She was wearing a polo shirt and her hair was tied in a bun so fucking tight, I swear her eyebrows were a replica of Dr. Spock. It was fucking frightening.

  “Hi, I’m Sandra Hope. The manager of The Hope School. I’m wondering if it’ll be easier for you if you leave the stroller in the car and you use a carrier like everyone else.”

  I nodded my head, thinking that I feel like leaving the stroller and just getting in the car.

  I fucking give up!

  The reality of why my sister asked me was starting to hit home. Mom was on her cruise. I paid for it because she was helping Olivia out full-time and she was exhausted, the stress lines were written all over her face. Olivia told me off and accused me of being selfish. How was sending our mom on a cruise being selfish? So, I promised to help her out as a result of my selfish act.

  I sighed and the woman whose husband was helping me with the stroller covered her baby’s ears as if she expected me to cuss again. I would do if I weren’t too busy thinking about how the fuck I was going to fold it again.

  I gave Doctor Spock’s sister a fake smile as I turned around to get the fuck out of here. I wanted to take ‘tomorrow’s child’ to the ice-cream parlor while I had an ice-cream cone and I would give him a couple bottles of milk. That would be his treat for going out for the day and I would be showing him h
is real future… eating ice-cream whenever it was too early to have a bottle of beer.

  “Come on Joshua, let’s put you in the carrier.”

  Doctor Spock’s sister ran after me, “Don’t worry about that. Look, I’ve got a spare carrier, you can just put him in that.”

  Again, I put on another fake smile as I looked at the straight jacket that was called a baby carrier.

  “You can just park the stroller over there so it’s out of the way.”

  I push the stroller to the door and I wasn’t looking where I was going, nearly bashing into another stroller.

  She was tall and had dark hair and sky blue eyes. If I wasn’t pissed I would have tried to flirt with her, but I was fucking tired and it was only nine. Shit, I bet the ice-cream store isn’t open yet. Too damn early for all this shit.

  I shook my head, “You can’t go in with strollers. I just wasted ten minutes trying to unfold mine.”

  “I just spent fifteen minutes with mine. But you’ve got the new Bugaboo Donkey Mono Stroller. Nice.” She’s nodding her head, while I stood here wondering if she was speaking English or that secret language parents speak. But then I realized, as we both moved to the side, that she was admiring the stroller from hell.

  “Yeah,” I stood so fucking close to her. Forgetting that I was here for Joshua and I was trying to make an impression.

  Sandra rushed up to us as the mystery sexy lady locked eyes with mine. We stood in the middle of the hallway, not thinking about the tour, but obviously thinking about what we could be doing instead. Shit, with those breasts, all of a sudden I felt like drinking fucking milk.

  “The pair of you are disrupting the tour. Can you just leave the strollers and hold the babies? I don’t have time for you to put on the carrier.”

  The sultry dark-haired woman who I was standing next to smiled. The same way that I was doing earlier… fuck it’s infectious.

  “Yes, we can do that.”

  Sandra clapped her hands, “good,” then turned to face the other parents. The same woman who’s husband helped me with the stroller was looking and tutting at me. God, she hated me and she didn’t even fuck know me.

  I smiled at the dark-haired woman and said, “Chad.”

  She nodded, “Ivy.”

  Even her name was fucking sexy. I was going to hate the tour, but now I had the impression that I was going to fucking love it. I had company. Not my baby nephew. But the hot seductress that was by my side. And her name was Ivy.

  Chapter Two

  Ivy

  I watched as he did everything wrong, from patting his son to winking at me every time that I passed by him. I knew that he was a bad boy from the moment my eyes cast over him. He had too many tattoos on his arm and even partly on his back. He was dressed for a night at a bar in his tight dark pants and shirt. He wasn’t in a shirt and tie like some of the dad’s that were on tour. They were dressed as if they were going for a job interview rather than going to see a preschool.

  Chad reminded me of the type of men that I should avoid like the plague. The type of men that I loved to attract and made me end up as a single mom. There was just one problem. I couldn’t get my eyes of his tight ass or his biceps every time he lifted up his son. He was sexy, even though he was completely confused by the trail of events.

  “Are we moving already?” He asked as soon as we were shown around the yard. He took the opportunity to sit down on one of the swings, and it would have been a nasty accident not only for him but his son, too.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as he caught his son and said, “Fuck!”

  More than one mom covered their baby’s ears.

  I whispered to him, “Is this your first preschool?”

  He sighed, “Yes, I’m a preschool virgin. Is it obvious?”

  I smiled at him, “Yeah, but it’s my first time, too.”

  I’m not a great liar at the best of times, but I can see the guy’s trying with his son. Which is more than can be said for my ex. The other couples are too busy frowning and being snobs about us single parents. Maybe I’ll cut him a deal. If we pretend to be a couple, then maybe both our kids would get into a good preschool.

  We’re given one of the breaks they tend to do on the tours. Sandra, the manager of the preschool, walked with such pride as she talked about everything in the preschool. She spoke about the calculus as if she was the one that invented it. My daughter, Hazel, has just managed to sit up and she’s nine months old. I doubt that she would be worrying about the calculus at the moment.

  I took this opportunity to grab his hand and ask the question. I wasn’t the most subtle person in the world, so I was worried that I would frighten him and he could drop his baby.

  “Hey, what about you and I pretend that we’re a couple?”

  “What?”

  He said, looking around as if we were in the middle of a crime scene and we were one of the suspects.

  “Everyone’s looking at us as if we have the plague or something. Maybe if we stop acting as if we’re single and go with the flow, our kids would have a better chance of getting into a preschool.”

  He turned around again as if he was completely confused about my offer.

  “But how do you know that they won’t get in?

  I shook my head, “Remember when we came in and we had to fill out the paper work?”

  He nodded as if I was talking about weeks ago when I was only referring to twenty minutes ago.

  “Yes, I thought that was a bit strange. Why didn’t they make us do it at the end?”

  “Exactly, they’re already sizing up who’s in and who’s out.”

  He held on to my hand in shock. His fingers were softer than I imagined and his touch was sending shivers down my spine, making me regret my offer. I was supposed to be staying away from bad boys, not getting close to them.

  “Yes!”

  It was my turn to be the one who needed to keep her cool as I moved my hand away from his. Except, I was acting as if I had the winning ticket for the lottery and all I wanted to do was kiss him. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what was coming out. I was getting too close. Not focused. I needed to get the hell out of here and away from Chad.

  “Ivy are you okay? You look kind of pale?”

  I was far from okay. The heat was rushing from my face to places it really shouldn’t be going in a preschool with both our kids in our arms.

  I nodded.

  “Anyway, sounds like we have to move again. When this is all over, I’ll give you my number. Then, we’ll meet up and come up with a better plan for the next tour.”

  Again, I nodded, but I wasn’t looking at his eyes. Face. Legs. Or even his biceps. My eyes were fixated on his butt. His pants were so tight, that all I wanted to do was squeeze his backside. I was having nasty thoughts at the worst place ever and all I wanted to do was leave.

  ***

  “Holy fuck, I thought that tour would never end!” Chad blurted out as we stood by my car. I had hoped that he’d forgotten about our little pact, we were too late to do it at this preschool, anyway. But, he kept insisting on holding my hand and pretending we were a couple, and when his hand went lower down my back, I didn’t move it. God! This is why I needed to stay the hell away from men like him.

  Hot men.

  Sexy men.

  Men that only wanted to fuck and leave me. That’s why I had Hazel, from a guy that used to call me as his booty call. I studied at Stanford, for crying out loud, and become a lawyer. Then came back to Granbury, Texas the moment that I found out I was pregnant and the only thing that my booty caller wanted was to send me child support. That was our agreement. He would send me child support, as long as I left him alone. That’s the only way I could afford to send Hazel to any preschool. I didn’t need to work as long as I kept my side of the bargain, which was to make sure that I never asked him for anything else.

  I worked because I went to law school and didn’t feel that I could be a full-time mom. I envied women who
could do that. I just knew that after six weeks of staying home when Hazel was born, I just wasn’t one of those women. So, I went out and got a job. Sure, I spend most of my time looking at contracts and making sure that the legal elements are in place, but I knew that it was better than being at home.

  “Chad, I think I made a mistake. I mean, Joshua’s only six months old Hazel’s nearly ten months. Maybe…,” I could feel him getting closer to me. I should have told him to stop, but he’d already brought the stroller over. Joshua was safely sleeping in it and I was getting closer to his dad.

  “Ivy, it’s a good idea. I think we should take them to the park and then we can talk about it properly. What do you say?”

  Hell no!

  “Sure, here’s my number.”

  There was something seriously wrong with me when it came to guys with dark hair and green eyes. I lost all senses when they had tattoos. As I told him my number,I knew this single dad could have me anytime he wanted and it scared me, much more than my booty caller. Chad had me from the moment he said my name. Whereas, my booty caller only had me every time that he dialed my number.

  Chapter Three

  Chad

  I felt as if I was on cloud fucking nine. I was singing to Joshua and doing all kinds of crazy shit. I even took him to the park. Sure, he couldn’t go on the swings, so I tortured him by holding him and scaring the shit out of him by being on the swings.

  I needed parenting lessons. I could go to Noah’s but I couldn’t deal with seeing him and Kylie. I was happy that my friend decided to grow some balls and go after the one girl he couldn’t get over since high school, but if I was going to save face, I didn’t want them to think that their infectious obsession with babies had rubbed off on me. If they gave me some lessons, they’d probably set up a fucking second date for future sessions. I wasn’t that keen to learn. Kylie doesn’t have long to go until they add another addition to the family. I’m sure that Richard loves the attention, but another addition would give him some breathing space. God knows he needed it with those two. Last week Kylie said, “He slept ten minutes more today then he did yesterday.”