Chapter One
Mason
Before
“Hey, bud, you awake?”
I felt him in my room, but I sure as shit wasn’t ready to open my eyes. I’d had a long-ass night.
“Hey? Can you hear me? Wake your punk-ass up.”
Yeah, I could hear him. The music in my headphones had paused itself a few hours ago. Reluctantly, I opened one eye. I knew he wasn’t going anywhere until I acknowledged him.
“I’m up.”
“When did you get into town? And why are you sleeping with your Beats on?” He put his hands on his hips. “Are we going through another emo phase? Because I have to tell you, the first one was annoying as fuck.”
I snorted out a laugh as I sat up in my bed. “No. I’m wearing my Beats because even through the headphones the sound of my incredibly hot stepmother screaming, Don’t stop. Fuck me harder, was giving me a chub.”
My father made a face and looked down at my crotch. “You didn’t rub it out, did you?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. I tried for a good ten minutes to remind my traitorous dick that it was my old man fucking her like that. But when that didn’t work I called a friend to come over.” I paused when my dad held out his fist for a bump. I obliged because he was right. I was a boss. “She couldn’t stay the night though, and I was terrified of a round three. Hence the Beats.”
He nodded. “Which friend? Was she any good?”
I shrugged. “She was okay. Got the job done. Definitely not the best I’ve ever had.”
“There was a round three, but it was in the shower.” He winked.
“Nice.” I put my headphones on my nightstand and stood, stretching my arms over my head. When I said “Nice” I really meant it. My stepmom was gorgeous, inside and out. I gave mad props to my dad for not only landing her, but for being a haus in the sack. If I could still make a girl scream like that twenty years from now, I’d consider myself lucky.
“I thought you weren’t coming into town until tonight. Isn’t your gig at the pier tomorrow?” He plopped down on the armchair in the corner of my massive suite, and I picked up my old guitar and turned on the amp I’d bought the last time I was at home.
“Yeah, but I have to leave the morning after. Since I haven’t seen you guys in a while I thought I’d come in early and surprise you.” I sent him an evil smile. “Good thing I didn’t bust into your bedroom and jump on your bed like I used to.”
He chuckled. “I would have laughed my ass off. Katie would have had a heart attack.”
Understatement coming: my dad and I have an interesting relationship. He’s a hella famous movie star, has been doing big-budget films since he was seventeen. That’s when he met my mom, and they boned in his trailer on a movie set, producing me. They were never together, not really.
I grew up spending all of my time with my dad. We’re tight. Me and my mom? Not so much. She’s pretty self-absorbed and annoying as fuck. She doesn’t really want anything to do with me, unless it’s to talk to the press about how instrumental she was to my success as a musician. Which she wasn’t. At all.
“Speaking of M Kat, where is she?” That was what I called my stepmom, M Kat. For Momma Kate.
“Getting dressed.”
M Kat was the light of both our lives. She and I had clicked instantly, which was not what I had expected when my dad told me he met someone. It had been just him and me for nearly fifteen years.
At first I was afraid some gold-digging whore had gotten her claws into him. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. M Kat was an ER nurse who’d worked on my dad after he broke his leg doing one of his own stunts. She’s six years younger than him, and only eleven years older than me. She was the voice of reason around this place, and loved my dad so fully it made me blush sometimes.
“Johnny?”
He winked at me, in a watch this kind of way. “I’m in Mason’s room, baby. Come say hi.”
I could imagine the wheels spinning in her head as she made her way across the house. “Mason? He’s home already? When, uh, when did he get in?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. She was going to turn three shades of red.
“I came in last night.”
She appeared in the doorway, came across the room, then threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tight. She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed me back so she could look at me. “Last night, huh?”
I grinned. My dad cleared his throat. “Yeah, he heard you.”
There it was. Red as a beet. “Oh, uh, Mace…I didn’t, we didn’t—”
I held up my hands. “No worries.”
“He had a friend come over and take care of the little problem your screams caused in his pants.” My dad loved to give M Kat a hard time. And the fact that she had a stepson who could be her younger brother? Gave us lots of ammo.
“Little problem?” I shook my finger in his face. “No way, old man. It was a large and—”
“You two are impossible.” M Kat let out a borderline irritated sigh. “Mason, I’m sorry for what you heard, we had no idea you were coming home last night. I’m sorry.” Turning on my dad, she scrunched her nose as she warned-asked, “And instead of fist bumping your twenty-year-old son, like I know you did, how about you being a parent and asking if he was careful? Used protection? Made her sign a nondisclosure agreement?”
My dad and I started laughing. “Babe, you are so funny sometimes. The parenting ship sailed years ago with me and Mace.”
I played a few chords on my guitar. “He’s right. That’s what we have you for.”
She was a mom through and through. Even though she didn’t have any kids of her own, she was the only actual adult in this house. She and my dad had been married for four years now, but they’d been together for five.
M Kat was the one who made sure I did my homework, and was who I called to let them know where I was and if I made it safely. She actually cooked for us and made us sit down at the table to eat together.
She did all the things that neither of my bio parents ever bothered to try. Which was why I adored her. And missed her like crazy now that I was living up in New York.
“And speaking of being careful. Are you two? Three rounds in one night? Am I going to end up being a big brother? Twenty years older than my little bro?” They looked at each other and smiled. That sappy ridiculous smile that made you want to vomit. “What? Wait. Are you—?”
“I’m pregnant.” M Kat was beaming, her smile rivaling the sun. My dad stood and put his arms around her, letting his hands rest on her stomach.
“Are you serious?” I stuttered.
He nodded. “Twelve weeks today.”
I started to smile, and was sure I looked as goofy as they did. “Oh my God, congrats, guys.” I put my arms around both of them. I was going to be a big brother. I was only kidding before. Never in a million years had I thought they wanted a baby. I knew it sounded stupid, but I was so damn happy. “Why didn’t you tell me? How are you feeling? Is it a boy?” I released them then sat back down on my bed.
My dad went back to his chair and pulled M Kat down onto his lap as he said, “We wanted to wait until you were home so we could tell you in person.”
She nodded. “Your dad wanted to call you right away, but I wanted you to be here, to be home. And it’s a girl, we just got the results in from our blood test yesterday.”
My smile grew. “It’s a girl.” I was going to have a tiny little baby sister. My heart swelled, which was entirely unexpected. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life helping you protect her from assholes like me.”
And an asshole I was. I wasn’t really what you could call a one-woman kind of man. I’d had starlets throwing themselves at me since I was thirteen.
And let me tell you, I partook.
A lot.
My dad’s face turned serious. “She’s not allowed out of this house until she’s thirty.”
“You two are going to be ridiculous. My poor daughter isn’t going to find a guy alive that you would approve of.” M Kat got to her feet. “Who’s hungry?”
“Me.” My dad stood up and guided her out of my room with his hand on her ass. Horndog. “I’ll help.”
I followed them out. “Since when does Dad help in the kitchen?” This I had to see.
M Kat laughed. “He hinders more than he helps, but he’s learning.”
I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my dad and M Kat. We ate brunch and then lay out by the pool.
I missed the Texas heat. I knew that sounded insane, but I really did. New York had four seasons, which were beautiful, but I was used to two. Hot as hell and cold as fuck.
Why Texas when my dad was a totally top A-lister? He wanted to raise me away from Hollywood, which was about the only parenting skill he got right. I grew up near South Padre Island on a badass, fully functioning ranch.
Dad traveled a lot for work, and when he was on location somewhere cool, he’d bring me with. After seeing the biz from the inside, I never wanted to follow in his footsteps. Although I’d had plenty of offers to give it a shot, not to mention more than one modeling request.
But that just wasn’t who I was. I picked up a guitar on the set of some rock and roll biopic when I was six, and I hadn’t put it down since.
I used a made-up last name and threw myself into my music. I wanted to get to the top on my own, not for who my parents were. And after thirteen years of playing, I finally got my big break. I’d signed with RiffRaff Records, and they were the cream of the crop.
It was just me, my guitar, and my amp. That’s how I played live. I worked with different lyricists, but all the tunes came from my brain.
I was damn proud of where I was and of how I got there. I was a sexy twenty-year-old musician with money coming in and a trust fund the size of the thousand-acre ranch I grew up on.
Life was good.