Second Chance Baby (Crescent Cove #18)

Chapter 1

ONE

“Daddy? That woman is on the phone again. She said you’re late.” My daughter’s voice carried up the stairs.

I frowned and scrubbed my hands over my face. I’d been up for all of fifteen minutes and my muzzy brain was evidence of it. I dragged on shorts over my still damp skin.

I hurried down the stairs. “That woman? My agent?”

My almost eleven-year-old daughter Carrington shrugged and tossed her long blond hair. “Sure. Whatever.”

Whatever was her most often used word lately.

I grabbed the landline phone from her and sat on the arm of the couch. The landline was at the insistence of my mother, who said I needed one so Carrington didn’t think her iPhone was the center of the world. Good luck there. “Hi, Daphne.”

“You figured out it was me from her calling me ‘that woman’?” Daphne’s tone was rife with amusement.

“Everyone is ‘that woman’ to Care Bear. What’s up?”

“Did you forget the very important romance shoot was today? Well, the redux shoot?”

“No. I got in late from the city and crashed.” I stretched my arm behind my head, the popping joints reminding me I was too damn old for all this travel. “I just woke up. Forgot to set an alarm before I went to bed. At least I managed to shower.”

“That is a positive thing. Hey, listen, there’s been a little change. The model you were going to shoot with had something come up. So, they called in someone else. Someone well-versed in the industry. Honestly, she’s a total score. Still not sure how they snagged her at all. She’s usually booked out months.”

I was only half listening. I hadn’t had any coffee yet, and while I’d showered, it had been far too quick for me to lose the sleepiness still clouding my vision. And my thoughts.

Not to mention I needed to drop Carrington off at school before I headed to the historic Sherman Inn, the location of today’s shoot.

In previous years, my daughter had only been a part-time student in town because of my modeling career, but she had tutors. She’d spent more time in regular school this year than she usually did since my schedule had hugely slowed down. Mostly because I’d been taking less jobs on purpose. Carrington was getting to the age where she needed more guidance, which meant more days in school and fewer ones dealing with tutors.

And then there was the fact that I was reaching an age where I was too young to fall into the silver fox demographic and too old to be a young hottie. Or whatever the current lingo happened to be.

“Sounds good. Can you give me like an hour to get there? Gotta take my girl to school first.”

“Dammit, does that mean no Harley today?”

With a grin, I glanced over my shoulder at the bay window overlooking the wide lawn already strewn with colorful leaves. One of my neighbors was currently poking at one of my bushes, since okay, yeah, it was a little overgrown. I hadn’t had time to tackle the shrubbery—or to deal with the lawn—since I’d been gone for the better part of a month. “Yeah, and so does the fucking rain.” I took another look outside. “Though seems like it stopped now.”

The loud clearing of a throat made me cough. Care Bear always got on me when I slipped up and swore. “I mean, freaking.”

Daphne laughed. “C’mon, since when did a few raindrops slow down Hot Topic Travis?”

“Why did I ever tell you about that old nickname,” I muttered as Daphne laughed again. “See you in a bit.” I clicked off and gave my daughter a hard stare as she giggled. “What?”

“Hot Topic? Dad, you’re seriously lame.”

“And why are you listening to private phone calls, huh?”

“Not my fault she was talking so loudly. I didn’t intend to listen.”

I reached over to ruffle her wild curls. “Get your backpack. You’re gonna be late if we don’t get a move on.”

“Don’t blame me. I’ve been up. While you were still snoring,” she added, darting away as I reached for her. She darted upstairs to her room while I grumbled following her with a good-natured grumble, vowing to get her back later.

Good luck there.

Keeping up with Carrington was hard on a good day, never mind one where I’d maybe gotten five hours sleep max. I’d gotten in far too late last night since my mom was watching Care Bear here, so I hadn’t bothered to rush.

My kid had gone to sleep in her own bed under the watchful eye of her patient, loving, practically-a-saint grandma. It didn’t get much better than that.

I changed into more suitable clothes for a shoot, unsure if they’d provide a decent wardrobe. Knowing the hair and makeup people would be at me, I didn’t bother with anything else.

I made it downstairs barely a minute ahead of Carrington. She raced down the steps with her giant can headphones on, blasting music that I knew couldn’t be good for her ears at that volume. But I wasn’t new to this parenting game. “Hey, turn that up.” I mimed raising the volume until she rolled her eyes and raced outside to the truck, hopping into it before slamming the door.

I grabbed my keys and my wallet and followed. I watched her bopping her head to the music for a moment before I climbed into my truck and reversed out of the drive with a squeal of tires that made me wince.

Might not be new to the parenting game, but some habits were harder to break than others.

“Did you do your homework?” I asked before she could get on me for my driving. Which she loved to do.

Sometimes I went too fast, so sue me. A guy had to have some indulgences here and there, even if he was a dad. God knew I didn’t have any others lately, other than the occasional smoke I sneaked when Care Bear wasn’t around. But even so, she was the first thing I thought of when I woke and the last thought in my mind before I dropped off to sleep.

As it should be. Maybe my modeling career wasn’t bringing in the mondo bucks any longer, since the money was definitely less lately now that my work in commercials had dried up in recent months.

Hell, years if I was honest.

That was why I’d allowed Daphne to rope me into this book cover calendar deal. I’d shot both the book cover and the month I’d been assigned over the summer. It should have been a one and done, but then the woman I’d modeled with had lost her damn mind at a signing event, saying some truly awful things that sent her image into the crapper. So mine didn’t end up in the same place, we had to reshoot our month—and the book cover—with a new model.

Fast.

I didn’t even know who this mega star model was I was on tap to shoot with today, but the calendar was to benefit kids on the spectrum, so no matter what, we wanted to make sure the reputation of this project stayed above reproach. Whatever it took.

“Yes, Dad,” my daughter said in a long-suffering voice as she dragged her headphones down around her neck. “I did it right after school yesterday.”

“Great. Any notes I need to see?”

“No, Dad.” More long-suffering. “You just drove past the school,” she said patiently as I missed the turn off into the circular drive in front of the school.

I nearly swore again. At the last moment, my for fuck’s sake became fudge it , making Carrington let out a loud giggle.

“Nice save.”

“Thanks. I’m a little out of practice. Been a few weeks.”

This had been a relatively short shoot so I’d left Carrington in the care of my folks while I traveled on my own to Alaska then a bonus job on the way home. I tried not to lean on them too often, but my mother had encouraged me, telling me she wanted some one-on-one girl time since now her nest was very empty.

My baby sister, Maddie, the last Masterson kid at home, had moved out just about a year ago. She’d had a whirlwind romance while I’d been traveling for work. Now she was living in a big house on the lake with her extremely wealthy new husband, so my mom had been feeling a little at loose ends.

“Yeah, so stop working so much, Dad.”

“I’m definitely slowing down for the winter.” I pulled my truck to the curb and reached out to run a hand over her silky hair. “How do you feel about spending the next few months at home? In the Cove,” I clarified, since we weren’t the usual family always planted in one place.

She spent more time here than I did, that was for sure, but I often brought her on my longer shoots so I didn’t become a stranger. I tried to group projects together whenever possible for the same reason.

She already only had one parent in her life most of the time—other than her mother’s drop-ins every few months—and now that she was going to be a teenager sooner than later, I wanted to be more hands-on.

Here. In the Cove. In our home near the lake with my huge, awesome family just a few miles away.

“Oh, yeah? What about that movie you mentioned?” She undid her belt and shifted toward me on her seat.

“Didn’t get it.” I shrugged. “Acting isn’t my passion, just thought I’d try something new. I got a movie once without even trying so I figured why not, right?”

Something with a bigger paycheck I could stash away for our expenses for a while.

Yeah, well, that hadn’t worked out.

Back in my early modeling days, cash hadn’t been a concern. When I’d first landed on the scene, I’d been lucky enough to snag some high-profile jobs with big paydays. Big enough that I’d bought my house in the Cove so me and my girl would have a permanent home base. Now that the real estate market had blown up locally, my house had turned into a great investment.

Good thing, since the acting job I’d gone out for had ended up as a giant fail whale after my two auditions had resulted in a thanks but no thanks .

No big deal. There would be other jobs. Not sure I’d try acting again because I didn’t think I was a natural there, but there were always more commercials and other modeling jobs.

We were doing fine since I’d been born a saver and stashed way more than I spent. My agent made sure my contracts included a stipend for housing in whatever city I happened to land in for commercials or magazine layouts—or calendars, which was definitely a new experience for me—so I didn’t have to worry about shelling out for hotel rooms or Airbnbs out of my salary.

The thing was, if we needed, we could tap Carrington’s mom for some of her financial needs. Her mother was a big-time model who didn’t need to worry about money ever. Not with the contracts she’d landed in recent years. Vogue . Cosmo. Some indie film with a French title, then there were the splashy billboards in Times Square.

Though let’s be real. The day I’d lean on my ex for cash would be a cold day in hell. I didn’t even ask for child support for our daughter. We would get by just fine.

Carrington sighed. “You’re not listening to me. Know how I know? Your eyes glazed over like they always do when your mind wanders. Which is often.” She reached out to poke me in the chest, making me laugh and forget my money concerns.

Which weren’t even a big deal. I just wasn’t used to being turned down for jobs. That rarely happened to me.

Deal with it, sucker.

“Sorry. Stuff on my mind.”

“Important stuff?”

“No. Nothing I can’t handle. And I’m sorry we haven’t had a lot of time to talk lately. We’ll fix that this winter too,” I promised, ruffling her hair once more.

“No big. I was saying it’s already October. You said we’d decorate more this year. Like for the holidays.”

“Oh, yeah, right. We definitely will. But it’s kinda early for Christmas…” I trailed off as she rolled her eyes at me. “Now what did I mess up?”

“Hello, there are holidays to decorate for before Christmas.”

“Thanksgiving?” I was teasing her now. I knew she loved Halloween—and for that matter, we’d need to go shopping soon to get her a costume. One more thing on the list. I’d been working my ass off, which meant the days we spent together were basically busy from start to finish, just trying to keep up with our ever-expanding To Do list.

“No, not Thanksgiving. Halloween, silly. We’re already so behind. All the other houses are already decked out. Like every single one in our neighborhood practically.”

“Every one? That seems unlikely.”

“Whatever.” She waved a hand at me. “We gotta go shopping for stuff.”

I made a face. “Fine, fine. You’re the boss.”

“Good. And don’t you forget it, buster.”

“Never.” I laughed and leaned over to kiss the top of her head. “Go on and go in so you’re not any later than you are already.”

Good thing I’d called ahead and said Carrington would be arriving a little late today. Since a little late was getting later by the minute.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Mrs. Tanner is awesome. She won’t wig.”

I had no clue what it meant to wig , but I definitely wasn’t going to lose the last of my already tenuous cool points and ask.

She slid across the seat and opened her door before glancing back at me. “Halloween stuff soon? I don’t want to be the neighborhood’s lamest house any longer. You should see the Gideons’ place. It’s been decked out for weeks.”

“We’ll take a ride by it to look. For ideas.”

“Dad, we cannot copy them. That’s worse than not having any decorations at all.”

“I didn’t mean we’d copy them. I meant maybe they’d inspire us. Then we’ll go shopping,” I promised.

Her smile was instantaneous. “Thanks, Daddy.” She grabbed her backpack before she hopped down and ran inside, her long blond curls streaming behind her.

I leaned my head against the back of my seat. Wonder what she’d want decoration-wise? Where was the best place to shop for stuff like that? I was hopelessly out of touch with everyday life things since the holidays usually meant last minute jobs for extra pay, which I rarely turned down. My family always decked out for the holidays, and we just enjoyed the fruits of their labors.

Meaning I thieved their extra deco when necessary.

Truth was, I was sick of my transient life. I longed to spend time growing and tending real roots in the place I’d grown up. All the wanderlust I’d had after high school had finally burned itself out.

And my little girl was growing older. I didn’t want my daughter’s predominant memories from her teen years to be seeing her old man wave goodbye.

She was at a vital age. I mean, yeah, every age was vital, but some were even more so than others. The teen years were so fundamental. Not saying that I’d know what to do every step of the way—I sure hadn’t so far—but at least I’d be around more than I’d been available the last few years.

A quick glance at the time had me cursing. I needed to get to the hotel. But maybe I could do a quick ride past the Gideons place, just to get an idea what was exciting my girl so much.

Granted, Macy Gideon was like the biggest Halloween freak ever. She spared no expense when it came to tricking out her house as well as her café Brewed Awakening. Macy’s husband, John, was a high in-demand contractor for Crescent Cove and the surrounding towns. This time of year, he spent every minute building the biggest, best holiday displays known to man to please his wife and teen daughter. I was pretty sure his toddler son was already being indoctrinated to the Halloween craze too.

God, now that I thought about it, he was well into elementary school age now. Time was going far too fast to suit me.

Yet another reason I wanted to spend more time in the Cove. I was missing everything lately and I didn’t want to look back with regrets that life had passed me by.

On impulse, I swung my truck to the curb as soon as I spotted the giant glowing purple spider crawling down a huge web that extended over much of the Gideons’ front lawn. Their tidy, well-trimmed front lawn, I noted a little sourly. The brightly colored leaves had already been raked into neat piles that would likely be tucked away in Halloween leaf bags for collection in the next few days.

Raking my ginormous, very overgrown front lawn would likely take me the better part of a day. Maybe just an afternoon if I conned my daughter into helping for a sweet allowance bonus.

I’d no sooner climbed out of my truck that someone yelled across the lawn. “Hey, Masterson, you lost?”

I grinned at John’s familiar deep voice. “Yeah, saw that spider and got confused where I was.”

“Gotta keep the wife happy, you know?” He met me on the walk, and we shared a quick man hug. I’d known John forever, and he was probably as close to a best friend as I had outside the circle of my family.

“Yeah, I do. In theory, anyway. How the hell are you, man?” I moved back and grinned at him, noting that his dark hair had a bit more salt in it these days. “Being run ragged by those two cute kids of yours?”

“Three now.”

I scratched the back of my neck. “How the hell long have I been gone?”

He laughed. “Not that long, I don’t think, but it’s not always easy to stay up on current baby counts in the Cove. Hang on. I’ve got a picture.” He dug out his wallet and flashed a picture of a smiling baby girl with her tiny dark ponytail standing straight up and wrapped in a Halloween bow.

“Aww, good job, dad. She’s beautiful. You’re a lucky man. Working on a human six-pack.” I clapped him on the back again. “Damn, I gotta say again—how the hell long have I been gone?”

“Don’t sweat it. Sidney’s barely nine months. Thanks. Think we’ll keep her. Pretty sure we’re probably done now, unless Mace gets another wild hair.” He laughed and tucked away the photo in his well-worn leather wallet. “I have no clue the last time I saw you. Feels like it’s been years, Mr. Big Shot Model.”

“Yeah, I’m sticking around for a few months at least. Feel like shit is getting away from me lately. Hell, if I take on a few more jobs, your oldest kid will probably be in college by the time I get back.”

Visibly, John shuddered. “Not yet, thank God, though the years are passing far faster than I’d prefer. I may just lock Dani in the basement now and save myself the trouble.”

“Room for one more in that basement?” I asked affably as we crossed the lawn so I could get a better look at that gigantic spider and its web. “My girl’s gonna be eleven soon.”

“No way. Really?”

“Same thing I keep asking myself. Doesn’t seem possible.” I cocked my head to eye the currently crawling spider from up close. Its legs were truly amazing, moving in a way that almost seemed real. I ducked down to crawl under the web to get a better look. “Damn, man, you built this web, didn’t you?”

John tucked his fists under his armpits as a faint flush darkened his cheeks. “How could you tell?”

“Because it’s so fucking awesome. Man, can I pay you to build one for my yard too? Maybe change up the spider some, make it glow in the dark or something so my girl doesn’t accuse me of copying you?”

“Though you actually are?” His tone held an innocent note that fooled no one.

“Okay, fine, make it different. I got an idea. Maybe create a monster playpen or some shit and I can find some creatures to put inside?”

His raised eyebrow made me wonder if I’d officially jumped the shark. “You want me to be sleeping on the couch for the entire holiday season if I give you better shit than we have here?”

I had to laugh as I crawled out from under the web and straightened to my full height. “I had to shoot my shot.”

“Where were you with these ideas earlier? Mace would be thrilled if I turned into some sort of Halloween decorating maniac. As long as our house was still the best, of course.”

I laughed. “You offering me a job?”

“Murphy has been too busy for many of my jobs lately. If you’re looking for one, I’d be happy to have you on the team seasonally. Or part-time or whatever the hell you’re looking for, Masterson.”

“Hell if I know. Today monster playpens, tomorrow the world.” Grinning, I bumped fists with him. “I gotta go play model for an afternoon right now.”

“Good deal. Maybe you can drag Murphy back on the crew,” he added over his shoulder as I crossed the lawn to my truck.

“Yeah. It’ll be just like old times,” I called back to him, climbing into the truck and slamming the door behind me.

I was officially seriously late.