Play for Keeps (The Devil's Share #6)(24)

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 hauss 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 I 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. Six years younger than him, and she was 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, Mase… 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 Mase.”

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.