HUGE: A Full Length Insta-Love Boss Secret Identity Romance Read online

  HUGE: A Full Length Insta-Love Boss Secret Identity Romance

  Maggie Marr

  Happily Ever After, Inc.

  Copyright © 2019 by Maggie Marr

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Also by Maggie Marr

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Also by Maggie Marr

  Wonderful Love

  Dirty

  Two Hour Romance

  Built

  Bliss

  Bump

  Surf

  The Glamour Series

  Hard Glamour

  Broken Glamour

  Fast Glamour

  Easy Glamour

  Luxe Glamour

  Impossible Glamour

  Vicious Glamour

  Eligible Billionaires: The Travati Brothers

  A Forever Love

  A Billionaire for Christmas

  A Convenient Arrangement

  A Forbidden Love

  Eligible Billionaires Bundle The Travati Brothers

  Hollywood Girls Club Series

  Hollywood Girls Club

  Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club

  Hollywood Hit

  Hollywood Girls Club Bundle 1-3

  Eligible Billionaires Series

  Can’t Buy Me Love

  One Night For Love

  A Christmas Billionaire

  Last Call For Love

  Running From Love

  Eligible Billionaires Bundle 1-5

  Powder Springs Series

  Courting Trouble

  The Christmas Wish

  Candy Cane Lane

  Chapter 1

  Matt

  “Bruh, you’ve got to go to this party with me in the Bu,” Jorge stands beside my locker at Bliss Boards scrubbing his hair with a towel. “It’s gonna’ be off the hook.”

  I pull on my T-shirt and shake my head. “I dunno’ the new kids start surf school tomorrow morning. Plus Jack is out of town and he asked me to be point on training the new counter person until he gets back from Tahiti and—”

  “Seriously?” Jorge cuts me off. “It’s summer. Dude, do you ever just go out and have fun? It’s like you’re fifty and you’re not even twenty-five.”

  I smile. Jorge’s life is so cush, he doesn’t even know what regular people have to do to survive. And by regular people, I mean me. Hustling two jobs, helping my sister with her kid, working so that I can live, go to school, buy groceries, pay for books. His parents pay for his entire life, including that sick convertible Porsche he drives to work every day. He doesn’t need to teach surf-camp for a paycheck, no the only reason Jorge needs to teach surf-camp to little kids all summer is so that his parents don’t cut him off between spring and fall semester at his swank private college. Yeah, part of me is completely jelly when it comes to Jorge’s lifestyle and another part of me is completely chill, because he isn’t a complete dick about everything he has.

  “Seriously, dude, this party will be lit!” He leans closer to me, “Not supposed to say anything but it’s Kiley Kepner’s party. We kind of go back, because she used to baby-sit me when I was little.”

  I shake my head. “Kiley Kepner like the famous actress, Kiley Kepner? Was your baby-sitter?” How is his life real?

  “For about a minute. My dad is her mom’s attorney. It was before she got that big modeling gig that blew her up. So yeah, the entire place will be wall to wall models and celebs. Should be fun.”

  “While it sounds amazing,” I say and sling my back pack over my shoulder. “Not really my scene.”

  “Okay, Mr. Pre-Med. I get it. No down time for you, but if you change your mind it’s later tonight. I’m going to hit it around 10-ish. Should be a good time.” He tosses his towel into his bag and runs a brush through his hair. “Gotta’ hang with the old man for a bit at the J-club. Dinner sort of thing. Let me know. I can swing by and get you.”

  “Text me the deets, maybe I’ll come by,” I say. I’m so not having Jorge swing by my place to pick me up. I’m pretty certain that my entire pad, that I share with my sister and nephew, is smaller than his family’s garage.

  He grabs his phone. “Done,” he says. “I’ll expect to see you tonight, bruh.”

  I nod, slap him a high-five. Jorge may not understand just how lucky he is, but at least he’s not a dick. I slide out of the employee locker room at Bliss Boards and head toward the bus. Public transportation in LA totally sucks, but Big Sis and I share our wheels and she needed them today for her shift at the hospital. She left at four am. Plus she’s picking up Teddy from our Aunt’s house on her way home. I hop on the bus and lean back against the seat. My phone dings.

  Can you stop at the market?

  Of course, I text back.

  I stare out the window and zone out as the blocks fly by. The bus pulls to a stop in front of our Trader Joe’s and I hop off. Thirty minutes later and I’ m hustling into the apartment.

  “Uncle Matty!” Teddy runs to me and I scoop him into my arms. Couple more years and if I’m still doing summers at Bliss Boards’ Surf School he’ll be going with me every day for class, but until then, he hangs out at our Auntie Mary’s house during the day when Sarah has a day shift at the hospital.

  “You get the Mac and cheese?” Sarah calls from the kitchen.

  “Yes, ma’am!” I say and drop the grocery bag on the table. Teddy runs back to his legos and trucks.

  “Hey you got anything going tonight?” I ask. I grab an apple and take a bite.

  “You’ll ruin your appetite,” Sarah says. She’s still in her scrubs and her hair is on top of her head in a pony-tail bun thing she wears after work.

  “You know Mom used to always say that exact same thing and it never happened.” My teeth crunch through the apple.

  “Grown-up dinner in forty-five minutes, kid dinner in fifteen,” she says and busts open the box of macaroni and cheese. “And no, I’ve got nothing but the little man tonight,” she nods toward Teddy. “Why you got a hot date?” Her eyebrow lifts and she slides her gaze toward me.

  “Uh, would that be so impossible to imagine?”

  “While in theory no—you’re a grown man with a job and you’re kind of funny, but in practice? Yeah. Because all you think about is your future.”

  “Lucky for you,” I say and take another bite of apple. “Imagine if I was out partying all the time? Never home? Always hung over? Who would help you take care of Teddy?”

  “We’d manage,” Sarah says and smiles. “Why you ask? You got something going tonight?”

  “This guy from work asked me to go to a party.”

  “Which guy?”

  “Jorge,” I say.

  “The rich guy. The one with the entertainment attorney
dad?”

  I nod.

  “Go! Where is it? Bel Air? Beverly Hills?”

  “Malibu.”

  “Go, go, go!” Sarah says and stirs the Macaroni. “Go see how the top . 5% live. Get you some inspiration for all those late nights you’re gonna’ do in residency.”

  I smile at my sister. “Then you’re next, right?”

  She nods. But I feel her hesitancy. I’ve felt the shift in her dreams for a while. Sarah doesn’t have the same fire for her dream of going back to school and getting her md like she had before Mom and Dad died and Keith took off on her and Teddy. .

  “Go,” she says. “You spend too much time taking care of us. It’s summer. Go find yourself a romance. Go have a beer. Hang out with people under the age of thirty and over the age of five,” She says.

  Teddy barrels into the kitchen and grabs my knees. I bend down and lift him up. “Some of my favorite people in the whole world are over twenty-eight and four,” I say. I press my forehead to Teddy’s. “How was Auntie Mary today?” I ask.

  “Tired. She slept a lot,” Teddy says.

  I glance at Sarah. We both know what that means. Aunty Mary’s health isn’t so good. She’s our mom’s older sister. She’s got a pension and some savings and she helps Sarah out by taking care of Teddy during the day but she isn’t doing so well.

  “Go wash your hands buddy, okay? Dinner is almost ready,” Sarah says.

  I put him down and he walks out of the kitchen toward the bathroom.

  “Can’t wait until he’s back in school,” Sarah says, “I think it’s too much for Mary. I’ve got night shifts the rest of this week. So I only need him to be with her from 3-5 the next couple days.” .

  “When will you sleep?”

  “When I’m dead,” she waves her hand at me. “It’s all good. You know the drill. You’ll feed him breakfast, he’ll play until I wake up and then we’ll go to the park or come by the ocean to see you. Then I’ll drop him at Mary’s. Can you pick him up on the way home? I’ll take the bus and you can have wheels?”

  I nod. “I can do that.”

  “Come on big man,” Sarah calls. “I’ve got dinner for you.”

  Teddy rounds the corner and then pulls himself onto his chair.

  “That’ll work. I have to train someone this week, but if I have the car I can swing by Mary’s and pick up Teddy. Then be with him at night.”

  “Thanks,” Sarah smiles and I see it—the tiredness around her eyes. Rings that are dark purple. When was the last time my big sister got a full night’s rest?

  “Why don’t I skip that party and finish dinner. You go lie down. I can hang out with Teddy and put him to bed and—”

  “No,” Sarah says.

  “What do you mean no?”

  “I mean no. You can not spend your entire twenties taking care of me and my kid. You’re going to that party tonight, okay? I need you to do this. I already feel guilty enough that you deferred school for a year and I’m constantly asking you to help me with Teddy. I’m off tonight and you need to go out, okay?”

  I nod. I want to go. Teddy shovels Mac and cheese into his mouth with a spoon. “Uncle Matty do what Mama says. You know the rules. What Mama says goes.”

  A laugh busts out. “You have got those rules right, little man,” I say. “I don’t think I’ve ever won an argument with your Mama.” I grab two plates from the cabinet and the silverware from the drawer.

  “You thought you won one once,” Sarah says and pulls the Brussel sprouts from the oven. “When you were like twelve and I was in college, but you didn’t win.” she says and smiles at me. “I just let you think that you did.”

  “Isn’t that how it always was?” I ask. I grab two glasses and pour Sarah an iced tea and grab water for myself. “You always winning and knowing more than me?”

  “What can I say? I’m bright and beautiful.”

  I hand Sarah her plate. “And modest too,” I say.

  “Runs, in the family,” Sarah says.

  “Oh yeah, that’s absolutely true.”

  Chapter 2

  Ashley

  “Go to this party with me,” Julia begs.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I say. “What would my uncle say?”

  Julia taps her finger against her chin, “Hmm…he’d say you’re only young once, your best friend leaves tomorrow for two months, and you should definitely go to this party she was invited to with her.”

  She’s got my uncle down. I spin away from the view out the back of my Uncle’s house and look at Julia, “You know as much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. That’s exactly what he’d say. Now my mother on the other hand—”

  “Is a thousand miles away,” Julia says. “And there’s a reason why.”

  “Yeah there is. Are you sure you have to leave tomorrow?” I walk into the bathroom and lean against the door frame. She’s the only person that I know in LA—other than my Uncle and while I love him, I don’t want to hang out with him.

  “Uh, job. On set. Movie. Yeah, I’m sure. But it’s only for eight weeks. I’ll be back before you even notice I’m gone.”

  “Uh doubt it, you’re the only person my age that I know in LA.”

  “Yet another reason to go to this party tonight. To make friends.”

  I glance at myself in the mirror above the sink. I’m okay looking. Not Uber-beautiful runway model looking like Julia, but I’m okay. Lots of curls. Usually glasses—but Julia will tell me not to wear them tonight. Blue eyes. Pale-ish skin. “Pretty sure I’ll meet no one and come home with you while you find some super-hot dude to go home with.”

  Julia wiggles her eyebrows and says nothing, because what I’ve said is pretty much exactly how the night goes every time I go out with her. It’s always the same scenario. Julia and I go out. I play wing-woman. Men flock to her like bees to a flower. Julia meets a super-hot guy and either scores a number, a date, or goes home with him. Julia goes on a couple dates. She gets bored. Breaks his heart and leaves for set or a shoot. Rinse. Repeat. This has been going on for years! Ever since we were in high school together, also while we were in college in New York and now, now—that we’ve moved to LA—for me to start a job and her to do her model/actress thing—I have no doubt these scenario will remain the same.

  “If you’d ever talk to a guy, then you’d get the date.”

  “I do talk,” I fluff my curls and pull out my disposable contacts and toss them in the trash. I put on my glasses. Much better.

  “Discussing geo-political economic theory and entreprenurial risk evaluations is not ‘meeting a guy in a bar’ type talk.”

  I shrug. “Then he’s not the guy I want to meet,” I say. I press my fingertips to my cheeks. Did I get a sunburn? I’ve got more freckles than usual.

  “You’re just as pretty as I am,” Julia says.

  It’s a lie. The kind of lie that best friends who are gorgeous—like Vogue model gorgeous—tell their normal friends who aren’t Vogue model gorgeous. I may be okay-looking but I’m not in the same pretty-league as Julia. I’m not even on the same field…in the same game…whatever metaphor applies. I’ve got reddish-blonde hair that is sometimes curly and sometimes frizzy. Freckles. Blue eyes. And great cheekbones. That’s it. Whereas Julia looks like a goddess with her super-curly black hair, ebony skin, and dark brown eyes.

  “You’re sweet, and while I love you like a sister, you my BFF, are a horrible liar.”

  Julia smiles and nudges me in the ribs with her elbow, “Come with me tonight?” She asks again. She leans forward and strokes on mascara.

  “You know I will,” I mumble.

  She grabs me into a hug. “I love you Ash!” She says and plants a kiss on my cheek.

  We’ve been besties since second grade and I can’t imagine actually saying no to anything she asks. And tonight is her last night in LA for what feels like forever and I am going to miss her something awful, like I always do when she travels.

  “Okay, so we’ll leave
in an hour,” she says.

  I head into the guest room we’re sharing at my Uncle’s place until we find our own apartment. “Whose party is it? Who invited you?”

  “Martina,” Julia calls, “the model from Brazil.”

  “Great,” I mumble. “Stuck walking into a party between two super-models, every normal-looking girl’s dream.” I glance in the full length mirror on the wall. At least I’m tall. I pull a sundress from the closet. “Who’s party? Where is it?”

  “It’s in Malibu,” Julia calls.

  I pull the sundress over my head and fluff my hand through my curls. I turn side to side in front of the mirror. “Who’s having it?” I call again.

  Julia pops her head into the room, “Kiley Kepner,” she says.

  “Wait what?” I spin from the mirror. “She’s like the biggest start in…in…the world.”

  “I know!” Julia says. A smile spreads over her face. “It’s a party for her boyfriend,” Julia says.

  “Which one? Doesn’t she live with like three guys?”

  “Crazy right?” “The Turner brothers.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I can’t even keep one guy happy much less three. I heard on the DL, that they are in this polyamory thing.”

  “Polyamory,” I say. “Not my jam, but okay.” I shake my head. “I don’t think I can go…hanging with super-models at Kiley Kepner’s Malibu pad, it’s…it’s a little overwhelming.”

  “Please stop,” Julia says.“You’ve just as much reason to be there, as I do.”

  “Who invited Martina?” I ask. Julia runs with a completely different crew than I do…her friends are international models and rock stars…me? I’m just her BFF from second grade.