The Deep End Signed Paperback

As my son’s best friend, the pool boy should be off-limits, but those short shorts make it hard to keep my distance.

Cherry Estates is where the richest in Boston live. However, money can’t fix everything. Especially not my marriage. My ex-wife discovered my darkest secrets, and now she’s turned my son against me too.

But his best friend, Bryce, comes to my aid when I need it most. He’s sweet, sexy, half my age, and eager for my attention.

After a drunken kiss, desire blooms between us, and in moments, he’s turned my world upside down. I can’t resist his touch, and Bryce welcomes me with open arms. I’m his Daddy now, and it’s my job to take care of him. And I plan to give my Boy whatever he needs.

But nobody can know about us. Bryce and I made a pact to keep our relationship secret. But when my ex-wife catches us in an intimate moment, she threatens to tell everyone unless we call it off immediately.

I’m not sure I can hide how much I care for Bryce. But will he stand by me once my secret is out or will I lose my boy forever?

TROPES: billionaire, Daddy (NO age play), friends to lovers, found family, forbidden love, and hurt/comfort.

Chapter One: Bryce
There he was, my best friend sprawled out in the grass shirtless, surrounded by empty solo cups and handfuls of condoms made into water balloons. He and his friends must have thrown some going away party last night.
I hooked my foot under his knee, giving him a harsh shove. “Wake up, Elliot,” I barked. “I’ve gotta get your dumb ass to the airport in an hour.”
He stirred slowly, a hand reaching up and smearing some sort of red liquid across his face. For half a second, my heart pulsed, worried he’d somehow cut a finger off in the middle of the night or something. However, he licked his lips and groaned, his hand still completely intact.
“Dude…” he groaned. “Why is there ketchup on my face?”
“How the hell should I know?” I did nothing to hide my annoyance with him. If his dad wasn’t paying me good money to get his sorry ass to the airport, I wouldn’t even be bothering. “Go get cleaned up and grab your shit. We need to leave soon.”
“Yes, mother,” he growled, rolling himself over onto his belly.
Slowly, he got to his hands and knees, crawling toward the house at a glacial pace. It took everything I had not to go full Miranda Priestley on his ass.
“Hurry up!” I called, watching him disappear through the sliding glass doors.
I turned slowly on the spot, surveying the damage to the backyard. Elliot had really done a number on it this time. There was trash everywhere. Food and garbage floated in the pool, stuck in the filters. At the bottom were several glass beer bottles, plastic cups, and a handful of stray hot dogs. That would be my problem to deal with later.
While Elliot was off at Cornell getting his rich boy degree, I was stuck in Boston, working shitty jobs until I could afford to get out on my own. One of those jobs was working for Cliff Walker, Elliot’s father, as his personal pool boy. It wasn’t glamorous, especially after parties like this one, but it paid better than it should have. Elliot and I had been best friends since grade school, and I was pretty sure his dad felt bad for me when I didn’t run off to an Ivy League school to rack up enormous amounts of debt.
As kids, Cliff never would have stood for this kind of behavior from Elliot. But in the past year or so, he’d let Elliot go kind of crazy. I wasn’t really sure why, and I figured it wasn’t my place to ask. Elliot and I might have been best friends, but that didn’t give me permission to delve into his family life.
“My god…”
I glanced up across the pool to see Cliff standing in nothing but his bathrobe, a cup of coffee balanced in one hand. The chest was thrown wide open, his muscular form highlighted with warm sunlight.
He looked fucking incredible.
“He really went for it this time, didn’t he?”
“Hi, Mr. Walker,” I replied, giving him a wave. I hoped he didn’t see the heat flushing to my cheeks at the sight of him. “Don’t worry. I’ll get it all cleaned up when I get back.”
“Sorry, Bryce,” he said, shaking his head. “I’d help, but I have an important… meeting to get to this morning.”
I watched as he slouched forward; the air suddenly let out of his once proud form. For as long as I could remember, Cliff had always stood tall, a paragon of strength and steadfastness. But the man I saw before me was completely different. He looked as if someone had killed his best friend.
But then I noticed something else that distracted me completely.
The bathrobe had parted even further, revealing a long trail of salt and pepper hair snaking down his torso. My eyes followed it instinctually, tracing across the strong muscles and toned form that he took such good care of. My gaze only stopped when I reached the knot of his robe. At that moment, I realized he was completely naked under it, the knot the only thing stopping him from bearing it all right there in the backyard.
Heat flushed to my cheeks, and I turned away, pretending to focus on something floating in the pool. For as long as I could remember, I’d had a bit of a crush on Mr. Walker. Around the time I figured out I was gay, maybe thirteen or so, I also began to notice how impressively hot my best friend’s dad was. Maybe it was my daddy issues, or maybe it was because Mr. Walker always liked to walk around the pool in skimpy little shorts. They didn’t leave much to the imagination, and I couldn’t deny spending entire afternoons staring at him from behind my sunglasses. But then I grew up and realized he was not only totally out of bounds, but he obviously didn’t play for my team. He had a wife and a kid.
Of course, I’d realized a couple of years ago that I had a thing for older guys. A shrink would say it was because I had no father figure in my life. But I would argue that older men were usually more chill than guys my age. Sure, I’d tried dating people born the same year as me, but they were either crazy, immature or just plain stupid. However, when I went out with older guys, I always had fun, and even if we knew it wouldn’t become a relationship, I didn’t feel used afterward.
And because of that, I’d developed a bit of a Daddy thing. I didn’t need to be taken care of or have things paid for like people might think. What I wanted was a sense of safety and stability in my life. And praise. It felt incredible when someone with actual life experience told me I was doing a good job, whether it be inside the bedroom or out.
Cliff had become that fantasy for me.
I felt bad ogling him, though. Something was obviously bothering him. I wanted to question him, to try to help in any way I could. But I had to remind myself that it wasn’t my place to ask. Mr. Walker was a very private man.
“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Walker! It’s no problem! I don’t have any other shifts today, so I’m good to take care of it.”
“Thanks, Bryce,” he sighed, flashing me a half smile. “I’ll tell Elliot to hurry up.”
“Thank you.”
And then he was gone, disappearing back into the darkness of the mansion. I stared up at the giant house, taking in the multitudes of tinted windows and fine furniture contained within. Tall tropical plants adorned the doorways, almost all of them rented from a local company that came in weekly to care for them. The floors inside were polished marble, and even the poolhouse was outfitted with the finest finishings, including a sauna and hot tub for the winter months. All this grandeur would have seemed strange if I hadn’t spent most of my childhood running around Cherry Estates with Elliot. The private suburb boasted some of the richest inhabitants in the world, and Cliff Walker was no different.
But I was just a visitor there, a fact I was reminded of each time I had to badge into the community at the front gate. It opened automatically for the billionaires that lived there, the 24/7 guard knowing them and their vehicles all by heart. But when I rode up on my beat-up old twelve-speed, I had to swipe myself in with a special card Cliff had made for me. Even then, I still got a suspicious look from the guard who had known me since I was eleven.
I was an outsider in Cherry Estates. That, above all else, was certain.