A Bride for the Eternal Bachelor

Chapter 1

"Ashton Kingman, please tell us about your latest fight with David Fletcher"

"Is it true that you punched him?"

"Ashton, please..."

The Love At First Sight hero got in his BMW amidst the news hungry paparazzi with the help of his body guards. It was all he could do to not lash out at one of them. Why was it that always he had to be the bad guy? No one bothered to grill David as to why he had antagonized Ashton. All he wanted to do was go to his personal gym at home from all the prying eyes and release some of that anger. But that was not possible now, was it? He was out of Chicago for the promotion of his latest film, Love in Rome, and was thus staying at a hotel. Hotel meant more news-hungry reporters who-
He was startled from his thought as the car stuttered and came to a stop.

"What happened to the car now?" He snapped, taking out his anger on his poor staff that had done nothing but help him.

"Sorry, sir, it seems that there's some problem in the engine. I'll try to fix it," the driver said, hastily obviously trying not to get Ashton angrier than he already was and tried to start the car again. The engine spluttered but the car did not start. He got out and opened the hood to poke and prod at the engine trying to determine the problem.

Ashton punched the driver's seat, "F***. Can't you'll check the car before bringing it out?" He demanded. Since the driver was out, his body guard, Mike, replied, “Sorry, sir"

Ashton slumped back in his seat resigned to a long wait. Today was so not his day.
_____________________________

"When you’re happy and you know it clap your hands," Jessica sang from the passenger seat of a beat-up Volswagon Beatle which was fit enough to grace the walls of a local museum. But it was her owner's baby. Sydney was mighty proud of her car, Wanda. She had purchased it on her own after graduation. Sure, neither the air conditioner nor the radio worked properly and the wipers were in dire need of repair, the car also needed a paint job, but still, it never failed to start for her in the morning. Sydney smiled at her daughter's happy voice singing that happy song. "Well, at least someone enjoyed the wedding," she thought.

"Mommy, look over there. I think someone is in trouble!" Jessica exclaimed. Sure enough, there was a sleek, black car parked on the street with her hood open. A man dressed in white was bent over it, no doubt trying to make it work.
"It must be someone rich," Sydney thought, looking at darkly tinted windows.
"We have to help them. Miss Lucy says that you should help if someone is in trouble."
She didn't particularly want to stop as it late in the night with no one on the streets and no one to miss the mother-daughter pair if they didn't reach home, but she had to set an example for her daughter. She was in the first grade and was learning about charity which meant stray puppies and kittens to feed for Sydney. Hey, she loved puppies but milk wasn't cheap and she was managing the house on a teacher's pay. She stopped Wanda behind the car and got out after instructing Jessica severely to not get out no matter what happens. "Excuse me, do you need any help?" She asked the driver.

"Are you a mechanic?" He asked rudely, looking at her from head to toe.

She bristled at his less than friendly demeanor and was about to retort when a voice did the needful for her, “Do you not know how to talk to a lady properly? This not the way you talk to someone, especially if that person's nice enough to offer her help. Apologize straight away," the cold voice was strangely familiar but she was sure that she had not met the person before.
Oh-my-god! Her heart stopped in her chest as she looked at the person belonging to the voice. Ashton Kingman, the same Kingman whose posters adorned her daughter's bedroom walls. The same Kingman whose movies she was forced to sit through as Jessica loved them. Not that Sydney hated the movies; she just couldn't sit for three hours staring at the TV. He was the same actor who was known for his anger issues and he was looking mighty mad right now in his 6 feet 2 inches glory with sandy brown hair and gray eyes capable of making a girl swoon on the spot. The gray eyes were currently stormy as they stared at the driver.

Sydney took an instinctive step backwards planning on running away while he was busy with the driver. Her plans were laid to rest as her daughter's voice broke through the tension surrounding the expensive car, "Ashton Kingman!"

Sydney watched in horror as her one and only child opened the car door and threw herself around her favorite star's legs, all the while excitedly gushing about how much she loved him. Sydney tried to pry her daughter away from the angry actor's legs scared lest he should direct his anger on her daughter.

"Its okay," Ashton said, and carefully lifted Jess in his arms. Sydney moved her arms vaguely around Jessica almost hoping that he dropped her so that she could take her precious daughter and run away. But unfortunately Ashton had no plans of dropping her and Jess had no plans of getting out of his embrace. She had linked her tiny hands around his neck and was happily chatting with him about her school and friends. Sydney remembered that in one interview Ashton had mention that he liked kids. Sydney nervously glanced at the burly body guard who had also vacated the car as soon as Ashton had stepped out. Her heart stopped again as she eyed the mean-looking rifle in his hands.

"Mommy, he can stay at our place tonight, right? I asked and he said that the reporters will be waiting for him at the hotel and he doesn't like reporters,”

Sydney almost asked him what new drama he had done that the reporters were so eager to meet him; but looking at Jessica's ear-to-ear grin and a mental journey five minutes back as Ashton had yelled at the driver and she wisely kept her mouth shut.

"I don't think your mothers so fond of the idea; maybe some other time." Ashton said.

"It’s nothing like that you know. Just..." Sydney trailed off because who was she kidding? It was exactly like that.

"So he can stay at our place?" Jess asked bouncing in his arms.

"Sure, if he wants to," Sydney gave up in front of her daughter's famous puppy dog face. But she didn’t go down without a fight. She pointedly looked at him so that he knew that he had to refuse. She didn’t care how much of an intimidating actor he is but she was not going to allow a complete stranger to spend a night at her house. It would have been different if Jessica’s father... she stopped the errant thought in its track and continued with her current task to make sure that Ashton knew that he was not invited.

Ashton raised his eyebrow. "I would love to," he grinned.

Sydney’s chin dropped unable to believe that he agreed even with her best don’t-you-dare expression on while Jess did a happy dance, got down from his arms and proceeded to drag her favorite film star towards Wanda where they both sat in the front seat- Jessica on Ashton's lap. The bodyguard had taken a step to follow but Ashton Kingman waved him off with instructions to take the car to the hotel after fixing it.

Sydney stood there stock-still, not yet out of her initial shock. How can he do that? You just can't get in someone's car and go to their home when you are clearly not invited by the owner no matter how much the owner's daughter insists.

Wanda loud horn startled me out of her reverie, “are you coming or are you going to stand there the entire night?" Ashton Kingman shouted. It was not a shout-shout. He was clearly enjoying himself.

"This is it," Sydney vowed as she got behind the wheel, “This is going to be my last charity."