Protected by You

by Nikki Mays

“Well then I guess you better park that gorgeous rear end on a stool and start picking out some suitable toppings.” I pretend not to see the blush that comes over her face and turn back to rolling out the dough. “There’s some beer in the fridge if you want some. No wine though I’m afraid.”

  I can hear her move toward the fridge. “That’s okay, beer works well with pizza.” Ah, a woman after my own heart. “Do you want one?”

  I nod my head. “Yes please.”

  I hear the clinking of the bottles and then the hiss as she removes the tops. She walks over and sets mine beside me. I can’t help but look out of the corner of my eye as she takes a sip of hers and leans a hip against the counter.

  She looks at me with a very serious face. “So, care to explain why you decided to treat me like a pariah after we had what I thought to be a really great time together?” Got to like a woman who gets straight to the point. No beating around the bush with her.

  I look up from my hands that are still kneading out the dough. I give her a half grimace and half smile. I tilt my head in the direction of the stools. “Take a seat and maybe grab yourself another beer.”

  She raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow at me. “That bad?”

  I nod my head. “Yeah, but it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with my life suddenly turning into a clusterfuck.”

  She chuckles a little and sits on one of the stools. She gives me a bright smile. “I’m all ears big guy.”

  Let’s see how this goes.

  Forty-five minutes later:

  Sage is pursing her lips while downing her third beer. “So, you’re still technically married? And she’s engaged to the guy that she cheated on you with and is getting married in like five months?”

  I nod my head while I bend down to place the pizzas in the oven. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”

  “Okay, but I still don’t get why you ghosted me, instead of just telling me all this.”

  I raise my flour covered hands in surrender. “I know, I know! I swear if I could go back in time, I would have handled this whole situation so much better. But I just completely freaked. How would you react finding out that you were still married to your worst nightmare?”

  She grimaces. “Okay, I have a few exes that I would never want to be near again. But you could have just texted me and let me know that you needed some time. I totally would’ve understood that.”

  I quirk an eyebrow at her. I’ve been married and have a teenage daughter. She isn’t fooling me.

  She crosses her arms and gives me a nasty look. “Fine, I wouldn’t have been totally fine with it.” She mumbles petulantly. “But something is better than nothing buddy.”

  I nod my head. “I agree. But honestly, the only thing that I was really thinking was how to get out of this nightmare. I mean, how hard is your job to just file some fucking paperwork. I swear I wanted to ring that clerk’s neck! It’s not complicated.”

  Just discussing it irritates me even more.

  “So what happens now?” She asks. I feel like there is a double meaning in that question so I weigh my next words carefully

  “Well, Jackie and I get divorced. She gets married to that sucker Harold. And hopefully you don’t hold me being a moron against me and give me another chance.”

  “Hmmm.” She mumbles noncommittedly. “We’ll see.”

  I stand across the island from her and lean down on my forearms. I lower my face to her hers and give her a smirk. “We’ll see about what?” I question.

  I see the lust cloud in her eyes. “We’ll see how good your pizza is. No woman wants a man who is shit in the kitchen. That means that he’s shit in other places too.” She shrugs innocently.

  I’m just about to reply when the three girls walk into the kitchen. Sage gives me a victorious smirk, knowing damn well that I can’t say anything in front of the girls. Too bad for her I’m a creative man.

  “Hey Paige?” I ask my daughter without removing my eyes from Sage.

  “Yeah Dad?” I hear muffled by the fact that she has her whole head stuck inside the fridge.

  I give Sage a wink. “How good are my skills in the kitchen?” Sage spits out the beer that she had just taken a sip of.

  Paige lifts her head out of the fridge and hands over a few sodas to the twins. Her face lights up. “My dad is awesome in the kitchen. Seriously, he is like the best cook ever!” She gushes and then gives us a quizzical look. “Why?”

  I give my daughter a sweet smile. “No reason sweet girl. Sage just said that she would never want to date a man who was bad in the kitchen.”

  I chuckle at the look of pure horror on Sage’s face. “Mom, are you okay? You’re really red.” One of the twins asks.

  She gives me a dirty look before answering. “Yeah Missy I’m fine sweetie.” Finally! I can start figuring out who is who! “JJ was just asking me out...again...and I told him that I don’t waste my time with men who don’t know how to handle certain tasks.”

  She looks at me with a wicked smirk. “You know the saying about how you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?” She looks at the girls with a gleam in her eyes, while I narrow my eyes at the gorgeous woman in front of me. “Well, I just wanted to make sure that his age wasn’t holding him back....that’s all.”

  She finishes that sentence with a gentle shrug and wide innocent eyes.

  Taking a swig of her beer she tells all three girls to set the table. All three do her bidding without question and I’m impressed.

  I watch her every move and think how could I be so stupid? I know I’ve messed up in the past but this time I’m determined to make Sage all mine.

  I

  look around the gym and give Danny a victorious grin. We were able to paint the whole workout area in one day!

  I look over at the grumpy man standing next to me. As a champion, he prides himself on winning. Not this time sucker! I look up at him and bat my eyelashes. He knows damn well what I’m waiting for.

  He looks down and tries to give me a look that usually scares his opponents. All I do is snicker. This fool seems to have forgotten that I watched him sing – badly – lullabies to our little girls when they were babies. The day I’m even remotely scared of him, is the day that hell freezes over.

  “I’m waiting.” I singsong is a syrupy sweet voice just to irritate him even more. It’s truly the small things in life that can make you the happiest.

  “Fine.” He grunts but says nothing further.

  I look up at the handsome man grimacing down at me. “Fine what Daniel?” Oh, yeah, I used the real name.

  His death glare is kind of comical. We both know that I know exactly how much he hates being called Daniel. “Fine, you were right.” He grumbles through extremely gritted teeth.

  “Right about what?” Am I being a bitch? Yup. But shit like this doesn’t happen every day. Seriously, Kay and I are somewhat of disasters for the most part. We tend to screw more things up than should really be possible. I’m going to enjoy every second of this thank you very much.

  He puts his tattooed hands on his hips and stares down at me. I’m just going to ignore the look of pure loathing because I’m nice like that. “You were right that the shit you bought online worked for painting. Are you fucking happy now?” He throws his arms out in an arc.

  I give him a huge smile. “You have absolutely no idea how happy I am. My only wish is that I had thought to get it on video to replay over and over again.” Damn that would’ve been nice.

  “Don’t worry...I got it!” We hear yelled from behind us.

  We both turn and see Mase standing there with his phone aimed at us. I swear out of the three – we don’t ever mention the fourth – Ross brothers, Mason is by far my favorite. The trouble making bastard is just so much fun!

  “Delete it right now mother fucker!” Danny yells, looking like he’s about to pounce on Mase.

  I see Noah and Ben walking up shaking their heads with smirks on their handsome faces. “Too late man.” Noah
states. “He’s already emailed and texted it out. You know he’s quick with shit like this.”

  I snicker, earning a menacing glare from Danny. He points a meaty finger at me. “This is all your fault!”

  I scoff at the bonehead and put my hands on my hips. “How do you figure?”

  “If you and Kay had never become friends, then I wouldn’t have been stuck with these three all these years.”

  “Ouch man.” Ben places his hands on his chest and mock pouts. “And to think that I love you like brother.”

  Danny’s eyes turn to slits. “I’m going to end up killing one of you fools one of these days.”

  “Should you really be threatening murder in front of a cop?” Mase says as he points to where Marc and Kayla are walking in holding hands.

  Marc gives Mason a vicious smirk. “You really think that I would take him in for killing you?”

  Mason is frowning at him like a kid who just had his toy stolen. “You’re like a brother-in-law or some shit to me. How in the hell would you take his side over mine?”

  Marc stares him dead in the eye. “You really think that I’m putting away the man who takes our kids for a full day and gives me uninterrupted time with my woman? Brother or not, you’re smoking some shit if you think I’m taking your side.”

  Mason pouts like a little boy. “You guys don’t let me take them.” He tries to defend.

  Everyone just cracks up. There is a damn good reason why no one lets Mason be alone with the kids.

  Kayla steps forward with her arms crossed over her chest. “Do you remember the fair incident?” She has her lips pursed and is tapping her foot. I would be pissed if I was her too.

  Mason the idiot groans. “That wasn’t entirely my fault. Noah and Ben were right there with me.” He decides to throw his brothers under the bus with him. Sibling love is just so strong with these three.

  “Nuh-huh, don’t even try placing any blame with me! You did all that damage before I even walked up.” Ben screeches, trying not to get on Kay’s bad side.

  “You’re still the one who gave them all that cotton candy!” Mase yells back.

  The rest of us are just standing here enjoying watching these morons.

  He’s referring to a few weeks ago when a trip to the county fair- where the kids ate too much- ended in a vomit fest for hours.

  There was so much vomit that we made Noah, Ben and Mason pay for an entire cleaning crew to come and deep clean the house. I swear, I could still get a whiff of puke-scent when I enter the house some days.

  “You know damn well that entire mess was all your fault.” Noah states calmly. “And just like when we were kids, we still get into trouble because of you. I swear if Kay had tried to kill you, I would’ve let her.”

  Mason holds out his arms. “What the hell is it with everyone threatening to kill me lately?”

  “Have you met you?” Damon drawls. He walks in with the rest of the guys along with Mellie and Shell. Yeah, JJ is here looking hot and I’m looking like a hot mess.

  “Seriously man, do you know how many times we had to stop MSG from actually trying to harm you?” Declan asks. “It was like a damn fulltime job making sure that she didn’t find a way to skip out on us and murder your ass.”

  Mellie raises her hand. “Just for the record. Shell and I were totally on board with helping her.”

  All the guys stare down at them in unison. Marc raises an eyebrow at his sister. “And you wonder why we try to keep how often the three of you interact to a minimum?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Shell questions.

  “Doll, nothing good could ever come from the three,” he points in my direction “now four of you being left up to your own devices.”

  Shell glares up at the giant wall of muscle that she’s married to. “Griz, don’t even start with me, you’re already on thin ice.”

  Damon rolls his eyes and tilts his head back but remains quiet.

  “What did you do?” Rocco asks. I’m kind of curious. Out of everyone, Michelle is just as sweet as can be.

  “You wanna know what he did?” She screeches. Hmm, maybe not so sweet. “He told me that my baking was bad!”

  All of us just stare, blinking repeatedly. Anyone who has ever met Michelle knows that the girl can bake. Her and Mellie’s shop The Sweet Grind is literally one of the best businesses in town.

  Damon looks around at all of us with a frown. “I didn’t say that.”

  We all just continue to stare at the man that we’re all pretty sure is going to be dead soon.

  “Yes you did!” Shell growls...I think her and Damon spend too much time together.

  He looks down at her and now they’re nose to nose. “No, what I said is that, that small colorful cookie thing was cracked and didn’t taste good.”

  Mellie let’s out a huge gasp. “Oh my God Damon, please tell me that you didn’t actually say that about one of her macaroons?” She says out of the corner of her mouth.

  Marc is looking at him with wide frightened eyes. “You didn’t actually word it like that right man?”

  Morris looks like he isn’t sure if he should protect Damon or hide and pretend that he didn’t see anything.

  The rest of us are looking on with bewildered looks. Okay, I guess I’ll ask. “What’s the big deal about him not liking the macaroon?”

  Marc and Kayla are looking at me and making a slashing move across their necks. Morris is rapidly shaking his head no. Declan and Rocco look like they’re unsure if they should help Damon or Michelle. Danny and the three stooges are looking just as confused as me.

  “Because she has some dumb obsession with these things and can’t seem to make them.” Damon says and I swear you could hear a pin drop. I don’t even think that a few of the guys are breathing.

  Marc, Mellie and Morris literally look like they’ve just seen a ghost. Or more likely a dead man standing. Michelle’s face is turning an interesting shade of red. Actually, it’s starting to turn purplish. I didn’t actually think someone could get so mad that their face would turn purple.

  JJ is slowly walking towards Michelle, almost like you would a wounded animal. Or in this case a severely pissed off woman who looks like she’s seconds away from murdering her husband.

  “Damn I hope she doesn’t kill him.” Danny mutters to me.

  I look up at him in shock. “Why? You barely know either of them. And it’s not even like you eat sweets that often with how strict you are about your diet.”

  He glances down at me and gives me a look that makes me wish I was able to harm his large ass in some way. “I don’t give a shit if she actually kills him. I just don’t want her doing it here. We just spent the whole fucking day painting. I’m not redoing that shit because of blood stains.”

  Everyone within hearing distance just stands there staring at him. Even Michelle is giving a dubious look. Damon looks downright offended. It would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that Danny was one hundred percent serious. He really couldn’t care less if she kills him for being stupid, he just really doesn’t want to have to repaint.

  “Jesus. And I thought Damon was soulless. This dude is making him look like a fucking care bear.” Declan murmurs to no one in particular, yet gets head nods all around.

  “Hey sweetheart.” JJ croons to Shell. I have a feeling that Damon wouldn’t appreciate the voice that JJ is using if it wasn’t for the fact that he seems to have caught on to how close he is to most likely getting poisoned at some point today.

  Michelle’s head creepily pivots towards JJ at the sound of his voice. Damn, he’s a brave ass man. You couldn’t pay me enough to get near a pissed off woman with nothing but murder in her eyes.

  “Is this fool stupid?” Danny asks incredulously. “You don’t go near a chick when she’s hit the level of crazy that this one is at. Just look at that creepy ass look in her eyes. That shit ain’t right.”

  As much as it pains me, Danny has a point. Michelle looks like Missy and Bec
ca right before they go nuclear. Dammit. I really wanted to actually go out on another date with him.

  Ya know, one where he ends up sweaty and shirtless. Pants could totally be optional too. I bet he has buns of steel. Damn, it’s been awhile since I’ve been laid...or had a cinnamon bun.

  “Why are you standing there licking your lips?” Kay asks me?

  I shrug. “I was thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve had a cinnamon bun.”

  Marc tilts his head at me and frowns. “What the hell made you think of that?”

  I throw my arm out to where JJ is trying to talk Shell down from the ledge so to speak. “I was thinking that it would suck if she killed him too because then I would never get to find out if he had buns of steel. That got me thinking of cinnamon buns and how much I could really go for one right now.”

  Everyone has stopped whatever they were doing and are staring at me with their mouths agape. Well, except for Kayla and Danny who are used to my word vomit. It’s been a damn curse since birth I tell you.

  “I’m not really sure what to say or think after hearing someone who is like a sister to me say that.” Noah replies with a lost look on his face.

  “Why don’t you not think at all and just come and help move all of this shit into place. Ya know, the whole reason that you’re here?” Danny drawls.

  Mase gives him a surprised look. “You were serious about that?”

  Danny just stares blankly at him for a few seconds. “Why the hell else would I ask you to be here? I can sure as shit guarantee it’s not your winning personality. You might as well use those muscles that you brag about non-fucking-stop.”

  Everyone in the room chuckles at the put-out expression on Mason’s face. “With friends and family like you assholes...who needs enemies?” He mumbles.

  Kayla walks up and jumps onto his back like a spider monkey. She smooshes his face with her hands. “Stop acting like you are even remotely offended and start putting those roided up muscles to good use.”

  Mase tries to twist her off but to her credit, she’s got a good grip. “I told you that these are all natural dammit and hours of hard work!”