Beefcake & Mistakes

by Fennell, Judi

  “Miss me?” someone tall, dark, and gorgeous whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

  “Trevor did.” Jenna was very proud of herself for answering coherently and not babbling in a puddle of pheromones.

  “What about you? Did you miss me?”

  It was kind of hard not to look at him when he put his finger under her chin and turned her face to his.

  His lips were right there. Close enough to kiss.

  “How much did you make for the cause?” She had to ask. Had to get her mind off his lips.

  Of course she watched them form his response. “About a thousand.”

  At two dollars a pop—a kiss—he’d—

  “You kissed five hundred women?”

  “Jealous?” He waggled his eyebrows.

  Yes. “Or course not. It’s… it’s just… I’m concerned. About germs.” Okay, that was lame, but it was the best she could come up with. “I mean, you could catch something. And hanging out with Trevor, you could give it to him. He doesn’t need to get sick.”

  “And then there’s you, too.” Bryan circled around her like a predator eyeing its prey, and, yes, she did feel a bit hunted.

  “Me?”

  “Yes. You. If I’m sick, I can’t really keep kissing you, can I?”

  Okay, they were going to have to have this discussion now. “Bryan, I don’t think it’s a very good idea for you to keep kissing me.”

  “Okay, then you can kiss me. I’m not one to let chivalry stand in the way of a woman’s kisses.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Oh? Then what did you mean because you certainly can’t tell me you don’t want to kiss me.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Don’t even try it. I was there, remember? In the apartment and back when we…” He nodded toward Trevor. “Then. Obviously we did some kissing. A lot more, though I don’t think we’re ready for that just yet.”

  Maybe he wasn’t, but her hormones were doing the happy dance just from the mention.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be kissing in front of Trevor. He might get the wrong idea.”

  “I’m perfectly happy to kiss you away from Trevor. When and where? I’m there.”

  He looked so darn cute with that hopeful expression on his face she just had to laugh. “Does that really work for you?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

  Yeah, it worked. And, no, she wasn’t going to tell him.

  “Look, Bryan. Obviously there’s chemistry between us.” Full-blown, lethal contact, light-up-the-skyline sort of chemistry, but she had too much to lose for a few nights of unbridled passion.

  Though unbridled passion did have a lot to recommend itself.

  “But we have to look at this from the long haul perspective. Trevor isn’t even four. We’ve got at least fourteen years, if not more, of dealing with each other. It’s not a good idea to start something that could cause problems down the road. We need to just stay friends. Co-parents. Work together. Without any added complication.”

  “You’ve thought a lot about his haven’t you?”

  “Haven’t you?”

  He smiled and a dimple appeared in his cheek. Just like the one Trevor had.

  God she was so screwed.

  No, you want to be screwed.

  Her subconscious was not helping matters.

  “I have been thinking about it, Jenna. Ever since I blurted out that marriage proposal.”

  The woman behind him looked over.

  Crap, he’d said that too loud. Jenna dragged him away from nosey ears. “Bryan, please. Keep your voice down. We don’t need any more gossip going around.”

  “Why, has someone said something to you about the prostitution thing? Who was it? I’ll go set them straight.”

  She’d never been into caveman tactics, but she did have to admit that she liked that he was indignant on her behalf and wanted to fix the problem for her. For so long she’d had to fix her own problems.

  “No, nothing like that. But Trevor doesn’t need talk going around about his parents. It’s going to be bad enough when it’s known that you’re his father.”

  “Who do people think is his father?”

  Yeah, this wasn’t an area she’d wanted to get into with him. “I never really said. Just changed the subject whenever it came up.”

  “Like you tried to do with me.”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “We definitely need to come up with a story to explain me, Jenna. Something people will believe.” He tugged her closer. “And to help get that ball rolling, I think I should kiss you. Let people see that we’re together. It’ll soften the blow when the truth comes out.”

  Nothing would soften that blow, but he wasn’t talking about her truth. How ironic that they were going to lie about his involvement in Trevor’s parentage when hers was the real lie.

  “So, you with me?”

  “With you?” She had no idea what he was talking about, her mind was spinning with all the implications of this situation.

  And then her mind was spinning from something else entirely.

  He kissed her. Again.

  Luckily he kept it PG. His arms went around her, his lips found hers and he slid his tongue inside with just the perfect amount of slippage that no one would know where his tongue was but her.

  And she knew. Whoa baby, did she know. Her nerve endings switched on as if he’d flipped a switch, her heart rate went into rumba mode, and her hormones were once more dancing with joy.

  “Mommy? Why is Bwyan kissing you?”

  Exactly the question she wanted to ask.

  She pulled out of Bryan’s embrace, tucked her hair behind her ears, and had to prevent herself from licking her lips because he’d tasted that good.

  “I was thanking her, Trev.” Bryan, damn him, sounded all cool and composed while she was a bundle of overactive nerves.

  “For what?”

  He lifted Trevor off the pony and stuck him on his shoulder. “For allowing me to be your new friend.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Trevor patted the top of Bryan’s head. “Can I wide up here all the time?”

  “Well, I don’t know about all the time, but you can for now.”

  “Cool!”

  Bryan raised an eyebrow at her. “Cool? Where’d he come up with that?”

  Jenna rolled her eyes and the levity was just what she needed to get her hormones under control. “The all-knowing Michael.”

  “Ah.”

  “Yeah, ah.”

  “Can I pway a game? I wanna win a teddy bear. Mr. Monkey wants a new fwiend, too.”

  “Where do you see a teddy bear?” Bryan asked.

  “Over there.” Trevor pointed to a row of carnival games. “It’s bwue. Mr. Monkey woves bwue.”

  “That’s because he fell in a glass of punch,” Jenna whispered to Bryan. She’d had to do some pretty quick thinking to keep Trevor from crying his eyes out over his “ruined” friend. But when he learned that Mr. Monkey “loved punch,” it’d become his favorite drink, too. She was hoping Mr. Monkey would make the transition to orange juice soon. Didn’t leave quite the mustache that punch did so she wouldn’t have to fight as hard to scrub it off.

  It took Bryan over sixty bucks in tickets—and assorted other prizes he’d won in the interim—to finally win the Trevor-sized teddy bear, but it was worth every cent to see the smile on their son’s face and the hero-worship in his eyes. Bryan could seemingly do no wrong.

  Then Bryan bent over to pick up a light saber he dropped and—yeah, pretty much everything about Bryan was darn near perfect.

  Jenna exhaled and looked around. Anywhere but at the gorgeous set of glutes stretching a pair of nylon shorts tight.

  Something else was a little tight…

  “Can I go on the mewwy-go-wound, now? I wanna wide a tiger.” Trevor swung his legs and bounced on Bryan’s shoulder.

  Bryan winced and grabbed Trev’s
feet. “Yeah, but you don’t want to kick him like you just did to me. That hurt.”

  “Oh. I sowwy.”

  “I know you are. So which animal should I ride?”

  “The felefant. It’s big wike you.”

  Jenna blushed just thinking about how “big” Bryan was. Mother and son were on two different wavelengths.

  Bryan however, was riding on hers and his smirk confirmed it. “An elephant, huh? Is it because of my long trunk?”

  He was so not looking at Trevor when he said that.

  And she was so not going to look at him.

  “What do you want to ride, Jenna?” Bryan went with the touching thing again, his fingertips sliding along her arm in what could be considered an innocuous touch but wasn’t.

  She was not going to dignify that with an answer. Mainly because she doubted she’d be all that dignified answering him.

  “Mommy can wide the poodle. She wikes poodles, don’t you, Mommy?”

  “Um, yes. I do. Poodles are nice.” She reached up to ruffle Trevor’s hair. It was curly like a poodle’s.

  Like his father’s that she’d had her fingers threaded through.

  Thank God the merry-go-round was just up ahead. A couple of spins on a stationary poodle would be just the thing to get her libido and imagination under control.

  So was Trevor’s chatter as they walked beneath the red, white, and blue mini triangles that stretched across strings tied between the rides and booths in a pergola-like mish-mash of festive, from the sea of families, to the game booths, to the face painting stations, fortune-tellers, tarot readers, stilt walkers, jugglers, and clowns, Trevor had to comment on each one. He also had to sample every food product between there and the carousel and Jenna could only envision a late night tummy ache.

  But she hadn’t been able to say no any more than Bryan had.

  Trevor kept up a running dialogue about what animals were what on the carousel, what they ate, where they lived, surprising her at how much he’d retained from the animal videos she’d bought him at Christmas since he hadn’t watched them in months now that fire engines and football and T-rexes were his favorites.

  “I wike poodles, but boxers are better.” He handed Bryan the half-eaten water ice so he could run up to the fence ringing the ride, Bryan being the repository of all things Trevor today and Jenna tried not to mind. Trevor had wanted a father and now he had one.

  Who’d asked her to marry him.

  “Penny for ’em.” Bryan nudged her shoulder with the ginormous teddy bear.

  She had no idea where she was going to put that thing in her house. Trevor’s bedroom wasn’t big enough for the collection he had, let alone another one.

  “I’m wondering where we’re going to put the bear.”

  “I could keep him at my place if you want.”

  “That apartment? With all those condoms?”

  A smirk slid across his face. “Saw those, did you?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. You are not putting my son’s toy in that… that… that den of iniquity.”

  Bryan stared at her for about one second before he started to laugh. And laughed some more. He laughed so hard he had to bend over to catch his breath and the teddy bear now had a big blue wet spot on his nose from hitting the ground right where some kid had spilled their snow cone.

  Just like Mr. Monkey. Those two would get along famously.

  “What’s so funny?” Trevor asked oh-so-innocently as he ran back from the fence.

  “Nothing.” She turned his head back toward the carousel. Maybe if they ignored Bryan he’d go away. How could the man make her feel hot and bothered and just plain bothered all at the same time?

  “Then why is Bwyan laughing?” He even looked like his father when his forehead was all scrunched up.

  “Your mom said something funny,” said Bryan, getting his laughter under control.

  “Oh. Was it about a milkman and a showgirl?”

  “What?” She and Bryan said it at the same time.

  “Where did you hear about a showgirl?” She looked at Bryan in a panic. Did someone know about last night? Had someone recognized her? Was she going to lose her job?

  She couldn’t lose her job. She couldn’t. Okay, she had some money saved up, but not nearly enough to weather unemployment.

  She should never have danced last night. She should have told him no. Told him she couldn’t. Explained why she couldn’t.

  Oh yeah, like that was the answer. Then, instead of standing here at a fair with cotton candy stuck to her tank top and way too many ride tickets in her pockets, she could be facing a judge, explaining why she’d kept the truth from Bryan, and pleading for visitation rights.

  She was so screwed. And not in a good way.

  “Trevor.” Bryan hunkered down to Trevor’s level and Jenna didn’t mind if the teddy bear’s entire face was covered in blue sugar water. “Where did you hear that joke?”

  “Michael told me.”

  Of course he had. Michael was the purveyor of pre-school filth now as well as a bully, a thug, and a disciplinary problem.

  “What exactly did Michael tell you?”

  “Are you mad?”

  Jenna’s heart twisted at that scared little look on Trevor’s face. “No honey, we’re not mad. We’re just curious. We’ve never heard that joke so we wanted to know how you did.”

  “Well, it’s not weawwy funny.”

  “It’s not really funny?” She translated for Bryan who’d looked at her in confusion. Having been there every day since Trevor had said his first word at the age of two, she understood him.

  Trev shook his head, his black curls bouncing. “No. It just made me firsty because the man wanted to drink the milk.”

  Jenna closed her eyes. She needed to have a serious talk with his teachers. And with Michael’s parents.

  “You handle the school and I’ll take the dad?” Bryan helped her stand up.

  “Deal.” She held out her hand to shake his. It was nice that they were on the same wavelength on this. It was nice to have someone to share this with.

  It was nice to have Bryan to share this with.

  Chapter-Twenty-Three

  The merry-go-ride unleashed a torrent of commentary from Trevor, especially about the wooden St. Bernard he was riding and the dog show in the next aisle over.

  They headed there once the carousel had lost its appeal—after three rides—and saw dogs jumping through hoops, walking on their back paws, on their front paws, some hopping, and some skipping rope. One of them could even do back flips.

  “The man said he twained the puppies when they were babies.” Trevor looked at them from where he was hanging onto the plastic fencing the trainer had set up around the performing dogs. “He said you hafta do it weawwy weawwy young or they won’t get it.” He pointed to one of the dogs, an old sheepdog mix whose main job, it seemed, was to nip at the little ones who ran too close to the fence. A guard dog for dogs. “That one’s firteen years old. The man said so. Am I gonna be firteen some day? Can I get a puppy for my birfday? I want to make it do what those do. I can feed it and wove it and it can sweep in my bed. Wight Mommy?”

  Those violet eyes turned on her with enough fervor to make her heart melt. Just like his father—

  Jenna shook her head. No, she wasn’t thinking about anything melting when it came to Bryan.

  “Aw, pwease Mommy? I’ll take care of it, I promise!”

  “Trev, this isn’t really the pla—”

  “Your mom and I will talk about it, okay, Trev? Why don’t you go watch that puppy walk on the ball?”

  “Oh, cool!”

  Bryan, once again, to the rescue. It was getting pretty annoying.

  She wanted to tell him she was perfectly capable of answering her own child, but the last thing they needed—the last thing she needed—was for them to be warring factions in front of Trevor. She knew a lot of people who’d pitted their spouses against each other during a divorce, her o
wn mother included. It’d made Jenna all the more determined not to do that with Trevor.

  “You’re catching on to this parenting thing pretty quickly. That was the perfect way to get him to stop talking about it.” She had to give Bryan props where props were due.

  “Thanks. That’s nice of you to say.”

  That was a warm fuzzy moment she didn’t need to have happen between them either. She could not let her guard down around Bryan; it’d be too easy to do, and then who knew what she’d tell him?

  “But he’s still not getting a puppy.”

  “Why not? He wants one.”

  “But I don’t.”

  “Aw, come on. What do you have against puppies? You don’t like cute little furry animals?” He nuzzled her cheek with the teddy bear’s big snow-cone-covered snout.

  She wiped the residual goo off her cheek. “I do love cute little furry animals. Someone else’s. School will be starting soon. Puppies are time-consuming and they require work. They need to be trained and walked, and they howl at night, and then there’s the poop patrol in the yard and—

  “You said poop.”

  She looked up at him. “What?”

  He grinned that grin that turned her insides to snow cone mush. “You said poop.”

  “Well, duh. What else am I supposed to call it? That’s what puppies do. They poop. All over the place. And I just put new carpet in the family room.”

  “I’ve never gone out with someone who said poop before.”

  “Really? Did they eliminate instead? Or didn’t they do that at all?”

  He laughed. “I don’t know what they did. It never came up in conversation.”

  He could have sex with them, exchange bodily fluids with them, but no one ever brought up that particular bodily function? Had he dated Stepford ex-wives or something?

  Okay, she didn’t want to think about who he’d dated. She didn’t want to think about any of it. Including poop. “No puppy.”

  “Spoilsport.”

  “Yeah, well if you want to come over and clean up the yard—and Trevor’s shoes when he steps in it, not to mention the midnight potty breaks, and the oodles of fur to clean up. Puppies sound great in theory, but the only time anyone should get a kid a puppy is to teach him responsibility. That way the parent doesn’t have to do everything, and Trevor isn’t ready for that responsibility.”