by Lacey Silks
April would have won any game of Survivor.
Instead of lying, I slouched my shoulders in defeat and exhaled. “Fine. I knew where you lived.”
I paused. That would have to do for my honesty. Now I needed time to think up a good story. It had to be convincing, too. When I met her gaze, her brows rose in a prompt, and I knew that if I wanted her to ever believe me or trust me again, I had to come up with a story now.
“When I saw Parker on the first day of school and his features, the only person I thought about was you. The resemblance was too great to dismiss. And when Parker told me his mom’s name was April, I knew it had to be you. Coincidences like that don’t happen to me. Life has a way of fucking things up, and the moment I couldn’t find you on that dock in San Francisco, I knew that fate had pulled a fast one on me again.” I stepped closer and smoothed the back of my hand over her cheek. “The most beautiful and intriguing woman I’d ever met had slipped through my fingers. I tried to find you the honest way at first, but you weren’t listed anywhere. So I checked Parker’s address at the school, and I came here on day three. I’ve been parked in front of your house every day since then, trying to figure out how to approach you without freaking you out. I guess I failed.”
Was this believable? Barely, and she knew it. Or did she? Was that look of desperation and hope in her eyes enough to invite me in? Being dishonest was a bad way to start over, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet. And worse, I couldn’t walk away from her. She had to let me in. I was so close yet so far away.
Come on, April. Believe me. Believe the lie.
She kept her distance, probably still wary of my intentions, which she had every right to be, but finally said, “Come in.”
When she reached for the door knob, I caught her wrist and turned her body to face me. Not touching her was too painful. I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed each one of her fingers, whispering missed, beautiful, and sexy against her skin, seeing a new layer of goosebumps cover her arms. My mouth may have been courting her, but my heart wanted nothing more than to give her every last piece of real estate it held.
Wishing I could taste her, at this moment I could only savor the vanilla and lilac scent I remembered from Hawaii which had to be enough — for now. The aroma did a funny thing to me and my conscience, and for a moment I regretted being here under false pretenses. I wished I could tell her the truth. All of it, today, so that we’d start this reunion fresh and without lies.
She finally allowed me to tilt her head upward, and before I brought my lips to hers I said, “I know Parker’s inside and I won’t do anything to make you feel uncomfortable in your son’s presence. But when we’re on our own, all bets are off, April. I want you as much as I did back on that island, and more. And I hope you’ll give me a chance to prove to you just how much you mean to me.”
Her eyes softened, and I seized her lips with everything I had. Her perfect body pressed against mine. Every soft curve I wanted to abuse with my hands and my mouth molded to me like play-dough, yielding to the pressure of my muscles. This perfect seduction was working better than I’d expected. Slowly, she was giving in. But I didn’t want her to feel like I was taking advantage of her, because I wasn’t. The kiss, my touch, and that new feeling in my chest I was still getting used to, were all real. I needed her to feel my soul – because when I kissed her like that, I certainly felt hers. That whimper in her throat brought me back to the porch, and when we pulled away, I wasn’t the only one who was dazed. Would she ever lower her guard? Could she give up at least a fraction of control to me? Was there any way she’d take that wall down and welcome me into her life, so that I could somehow protect her from the inevitable troubles in our futures?
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yes. And I know what you’re doing.”
“What?”
“You’re trying to make me forget about your lie.”
“Is it working?”
“For now. You better wipe that smirk off your face, though. I have a lot of questions.”
“I don’t doubt you do. Now let me in before I starve.”
I gave her another of what other women called sexy grins and her face mellowed. The pizza delivery girl pulled up just in time. I paid for the order, and April finally let me inside.
“It’s not much, but it’s home.” She guided me through the hallway. The place was homey and had that motherly touch many houses lacked. Something about it made me want to stay here forever. Maybe it was because I’d been wishing for such a home for Charlie — a home I never thought she could have, at least not until I met April. But I needed to stop mixing my business and personal lives before this got out of hand. Who was I kidding? So far nothing about this case felt routine or simple.
“It’s nice. You’ve done very well for a single mother.”
“Thanks. Parker! Pizza’s here.”
“Parker tells me you guys are new to this neighborhood.”
“We are. The smaller town is more my style than it was Simon’s.”
“Your ex-husband’s?”
“No, I’m widowed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s been two years. We’ve dealt with it.”
The casual tone of her answer and the words she chose made me pause for a moment. How do you “deal with” the death of your husband? I knew he’d committed suicide. At least that’s what the papers said. But I also had enough experience to know that what was written and what actually happened were often two different things. Was my employer right about her?
Parker ran down the stairs, almost twisting his ankle.
“Whoa, Parker. This isn’t a rodeo.” I caught him by his arm just before he smacked his face on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Be careful, please. I don’t want another visit to the hospital.”
When Parker sat down on the couch, I turned to April, saying, “He doesn’t look like a reckless kid.”
“Parker’s accident prone. He may be quiet at school, but outside, he’s like a Tasmanian devil. When he was younger, I had to have a helmet on this kid at the playground.” April set the plates out and opened the pizza carton.
“I know exactly what you mean. Charlie’s a tomboy. And it’s probably my fault. I guess not having a mother’s influence would do that to a girl.”
At the mention of my daughter, April’s face beamed with a luminous glow. Kids were her weakness. They were mine as well, but I had a better way of hiding it. Most of the time, it was part of my job to be someone else. Yet with April at my side, all I wanted was to be myself. Spending time with her felt more normal than anything had in a long time.
She gave Parker a couple of slices, and he went off to turn on the TV. As soon as Parker got lost in a new Batman movie, she said, “Let’s go outside.”
We sat at the patio table. I poured us a glass of wine she had brought out. April kept biting her lip. She was about to attack me with questions, when all I wanted to do was attack that lip.
“How old is your daughter?”
“She’s in first grade, just like Parker.”
“At your school?”
“No, Charlie’s in private school closer to where I live.”
And there was that look I was expecting, the one where she questioned how I could afford to have my daughter in a private school on a teacher’s salary.
“Where do you live?”
I wasn’t ready to disclose that information; not yet. I had to gain her trust first. She already knew more about me than many, after all, and only a handful of people were aware of my address.
“You sure you’re not a cop, April?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” She laughed. “You need to excuse me, but it’s just difficult to believe you’re here. I mean, I work based on facts, and coincidences are rare. And now you’re a teacher in the small town I moved to.”
“I guess sometimes fate has a funny sense of humor. And I don’t really mind the question
s. After Charlie, my fiancée, passed, the grandparents insisted on paying for Charlie’s school. They’d lost a daughter but gained a granddaughter, and have spoiled her ever since. And I can’t blame them for that. Charlie’s all they have left of their daughter.”
“You named her after her mother.”
Her chest rose higher, and the genuine smile on her face, full of love and care, gave me goosebumps.
I have fucking goosebumps on my arms!
Everything was different with April. She had opened my eyes to new possibilities and lifted my expectations to levels way higher than I would have allowed myself to have.
“I’m sorry. It must have been tough losing the woman you loved and raising a daughter on your own.”
“My daughter never got a chance to meet her mother, so it’s probably not as tough as Parker having a father and then losing him.”
Why was I sharing this much?
“That’s one of the reasons we moved out of Charlotte. I didn’t want Parker to be reminded of our old life.”
“What happened to Simon?”
“Suicide. You should eat. The pizza’s getting cold.”
She was cutting me off, and maybe she was right to. While I wanted to push further, it was too soon, and I didn’t need April more wary of me than she already was. I needed her trust.
“Thank you for letting me join you.” I took a bite and leaned back against my seat. I could feel April watching me from the side, her gaze slowly lowering over my chest and to my crotch. If she didn’t stop staring, she’d have much more to see. When I looked at her, she pretended to be reaching for her wine glass and almost knocked it over. She took a sip, drawing my attention to her mouth. Hopefully I’d get a taste of it again soon enough.
“April, you’re licking your lips again.”
She slid that wet tongue back into her mouth, and I regretted saying anything.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s just that Parker’s here, and I’m doing my best not to kiss you and take you in my arms and hold your body again—”
She put her hand up, stopping me mid-sentence.
“Sean, do you mind if we start anew? I mean not in bed.”
“If it were up to me, I’d have you down on that seat, naked underneath me, spreading your legs open, yielding to my touch, before the night fell. But if it’s what you want, then of course.”
She hesitated, for a moment considering my offer of thorough sex, her face, arms and legs flushing with that lovely pinkish glow.
“I think we need a fresh start,” she said.
“So, let’s go out on a date. A real date.”
“What?”
“Well, how else do you start fresh? You can ask me anything you want. Would this weekend work? I’ll pick you up, and we’ll do dinner and something fun. Get to know each other better, and I’ll try to drop you off afterwards like a gentleman.”
“Try?”
“Yes, because I can’t promise I won’t be all over you if you continue licking those lips.”
Her eyes widened, and her tongue slipped back into her mouth – again.
“All right. Saturday, then. It’s a date. Wait – where are we going?” She perked up.
“I’d like to keep that as a surprise.”
“But I need to know what to wear.”
Right, women problems.
“Keep it casual. Not too many layers.” I winked, and her cheeks flushed. When April blushed, a few darker freckles surfaced on her face, and I loved watching the shades change.
“I thought you were going to keep it classy and be a gentleman.”
“But is it my fault you’re irresistibly beautiful?”
She laughed. “You’re too much. Do you have a book of one-liners you use on all the women you seduce?”
I leaned forward. Her scent filled my lungs, and I felt my chest vibrate. “April, I haven’t even begun seducing you.”
I touched her lips with mine so gently, she nearly fell over from the impact. Less was always more, especially intriguing women like April.
Chapter 5
April
Monday morning I sat at my desk and bit into a meatball sub. The tomato juice ran down my chin and I wiped it with a paper towel. I’d been staring at the raw brain in the metal bowl for over an hour. It was perfect: no broken vessels, the color dead but still freshly pink, and no trauma. The scan came up empty as well. Yet the woman’s files led me to believe her death was not an accident. There was no trace of foul play, though, and I couldn’t wait to read the toxicology report. But that would take a few days and my usual patience wasn’t living up to its potential today. In fact, it hadn’t since Sean left Friday night. I felt like a lost seal in an ocean. I had too many questions and not enough answers. I’d spent the rest of the weekend with Parker watching reruns of Bones, a favorite for both of us, and barely remembered anything. All that kept flashing through my mind were Sean Gordon’s name and our bodies tangled in one another on that beach in Hawaii as we kissed in the moonlit night.
“Earth to April,” I heard Millie’s voice. “What has you so lost in thought? If I knew you any better, I’d say you were meditating.”
Me meditating? Ha! Yeah, Millie definitely knew me well.
“Do you wanna get out of here?” I asked.
“If you can get me out of a job, I say yes.”
Which we both knew meant I’d need to sweet-talk dad. He wouldn’t say no. Millie was one of the best secretaries we’d had. Despite her frivolous nature, she organized this place as if she had some sort of an app plugged into her system 24/7. Everything was tagged, and I was sure Millie had fallen in love with the label maker. For the free-spirited woman she was, her life was so in order, sometimes I wanted to be her. Everything has its place in the universe, she once explained. For me, no matter how much control I tried to impose on my life, it still ended up a total mess.
I shoved the last bite into my mouth and pushed it down with my iced tea.
“Brace, we’ll be back in an hour or so. Do not touch my brain. And make sure everything is as I left it when I return.”
Brace, an intern, had started with us a couple of months ago.
“Absolutely.” He pointed to the covered corpse on the table. “I guarantee this one won’t walk away.”
And did I mention he had a great sense of humor?
After a few laughs and hugs with my dad, we went to the park across the street and walked the path along the river. The skies were almost clear, with just enough fluffy clouds to provide a shade of relief once in a while. For whatever it was worth, sometimes I completely understood why Millie was so fond of nature, peace and her yoga time. Maybe I should have listened to her and joined her in class, but I couldn’t take the accusing stares of those who knew me. Ever since Simon’s death and my being a primary suspect for a while, I’d been the talk of town. It was one of the reasons I became a loner and why we moved. And more importantly, I wasn’t ready to trust that Millie wouldn’t take me to a naked yoga class.
“I know you haven’t been yourself since coming back from Hawaii, but I have a plan,” she said, as we sat down on one of the benches by the pond. A family of ducks swam closer to the shore, their loud quacks demanding leftovers.
“What plan?”
“To find Eagle Man.”
“Oh, you don’t—”
“—just listen to me, because this is a sure fire way. My body hasn’t failed me before, and Ben, my travel agent, already agreed to go out with me.”
“I thought you were meeting him Friday night?”
“Ahm, well, the plans sort of changed.” For a moment she got lost in a thought. Then her personality turned her back on like a light bulb and she continued. “So I’ll detox before I meet him, use the most expensive creams to lube up, get him a little tipsy, wear a low-cut dress that shows off my cleavage and a pair of fuck-me pumps, and I’m sure he’ll give me the itinerary of everyone who went to that resort.” She lifted her
chin high in the air, all proud of her fool-proof plan. Too bad I’d have to stop it.
“You’d sleep with your travel agent for me? That’s the sweetest thing ever. But really, there’s no—”
Millie’s hand flew up, cutting me off.
“Nope, I’m willing to take the bullet on this one. I know he won’t be able to resist me. And once we have Eagle Man’s address, we can find him, and I can be your maid of honor.”
“Whoa, too much air definitely messes with your brain. But there’s no need, Millie.”
“What do you mean? I thought you were soul mates. You said that perfect package of his did wonders to your body in Hawaii.”
“It did.” The mere memory of just how wondrous it made my stomach tingle. “But I already found him.”
“What? How? When?”
“You’d know if you answered my messages this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah… I was kind of busy.”
I didn’t want to ask her about her “busy” schedule, but I was afraid that if Millie didn’t stop getting around like a bed-bug, I’d need to intervene.
“Get this. He’s Parker’s teacher.”
I quickly filled her in on my reunion with Sean, including how he’d had my home address and how we were supposed to go on a date next weekend. She sat there with her mouth half open, her earlier uplifting mood slowly fading.
“But… but Ben is cute. I really thought it would work.”
I laughed. “Then go out with him because you want to, not because you need information from him.”
Millie threw her arms around me, her mood switching like Ben wasn’t really that important (which I was sure he wasn’t). She hugged me until I could barely breathe. “I’m so happy for you.”
She then pulled away, holding me by my shoulders. “Wait. Why aren’t you happy?”
“Because I can’t help but feel like this isn’t a coincidence.”
“That’s because it’s fate.” She smiled brightly, her inner happiness almost glowing through her teeth.
