by Lisa N. Paul
“Are you kidding me?” He ran his fingers through his hair. Twice. Words were caught in his throat, stuck between the shock and awe. “April, you couldn’t be further from the truth. There have been several times when I’ve wanted to approach you, but you always have your earphones in and this look of intense determination on your face… like you were at the gym to exercise and get the hell out.”
Her eyes snapped to his, but she didn’t say a word to either confirm or deny his observation.
Therefore, he seamlessly changed the subject. “Frankly, after seeing the way you chewed up and spit out poor, poor Rocco”—Decker curled his upper lip in disgust—“I’m glad I didn’t try anything sooner. Christ, that could’ve been me.” He let out an exaggerated shiver and enjoyed the show when April’s dimples made their appearance.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” She checked the time on her watch. “But I do need to get going. Thanks again for today, Decker. Chat soon?”
The sweet look of hopefulness in her expression, combined with the slight uncertainty that he heard in the question, made him want to howl with excitement. Instead, he calmly closed her car door and motioned for her to slide the window down.
“Yeah, I might give you a call sometime.” He winked. “But don’t you call me, because you never know. I could run into your mother one day, and I’d have to tell her exactly what kind of daughter she raised.”
“Oh, trust me, my new friend, she already knows.” April rolled her eyes and repeated, “She already knows. See ya later.”
The glass partition lifted between them, and she flashed one more quick smile before driving out of the parking lot. Decker stood with the cool air chilling his sweat-soaked body and watched until the beautiful blonde’s car was no longer in sight before hopping in his own Ford F-450 work truck and heading home.
Chapter Three
Flirting For Fools
“IT’S DECKER,” APRIL exclaimed by way of greeting as she set her satchel down in the teachers’ lounge first thing the next morning.
“Who decked who?” The muted question came from April’s best friend, the school librarian, Aurora Velez.
“Rori, can you please get your head out of the refrigerator?” April rolled her eyes. “I hate having conversations with your ass.”
Sighing, Rori backed out of the fridge, closed the door, and popped the cap on her Sharpie marker. “April, you know I have to label all of my food. Someone keeps swiping my stuff, and I can’t figure out who the hell it is.” Annoyance was clear in Rori’s narrowed hazel eyes. “I’m gonna find the sneaky rat who keeps stealing my Greek yogurt, and when I do, it’s not gonna be pretty.”
“Blech, I can guarantee that it’s not me,” Janie Silver, a teacher and friend to both April and Rori, announced as she glided through the door. “I can’t stand Greek yogurt. In fact, if I ever told you what that sour, goopy shit reminded me of, you’d never eat it again, Ror.”
Rori crossed the room, her lips pursed in disgust as her hands gripped her curvy hips. “Janie, you’ve shared your descriptive and insightful thoughts on my lunch more than once.” Rori’s nose scrunched up as if her olfactory senses had been assaulted. “I’ve tried my hardest to bleach your words from my mind. So please, I beg of you, keep all Greek yogurt descriptions to yourself and that sexy boyfriend of yours.”
The women broke out into fits of giggles as other faculty members began to file into the room.
“Girls,” April interrupted, tapping her Mary Jane-clad foot on the ground, “do you want to hear about Decker or not?” Two pairs of wide eyes stared in April’s direction as she tried to figure out the best way to recap the events that happened the previous day.
“Umm, we’re waiting,” Rori sang out impatiently. “Seriously, who the hell is Decker?”
“Eeep!” April could barely contain the excitement that was bubbling to the surface. “Super-Hot-Gym-Guy, his name is Decker.”
“Oooh, that’s a sexy name, April.” Janie clasped her hands together. “I want full details later, but I promised Max I’d call him when I got to work. My car has been making a strange noise, so he worked on it last night and wanted me to call him when I got here to let him know if it was better.”
“And…how is it?” Rori inquired.
A dreamy look spread over Janie’s face. “It’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.” She grabbed her bags and left the lounge.
“So I’m thinking she wasn’t referring to the car just then.”
“I think you may be right, Ror,” April confirmed, her neck arched to the side as she watched Janie’s form disappear through the double doors of the school exit.
“Ahem.” Rori cleared her throat. “Chica, we don’t have all day. You gonna give me the goods on Super-Hot…err, Decker or what?”
Her directness was one of the reasons April loved her best friend of five years. Rori was more of a soul mate than anything else. She was the kind of person who truly cared about those she allowed in her life, and April considered herself lucky to fall into that category. Her friend wasn’t fake she didn’t ask questions if she didn’t want to hear the answers, and she was always there to listen when April needed to talk. Rori might not always tell her what she wanted to hear, but it was always what she needed to know. Hell, her friend couldn’t stand Ben, and that was before he’d packed up his shit and left April and their unborn son. After he left… well, that was an entirely different and ugly story.
“Oh my God, Ror, I wish you were there yesterday. The whole thing was like a scene out of a movie.” April quickly explained the scenario from start to finish, including how she’d blurted out her mother’s correlation between calling boys and orgasm defection.
“You did not!” Rori cackled, wiping the tears from her eyes. “My God, April, maybe we should enroll you in a flirting class or something. Oh, I know, Flirting For Fools.”
April shook her head as her friend dissolved into a pool of laughter. She finally interrupted her fun when Rori began to snort. “You know, Ror, for a librarian, you sure are loud.” At her comment, they both broke into a fresh round of giggles. April checked her watch. “Oh shit, I need to get to my classroom.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Rori volunteered, and they made their way down the hall. “You know I’m gonna need all of the details, right?”
April nodded. She knew exactly where the conversation was going.
Rori continued, “Because you know… the words make a story good…”
“But the details make it great!” The friends finished in unison.
April shoved her purse in the bottom drawer of her desk before looking up at her friend’s impatient face. “Don’t give me that look, Ror. I would have called you with the juicy deets last night, but you know how I feel about splitting my focus when I’m with Eli. The boy only has one parent who gives a shit, and I feel bad enough that he spends most of his waking hours in day care. So when I’m with him, he gets my full attention.”
April had cried every single day for months when she returned to work six weeks after giving birth to Elijah. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. She and Ben had planned for her to take off the rest of the school year, and the summer before deciding whether or not she would return to teaching. However, with Ben gone and April too proud or, as her mother constantly said, too damn stubborn to accept Ben’s guilt money, April needed to return to work as soon as her maternity leave was over.
“Once I put the little guy to bed, I graded those damn papers, which by the way”—she playfully smacked her friend’s arm—“didn’t I ask you to remind me not to give the students such long papers? Gah… please don’t allow me to assign the usual term paper at the end of the semester. I swear I dreamed in red ink last night. Anyway, before I knew it, it was midnight. I fell asleep on my bed in my clothes. Again.” April shook her head but didn’t say another word.
Rori sat quietly on the edge of April’s desk with her hands folded on her lap. April knew the po
se well. Rori was waiting for April to voice what she really wanted to say, and not the other bullshit that had just spilled from her mouth. They’d played this game many times before, each of them taking turns as the attendant during the other’s time of need. So April knew quite well that for as stubborn as she was, Aurora Velez had her bested by a mile. Her friend could wait her out until the gates of hell froze over and the devil himself lounged on an iceberg, licking a Popsicle.
With only five minutes until the students would start traipsing into the classroom, April let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t want to get excited over this guy, Ror. I mean, sure, he’s hot as hell, and after yesterday, I can say he seems nice, but…” She hesitated. “Ben seemed great up until the day he left me.”
“Pff, listen here, chica.” Rori lifted her index finger, waving it as aggravation lit up her big hazel eyes. “That man, and I use the term loosely, you were married to was a despicable excuse for a husband, and that was before he left you. You thought you were so lucky to have him, but sweet friend; it was the other way around. He never deserved you. You refused to see it then. Christ, half the time I think your vision is still a bit fuzzy. But other than being a sperm donor, he wasn’t a part of your pregnancy from the time the stick turned blue.” April startled when Rori intertwined their fingers. “You may not believe it, but the best thing that man ever did was walk away.”
“Rori,” April warned. She hated when anyone tried to make light of the hell Ben had put her through, especially when it was her best friend. Rori knew damn well how her world had been ripped apart, and her innocent son was left without a father even though the man was still alive and well.
“No, April, listen, I was around for the devastation that was left in his wake. I remember it. But I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that when you were married to that shithead, I never saw even a fraction of the happiness in your eyes as I’ve seen over the past month from just the brief interactions you’ve had with Super-Hot-Gym-Guy.”
“Decker,” April supplied quietly with a smile.
“Decker, Licker, Sucker whatever! The man we’ve been lusting over for weeks makes you smile like that, and you get excited.” Rori hopped off the desk as the first bell rang. “Love you, chica,” she called over her shoulder as she hurried out the door.
“Back atcha, toots.”
*
“IT’S APRIL,” DECKER announced as he walked into his brother’s pristine office and closed the door behind him. He yanked off his grime-encrusted gloves and plopped his filthy, denim-clad ass on the expensive leather guest chair.
Normally Ford would bitch about Decker’s lack of decorum—he even referred to his older brother, and the cloud of dust that followed him during working hours, as Pigpen. But Decker could tell by the way Ford’s brows were furrowed that he wasn’t going to get his normal razzing.
“Umm, Deck, you feelin’ okay, bro?”
Decker mocked Ford’s response. “Umm, yeah, why?”
“Because look at the calendar.” Ford slid the small paper tear-off day-by-day across the cherry wood. “It’s fucking February, not April, you fool.”
Shaking his head, Decker chuckled. “Nope, I’m pretty sure it’s April.” Just about the time Ford started looking really concerned Decker let him in on the joke. “The hot blonde from the gym, the one I’ve been telling you about, her name is April.”
Ford’s eyes lit up with recognition before he threw his head back and laughed. “Nice, Deck. You finally grew some balls and got her name. What did it take, a month? Six weeks? I thought I was gonna have to send her a note on your behalf. You know, ‘I like you. Do you like me? Check yes or no.’”
“Fuck you, little brother.” There was no bite in either of their tones; that was how they communicated, how they played, and how they loved one another. “Don’t you forget, I taught you everything you know about women.” Decker, being five years older than Ford and very popular amongst the ladies, had in fact taught his brother many things, but the dark look that quickly passed over Ford’s face, one that he’d seen several times before, made Decker wonder about the things Ford had learned long after Decker stopped teaching.
He brought the conversation back to the intended topic. “Anyway, I told you, she didn’t seem the type who was open to pick-up lines and flattery.”
“So what changed?” Ford rubbed at his shadowed jaw, genuine interest evident in his exhausted eyes.
“It seemed as though she was extremely turned off by douchebags in tanks tops that say All You Can Eat across the chest. She definitely didn’t like said douche telling her in graphic detail about the ways he’d like to invade her asshole.”
“Fuck me.” Ford swiped his hand over his forehead.
“Yeah.” Decker nodded as irritation once again reared its ugly head. “The guy was quite the charmer.”
“What did you do to stop him?” Ford asked through gritted teeth, clearly as frustrated and disturbed by the situation as Decker had been.
Both Decker and his brother had been taught about honor and respect very early in life by their parents. Their father, Ernest, a man born into conditions that could rival most horror movies before finally being adopted by the Brands, had always put in an honest, hard day’s work; and still found time to be an active, positive role model for his sons, as well as a loving husband to his wife. Their mother, Robyn, was a woman they had watched work her ass off to keep BC running while tending to her sons and maintaining the household after their father had passed away. In their actions, their parents had taught them that love, determination, and hard work would earn a good name and great respect. It was an honorable gift from the Brand matriarch, for which their admiration was boundless. In fact, they appreciated and respected all women, even if they didn’t always deserve it.
That had been one of the reasons Decker had found it so hard to turn his back when his marriage crumbled. Even when Olivia challenged him with hateful words and cold treatment, he refused to dishonor her, refused to stoop to a level so low. Some may have thought him a pussy, spineless even for allowing someone to treat him so badly. Decker didn’t see himself that way. He was protective and vigilant with the people he cared about, and he cared deeply for her. The cold hard fact was his marital problems didn’t begin and end with his wife. No, somehow during his time with Olivia, he’d lost his way, and that was something he would never allow himself to do again.
“Hello, Deck?” Ford interrupted Decker’s thoughts. “Please tell me you kicked Donnie-Dumbell’s ass or at least busted a few of his teeth?” Ford mumbled, “Fucking bastard. Who says shit like that to a woman?”
“Bro, I have a kid. I can’t go around throwing punches at random people. What kind of example would I be setting?” Decker shook his head. The fact that he’d threatened to do exactly what his brother suggested clouded his mind.
“You’d be teaching your daughter that no man, big or small, has the right to touch her or hell, even talk to her like she’s a piece of trash,” Ford snarled.
“Relax, killer,” Decker joked, attempting to lighten the mood. “You know damn well I’d never bear witness to that kind of shit and not get involved. I’m embarrassed to say that I was this close”—Decker held up his hand, spacing his thumb and index finger only a half inch apart—“to offering him my dental services when April beat me to it. The woman basically told him where he could shove his barbell.” When a smile crossed Ford’s face, Decker laughed. “It was priceless.”
“Nice. Feisty, huh?” Ford wagged his brows. “Sounds like my kinda woman.”
Even though there wasn’t a doubt in Decker’s mind with regards to Ford’s loyalty, just hearing him tease about wanting April made his insides churn and his jaw clench. “Not for a minute, little brother,” he enunciated each word clearly. “Not even in your dreams.”
A knowing grin spread over Ford’s handsome face as he lifted both hands to signify his surrender. “So it’s like that, huh.”
Deck
er nodded.
“Good. Now get your filthy ass out of my office before the dirt ruins my chair.”
Decker rose slowly from the leather, placed his palms flat on the pristine desk in front of him, and glared down at his kid brother. “Watch it, boy,” he growled. “While you sit here all suited up, looking pretty in your designer clothes and wearing fine cologne, I’m out there using my body and working my muscles.” He blatantly flexed his biceps. “These are for more than just looking sexy, little guy.”
Ford’s nostrils flared just before he burst out laughing. “Dude, for real? You sounded like dad just now, and what I mean by that is… corny as hell. Seriously, man, do not use lines like that on the new chick, or she’ll choose the douche over you.”
A sense of happiness that he hadn’t felt in far too long traveled through Decker’s veins.
“Seriously, do you want me to send her that note?” Ford ribbed, reaching for a piece of BC stationary.
“I’ll just call her myself.” Decker chuckled as he reached for the office door. “But thanks.”
Chapter Four
Gratuitous Winker
“IT’S BEEN THREE days, Rori, three flipping days!” April screeched into the phone, still watching from the window as her brother pulled out of her driveway with Elijah.
Their weekly guys’ night was something August had started when Eli was just a baby. It was a way for her little boy to have quality time with an amazing male role model—August’s words, not hers. Fact was, her brother was an incredible man, and both she and her son were lucky to have him in their lives. However, now that she had the house to herself, she could focus on the panic that was quickly taking over her rational thoughts.
“Are we talking about Super-Hot-Gym-Guy?” Her friend questioned, seeming distracted on the other end of the line.
