by M K Dwyer
“I know a great Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood. Care to join me Saturday night?”
“Like a date?”
“Yes.”
“Uhhh…”
“Or not. You know. Whatever” She laughed nervously, her hope dwindling fast.
“Oh, no. It’s not like that. I’m just not free this weekend. How’s next Saturday?”
“Sounds great,” she replied before he could change his mind. Wait… “Umm… What’s your name? I’ve never made a date with someone before I knew their name.”
That deep, husky laugh again. “Will Braun. And you?” He extended his hand for a handshake.
“‘Will’ huh?” So, he did have a short, sexy name. It suited him. I wonder what it’s short for. “Nikki Sparks. Nice to meet you.” She took his hand in hers. It was strong, rough and completely dwarfed her own. Their eyes met, and she forgot she was supposed to pump her hand up and down. They just stood there for a minute with their eyes and hands locked.
He was the first to come to his senses and pull away. Shame. “I need to go. I’m cooking dinner for my new roommates tonight. I’m sure they’re starting to wonder where I am.”
“Oh? Wow.” Great. Back to one syllable words. But he cooks. Hubba hubba. She’d never been with a man who cooked before. Aiden could barely boil an egg.
“So, I’ll pick you up on Saturday or do you want to meet at the restaurant?”
“You can pick me up.”
They exchanged phone numbers and she texted him her address.
“Got it. I’ll see you then, Nikki.”
“See you then. Feel free to use that number before next Saturday though,” she added with a wink before she could lose her moxie.
Woah. Where did that boldness come from? She was feeling increasingly like a new woman with each passing second around the guy.
“Oh, I intend to.” He winked back.
With the butterflies in her stomach going crazy and the surge of boldness waning fast, she couldn’t get a single word past her lips. She just nodded like a deranged bobble head doll as he walked away towards the registers.
Chapter Six
Will
He had a date! A date with hottest girl in town. A slap across the face could not have wiped off his smile as he loaded the groceries on the conveyer belt, paid and took them home.
“Does the grocery store offer happy endings now?” Jesus goaded him when he glided in the door on cloud nine.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Though the unwavering smile on his face said otherwise.
“Whatever dude. You’ll crack and spill the beans eventually.”
Not likely. If there was one thing he learned in the military, it was to wait as long as possible before introducing your girl to your friends. They would, no doubt, try relentlessly to embarrass him and there needed to be a good foundation first or she would go running for the hills. The ones that wouldn’t embarrass him would try to charm her away from him, and that wouldn’t do either. Maybe he wasn’t giving these guys enough credit, but he’d just met them.
Will took the groceries to the kitchen. Jesus followed him and started pulling items out of the bags.
“Where’s Joe?”
“Still glued to that game with War.”
“What about Adam?”
“Working.”
“He went back to the office?”
“No. He works from home a lot. He’s in his room. He might show his face when he smells food.” Jesus chuckled.
Will thought for a moment. “You ever see that set-up in this room?”
“The computers and monitors?”
Will nodded.
“Yeah. Why?”
“No reason, I guess. Just… Do you ever wonder what an accountant needs with so much tech?”
“No. He’s a techy guy; just loves computers and shit. It’s like a hobby. Did you notice any of the cameras? He promises they’re only on the outside, but there are more than you’ll ever find.”
“That doesn’t bother you or strike you as odd?”
“The cameras or the computers?”
“Both. Either.”
“The computers, no. Like I said, it’s just who he is. The cameras, maybe at first, but after a while you forget they’re even there, and the extra security is nice. We had some packages stolen like six months ago, and Adam gave the police such a clear picture of the thief that she was arrested within twenty-four hours. What’s with all the questions? Already thinking of jumping ship?”
“No. Not at all.” He couldn’t pinpoint his feelings on the matter, but he knew he was missing a piece to the Adam-puzzle. “Just curious. Wait, ‘she’?”
“Yeah. Turned out to be one of our neighbors from a couple of streets over.” Jesus chuckled. “She seemed like the type that stole for the thrill of it, not the need of it. She got a slap on the wrist, and we got our packages back.” Jesus shrugged.
“You have a minute to help me out?” Will figured a change in subject was best.
“I can’t cook.”
“Can you handle a knife?”
Jesus smirked. “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
Will pulled a knife from the butcher block and handed it to Jesus with the tomatoes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, onions and lettuce he’d just bought. “Then you can prepare the these for the salad. I’m grilling steaks tonight. My secret recipe. You’ll never be able to eat any old steak again. I apologize in advance.” Will winked at Jesus, and Jesus laughed.
“We’ll see, man. We’ll see.”
∞∞∞
The rest of the week and weekend passed without much fanfare. He’d picked up his phone at least a dozen times to call Nikki but was either interrupted or chickened out each time. He was itching to get to know her, but at the same time, he was afraid to reveal too much about himself. How would she react to Joe? He knew he was jumping the gun, but being a dad was such a large part of him. If she couldn’t accept his son, then there would be no future for them. At the moment, for him, it was better not knowing how she felt about children, than to find out for sure, and be disappointed.
He and Joe went to SeaWorld on Saturday. Will tried to do something fun each weekend he had his son. Whether it was a movie, or a theme park, just depended on what Joe wanted to do.
On Sunday, Will drove Joe back to his mom’s house. They arrived before she did. He texted her but got no response. After waiting in the driveway for an hour, he was beginning to wonder if she was coming back. As they approached hour two, he was about to tell Joe they were heading back to San Diego when headlights flashed across his mirrors. A strange car pulled in the driveway and parked next to them.
“Who’s that?” A man he’d never seen before opened the driver side door and walked in the house. It was dark, so Will could only see that the man was average height and build with hair down to about his shoulders, and he dressed in all dark colors.
“Mom’s new boyfriend, Mark.” Joe’s face turned sour.
“You don’t like him?”
“More like he doesn’t like me.” Joe dropped his head.
“Oh, Buddy. I’m sure that’s not the case. Maybe he just hasn’t been around kids much.” Will tussled Joe’s sandy blonde hair that was so much like his own. He smiled remembering that it drove Theresa nuts that Joe was a carbon copy of him.
“Adam and Jesus and War aren’t around kids much, and they’re nice to me. They’re cool!”
“Yeah. They are. You’re right. Maybe this guy is just a butthole.” Will hoped for a laugh from Joe, but one bad word wasn’t enough to cheer him up. At that point, Theresa had gotten out of the car and was impatiently waiting for Joe to get out of Will’s truck. Everything was on her schedule.
“Maybe,” Joe said with a sigh as he got out of the truck. Will got out of the truck as well and walked over to him.
“All right, Bud. Give me a hug and run in the house while I talk to your mom. I love you, and I’ll see you in twelve d
ays.”
“Love you too, Dad.” Joe hugged him and walked away.
“Have fun on your trip?” Will spoke sarcasm like a second language. “Bring me back anything?”
“Very funny. Yes, I did have fun, as a matter of fact. Loads of it.”
“Oh? You must’ve to be back so late.”
“I KNEW you were going to bring that up!” She stepped closer to him and wagged her bony finger in his face.
“Of course, I brought it up. We waited in the driveway for two hours because you refuse to give me a key to your house. I know better than to expect a courtesy phone call that you’re running late, but I could’ve at least taken him inside and gotten him ready for bed considering school starts tomorrow.”
“He’ll be fine. Mark and I hit bad traffic. It’s not the end of the world.”
“And who is Mike anyway? Joe says your new boyfriend doesn’t like him.” It was then that Will realized the man went inside and hadn’t come back out again. “Please, tell me he’s not living here.”
“His name is Mark, and he’s my boyfriend.”
“And…?”
“And what?”
“And is he living here?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of? Like you don’t know?”
“Sort of like he still has his own place, but he’s over here most of the time.” Then she paused and looked at him with narrowed eyes like he’d just tricked her into spilling all her secrets. Not that it was particularly hard to trick her into anything. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. It’s really none of your business.”
“It is my business when there is a strange man living under the same roof with my son.”
“Oh yeah? What about all those roommates of yours?”
“My roommates are Marines who would rather die than hurt a child, and I’m not screwing any of them!” At that point their conversation had gone from talking to whisper-yelling. If he wasn’t careful, it would escalate into actual yelling, and the last thing he needed was Joe to hear them bickering or one of her nosy neighbors calling the cops. “Look,” he said trying to cool his temper and calm the situation. “My main concern is that Joe thinks Max doesn’t like him…”
“It’s Mark dumbass.” She interrupted him.
“Mark. Whatever. My main concern is Joe thinks Mark doesn’t like him, so could he try to smile more at the kid or something? He’s eight, and he should feel comfortable living in his own home instead of walking on eggshells around this guy.”
“Yeah. Okay. All right. I’ll talk to him.”
“Thank you. I’ll pick him up from school two Friday’s from now, so make sure he takes to school whatever he wants for the whole weekend.”
She nodded as he got in his truck and backed out of the driveway. Driving away, he thought of his son and hoped he’d be all right dealing with whatever-his-name-was. Growing up, Will had a stepfather that he didn’t get along with, and it’s partially why he joined the Marine Corps. When he turned eighteen, he couldn’t get out of that house or that town fast enough, and the quickest ticket out was joining the military. When your overbearing stepfather was the longest running mayor of your small hometown, and everyone knew who you were by association, even the colleges he could get into would not have taken him far enough away.
The Marine Corps did though. He’d seen the world on Uncle Sam’s dime. When his sham of a marriage to Theresa finally fell apart, she moved Joe back to her hometown of Yuma, Arizona. He knew it was time to put away his wings, rejoin civilian life and settle down close to them. His mother begged him to move home or at least visit more often, but the smiles and friendly handshakes from his stepfather never lasted long once he got there. He was a man used to getting his own way, and Will rarely gave it to him. Never without a fight, anyway. His mom said his stepfather just wanted what was best for him, and maybe that was true sometimes, but he certainly had a funny way of going about it.
Again, Will’s thoughts turned back to Joe. He hoped he’d get a good report that the boyfriend was making an effort the next time he picked Joe up. If not, he would be having a conversation with the man himself when he dropped Joe off again instead of going through Theresa.
Chapter Seven
Nikki
She’d given him her number on Thursday. Why hasn’t he called? Nikki glanced at her phone for millionth time since. It was Monday and the first day of the new school year. She should have been excited about meeting her new students, but all she could think about was him. Stupid hormones. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so giddy/nervous/excited about dating a guy, not even Aiden. She felt like a teenager with her first real crush.
After running into Will at the grocery store, she ran home to call Joyce and told her all about their encounter leaving out the awkward bits. Joyce knew her well enough to know there had to be at least some awkwardness but was gracious enough not to say anything. It was barely 8 A.M. and she would have to spend the day avoiding Joyce because she didn’t have an update after four days. She knew the first words out of her friend’s mouth were going to be, “Has he called yet?” No, he hadn’t called yet. Not even so much as a text. She was starting to wonder if they would even go out that weekend. Like maybe he didn’t want to say “no” to her face when she asked him out, so he got her number to text her later. Or maybe he died in some tragic accident on the way home from the grocery store. The former she hoped wouldn’t happen, and she knew the latter was unlikely, but her mind had gone to increasingly darker places with each passing day. Being back at work, if he called now, she wouldn’t be able to answer it unless he magically called during her lunch break. What if he calls while she’s teaching, it goes to voicemail, and he assumes she is blowing him off? Would that be so bad? She grinned at the thought.
Tumbling down the rabbit hole of what-if’s, she turned, and reality hit her hard in the form of one of her new third grade students as he came barreling into her classroom a split second before the bell rung.
“Thank you for joining us mister…”
“Murdock, ma’am. Tommy Murdock.”
“All right Tommy. Take your seat over there.” She pointed to a desk towards the middle of the front row. “So, we can get started.”
I’m going to have to keep my eye on that one. She chuckled.
“Good morning class! Welcome to the first day of school!” She addressed the entire group of students. The morning announcements began over the loudspeaker, so she sat down to listen with her students. As the principal of Clairmont Elementary recited her own welcome to the students, her mind wandered to Will.
Looking at her students, she wondered what his childhood had been like and tried to imagine the hunk of a man as an eight-year-old. She laughed to herself imagining him as the class clown. Or was he the quiet, pensive type? Maybe he was the teacher’s pet. He was certainly charming, but maybe that came later in life.
She had been a very studious child. After her mom died, and her dad remarried, school had become her escape. She didn’t fault either her dad or her stepmom. Her dad was the type of man who needed a woman in his life. Completely lost after her mom died, he didn’t know what to do with a seven-year-old, or himself, for that matter. He thought getting remarried would fix everything, but her stepmom hadn’t known any more about raising children than he did. Nikki appreciated that Gloria made her dad happy, but they never connected on a mother-daughter level. Though Nikki knew Gloria loved her, even after Gloria had her own kids with Nikki’s father, her motherly instincts for Nikki never seemed to kick in, and their relationship remained strained. It hurt Nikki to watch Gloria show her kids the affection Nikki craved growing up. Once she moved out of her dad and stepmom’s house, her relationship with Gloria grew non-existent. That’s why she’d attached so strongly to Aiden’s parents. His childhood had seemed like a fairytale to her, and his parents had welcomed their daughter-in-law with open arms and open hearts. Even after the divorce, she still spoke to her mother-in-law. Louise cal
led from time-to-time to see how Nikki was doing and made it no secret that she thought Aiden had made the biggest mistake of his life pushing her away in favor of “that bitch” Brandy. Louise’s words, not hers, though she silently agreed with her ex-mother-in-law on both counts. Thinking of her ex’s mother as her “ex-mother” made her heart hurt, but despite Aiden’s recent efforts and her love for Louise, she had no desire to go back to him. She would do her best to maintain a relationship with Louise without a relationship to the woman’s son.
Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she realized the announcements were over and the students were discussing things amongst themselves. The noise level was quickly getting out of hand. She needed to pull her head out of the clouds before she lost control completely. As an experienced teacher, she knew if the kids thought they had a looney toon for a teacher on the first day, gaining their respect and attention would be an uphill battle all year long.
“Okay class. Settle down.” She stood, and with their attention on her, began the obligatory first-day activities. Taking inventory of their supplies, gathering any remaining registration paperwork, teaching them the classroom rules and what she expected out of them during the school year required most of the day. She made time though to play a fun get-to-know-you game before the day was over. She didn’t know all their names by heart yet but knew she would be a pro by the end of the first week, if not sooner.
By the end of the day, Nikki was walking to her car, exhausted, and Will still hadn’t called. Joyce had cornered her in the teacher’s lounge at lunch time and made her spill her no-news news. Still optimistic, unlike Nikki, Joyce tried to cheer her up by reminding her they had a date planned for the end of the week. Nikki on the other hand was less and less convinced that was even going to happen. It was just her luck the first time she really put herself out there after her divorce that it would be an epic failure. She sighed. Part of her knew she was being melodramatic, and it wasn’t over until he called to cancel or just didn’t show up for the date. She hadn’t been rejected yet, but the fear of rejection was so strong, it was like it already happened. She hadn’t realized until that moment just what a number her divorce had done to her self-esteem. She felt pathetic, and she couldn’t think why anyone would want to date that version of her. As strong as she wanted to be, and sometimes convinced herself she was, she just wasn’t feeling it in that precise moment.