by Sarah Gay
Whatever he was thinking, it couldn’t be positive.
“I add them to everything.” She took the bag back from him. “Even when I eat out, I pop and sprinkle one of these peppercorns onto my food.”
His arms flew in the air. “And how will that help ward off attackers?”
“Have you ever gotten this stuff in your eyes?”
He shook his head as he returned to his drink mixing, but she could sense a light bulb flickering inside his head.
“I have. I’ve also been in a room where pepper spray has been released. I’m not saying that these peppers will stop an attacker.” She shook the bag. “But I don’t believe pepper spray or mace would either. I keep my hands in my pockets when I’m out. If I’m ever attacked, my attacker will get a face full of pepper powder and a kick to the groin before I run like the dickens.”
“That’s great. If you can flee an attacker to a populated area, that’s best.” He handed her the milky blue concoction.
She took a long sip, allowing the sweet, creamy liquid to soothe her dry throat. It hadn’t taken sitting by the fire long for her throat to dry and her body to heat. “Mm. This hits the spot.” The Italian soda was surprisingly light and refreshing. “Thank you.”
“Something to eat? I can make you some chicken and rice, or tempura vegetables maybe?”
“No thanks. I’ve already eaten.”
“Then on to the lesson.” He sat next to her on the couch, his back as straight as the male ballet dancer she danced with from time to time in college.
She wanted to compliment Dax on his excellent posture but didn’t know if he would appreciate being compared to a ballet dancer. She would save that compliment.
“If it’s a surprise attack, unfortunately many attacks are in the victim’s home by someone they know.” He gave her a steady look, then twisted his lips. “Please tell me last night was a fluke and you don’t normally allow men to spend the night if they claim to be stuck, etc.”
Julia crossed her arms. “Considering I’ve known Stone since he was ten, I trusted his judgment.”
“Good. If it’s a surprise attack, the attacker will seek out people who are distracted. Never have your head down in your phone in a parking lot. Always make eye contact and be aware of your surroundings.”
This was elementary. “Check. I do that.” She wanted the rough kick-‘em-hard moves.
“Trust your instincts. If it doesn’t feel right to run down a shady lane, don’t do it.”
“Got it.”
“Attackers look like normal guys, GQ even. Don’t let a pretty face fool you.”
Julia tapped her foot. “I’m a defense attorney, remember?”
“I have more.” He waited but she didn’t flinch. “But it looks like you want to get to the gritty stuff.” He stood. “Hopefully it will never get to this point, but if an assailant throws a punch…” He motioned for her to stand with him. They moved to the open space between the living room and kitchen. “If he throws a punch, the power of his hit will only increase with distance.” He brought his arm around slowly, as if he would hit her in the head. “It contradicts rational thought, but if you know you can’t escape the punch, you step into it, making it less powerful. That may also throw the attacker off with an element of surprise, giving you an opportunity to do a counter hit or kick.”
“That’s what I want to work on. Exactly where and how to punch, kick, and jab.”
“Absolutely. We’ll practice those. Repeat in your mind: Foot, Crotch, Eyes. If someone grabs you from behind, thrust your heal hard into his toes with all your weight. If he has thick boots on, that could be a problem. Next, elbow him in the groin. That will cause him to double over, giving you access to poke or put a fist in his eyes.” Dax came up behind her, gently wrapping his strong hands around her arms and chest. “Mock. Okay? Please don’t actually elbow me there.”
If she didn’t have electricity sparking through her veins, causing her body to tremble and her head to turn groggy, she would’ve laughed at his preoccupation with his manly parts. “No worries.”
Dax continued to teach and practice defensive moves with her for the next hour, and by the end of the lesson, she had the confidence to take on a perp. The happy endorphins released from the cardio may have been another reason for the unfounded confidence in her abilities. She and Dax had both worked up a sweat.
“I should head home and take a shower.”
“One more thing,” he said quickly. “If he gets you onto the ground, you need to have a few moves to disable him.”
“Okay. Like what?”
He took a dog position on the rug. “Try to get me into any position and lock me in place. I’ll show you why it didn’t work and teach you a few wrestling moves.”
Julia attempted to hide her smile. She’d taken three years of wrestling in middle school. The boys weren’t super excited about a girl being on the team, neither was she with her developing body, but her father had insisted she learn.
“The toughest guys are wrestlers. Know why?”
She shook her head, pleased at her acting abilities.
“They can take someone down then hold them in a debilitating position.” He clapped his hands. “Okay.” He waved to her. “I’m ready. Try to get me into a position where I can’t move.”
A sudden thrill shot through her. To have complete control over his body, now that would be exciting. She cast the thought out of her mind as quickly as it had entered. What was she thinking? This was a self-defense lesson. She needed to take it seriously.
Julia would use the guillotine move to flip him onto his back. If he wasn’t expecting it, he may not have time to stop it. She measured him up. He outweighed her by maybe eighty pounds. She rubbed her palms hard into her thighs more to aide her concentration than to wipe the fresh sweat off them. It gave her comfort that Dax wouldn’t hurt her if she couldn’t manage to pin him. Her mind flew back to a few painful pins, then she focused on her wins.
Man, it felt good to pins those cocky boys. This was just another cocky boy.
She rubbed her hands together. She could do this. Julia took one last deep breath before straddling him in a perpendicular position. She allowed her muscle memory to carry her through the first few pulls and twists of his arms. He didn’t squirm until she pressed her pelvis into his back for leverage as she pulled his arm around the back of her neck, both her legs wrapped around his left leg, clamping tight. She knew she had him when he grunted as she cradled his head with one arm while she twisted his neck with the other. She arched her back to pin his shoulder to the floor beneath her shoulder blades. With all her strength, she slowly brought him into complete submission on his back.
“Yield,” he breathed out.
Julia studied his inkblot birthmark, slick with sweat, then released her hold of his neck.
He shook his head and laughed as he lay panting on the floor. “Julia, you are full of surprises.”
“Good surprises I hope,” she said, sitting up.
He turned onto his side and stared at her. “What other talents are you hiding?” He played with the cuff of her short sleeve shirt. “What would I find if I Googled you?”
“Not much.” She hoped. She tried to stay relatively discreet online. There were sick people out there scanning the web for their next victim. She only interacted with close friends online. “I should leave.”
“You sure you can’t stay any longer?” His face broke into the most adorable pout. “I could pop some popcorn in the fireplace and we could watch a movie.” A glimmer of mischief sparkled in his eyes. He sprinted to the piano and started playing “Baby it’s Cold Outside.”
She walked over and leaned against the piano. The piano strings reverberated at his touch moments before pulsing through her body. If she stayed any longer, she might not ever leave. “I’ve got a date early tomorrow.”
His eyes dropped to the piano keys.
She continued, “With Abi, to go back country skiing. And I belie
ve you work at seven tomorrow morning. You need to be well rested. What if you get a call to my burning house in the middle of the night?” She poked his upper arm. “I need you alert.”
“Believe me, if you called me to come to your house in the middle of the night, I’d be alert.”
Her face flushed but she shrugged off his comment.
He tucked a floating piece of hair behind her ear. “I think I’m ready to face my dancing-in-public fear. Friday night?”
“Only if you promise to practice your steps first.” She winked. “Don’t you wish you had Latin dance music at your fingertips? You’d be able to say,” she raised her voice, “Computer, play Latin dance music.”
A strong, sultry beat ricocheted off the walls. “Shemonkey!” Julia clenched Dax’s arm.
His laugh drowned out her invented expletive.
“You should have told me your system was programmed to answer to Computer,” she scolded, scooting away from him. “That nearly scared the heebie-jeebies out of me.”
“I get heebie-jeebies, but what’s a shemonkey exactly?” He continued to laugh obnoxiously, but it proved infectious.
She soon found herself laughing as she snuggled into him on the piano bench. She could see herself joking with him like this every evening. It was almost cozier than her own home with Abi. Julia hadn’t realized until that moment that this home filled a void she never knew she had. Was it the charming, A-frame cabin with the crackling fire, or was it him? She raised her eyes to his and gasped. She had never seen a more refulgent countenance than his at that moment. His gaze held an unfamiliar intensity that made her uncomfortable.
“Gotta go.” She jumped up. “Thanks for the self-defense lesson.”
He followed her outside into the crisp air. He opened her car door and gave her his hand to help her in, then leaned down to her like he had at the tow-lot, allowing her to initiate the good-night kiss. It was tender and soft. She blinked up at him, wishing she could bottle his light and goodness.
The moment Julia closed her car door and Dax backed away, an eerie sensation cloaked her shoulders. She steadied her racing heart by focusing her mind on his amber eyes as she drove away from him.
Julia couldn’t shake the creepy feeling of someone watching her. Every few minutes, she looked back in her rearview mirror to no one. There hadn’t been headlights behind her for five minutes. She shook her torso, attempting to shake off the paranoid feeling. That’s all it was, paranoia. She could beat this. It was nothing.
The moment Julia turned the corner onto her street, a beam of light blinded her. She blinked away the initial white dots clouding her vision to find her house the culprit. It lit up the street and every house around it. She scrunched her lips. Perhaps she and Abi had gone overboard with the exterior lighting.
“I’m home!” Julia yelled as she dropped her shoes and purse in the mud room. The sweet scent of vanilla and chocolate meant Abi was baking.
“Good timing.” Abi’s voice instantly calmed Julia’s frazzled nerves.
Julia found Abi in the kitchen scraping freshly baked cookies off a cookie sheet. “Those look scrumptious.”
“Stone just left.” Abi’s hands trembled as she pushed a plate of cookies toward her. “He made me promise to keep our outside lights on at night and arm the alarm.”
“You okay?” Julia placed her hand over Abi’s.
“Yeah. It just freaked me out a little. I don’t like how he thinks we’re in danger.” Abi blew out a dramatic breath as her shoulders crumpled in. “What do you think?”
“We don’t have anything to be worried about, but it couldn’t hurt to start using our alarm. The outside lighting?” Julia looked to the ceiling as she swayed back and forth. She would calm her sister’s nerves even if she couldn’t calm her own. “Why don’t we leave on half our exterior lights? We don’t want to cause an accident on our street.”
Julia picked up a cookie and popped it in her mouth. Chocolate lava seared into her tongue. “Ah…ha…ha.” Julia’s mouth gaped open. She looked to Abi who quickly leaned over and blew into her mouth to cool the cookie and soothe the burn. It was something they had done since childhood. Abi would always be there for Julia, and she’d always be there for Abi. Nothin’ and no one, would scare her little sis.
Julia rubbed her eyes and yawned. “I need to catch up on some sleep. If you’re going to be hoofing it with me up the mountain tomorrow, then so do you.”
“Maybe I don’t need these comfort cookies after all,” Abi said with a wink. “Thanks for talking me off the ledge. Maybe all I need is some sleep as well.”
“Sleep sounds like heaven.”
It took serious effort to walk the fifteen yards to her bedroom. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this tired. She had a sudden urge to collapse onto her bed. How could she have gotten that tired so fast? She hadn’t allowed herself to rest in almost two years. Maybe this was her body accepting the invitation from her brain to finally take a break.
She tossed her clothes onto the floor next to her bed and crawled between the soft purple sheets. The shower would have to wait until morning. When she plugged her phone into the cord threading up through her nightstand, a bright red tag popped out a Facebook notification. She opened the app to a friend request. She didn’t recognize the alias, Lucius Domitius, but she recognized his profile photo. She rolled her eyes.
Julia hadn’t expected Dax to use his calendar photo, but she wasn’t surprised. Single bachelor. She clicked to accept Dax’s friend request and read a message he had sent her ten minutes earlier: You’re a difficult woman to find. Had a great time. You were beautiful tonight. Can’t wait to see you again.
Julia responded, Thanks for the instruction. Are you practicing your Latin dance moves?
Her eyes strained to focus on the bright screen, but she was no longer her own agent. The exhaustion overcame her, and the moment she rested her head back into her pillow, she was swept into a deep sleep.
7
At eight a.m., the local grocery store closest to the station held the early morning aroma of freshly baked breads and pastries. Blue’s Bachelors had their grocery run down to a science. They stayed within earshot but ventured an aisle or two away from each other for their designated items.
Dax tapped a package of dry spaghetti against his against his chin, mulling over how he’d get the practical joke to play out. The guys would never trust Jeremy to cook their food. Dax would need to devise a plan to get Jeremy to work something special into the sauce.
Dax cooked at least three of the meals on every shift. Once the boys learned that he had enrolled in culinary school, it became an expectation. But he didn’t mind, it had given him an opportunity to practice for his exams, and he preferred his own food to what the other guys came up with.
Strolling alone down the baking and spice isle, it hit him, Julia’s pink peppercorns. He didn’t have to search long before he found the plump round pods. He clicked a picture and texted it to Julia. The boys wouldn’t question why he hadn’t added it to the grocery list, but he’d be proactive and say something about needing it for the stir fry he’d make for dinner.
“Jeremy.” Dax caught him at the end of the cereal aisle. “I’ve got our next prank.”
Jeremy gave a quick nod as his eyes scanned for snoops. The kid was good.
Dax held up the bottle of peppercorns. “I’ll load my plate first. Then you come right behind me, and, after you’ve ladled spaghetti sauce onto your plate, I’ll create a diversion while you grab hold of the spoon under the pot’s rim like you’re giving it a good stir.” Dax handed him the bottle. “But what you’ll really be doing is crunching these babies into the sauce.”
Half of Jeremy’s face lifted into a smirk. He was in.
Four hours later, back at the station, the moment of truth had arrived. Blue had cooked an Italian lunch, and it smelled amazing. Blue could make a mean roasted garlic bread. More garlic, less bread. Dax hadn’t asked Julia if she liked
garlic. It had been a deal breaker for him in the past. Relationships didn’t seem to work when one of the parties reeked of garlic while the other despised the smell.
The lunch clean-up crew always ate first. No surprise, Dax offered to clean after lunch.
Jeremy followed in close behind Dax with his empty plate, casting him a sinister smile. Dax swallowed down a chuckle. He had to force himself to concentrate, or he’d blow the whole prank before it even began.
Dax loaded his plate with a generous helping of pasta followed by red sauce and sprinkled it with freshly shaved parmesan. That was a fight the guys didn’t win anymore. A few of the guys had preferred the canned parmesan. It took Dax six months of shaving the cheese for them to finally convert to the good stuff.
Jeremy coughed.
That was Dax’s cue. “Hey guys, who do you think will make it into the Super Bowl this year?”
A moan escaped Blue’s lips before the teeth grinding began.
Dax continued, “The Lakers or the Jazz?”
Blue didn’t take the Super Bowl bait, but he did stare down Dax for his purposeful sports ignorance. The rest of the guys looked between the two, seeing how far this would escalate. Finally, Blue just shook his head and followed Jeremy to fill his plate.
Dax knew how to mess with the guys, especially Blue. Blue had been the star quarterback for the university he attended, but it went so much further than that—Blue’s dad had been the football director at the university, and all his family members had attended. To add more drama, Blue’s girlfriend had been the team mascot of Blue’s rival team. The things that Blue’s dad concocted to keep those two apart was sickening; one more reason to steer clear of serious relationships.
Maybe it was a good thing for Julia not to date firefighters, and perhaps it was time for him to stop pressuring her. But man did she smell good last night when they wrestled, like sweet berries. He had a mad desire to taste her neck and see if she tasted like berries. She had tasted like honey and lemons the night before, but it hadn’t felt right to make out with her during their class. She deserved more than that.