by BJ Harvey
When I let her go, I hear a giggle coming from outside the car. As if in slow motion, we both swivel our heads to the porch steps to see a waving Axel and a smirking Betty. That’s one way to let them know everything is fine I suppose.
“Shit,” I spit out, quickly looking back at April to gauge her reaction.
“Well I guess that makes it a little easier to explain why you’ll be here in the morning,” she says. My eyes bug out, but she simply swipes her thumb across my bottom lip and grins. ”Wanna change your mind?”
“Fuck no.”
She tilts her head and grins. “We better get in there; otherwise he’ll come in here, and he’s already told us how much he loves your truck and he can’t wait till he’s old and can get a ‘big truck like Jamie.’”
I chuckle at that, wondering just how much of a handful Axel’s gonna be when he’s older. After one last look at his mom and the undeniable happiness I see on her face, I realize that I can’t fucking wait.
“By the way, you owe the swear jar two dollars, and probably another five for your thoughts,” she says with a smirk.
This time when she goes for the door, I don’t stop her. But once I’m outside, I take her hand the second she’s within reach, and we follow Axel and Betty inside.
Axel is a ball of energy as soon as we’re through the door, quickly tackling his mother’s legs and saying a quick hello before grabbing my hand and near-on dragging me up the stairs towards his room.
“Good night, Axel,” Betty calls from the bottom of the stairs leading up to his room. “And you too, Jamie. I’m off to bed to read.”
“Good night,” I say before I’m pulled into Axel’s room and toward his bookcase.
“Mommy said you wanted to read me a book, so I’ve been trying to decide which one to choose.”
“And did you pick one?”
“Um, first I picked this one.” He picks up a picture book with a plane on the outside. “Then I thought that was too short and you’d read it in no time,” he continues, his voice full of animated excitement.
“Why don’t you pick your favorite, and we’ll read that tonight. Then the next time I’m here for your bedtime, I can read another one… if you want me to.”
Axel’s eyes widen, a huge smile appearing soon after. ”That would be awesome,” he whispers. “Okay. Then I really do like this plane one.”
I nod in agreement. “Then that’s the one we’ll read.”
“Okay,” he replies, bounding over to his bed and quickly jumping under the covers. I turn my head toward the door where April now leans against the frame.
“Mommy, are you staying to hear Jamie read to me?” Axel asks.
Her features are soft as she walks over to Axel and bends over the bed to kiss his cheek, before lovingly smoothing her hand over his hair. “I think I’ll sit this one out, Ax. Do you remember what I said on the phone earlier?”
He nods quickly. “Yep. You said Jamie might spend the night and have a sleepover with you.” He looks past April to me, his brows furrowed. “But Mommy said there would be no junk food, Jamie. I hope you have fun though.”
I try to keep a straight face, but the moment I see April’s eyes shining my way, her teeth biting into her lip as she tries hard not to laugh, I lose all hope and start grinning.
“How about the next time I sleep over, we make it a late night with junk food and movies?”
Axel gasps and claps his hands. “Cool!”
“Sounds like we’ve got a plan,” April says, turning back to the bed. “Are you okay with Jamie staying the night in Mommy’s bed? You’re the man of the house, so if you don’t want him to, he will go home and come back in the morning.”
I’ve never seen a kid roll their eyes in a “duh” motion until now, and going by how quickly—and how well—he does it, he’s definitely perfected the art at an early age.
“Mom, I’m a big boy. I’m okay with missing out on a sleepover. Besides, Gran said sometimes adults spend the night and that Jamie is your special friend, and since he’s also my friend, he’s allowed to stay over. But next time,” he says with a grin, “Gran said Jamie can stay in my room instead.”
April barks out a laugh while I stand there with my mouth gaping open. I was about to make a note to buy Betty a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine for helping pave the way for me, but after that little nugget of information, I’m suddenly rethinking it. It seems the spunk is strong in this household.
“I’ll leave you guys to it.” April gives Axel another kiss. “I’ll see you in the morning. We can have pancakes if you want?”
“Yes!” he says with a little fist pump. “Jamie, Mommy makes the best pancakes in the whole entire world.”
“Does she really?” My eyes take in April as she straightens and walks over to me. Wrapping her arms around my shoulders, she brings her lips to my ear.
“I’ll be in the shower if you need me,” she whispers before kissing my cheek in the exact same way she did with her son and moving out of the room.
I watch her go, loving the extra swing in her step. Not for the first time in the last three months, I wonder how the hell I got to be so lucky.
“C’mon, Jamie,” Axel says, patting the side of his bed, and without any further delay, I carry the book with me and sit on the bed beside him. Together, we read a book about planes that may be too short but is a memory I won’t soon forget.
23
Jamie
I sense April before her lips press against mine. Slowly opening my eyes, I find her wearing my T-shirt with a pair of black workout pants.
“Why are you dressed and not undressed in bed next to me?” I ask.
She snickers against my mouth before straightening, ruining my perfect view that went down the front of my too-big-for-her tee. I pout, and her eyes soften as they drop to my mouth.
“I was enjoying the view,” I say.
She scrunches her forehead before her eyes widen and she gasps. “You’re such a pervert.”
I hold my hands up in the air. “Guilty as charged, but I’m your pervert.”
She bites her lip, and it takes everything in me not to wrap my arms around her waist and drag her back onto the mattress. “I liked waking up with you lying next to me,” she says quietly.
I roll onto my side and pull her down to sit on the bed in the crook of my hips, my hand slowly sliding up and down her back. “I’d like to say that too if you weren’t a blanket hog.”
Her mouth gapes open, her tiny hands flying to her hips as she moves into the petulant woman pose. ”Take that back. I am not a blanket hog.”
My lips twitch, and I can’t keep up the facade. “No, but your reaction makes it totally worth it.”
Her eyes narrow as she points her finger my way. ”You don’t deserve coffee in bed now. And here I was, trying to be nice despite all the sexing I didn’t get last night.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I just put my head down for a second while you were locking up and the next thing I knew, it was morning.”
Her expression softens. “Lucky for you, Betty is taking Axel to school, I have the day off, and you are going to rest for at least half the day. Girlfriend’s orders.”
She leans over as if to steal the steaming cup on the nightstand away from me, giggling when I move it out of her reach.
“I’m watching you, Cook,” she says, her smile telling me she’s full of shit.
Leaning against the headboard, I lift said coffee to my lips, closing my eyes as I savor the offering from the coffee gods. I’m so bone-tired from trying to keep up with everyone and everything. After bleeding myself dry to get the house finished on time, I’ve been mainlining anything caffeinated for the past few weeks. Hopefully, now that the house is done, I can reduce the caffeine and start living a bit more of a normal life… until we take possession of our next house, that is.
I shoot her a mock salute, earning me narrowed eyes before she shakes her head and walks out of the room.
; Soon after, I hear footsteps running down the hallway before a disheveled and surprisingly fresh-faced Axel fills the doorway. He skids around the corner and rushes to the end of the bed before launching himself onto the mattress.
“How was the sleepover?” he asks in all his childhood innocence. I can’t wait to embarrass him with these kinds of stories when he’s older.
“I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. How about you, buddy?”
“Me too. I closed my eyes and counted to fifty like you said, and I fell asleep, just like that.”
“That’s good. I told you that trick works.”
“Yeah,” he says, before wringing his hands in his lap, shifting his weight from side to side.
“Jamie?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“So, are you my new dad now?”
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
Before I’m able to find the power of speech again, he continues, “But you’re my boss too?”
I decide to play along. “Your boss?”
He nods. “At the house. Building and stuff.”
“Well, not exact—”
“So that makes you my dad boss then?” He has the most serious look on his face, and I’m totally out of my depth here.
“Um…” I look to the door, willing April to walk through it and save me.
“Dad boss then,” he says again with a nod. “That’s good. Means I can get more money now.”
I cough, reaching over to the nightstand to take a long, much-needed drink from my coffee cup. I say the only thing that comes to mind. “Sure thing, buddy.”
“Awesome,” he says, a huge smile transforming his face. “Then I can buy flowers for Mom, so the next time you break our garden, I can fix it and make her smile like you did.”
“That’s a great idea. Now… have you seen my pants?”
“Are you not wearing pajamas?” Without warning, he lifts the sheet covering me from the waist down. “Oh, you’ve got big boy boxers like me. Mommy says I can only wear them when I wear shorts though. Are you sure you wore pants last night? Maybe you wore shorts because you’ve got your big boy boxers on.” And thank fuck I kept them on before falling to sleep last night.
“I was definitely wearing pants. Do you want to look in the bathroom for me?”
“It’s okay. I don’t need to. I saw Mommy carrying them into the kitchen.”
“Lovely?” I yell, hoping she can hear me. When a loud beat starts coming from downstairs, my bullshit sensor starts pinging. April is up to something, especially since it’s the exact same Queen song I was playing the night we first met. Two can play this game.
“Should we go get pancakes?” I ask.
“Yeah!” he says, jumping up and down before running out of the room.
I move to the bathroom and use the facilities. Searching for my clothes, I come up empty. Sure enough, my pants have indeed disappeared. With nothing else left to do about it, I walk out of the bedroom and down the stairs, wearing nothing but my boxer shorts.
I stop still the moment I enter the kitchen. Just as I’d imagined, April is sitting at the dining table, coffee in hand, her legs up, her ankles crossed on a chair with a wicked smirk on her face. Her only saving grace is the huge plate of pancakes piled high in the middle of the table.
“Hey Ax, how’s breakfast?” I ask.
“So good,” he groans, stuffing another forkful of pancake in his mouth.
“What are you doing after school today?”
His head snaps up. “Nuff-thing,” he says with a mouthful of food.
“Good. I was thinking you could bring your mom and gran over and we could give them a tour of the house now that it’s finished.”
“Oh wow. Yeah,” he says, puffing out his little chest. “I can show them where I worked.”
“Yep,” I reply with a grin. With his attention back on his rapidly emptying plate, I move in front of April. ”You look good in my tee. Did you also find my pants on your travels?”
Her lips twitch. ”I thought I’d do some laundry.”
I lean down and brush my lips against her cheek. ”Just you wait, lovely,” I whisper. “I’ll be claiming my shirt off your back the minute Ax and Betty are out the door.”
Her breath catches, and when I straighten, I see lust swirling in her eyes.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she replies, sounding a little breathless now.
I run my eyes greedily down her body and back up again. “Oh, there’ll be holding alright.”
We stare at each other, our hungry gazes so hot we’ll probably start a fire if we aren’t careful.
Axel groans, looking up from his plate and tilting his head as his gaze switches between us. “Adults are weird,” he says with a harrumph before returning his attention to his plate.
And just like that, the spell is broken. With one last look at each other, April and I burst out laughing.
Four o’clock that afternoon, we meet the real estate agent and Jax outside the house. I’m surprisingly nervous. Not about the agent seeing the house and officially putting it up for sale, but about what April will think of it. She hasn’t been inside the house for almost three weeks, something that was completely my own stupid doing. I know now more than ever that sharing this with her is important. It’s letting her be a part of my dream.
“Wow,” she breathes when we walk through the door. Mom and Abi worked with a friend of Cohen’s to stage the place with pieces of furniture collected from my storage unit and our houses. In future, once we have a profit behind us, we’ll look into using staging companies, but we decided to go this route to keep our costs down.
Axel and Betty follow in behind April, Jax and the agent going on ahead to the bedrooms. April stands in the middle of the living room, her eyes wide as she takes a slow, sweeping turn.
“Jamie, this place is…”
“Awesome!” Axel says, running ahead into the kitchen. “Mommy, come look at these cabinets. I helped put the knob on this door.”
Betty walks past us, stopping to pat me on the back and press a kiss to my cheek. “You’ve worked miracles, Jamie. This place is amazing. It’ll sell in no time,” she says, nodding in approval.
“It better, otherwise my bank manager won’t be a happy man.”
“It will, Jamie,” April says, moving to my side and wrapping her arms around my waist. “This puts our renovations to shame, right, Betty?”
“Well, our budget was probably a quarter of what Jamie spent on this one, but I love the feel of it. It’s a real family home,” Betty replies, her voice filled with pride.
Axel comes running into the room, grabbing for Betty’s hand. “Gran, come look at the backyard. Me and the guys planted all the flowers. It was so cool.”
“I can’t wait. Lead the way, Ax,” she replies, shooting us a wink before being dragged away.
April turns so we’re chest to chest, her arms resting on my hips. “You should be so proud of what you’ve done here.”
I look around the now huge open-plan living/dining/kitchen, realizing that I actually am proud. All the hard work, the late nights, the cuts, the scrapes, the aching muscles, and the constant reminders that I’m no longer in my twenties—they were all worth it.
“I am. This house means a lot to me. It’s Cook Construction’s first official project. We finished a day before deadline despite everything and the best thing of all…” I say, running my hands up her back and pressing her closer, “I got drunk and needed medical attention from my sexy, sassy, spunky neighbor.”
Her eyes narrow on the word sassy, but shine bright on the word spunky. “You forgot highly intelligent, patient…” she says, her mouth curving up on one side.
“And she looks fucking fantastic in and out of clothes,” I murmur against her lips.
“That’s a dollar,” Axel announces, bounding into the room. “Eww, are you guys kissing again?” He makes gagging noises just as Jax and the real estate agent wal
k back into the room. “Jax,” he moans. “Jamie and Mom are kissing again. Tell them to stop.”
Jax shakes his head, looking down at Axel with a knowing grin. “Just you wait until you have a girl on your arm as pretty as your mom. Then you’ll want to kiss her too.”
“When I’m a big boy?” Axel asks, making us all chuckle.
“Yeah, baby, when you’re thirty,” April says, letting me go. “Now, can you show me and Gran the rest of the house? Then Jamie and Jax can finish up their business talk.”
He nods and grabs hold of each of their hands, the three of them moving toward the hallway, but not before giving Jax a high five.
“This place is stunning, Jamie. You have all done an amazing job here. I can already think of a few of my clients who are looking for a new home just like this one,” Jacqui, the agent, says, walking into the kitchen. “The revised layout, the addition of the study, the new appliances and kitchen—they’re all going to be huge selling points.”
Jax grins at me, and I can’t help but do the same.
“What are the next steps?” I ask.
“So, Jax will take some photos for me—since he’s the professional photographer—and send them through. I’ll give those clients of mine a call and try and schedule a few viewings, and I think if they don’t pan out, then we’ll definitely go ahead with open houses next week. Believe me; I don’t see this listing being on the market for very long at all.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Fingers crossed.”
She reaches into her messenger bag and holds out a small stack of papers to me. “I also pulled these potential properties for you all to look at. Just let me know if you want to go see any of them.”
“Will do. Jax is thinking about helping with one of our projects in the future. Right, Jax?” I say, nodding toward my brother.
“Yep.”
“Oh, are you taking time off work?” Jacqui asks him.
“More like taking a step sideways. I’m going to be teaching a few college courses on photography and graphic design over Summer, so I’m hoping I can help Jamie work on a future flip project. ’Cause looking at this place, jeez, he could really use some help, right?” he says, a huge shit-eating grin on his face.