by Thia Finn
“No, I’m not getting into the car with a strange man.”
“Oh, right. That’s probably not a safe thing to do.” He looked around while the hurried pedestrians milled passed.
“So you’re already admitting to me you’re unsafe to be around?”
“What? No, no. I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was that getting into the car with strangers is a bad idea.” He glanced at the store fronts and offices in the block.
“We can call an Uber or cab. I’ll gladly pay your way home and back to work.”
“Stop volunteering.”
“I have to make this right. I’ve ruined your day, your clothes, your shoes. Everything.” The bottom of the heavy gray clouds chose that moment to let go, and the rain fell in heavy sheets with the two of us standing on the corner looking at each other.
“Can we get in your truck, please?”
“Right. Good idea.” He opened the door for me and picked me up to sit me in the monstrosity. Why did guys think big trucks made the man? Right, an extension of their obvious lacking in other departments. He ran to his side and jumped in slinging water from his hair as he did so.
I held the towel up to block the spray. “Oh, sorry. I mean, yeah, sorry.”
“You’ve said that already.”
“Yeah, I did.” I handed him the towel to dry himself. “So, you’re already in my truck. Just let me take you home. I’ll wait outside until you can clean up and then bring you back to work.”
“First, I need to call work and tell them what happened. I don’t need to lose my job over being late.” I pulled my phone from my suitcase of a purse. The one that should have had an umbrella in it but didn’t, as usual.
“This is Timbre. I’m outside of work and some crazy truck driver sprayed water from the curb all over me, so I’m going home to change.
“Uh, huh… Yes… I understand… Right…Okay, uh, thanks.”
“So are you all set now?” The overly tall, sizzling hot, brown-eyed sex on a stick looked at me. Damn, why couldn’t he be short, ugly, and totally the opposite of sexy? Once again, I stared at him.
“No. We. Are. Not. All. Set,” each word said in a staccato pronunciation. “My boss is docking me for a day’s pay and told me not to bother coming in today. So, I’m certainly far from being all set.”
“Oh, wow. That’s just wrong. You couldn’t help what happened. I’ll go in with you if you want to go in like that so he can see.” He motioned up and down.
“Not a good idea. Just take me home. I’ll spend the day watching bad TV and eat a gallon of ice cream.” Being docked for eight hours of work wouldn’t be okay. I didn’t know how I’d pay my rent this month. I’d think of something before the due date.
“Look, I’m truly sorry about all of this, but I honestly don’t know what to do to fix it for you. I can take you home, clean your clothes, and bring you back to work, but I can’t help that your boss is a douche. I’ll be glad to do whatever you want to make this as right as I can.” He looked at me waiting for an answer. He seemed sincere in his apology and everything he said rang true. He couldn’t fix my problems. They started long before he and the wall of water came along and drenched me.
“You’re right. You can’t fix my problems. I didn’t mean to take my lack of a good job or a fair boss out on you. Honestly, the guy’s a first-class jerk, and neither of us can change that. I need a better job. Take me home, and I’ll spend my off day looking for a new one.” I turned away from him and looked out at the rain. I wanted to cry like the heavens seemed to be doing, but if crying would solve my problems I’d be sitting pretty right now. With mud covering me from head to toe, I was far from glamorous.
He insisted on carrying my soaked bag up for me. It weighed twice as much. I lived on the second floor in a garage apartment behind my landlord. I took off my shoes and walked barefoot up the wooden steps. When I found this place, my plan to stay six months had turned into two years.
After graduating from the small university in West Texas, I came to Austin thinking a great job waited for me in the big city. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Apparently, lots of college graduates stuck around after graduating from the University of Texas. The job market overflowed with degreed twenty-somethings.
Finding a roommate proved necessary, so I could live in a safe section of the city and pay rent too. Caylor came along when I needed him the most. He easily won the best roommate ever award when he rescued me time and again from all sorts of problems. We became fast friends when I discovered he would never be hitting on me. The only problem we had was when his friends came over, and the sex got loud enough to keep me awake. Who knew two men could make sex sound so erogenous from another room?
He liked to cook, hated living in a mess, and had the hottest friends, who also didn’t hit on me. I felt like I’d won the roommate jackpot with Caylor. I had to remind them to put clothes on occasionally, but with bodies like they had who needed to say that? I could look without touching. Most of these bodybuilder guys kept their sexual preferences hidden away or never discussed it outside the apartment.
I didn’t care. These guys always looked out for my safety when I left late at night, and Caylor checked up on me. Best roommate and friends, ever.
I stopped at the door and looked at my would-be knight in shining armor. “So, thanks for bringing me home.” I turned and put my key in the lock.
“Yeah, it was the least I could do considering.” He sat my bag down by the door and took out his billfold. “I want to pay to have your clothes cleaned. They might not be able to remove all of that street water and mud out.” He tried to hand me a couple of hundred dollar bills. Who carried that kind of money around on them?
“No, that’s okay. I’ll wash them myself. I’m sure I can get it all clean.” I turned back to the key.
“I insist. You’re already missing a day’s pay. Please just take the money.” He tried to stick it in my hands.
“I don’t want your money. I don’t even know you, and I don’t take money from strangers.”
“I’d say we aren’t strangers anymore.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Hayden Devillier.”
I looked down at his big hand waiting to take mine. Finally, I stuck mine out. “Timbre Simons.” He took my hand in his warm one, and it felt so good, I wanted to moan. Strong long fingers wrapped around my hand with our palms pressed snugly together. I noticed the calloused tips and wondered what he did.
“See, now we know each other.” He shook my hand and held it between us. I looked down at it and back into those brown eyes. Trouble. Hayden Devillier had trouble written all over his face. He let go when I looked down again.
“Nice meeting you, Hayden, and thank you for the ride home.” I turned the knob and opened the door wide enough for me to step through. “Uh… thanks again.”
“Maybe we could go to dinner or something so I can make it up to you.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. Really.” I reached out and grabbed my bag by the door.
“I know that it’s not, but I would like to do something for you.” He kept those delicious gold starbursts staring into mine.
“No. Thanks, though.” I shut the door and locked it. Leaning against the door, I listened until I heard him going down the stairs. The kind of trouble I could see happening with him, I did not need. I’d lived through that already and learned my lesson.
Sliding down against the door, I sat on my heels. With my head leaning against it, I looked up. “Why can’t I catch a break?” I said to no one because I knew God wasn’t listening to me. He hadn’t in a long time. I closed my eyes willing the tears not to fall and kept them at bay. When I opened them again, something sticking out of my monster bag caught my attention. Two crisp hundreds wrapped around a business card. Damn him.
“Is the band in the practice room waiting on me?” I asked as I passed Johnna. She’d been with 13 Recordings as a receptionist longer than any of the others who came and went.
; “Yeah, where’ve you been? You’re never late.”
“Had some problems on the way in this morning.”
“Flat tire?” she asked.
“No, that would have been easier than what happened.”
“This must have been bad if changing a flat in the pouring rain sounds easy.”
“Yeah, it would’ve been. I stopped at a corner and sprayed a woman on the sidewalk. A giant wall of water covered her from top to bottom. I think she had to pour it out of her shoes.”
“That’s terrible, Hayden. What’d you do?”
“What could I do? I gave her a towel, and she finally agreed to let me take her back home, but her asshat boss told her not to come in since she would be so late. He even docked her a day’s pay for it.”
“She must work for a major douche,” she said as she picked up the phone to answer an incoming call.
I opened the door to the practice room, and the band all clapped. I took a bow shutting the door behind me.
“Let’s break for lunch,” the sound engineer called through the mic. I placed my guitar on the stand and stood up stretching. It’d been a long morning, and since I’d gotten home around ten and too wired to sleep, I’d worked on some music for Assured Distraction’s new album instead. I wanted to have it ready to run by the band later this week when they’d be back in the studio from their break. The late hours were catching up with me now. Maybe I’d lay down and sleep for lunch instead of going out with these guys.
I stretched out on the couch in the break room when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, so I declined it. I needed to sleep not speak to telemarketers. I put my arm over my eyes and nodded out with only one crease from the couch cushion sticking in my back.
The guys woke me when they returned to pick up where we’d left off. Our afternoon dragged on forever. Sleep in the middle of the day turned out to be a bad plan. I needed to get out of there at four, so I could make some of Crew’s football practice. He liked me to come once in awhile, and after last night’s talk, I felt like I wanted to be there more often.
After making my way to the stadium, I climbed the steps and waved to Peri and Ryan. Tucker begged to play sports instead of touring, so Peri no longer traveled with the band. Blonde curls stuck up from between the rows of benches where Gemma played with some ponies on the bench below them. She looked up and smiled when I walked closer to them. That look had the potential to cause some poor boy a world of hurt in ten or fifteen years. At three, she could charm the socks off any man, me included.
A noise further down caught my attention. Teagan, their seven-year-old son, sat with his buddies laughing. He came into this world a happy kid and never lost it. When he turned and saw me, he waved. The Powell family made me jealous sometimes. I should’ve found a wife and had some siblings for Crew but these guys were his family too, so I tried not to be hard on myself about it.
Crew asked me often about finding him a mother when he was little. I think he finally gave up on the idea because it’d been years since he’d asked. I couldn’t do it. I thought about it from time to time, but the idea scared me. What if I found a woman and he learned to love her, then she up and left us? I didn’t ever want him to feel that kind of rejection. He’d already dealt with it once in his short life. Once was enough even if he’d never met the woman who birthed him. I’d never call her his mom because she never deserved that title.
“Hey, guys.” I shook Ryan’s hand, and Peri stood and hugged me.
“Hi. Glad you made it out. Crew’s looking good out there. The boy’s height and weight will make it hard for the typical seventh grader to run over him.” Ryan never took his eyes off the field.
“Yeah, he told me last night that the coach said he would start and maybe play both ways.”
“That’s great, isn’t it?” Peri turned to me. Her lack of football knowledge made me smile.
“Yes, it’s great for a kid trying to figure out where he needs to be on the team,” I told her.
“I wish Tucker’s place on the team was the waterboy. I know he’s going to get hurt out there.” Typical mom statement, I thought to myself.
“You don’t mean that, sweetcakes.” Ryan pulled her in for a side hug. “He’ll be fine. He’s not a small kid either. He might not be as tall as Crew, but he’s getting there.”
“I know, but it’s horrible to sit and watch when some big guy is running full speed at your child, and you know he’s going to plow him over.” Peri shook her head.
“Peri, that’s why they practice over and over, so they don’t get taken down by the big guys.”
“Right. You keep telling yourself that.” She stood and stepped down so she could talk to Gemma. Peri obviously wasn’t all for him playing football, but in Texas, football is king and thousands of kids played some form of it every year.
Ryan looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.
I smiled and tipped my head. He’d never talk her out of her ideas about it.
“How’s the new music coming along? Chandler said she liked what she’d heard so far.” Ryan changed the subject.
“I’m pleased with it. The band will be, too. KeeMac and Chan are coming to the studio in a couple of days to listen to what I’ve written. You know they’ll want to tweak it before the band hears it.” Rarely did I write the perfect song for them to play, but it was all good.
“Great. We need to get together with you and Crew. Hey, he told Tuck you had a new girlfriend. Any truth to that?”
“Not really. I’m just dating her. She’s good but not the one.” I jumped out of my seat when Crew ran down the field with the ball. “Damn, the boy gets faster every time I see him run.”
“Yeah, he’s got a future in football if he keeps this up.” Ryan stood beside me watching too. “So no go on the woman? You know none of them are perfect, right? Well, except maybe Peri.” He smiled down at her. Yeah, those two had the perfect kind of love that had escaped me for thirty years.
“I know none of them are perfect, but I can’t find one that’s even close. They all have baggage and issues. Crew doesn’t need that.”
“You’re not dating for Crew. You’re dating for yourself.” He didn’t need to remind me.
“Yeah, that sounds good, but you know he’s my priority so if she can’t work around that, then she’s not the one.”
“You’re not without baggage, too, Hayden. You’ve got a kid who’s about to be a teenager. That right there could scare any woman off, especially one with no children.”
“I know. Maybe I missed my window of opportunity to find someone years ago.” I followed Crew’s progression back to the huddle. His long legs quickly carried him across the field with a grace most kids his age had yet to develop.
“Dude. You’re thirty, not sixty.” Ryan laughed. “You make yourself sound like an old man.”
“You should know. You’re the old man.” I patted him on the back.
“Quit calling my husband old. He’s still prime man material,” Peri said over her shoulder. I didn’t know she could hear us. Must be a mom thing she’d perfected with three kiddos running around.
“Yeah, yeah. Anytime you want something young and manly, come on over.” I grinned at her.
“Right. Mr. Studly. You wouldn’t know what to do with all of this experience,” she said it in a whisper so Gemma and her ponies couldn’t hear.
“I’d say, try me, but your husband’s my cousin and friend, and you know that’s against the rules.”
“Damn right it is.” Ryan stepped down and pulled Peri in a for a hug while we all laughed.
All the way home Crew and I talked about practice. His excitement over playing offense and defense couldn’t be contained. He told me over and over the same words the coach said to him in the locker room before taking the field.
“That’s great, son. I’m surprised he’s able to let you do that with so many teammates on the sidelines.”
“He said I probably wouldn’t play both ways fo
r the whole season because he wants everyone to have a chance to prove themselves in practice and in a game. I’m good with that, though. Everyone who works hard should get to play.” His attitude amazed me. A lot of kids his age would be a little more selfish about playing time.
“You keep that attitude, son. Coaches respect kids who want the best for the whole team and not just themselves.”
“I know, Pops, but it’s the truth. If I had to practice all week and then never got out there to play a single down, I’d hate the sport. You know how much I love football, though, so it’s all good in my books.”
“Speaking of books, how much homework do you have tonight?”
“Only some math. I got the rest done already which is great because look what I got today.” He held up a piece of paper.
“What’s that?”
“Digits, Pops. Digits to my girl.” Well, damn. Guess he’ll be wanting his own cell now.
“Exactly how do you think you’re going to call your girl without a phone?” I felt his eyes on me without turning my head.
“Oh yeah. About that. Do you think we could go to the phone store and get me my own cell? You know we’ve talked about how much easier it would be for me to have one, like when I’m places you’re not. When practice ends early or when the bus pulls in the parking lot from a game, I could call you. You know it would make me calling you easy-peasy, Pops. And another thing, you could get them to put the GPS thing on there so you’d always know where I was.”
“Okay, stop talking, dude. Seems like you’ve thought this through from all the angles.”
“I have. I’m looking out for you, too. You’d always be able to text me or me you. We could be in contact all the time.”
“Right.” I looked over at him at the red light. “You’d have to have rules about using it though, you know.”
“Oh, I knew you were going to say that, and that’s great. Please, Pops?”
I made a turn into the parking lot so I could stop to look up the closest phone store. One step closer to being independent. This would be a love/hate relationship for me. I wanted him to grow up, but I sure hated to see it happen.