Blocked (6 page)

“Nothin’, man. I didn’t say nothin’.” Rocco hadn’t turned to face them.

“Yeah, you make sure you keep it that way. Because I only play nice once. You got it?”

April struggled to keep her own jaw from touching the shiny laminate floor when big, loud Rocco nodded before slithering out the door. She didn’t know it then, but that was the very last time she would ever see him.

Quickly shaking off the entire scene, April faced the man still standing at her side. “So now that you’ve defended my honor and practically felt me up, I think it’s time we introduce ourselves.” She extended her hand. “I’m April Maddox.”

“Yeah, look, I’m really sorry about that.” The man appeared to be studying her face, but he never reached for her hand.

“Wait”—April smiled—“are you sorry for defending my honor or copping a feel? Because to be honest, neither one was a hardship for me.”

She realized what she’d said when the crinkles around the man’s eyes reappeared and his mouth curled up in a sexy smirk. It was as if his lips alone had spoken the word,
gotcha
.

“Shit, no… no… no… that is not at all what I meant.” April felt her cheeks warm with embarrassment. “What I was trying to say was it felt so good to have a man want to touch me that way…” She slapped her hand over her mouth and prayed that the words would just stop spilling out before she died of mortification.

“April—” Super-Hot-Gym-Guy started to speak.

She needed to untangle the ridiculous web she’d spun before the man walked away thinking she was a nutcase. “Please, just give me a second.” She inhaled deeply, forcing air around the lump that had suddenly formed in the back of her throat. “What I meant to say was thank you. It’s been a really long time since there was someone other than family to have my back like that. We don’t know each other, and still you stepped in and helped me out. That was… cool. Really cool. So thanks.”
Cool
? What decade was she living in? She was a teacher in a public school. She knew cool was no longer…
cool
. She moved to retreat, hoping to leave with at least a modicum of dignity left in her arsenal when he stopped her.
Eh, who needs dignity?

“My name’s Decker Brand.” He extended his long, muscled arm and waited for her to shake his hand before he continued. “And yes, I am sorry for manhandling you without your permission. That’s usually not my style. However, I’m sure as shit not gonna apologize for getting between you and that asswipe. To be honest, April, I’m not sure your honor needed
my
defending. You were doing a fine job on your own, but when I saw him touch you…” April watched as his brows snapped together, anger and something else she couldn’t identify etched on his ruggedly handsome face. “Hell, the second he laid his hands on you, I didn’t just want to throttle his ass, I wanted to protect yours.” Decker’s gaze quickly left hers and landed somewhere on the ground. “How’s that for embarrassing confessions?”

* * *

HE WASN’T SURE what he’d expected when he revealed his innermost thoughts. Hell, he hadn’t even known he was gonna do it until the words were literally falling from his mouth, but in that moment, she seemed so open, so exposed that he felt the deep-seated need to honor her vulnerability by exposing his own. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d sworn after Olivia that he wouldn’t fall victim to illusions again, but there was something in his gut that screamed this woman was genuine, and maybe it was time to start listening.

“Decker,” she spoke his name lightly, a slight tease in her tone. “Both me and my ass are grateful for your gallant behavior.” She punctuated her statement with a wink.

Her levity caused him to smirk, which in turn had her small grin splitting her face into a dazzling, dimpled smile.
Fuck, look at those dimples
, he thought as his cock twitched in his shorts.

“Gallant behavior? Who says gallant these days?” He chuckled, trying his best to get his mind off the sexy-as-hell divots in the sexy-as-hell blonde’s face.

She threw her head back and laughed a husky sound that did absolutely nothing to slow the blood flow to his dick. “I do. I guess that’s what happens when you’re a middle school English teacher.” She looked at him, her eyes dancing with delight. “Next time I’ll say, ‘Thanks for your super cool help, dude.’”

Decker chuckled. “No, I can handle the larger words, but thanks for trying, Ms. Maddox.” He hesitated briefly then asked, “Or is it Mrs.?” He found himself holding his breath while he waited for her to answer the question.

She shifted her eyes to the left and paused for a second. Decker felt his heart pause too.
I knew it was too good to be true.

“It’s Ms. Maddox.” She looked up at him and swallowed. “I’m divorced, and Maddox is my maiden name. I took it back the second my divorce was final.”

Decker slipped his thumb under her chin, tilting it up until their eyes met. “Well, Ms. Maddox, it has been a pleasure finally meeting you properly. May I walk you to your car?”

“That would be awesome, dude.”

They laughed and chatted as they walked through the parking lot.

He felt like a nervous teen when he asked for her phone number, and he wanted to pound on his chest when she gave it to him. “Here, let me text you right now so you’ll have my number as well.”

April opened her mouth as if to say something but instead pulled her lip between her teeth and kept silent.

“What’s wrong, April? You’re not gonna call me?”

She shrugged. “To be honest, no. I probably won’t. At least not at first.”

“What? Why?” Decker, at thirty-three years old, had done more than his fair share of dating and had been married to a woman who had made him work hard for each smile, laugh, and ounce of happiness they’d ever shared. He’d played every game, knew every trick, and saw through all sorts of bullshit, yet never once had he come across a woman who was so brutally honest.

“Look, if we’re gonna be anything—even just friends—you need to know that… well, my mother is fucking crazy.” April ran her long fingers through her ponytail. “Seriously. I’ve spent most of my life trying to do the opposite of nearly everything she told me, but some things have stuck, and there’s nothing I can do about it. One of them is not calling a boy too soon.”

Decker smiled as April’s face flushed. “A boy?” he asked with humor lacing his tone.

“Yes”—April nodded emphatically—“a boy. It was drilled into me and my sister that it was
bad
to call boys too soon. And I’ve never gotten over the fear of what would happen to me if I did.”

“Dare I ask?” Decker’s abdomen clenched as he tried to hold in his laughter once again. This woman was giving him his core workout for the week.

With her face as serious as he’d seen it so far, she answered. “Sure. According to my mother, if a girl calls a boy too soon, she will not only be viewed as easy, trampy, and stupid, but, and this was always the main sticking point for me and my sister, those girls would never ever reach orgasm, because the guys they chased after would know they were desperate little hussies who didn’t deserve it. Therefore, no, I will not be calling you for a little while. Sorry, but I like my orgasms.” She shrugged and added under her breath, “From what I can remember.”

“Wow, your mother sounds like an interesting woman.” Decker smiled as he watched April toss her gym bag into the back of her Acura RDX.

“You have no idea.”

“All right, well, I’m certainly not one to tell a
girl
not to listen to her mother.” He knew he must have looked like a loon with his smile spread clear across his face, but he couldn’t help it. The woman had intrigued him from the first moment he saw her, and now that they’d finally spent a few minutes together, he was as good as caught, completely beguiled by her sense of humor and quick wit. “But I can tell you I completely disagree with her theory.” He shook his head slowly. “Not that it matters, because it’s not gonna be an issue in this situation.” Two prominent dimples flashed back at him.
Nope, not gonna be an issue at all,
he thought as he watched her climb into the driver’s seat of her black SUV.

“It was nice to finally meet you, Decker Brand. To be honest, in a strange way, I kind of owe some gratitude to that asshole Rocco.” With her cheeks flushing at the admission, April slid her key into the ignition and flipped on the engine.

“What do you mean gratitude?” Decker asked, genuinely confused. In fact, just hearing the guy’s name on April’s lips made his skin crawl.

Shrugging her shoulders, April eyed him. A bashful look crept over her features. “I don’t know… I’ve wanted to talk to you for weeks, but you never seemed that interested. So other than our quick ‘hellos,’ I’ve pretty much stayed away.”

“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.