Disgruntled (4 page)

When the sun receded below the roof of the house, Todd
met Reva’s gaze. Those eyes could captivate him, big and
brown, almost like velvet. Eric’s head was bobbling as he
fought off the sleep that threatened to end his playtime with
new-found friends.
Reva passed a hand softly across his scalp and nodded.
“Time to go, big guy,” her voice cajoled. The kind of voice
that one could get used to. The gentleness of her hand on
Eric’s head made Todd curious. Would she have that same
gentleness if they were on his own skin? Running up his
back or clutching into his pecks? The breeze caught a paper
napkin on the picnic table. It floated in the air briefly before
hitting the ground.
“That’s right. Time to go before someone falls asleep.” Todd
scooped Eric into a fireman’s hold with the small, dirtcovered face buried into his neck. “You don’t mind leaving
this early?”
“I’m thrilled. There’s only so much family abuse a person
can take.” Reva mustered a smile.
Damn, that’s a good smile even when she’s tired.
“I’ll make excuses while you go put him in the car. Be right
there.”
Todd waved at her family and carried Eric off. When she
joined him a few minutes later, the smile was still there. He
felt a tug at his heart. Odd, he hadn’t expected to be that
comfortable around Reva. Hadn’t expected comfort around
any woman. His marriage had tainted him, he guessed.
“That was fun,” he stated when they reached her house.
Eric had dropped into a slumber in the back seat, one leg
curled under him, the other slanted toward the floorboard.
Todd rushed to get Reva’s door before she opened it, and
walked her to the step.
“I’m sorry they reacted like they did. It was unexpected.
They’ve never really been wary of anyone I’ve brought home
before. I guess it’s different now that I—” She cut off the
sentence and glanced away.
“Yeah, they told me about that.” Maria had filled him in on
the angry fiancé that nearly beat the shit out of her before
she had the sense to pick up and leave. He wanted to kick
himself for teasing her about living so close to family. Had
she lived closer then, the asshole probably wouldn’t have
touched her. Knowing the Zamora men, they would have
given
him
something
to
remember
about
mistreating
women.
“They did? Oh
great
. Now, you’ll think me a total screw-up.”
“Not even close. Why would you say that?” Todd shook his
head.
Something
stirred
in
him.
A
protective
instinct
perhaps? The wind caught the ruffled neckline of her shirt
and blew it away from her skin. When the streetlight cast a
blue glow across the curve of her breast, he recognized the
instinct as nothing protective. It was more primal than that.
He had enjoyed the game with her family, getting them all
riled up. The mischievous sparkle in her face lit him up too.
Even more interesting was his reaction to the banter. A
temporary partnership had formed between them based on
humor. He wondered if that had been missing for her as
much as for him these past years. He liked the spark of it,
the ease that she went with him in the teasing. It was
alluring. The light on her face at the moment was even more
so, trickling across the fullness of her lips to taunt him.
Those lips probably tasted as great as they looked. It would
be a damn shame if they didn’t.
Huh. Guess he’s finally over the bitter divorce. “I’d better
go,” he said. “Thanks for the invite.”
“Thanks for accepting.” She leveled those velvet brown eyes
on him and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He was
going to kiss her. Yeah. Had to. That mouth is just sooo…
“Goodnight, Todd.” She slipped inside the door and left
him standing wondering if he’d misread the signals.
The following day Annie showed up just after lunch and
whisked Eric off as if she’d missed him. Todd knew better
but thankfully Eric didn’t. It was a relief that the boss didn’t
come with her; Todd might have mishandled that. He knew
it would happen eventually but until now, he had considered
a quick jab to the nose would be the proper introduction.
Perhaps a hand-shake and a few choice words would work
nicely too. After all, the son-of-a-bitch saved him from the
cold-hearted cow. Now, he just needed a way to salvage Eric
from her claws too. He knew that impossible but it was still
nice to dream.
The house always seemed eerily quiet after Eric left. It
usually took a while to adjust. Todd pulled the fridge open,
extracted a beer, and went to the backyard. He settled into a
lawn chair and sipped from the bottle. Was it possible that
Reva was sunbathing again this afternoon? He imagined the
black, shiny fabric of her bikini on the other side of his
fence. He pondered taking a peek through the boards, then
chastised himself. Surely, he hadn’t stooped to that extent.
Another sip of beer. His cell phone chimed and he glanced
at the display. Crap. “What’s up, Annie?”
“Eric’s missing his tennis shoes. He said he left them at
Reva’s. Who’s Reva?”
None of your damn business.
“Oh, yeah. He fell asleep and I forgot to pick them up
before we left. I’ll ask her about them.” A convenient excuse
to talk to Reva again. He made a mental note to thank Eric.
“He needs them for school. Can you drop them by later?”
Todd half-considered telling her to come get them herself.
He didn’t have time to go chasing around after her kid’s
things. Of course, that was a lie. He had all the time in the
world for Eric, just not for her. Getting another brief
moment with Reva was enticing too.
“Yeah, sure.” He hung up and took another swig from the
bottle. Damn, he’s slipping. He should have gotten Reva’s
phone number before he left. It hadn’t occurred to him. She
popped in the door so fast he didn’t have much time to
think of anything except the tinge of disappointment when
he was left standing on the steps. He tossed the bottle into
the trash and headed to the sidewalk. Hopefully, she was
home this afternoon and if luck was on his side, she really
was
in that bikini again.
When she answered the door, he shelved the bikini thought.
This was better. A simple pink T-shirt and jeans shorts. Her
hair was pulled up high on the back of her head and her feet
were bare. Damn cute.
“Well,
hello
there.
Got
tired
of
surfing
for
dates
at
datemydad?” she teased, leaning against the doorframe.
He
laughed.
Love
the
cheerfulness
and
sense
of
humor
.
He
wondered if she knew how sexy her smile was. It could drive
a man to do stupid things. “I left Eric’s shoes at your
parents’ and his mother called for them.”
“Ask and you shall receive.” She pulled her hand from
behind the door and handed two small size four-and-a-half
scuffed shoes at him. “Mom dropped them by on her way to
mass this morning. I think she wanted to check and make
sure we really were kidding. She sniffed around the house
like a bloodhound.”
“Damn. Wish I’d come over earlier and given her something
to boil about, just for grins, of course.”
“She probably would have beaten you with a broom or
something.”
“It might have been worth it.” Todd wished he could stop
grinning. It felt ridiculous. “You look great by the way.”
Yeah, even more ridiculous. God, this sucks – completely awkward.
It
had been ages since he’d even cast a second glance at a
woman without suspicion. None of that now. No. More like
amusement and as much as he hated to admit it, desire.
She swiped a hand over her hair. “Thanks. You have a cell
phone?”
He nodded and pulled it from his pocket to show her. She
took it, fumbled around a bit, and then handed it back.
“There. If you think of anything else he forgot or need to
retrieve the rodent, you can call me next time and save a trip
around the block.”
He stared at the phone display. Aw, she gave him her
number. He didn’t even have to ask. She had been thinking
about him too. He doubted those thoughts were as hot and
heavy.
“No problem.” He slipped the phone back in his pocket and
turned to leave, lifting the shoes in a wave. “Thanks for
these.”
“You’re
becoming
quite
the
nuisance,
you
know.”
The
sparkle in her voice softened the words. He circled around.

“You know you missed me.” He tried to remember how he
acted in this kind of situation but nothing came.
Screw it.
Playfulness is sexy, right?
“Yeah, you caught me—that’s the feeling. It’s disguised as
annoyance.”
Okay, sort of sexy. Or not.
“That feeling in your gut isn’t annoyance, Reva, it’s lust.” Oh
shit, did he really say that crap?
“Wow. Does that line work for you?” She raised an eyebrow
and dropped a hand to her hip. The slight lift of the T-shirt
bared some bronzed skin.
Yikes, he had it backward. The lust appeared to emanate
from him, not her. “Never used it before,” he answered.
“Word of warning – don’t. Most women run like hell from
that kind of talk. Besides, you don’t seem the type to need to
say it.”
That was a compliment, right?

“I’ve never made a woman run. Stomp out in a tantrum,
scream a little, or just stop caring, yes, but not run. The
question is, do you?”
Yeah, smooth. Real smooth. What a dumb
thing to say.
He decided to walk away before it got worse.
“Do I what—care?”
He shook his head. “Run like hell.” His hands shook a bit,
reminding him he was in uncharted waters, and probably
needed a life boat or something. Flirting never had been his
best skill.
“Oh.” She tilted her head to the side and he almost saw the
dimples come out. “Maybe. I’ll have to think about that a
while.”
“You do that. But don’t get all worried. I’m not really the
type to chase.” He held up the shoes. “Better get these back
to Eric. He’ll need them tomorrow.” He took a few steps
backward and tried to give her his best smile, whatever that
was. Unfortunately it was overshadowed by the fact that his
calf slammed against the bumper of her car. Reva erupted in
a full dimple laugh and threw back the cute little ponytail.
“Stick to humor rather than the lines, Todd. It works for
you.”
Okay, so he still had a bit of the old spark in him. That was
good to know. Annie attempted to kill that part but she
hadn’t succeeded. He was okay with humor. That could
grow into something, couldn’t it? Huh. Did he really want it
to? He raised his shoulders, and jogged back around the
block before he did something else really stupid.

Avoidance was a great tactic when it came to pain and
ugliness. He dropped the shoes at Annie’s door and hightailed it out without even knocking. Normally he’d go in and
talk to Eric. He suffered through Annie’s complaints and
criticism as a trade-off for a few minutes with the kid. Not
tonight. Nothing was going to burst this bubble – he’d
enjoyed the time with Reva. When he was back home, he
sent a quick text telling Annie where to find the shoes.

Tuesday morning came a lot sooner than Reva wanted. With
little progress on Brent’s project, she knew it was time for
that discussion. Still, after hearing Brent unload on Gavin
last
week,
she
questioned
the
possibility
of
a
positive
outcome.
No worries, girl. This is what you do best. You love helping
people overcome obstacles and succeed.
She peeked into Brent’s office mid-morning and mustered
her best cheerful look. “Can you stop by so we can discuss
the status of your migration project?”
He stared right through her without even a twitch. “Yes,
ma’am.”
Reva
hung
around
her
office
until
lunch,
finishing
up
paperwork,
signing
off
on
invoices
and
updating
her
monthly status report for the board. Brent never showed.
He
knew
her
afternoon
was
filled
with
back
to
back
meetings and it annoyed her that he intentionally dissed the
request.
She opened her office door at 4:30 and dropped her keys
and notebook on the desk, before pressing a button on the
phone to check messages. There were fourteen waiting. She
heaved a sigh and dropped into the chair to work through
each one. Reva always jotted the message details on a legal
pad along with date and time, and then called back the
people individually. Four of the calls were questions about
Brent’s project. Apparently he’d told a few people it would
go live Friday! The project hadn’t even reached the first
phase of a four-stage deployment. No wonder the callers
were panicked. In the middle of the ninth message, three
taps reverberated on her door.
Forcing a smile, Reva lifted her head to answer. She halfexpected another annoyed staff member to confront her
about the timeline and what they should do.
“You wanted to talk to me?” Brent said. She glanced at the
clock. A quarter to five. Yeah, he really took her request
seriously.

“That’s right. I did earlier today but you’ve waited too long
and I’m leaving shortly. What’s this I hear about your
migration going live this weekend? We haven’t even looked
at
it
yet,
nor
have
we
done
any
deployment
tests
or
functionality tests. Surely it’s not that far along?”
“All we have to do is set up the users in the software and
send out the instructions. They’re smart—they should have
no problem doing this.”
She swallowed the verbal venting she wanted to release.
“Have you tested the migration yet on our test server with
some of the machines?”
“I ran it on mine but not on the test server. It went fine.”
“Your machine isn’t the server and doesn’t have any live
files to port over. You’re also running at higher permissions
than most users, so it wouldn’t be possible to validate that
staff won’t run into either permission or server/connectivity
related issues. Also, if my memory serves me right, when I
did the last one three years ago, there was a script that had to
run for each user on the local machine in order to get their
environment set up correctly.”
“It worked fine for me. I tested the script—no problems.
Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”
“Brent, we should have talked about this a week ago and
certainly way before we start informing staff. I’m sorry but
there’s no way we can start this weekend. Not without
testing everything on standard user accounts. You’re an
admin, that doesn’t count.”
Brent glared at Reva. He stood over her desk with clenched
fists. “Don’t you think that’s overkill for such a small
project?”
She sensed the tension in his voice and it startled her.
Glancing up, she thought he might lunge at her. Reva rose
quickly and did her best to diffuse the situation by softening
the tone of her voice and motioning to the chair in front of
her desk. “Why don’t you sit down, Brent, and we’ll figure
out what needs to happen and set a schedule to it.”
He looked at the office door, she thought to check for
anyone passing, and then lowered into the chair. “I don’t
need your help. I can do this.”
“I’m sure you can, but this isn’t a small project. We’re
migrating software that all 3000 users will need access to. We
have to test every scenario, even remote access, and we can’t
do that without a project plan and detailed schedule that
includes testing every part. Until we have that, we’re not
going forward, and I certainly don’t expect you to do this
alone, it’s too big. Who do you want to help you? We’ll meet
with them tomorrow to discuss it. I’m sorry but you’re just
not ready yet and we’re not going to fly by the seat of our
pants on this one. Does that make sense?”
“Very. Is there anything else you want from me?”
Super. He didn’t like that at all. How else was she supposed
to tell him? The guy’s a grown man, not a two-year old.
“Not that I can think of at the moment.” She hesitated. “Oh
wait, I did mention at the staff meeting last week that
everyone needs to start putting together their goals for next
year. We’ll incorporate that into the individual performance
reviews as well as our strategic plan. So, once we get the
project back in scope, you might want to give some thought
to that.”
It comforted her to see him appear calmer. Reva smiled
encouragement. “Have a good evening, Brent. Thanks for
meeting with me.”
The time on the clock said five-thirty. All the other staff
members were gone for the day. Did he actually mutter
“whatever” as he stepped to the door?
“One last thing, though.” She probably should wait until her
temper calmed but she went ahead when he met her eyes.
“Next time I ask you to stop by, don’t wait so long, okay?”
“I was busy.”
This was getting really
old
. She took a labored breath. It
required a good amount of control to bite back a response.
“I’m sure you were. I’ll be more specific in the future, if that
helps. The longer we put off these discussions the more the
project stretches out. Let’s keep an eye on how this reflects
on the department and work together to get it finished.”
Not to mention the only reason you delayed was to piss me off.
Reva
felt exhaustion working into her shoulder blades. She pulled
her purse and laptop bag from the desk and walked him to
the door. The door clicked closed behind her as she said,
“See you tomorrow.”
Brent ignored her words and strode away.
Hmmm. That didn’t go as she hoped and, for the life of her,
she wasn’t sure if he was better or worse for the discussion.
How could she have handled it differently? Tomorrow’s
meeting with the additional staff involved should go much
better. In all honesty, if this had happened pre-Nick she
would have lost her temper and got in his face. After
spending
a
year
evading
confrontations
that
escalated
beyond the yelled exchanges, she had a different perspective
on how to read emotions. It had been a rude awakening to
be a victim of anything, let alone an abusive boyfriend. An
awakening that battered bruises into her arms and back, then
left her with a realization that all people absolutely
do not
react like her family does. For all their big words, loud
voices,
and
sassiness
–
her
parents
had
never
laid
a
punishing hand on any of their kids. They didn’t need to.
When anyone was dangerously out of line, the entire family
knew and got
involved. Family amusement
was
a very
influential method of behavior correction. If that didn’t
work, they counseled. Over and over again.
Reva sighed as she sat watching the evening news in the
kitchen. She scraped her fork through the sauce on a plate of
warmed
tacos
with
disinterest.
Her
world
had
changed
irreversibly in the past few years. So had she. Every facial
expression,
every
flinch,
every
tone
change
in
a
voice
worried her. She chastised herself on a daily basis for taking
things too seriously. Nick was a random anomaly. Normal
people don’t act like that, so her Dad advised. Still, she had
vowed when she moved back home that she would never get
in a similar situation again. For some reason, Brent scared
her.
She
knew
she
was
likely
being
paranoid,
but
still…something about him made the hairs on the back of
her neck stand at attention. Realistically, he probably hadn’t
intended to lunge at her. She very likely overreacted to his
gestures
and
expressions.
Unfortunately,
as
much
as
a
person wanted to dispense of their past, it was impossible to
do so. If she could wipe the time with Nick from her mind
and soul, she would have already done so. She hated that her
old,
avant-guard
attitude
had
been
replaced
with
this….whatever it was. She didn’t even know herself now.
Todd Grisham had seen past it though. He had teased and
welcomed her in a most comfortable way. There had been
no threat or concern in his words or touch.
Her cell buzzed and broke the trance. She didn’t recognize
the number and considered letting it go to voicemail. After
three rings, she answered.
Todd. He had a seductively kind voice on the phone. Or in
person for that matter. She pictured his smile.
“I’m going over to sign up for the softball team and thought
I’d ask if you wanted to sign up too. I can put your name on
the list if you do.”
“I forgot about that. Uh, okay. Tell you what—meet me at
the corner and I’ll walk along, if that’s okay.” Excellent. That
would take her mind off silly things like abusive ex’s and
ominous employees. She wasn’t all that big on softball but
what
the
hell.
Maybe
it
would
ease
the
drama.
Surely
pounding the hell out of a leather ball would be a good
outlet?