Maya And The Tough Guy (12 page)

He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed his eyes shut, because oh, God, he was holding Maya in his arms, against his body. “No big deal,” he muttered through his clenched teeth.

She pulled away far too soon. Jayce forced himself to let her go even though he needed longer. Much longer.
 

He followed Maya into the house. Kellen had managed to air out all the smoke, and Zoey had calmed down. She was standing in the living room grinning at them. Jayce would bet money she’d been watching them out the window. He made his way to the kitchen table, hung his coat on the back of a chair, and sat to Kellen’s right. The house was cold after having had the attic fan sucking in the late-January air.
 

When the pizza arrived, Matthew and Sophie reappeared and sat at the table. Jayce hoped maybe he would have a chance to get more comfortable around them. They sat on one side of the table. Maya and Jayce sat on the other and Zoey and Kellen were at the ends.
 

“I thought we were having fried chicken,” Maya said.

“Yeah, well, we’re not,” Zoey snapped.

“She burned everything,” Jayce volunteered, more than happy to share that bit of information.

“Shut up,” Zoey said.

Jayce shrugged.
 

“I would have helped,” Maya said. “You’re just so damn stubborn. You’ve never cooked anything but spaghetti, you should have waited and let me show you how.”

“I’ll figure it out,” Zoey said. “No one taught you and you figured it out.”

Maya sighed in frustration.

“How’s school going?” Kellen asked the kids.

“Great!” Sophie said cheerfully. “I love my teacher. And she gave us gingerbread cookies when we came back from Christmas break.”

“Sounds like a nice lady. How ‘bout you, buddy?”

Matthew shrugged. “’S’okay, I guess.”

“Just okay?”

The boy took a bite of his pizza and shot Kellen a look.

Kellen grinned. “Don’t wanna talk about it?”

Matthew shook his head.

Jayce cleared his throat, trying to work up the nerve to talk to Matthew. He chickened-out and talked to Sophie instead. “So, Sophie, what, are you in high school? College?”

She giggled around a mouthful of pizza. “Kindergarten.”

“Kindergarten, huh? Lot of wild parties in Kindergarten?”

“We get to have a Valentine’s party,” she said. “We got a contest over who can make the best Valentine’s card box and we can give each other cards and candy.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“You remember Valentine’s parties?” Maya asked. “Especially in high school when the booster club sold those heart-shaped lollipops. You could buy one and have it sent to your sweetheart?”

“I remember,” Zoey said. “You and Addy were the only ones who ever sent me any.”

“Same here,” Maya said.

Jayce glanced at her. “That can’t be true. Sweet girl like you must’ve gotten tons of them.”

“You keep calling me sweet. You must’ve been the only one who thought so. I got two every year; one from Zoey, one from Addy. How come you never sent me one?”

Jayce washed down a bite of pizza with some soda. “Never sent one to anyone. Thought it was stupid.”

“Who’d you send Valentines to, Kellen?” Zoey asked.

Kellen grinned. “Sarah Myers. Every year of high school.”

Zoey’s eyes turned to fire. “Sarah Myers, the nurse practitioner at the clinic on the other side of town?”

“Yep,” Kellen replied, “I had the hots for her for four years.”

Zoey glared at him.
 

“I remember that,” Jayce said.
 

“You should,” Kellen said. “You tried to talk me out of liking her. I don’t know what you didn’t like about her.”

“I didn’t like she knew you liked her. She knew I was your best friend, and in spite of all that, she stuck her tongue down my throat at that bonfire, junior year. I called her a…,” he stopped himself, remembering there were children at the table, “…a bad name and told her never to talk to me again. But that’s how come I tried to talk you out of her.”

Kellen’s mouth hung open. “Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Didn’t want you to hate me.”

“Crap. Well screw Sarah Myers, then.”

Zoey laughed, clearly delighted.

“Jayce,” Sophie began, “are you gonna send Mommy a Valentine?”

Jayce swallowed and waited a beat in case Maya preferred to intervene. But she didn’t. “Uh, I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day.”

“Don’t you got a lady?”

He laughed at how cute she sounded asking that. “No, I don’t ‘got’ a lady.”

“Well, if you want, Mommy can be your lady and you can send her a Valentine.”

“How about you be my lady and I’ll send you one?”

Sophie sat up tall and smiled big. “Really?”

“Really. Flowers or chocolates?”

“Chocolates, duh.”
 

He grinned, just about on top of the world.
 

“He’s just trying to make you like him,” Matthew muttered.

Sophie shoved her brother and shushed him.

“You shush,” Matthew responded. “And don’t take nothing from him. He ain’t our daddy.”

“Mattie, that’s enough,” Maya said.

Matthew went silent and stabbed at his pizza with a fork.

Jayce thought he might be able to lighten the mood. “What about you, Matthew? You got a lady? Or more than one?”

Matthew’s glare was so filled with hate that Jayce found himself easing back as far as his chair would let him go. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to trick me into being friends with you.”

“Mattie, enough.” This time from Kellen.
 

“Why?” Matthew asked. “You keep telling me to be polite to him, but why do I gotta be polite when I don’t wanna be his friend?”

“Jayce is nice,” Sophie said.

“He ain’t our daddy, and he ain’t our friend!”

“Matthew James Bradley,” Maya said.
 

Jayce hadn’t the first idea how to behave, so he just sat back and waited for someone else to resolve the situation.

“What?” Matthew shouted at his mom.
 

“Don’t raise your voice to me.”

“You hugged him outside; I saw you! It’s not fair, because I don’t want him around us and you keep talking about him and acting like you like him—”

“Mattie, that’s enough. Go to your room and calm down.”

Matthew shoved his chair back, stomped to his room, and slammed the door.

“I am so sorry, Jayce,” Maya apologized. “He’s not usually like this. He’s been a different person the past few weeks.”

Jayce just nodded, still stunned into silence.

“Why don’t you let Jayce talk to him?” Kellen suggested.
 

“No,” Jayce said, his tone quick and sharp. “I mean…I don’t think he would want me to talk to him.” He looked to Maya for support, but she was studying him with her brow furrowed.

“It depends on what you want, Jayce,” she said. “Do you want to be friends with him?”

Jayce gulped. Of course he wanted Maya’s kid to like him. But… “Maya, I wouldn’t have the first clue what to say to a kid.”

“You don’t have to be dad-like. You just have to be yourself. Have a conversation with him.”

The whole prospect made Jayce so nervous he broke into a sweat. “Um. I’m not sure…you know…it’s just, I think he hates me, so…maybe I shouldn’t—”

She gave his arm a squeeze. “It’s okay. I got it.” She went into Matthew’s room, and the door clicked shut behind her.

Jayce slumped in the chair.

“Coward,” Zoey said.

“Really,” Kellen said. “I mean, jeez, Jayce. You can’t talk to an eight-year-old boy?”

“What the hell would I say? I don’t know how to talk to kids.”

“You talk to me,” Sophie pointed out.

“You’re just a really short girl. I can talk to girls.”

She giggled.
 

They were right, though. Jayce was a coward. His fears were dictating his behavior. Later, he stepped out on the porch for a smoke and Kellen joined him, keeping upwind. “You okay?” Kellen asked.

Jayce nodded and squinted into the winter sun.

“You know, you’re good at hiding your feelings,” Kellen said, “but the way you look at her…it’s just a good thing you went ahead and told her. It shows, man. Pretty bad.”

Jayce nodded. “Probably not a good idea for me to hang out with her like this. Work’s fine. But outside of work…all I can think is how much I wish I could….”

“She doesn’t need a relationship right now, Jayce.”

Jayce shot him a look.
I know.

“But she does have needs. And if you’d step outside of yourself once in a while, you’d see that you can take care of a lot of those needs.”

Jayce frowned. “What’s she need?”

“Lots of stuff. She needs help with her kids, particularly Mattie.”

“That’s on you, Uncle Kellen.”

“I’m not so sure. Some of his attitude—some of the shit he’s dealing with—it’s right up your alley. You could really be a big help to a kid going through what he’s dealing with.”

Jayce shrugged, not terribly convinced. He saw the way Kellen was with those kids. For all intents and purposes, Kellen was their dad. They respected him like a dad, and Maya leaned on him like a husband. The huge gap between who Kellen was as a man and who Jayce was, seemed too wide to bridge. Maya had needs? Hell, Jayce couldn’t see that she needed anything Kellen couldn’t give her.

“Besides that,” Kellen went on, “Maya needs confidence. She needs to grow, to contribute.”

Jayce thought about all these ideas for the bar that Maya had been filtering through Janice. He thought about how hard she was trying to keep her head up and her body protected as she served drinks. He thought about how bold she’d been with him lately.

“She needs friendship,” Kellen said. “And just because she doesn’t need a relationship, doesn’t mean she doesn’t need sex.”

Jayce’s eyebrows shot up at that. “What makes you think she needs sex?”

Kellen shrugged. “She’s my sister-in-law. She talks to me. She says she’s having a hard time being alone, in that way. And it’s tough because she’s not going to let someone touch her before she trusts him. So, basically, if you put in the time, earn her trust, you might have a shot.”

“Could she ever trust me, you think?”

“You open up to her a little bit, let her see who you really are, then yeah.”

Jayce took a last drag off his cigarette and stamped it out on the porch.
 

Kellen nodded towards it. “Depending on how long term you’re hoping to get with her and those kids, it might be a good idea to cut that shit out.”

Jayce sighed. He smoked at most three cigarettes a day. Sometimes he went days without smoking one. It was just a small comfort he allowed himself. But Kellen was right. If he wanted to be a dad someday, he was going to have to quit eventually. He pulled the half pack out of his pocket and crumpled it in his fist.

Kellen laughed. “Seriously? I’ve been trying to get you to quit forever.”

Jayce frowned at him. “I don’t smoke that much.”

“It’s still bad for you.”

“So I’ve read in all the email forwards and Facebook articles you’ve sent me.”

“Seriously, Jayce, you’re a machine in the gym. Imagine how unstoppable you’d be if you had your full lung capacity.”

“Now you’re just preaching.”

“Shut up, man, I care about you.”

Jayce laughed. “God, don’t say shit like that to me.”

“Come on, I love you, man. And you love me, too, don’t act like you don’t.”

“I’m going to punch you in the mouth.”

Kellen opened his arms. “Bro hug time. Bring it.” Kellen came at him for a hug and Jayce shoved him and backed away. Kellen pounced, wrapping his arms around Jayce in a bear hug. Jayce indulged him for all of two seconds before shoving him away again. Kellen fell back laughing.
 

There was female laughter and the men turned to see Zoey and Maya standing in the open doorway. Kellen and Jayce both cleared their throats and straightened their stances.
 

“Look at them,” Zoey said, “Acting like they’re not just a couple of pups wrestling for fun.”

“So precious,” Maya said.

“Fuck,” Jayce groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. Then he opened them and pointed at Kellen. “You’re a dead man, you know that?”

“I still love you,” Kellen said. “Can’t change that.”

“Awww,” Zoey and Maya crooned.

Jayce sank back against the porch railing. “This sucks so bad.”
 

Kellen strode past him, shoving Jayce in the head, as he went to Zoey. Jayce heard the door click shut. He’d assumed everyone had gone inside, but when he looked up, it was to see Maya staring at him. Her lips were parted and her eyes bright. There was some amusement, there. Some curiosity. He couldn’t tell what else. All he knew, was, it was better than the fear she usually wore in her eyes.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When Maya walked into the bar, Tuesday just before five, the jukebox was playing an upbeat country song. Her heart had been particularly heavy, that day, worrying about Mattie, whose attitude seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. The sound of the music immediately lightened her mood, and then she saw Jayce dancing behind the bar as he stacked glasses.

He flashed her a white smile over his shoulder before returning to his work. She couldn’t help but take a moment to enjoy the way he moved, his muscles bunching beneath his shirt, his ass looking amazing in those jeans. She’d seen him flirt with her five-year-old. She’d seen him goof off with Kellen. The veneer of danger he always wore was vanishing before her eyes, like a mirage.
 

“Got a question for you,” Jayce said, snapping Maya out of her reverie.

“Oh?” She’d just been standing there ogling him. Maya quickly looked about for something to do, but there were very few customers, and Janice seemed to have already served them all. Jayce turned to face her, and Maya froze again. She didn’t shrink away, though, and that was progress.

His expression sobered, suddenly very serious. “It’s about Janice,” he said in a low voice. He glanced over to where Janice was chatting up a pair of middle-aged men. “She’s been acting a little weird lately. You noticed?”