A ferocious need to protect them both washes over me and I know, without a doubt, that this woman could break us if she wanted to. I can’t wait to see what she does to poor Ethan. He’s the biggest lady lover of us all.
I slip on my yard work boots, grab my keys, and head out to the shop out back behind the house so I can fuel up the mower and ride it on over to help the new neighbor and her friends. Let’s just hope I don’t induce any more panic attacks.
Twenty-Three
Hot cops and firemen aren’t supposed to exist out of calendars
Aria
November 2020
“Babes, I hate to be the one to tell you this… your neighbors are hot as fuuuuuck.” Demi tells me as we take a break from raking new soil along the flowerbeds, looking over at the guys who are also hard at work.
“You can stop drooling now. Did you forget you’re a lesbian whose wife is my other best friend?” I scoff jokingly and look away, not willing to let on that I agree with her because I’ve sworn off men for the rest of eternity. It’s just me and my baby now.
“Puh-lease bitch. Just because I prefer a kitty to a snake doesn’t mean I’m blind,” she laughs, still staring at Jace and Cooper as they build Hadley’s playset.
When I say ‘Hadley’s playset’ I mean her new, much bigger playset than I was going to buy her. This bad boy is the elite of all playsets, complete with a slide, two swings, a short rock wall, and a princess tower with a connecting bridge that leads to one of the small trees in my backyard where she can hide in the little tree fort area they’ve decided to build her.
It’s Saturday morning and before I could even get out the door, both Jace and Cooper rolled up in front of my house in separate trucks filled to the brim with supplies, both for Hadley and the yard. I tried to argue that it was too much and they made me cry by saying it wasn’t for me. It was for the new reigning princess of the lands who deserves nothing but the best play space a girl could have. Which, according to them, apparently includes the rest of the yard as well. They swore up and down that they were already going to be redoing their own yard and they got a discount for buying extra as they unloaded new soil, rock features and pebbles, grass seed, cleaning supplies for the pool, and a bunch of other stuff to turn this space into a small slice of paradise.
“I can’t accept this. It’s all way too much. It feels wrong.” I say aloud, though I’m not sure who I’m even saying it to because every time I’ve said it so far, I’ve been shut down. Hard. By everyone. Including my own damn best friends.
“You can and you will. You’ll also enjoy the man candy putting it all together for another minute, then you’ll go inside and fix up some sandwiches and lemonade or sweet tea, or whatever the hell they drink down here in the south and you’ll say, ‘thank you’. Do you know why?”
“No, I don’t. Because none of this makes any sense. Good things don’t just happen to people, Dem. Everyone wants something in return and very seldom do people just walk around full of good intentions. This is going to come with a price.” I murmur, wishing like hell I’m wrong.
“That’s not true. You’re jaded because we grew up in a shitty place with shitty people and then you met a shitty man who did a lot of shitty things. Not everyone will let you down like Benji and your mom did Ari. Sometimes people will show up and show out because they recognize when someone deserves it. You walk around carrying the weight of years of abuse. It looks heavy from the outside looking in, and I think these men are intuitive enough to see it and want to help lift the weight off of you. No one said you have to date them or even be their friend, but you can let them be nice to you. You can let them spoil your little girl the way she deserves to be spoiled, and then you can say thank you and leave it at that. There’s no expectations here other than that.
“If they turn out to be creeps then I will murder them in cold blood and bury them somewhere out in the Texas wilderness and plant some sort of endangered plant atop their grave.” Demi smiles wickedly as she says the last part and I believe her. She’s done seeing me hurt by men, and she’d do the worst things imaginable to keep Hadley safe. “I need you to do me a favor and start trusting your gut again. You read people better than almost anyone I know, but you stopped trusting your instincts after you met Benji because you thought you needed to do what society expects in order to give your daughter a picture perfect family. Guess what, even without him, we have a picture perfect family, and I’d bet all the dollars I have to my name that these men out here could be good friends to have as well,” she says softly.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll give them the benefit of a doubt. I’m going to run inside and check on Hadley and whip up a quick lunch for everyone.” I smile lamely, trying to give her something to hold onto that will reassure her. “Hey guys! Are turkey sandwiches and lemonade okay for lunch?” I yell across the yard and almost laugh when Cooper snaps his head up too quickly and knocks it into one of the beams.
The look on his face is pretty priceless as he tries to play it off. Instead I walk a little closer to make sure he’s actually okay. “That looked a little painful, you good? Do you need any ice?” I question him, and while he looks okay, he winces when he reaches back and touches the sore spot.
“I think I’ll be okay; I was just caught off guard a bit. I’m not the professional contractor out of the two of us,” he laughs, waving between himself and Jace. “It’s much easier to drink my coffee and eat my donuts everyday than all this manual labor,” he jokes.
“Yeah… you don’t look like you eat a daily serving of donuts…” I trail off, realizing that I’m accidentally flirting and he’s gracious enough to try and hide his small smile behind his hand as he rubs his thumb across his lip. The only problem is that I’m now a shameless flirt who can’t stop looking at his mouth so I turn to Jace and clear my throat. Amusement colors his features, but he doesn’t call me out, which I appreciate. “So, um, turkey and lemonade? Have y’all had enough water today? I can’t have you guys doing all of this for me and then I starve you or worse,dehydrateyou. Maybe I should get you something cold, do you like ice cream?” I ramble, trying to expel some of my nervousness.
“Ari, deep breaths for me. Calm down. We’re all right. Aside from a small boo boo on Coop’s head, which I'm positive he’ll survive. And we’re used to the heat. We grew up here.”
“Hey fucker, you don’t know that! Maybe I need you to kiss my owie all better for me,” he jokes, sticking his bottom lip out and his big green eyes turn pleading. His laugh gives him away or I’d have thought he was serious and I’d somehow missed that he was gay. It would’ve explained three full grown men living together, not that I’d judge them any which way of course. Outside of distrusting most people in general, that is.
“Shut up!” Jace says, while laughing and pushing Cooper away as he tries to tackle-hug him. “Seriously, we’re not picky and if you’re willing to feed us, we’ll graciously accept whatever you’re making,” he tells me, giving me one of those half smiles he tries so hard at. It looks like his most genuine smiles are given by accident based on what I’ve seen from him so far.
I nod, unwilling to open my mouth again to say something stupid, I turn and start to head back toward the house, only to see another big truck rumbling through the gate, leading from the front to the back of my house.
I quirk my head in curiosity, willing my heart rate to slow down to normal beats at the sudden intrusion of the unknown. I look between the truck and the house and Demi must see the panic written on my face, because she positions herself between whoever’s in that truck and the house.
When a massive man hops out, smiling wide, I almost pass out. What are they feeding these Texas men? Why are they all so big and too pretty to look at? My brain feels like mush and my heart's about to explode from panic at having some giant strange man closer to my daughter than I am.
I only allow myself to relax a fraction of an inch when I hear Cooper yell, “Hey man, what’s up? I thought you were working a double today?”
I look back at the two men who’ve made themselves a presence in my life whether I want it or not and then back at the mountain man moving to the back of his truck to drop the tailgate.
“Nah man, I got someone to cover me. I couldn’t let you two have all the fun helping our new neighbor. I’m a gentleman too,” his booming voice travels over the distance between us and sends shivers down my spine.
This man must be Ethan. He looks like a damn viking with his big beard, long brown hair braided on the sides and put up into a top knot, and muscles meant for a shirt and pants two sizes bigger than what he’s got on. There’s a pretty large amount of space between us, but the fireman’s logo on his shirt is hard to miss, and I have to wonder where in the hell these guys came from.
