Page 22 of Almost Paradise

“Trust me, men. If you have the choice to be turned into a vampire or werewolf, always choose the vampire. No girl will ever choose a werewolf. I know what I’m talking about.” Mason is grinning from ear to ear, and Kyle is looking at him like he just delivered an important sermon.

“Mason likes girls,” Kyle says almost as if he’s disgusted. “He says he wants to kiss them.”

Mason blushes, but he shoves Kyle. “No, I don’t,” he says, but some color has crept up his neck.

“Because you readTwilight, you’re an authority on werewolves versus vampires?” Audrey asks. She moves away from the wall while pushing her glasses back into place.

“Not just Twilight, though I read and saw the movies. With my little sister. Not because I wanted to. Also, True Blood. Don’t forget about Anne Rice,” he tells Audrey.

“Anne Rice? I don’t remember a werewolf chasing Lestat around New Orleans. She never wrote about werewolves. You are an authority on nothing, sir.”

“Alice picks her nose and eats it,” Kyle says. “Girls are gross.”

“And Alice is how old?” Wyatt asks. He taps his finger on his chin as if he’s in deep thought.

“Five,” Kyle says. “And she tried to hug me, but I pushed her.”

“Well, give her about eight to ten years. She probably won’t be so gross then,” he tells Kyle.

“Yes, she will,” he insists.

“Wrong lesson. The lesson, Kyle, is not to push girls,” Audrey insists.

“Hey! She tried to hug him against his will. My man Kyle has the right to defend himself.” He turns back to the boys. “Men, we’re in the fight for our lives against these girls. I’ve had many chase me when I was a boy too. Let me show you the best ways to avoid capture.” He stomps both feet and makes a stance like a sumo wrestler. Both boys copy him, and I turn away and go to the kitchen. I’m itching for a drink but not now. Not while he’s here. Drinking around him is dangerous.

“You’re a silly little drunk.” I run behind him and slide my hand up his T-shirt. I slide upward, enjoying the hard feel of his stomach.

“Baby, if you give it to me, I’ll give it to you.” I do my best Mariah Carey impersonation. His body shakes.

“And the worst singer I’ve ever heard,” he says. He turns to face me. I slam my body into his and splay my hand across his broad chest.

“If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear this part.” I clear my throat before I resume my singing. “I will climb a mountain high.” I sing at the top of my lungs. Even to me, it’s horrible. I don’t get a chance to say any more words before he silences me with a kiss.

“You want to sing, baby girl? I’ll make you sing.” He carries me into the bedroom, drops me on the bed, and climbs on top of me. He was right. He made me sing for hours.

“I’m gonna grab some water and wait for Carter in the kitchen.” At this rate, I don’t know how long they’ll be, but my son is not ready to see his father go. The very idea that he can barge back into my life and threaten me with lawyers to get his way infuriates me. There’s so much I will never forgive him for, and that one is toward the top of the list.

I think back to the day we met. If I had known where that would lead, would I have done anything differently? The answer is a hard no. I can’t imagine a world without my child in it.

Mom follows me into the kitchen and grabs me a bottle of water. I try to suppress the memory but the day I met Drake won’t leave me.

Then

We all high-five when the last of the new hires leave our floor. We have a spacious office that takes up a quarter of the third floor. As one of the managers, I have my own office.

“I’m ordering pizza for everyone,” Paul, my manager says. We all cheer and he skips to his office. “Good job today, everyone,” he calls behind him. While the rest of the staff straightens our conference room, I return to my office to check my emails. I grab a glazed doughnut along the way.

I was so nervous about presenting this morning, I wasn’t able to eat. Now that the stress is behind me, my stomach won’t stop growling. As soon as I step inside the closed confines of my office, I sink my teeth into the doughnut.

While my mouth is still full, there’s a loud knock on my door. Whoever it is, opens it before I can tell them to come in.

It’s him. Drake Paradise. The man who watched my every move for the past two and a half hours. Somehow, I knew he’d be back. I just didn’t know it would be this soon.

“Ms. Nash,” he says. His voice is as deep as I remember, and I crane my neck to look into his ocean blue eyes.

“Nia,” I say with my mouth still full. I swallow the doughnut and wash it down with my water from this morning. He crosses the room and stands on the other side of my desk. He looks at me without saying a word. I stare back, unsure of what to do or say. “You said to come find you if I had any questions.”

I didn’t say that to him specifically. I said it to the room, and I said contact me. Not find me, but I don’t correct him. You don’t correct anyone by the name of Paradise.

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