“You’re paying for those,” Lexi grumbled as she breezed into the room. Her tennis shoes squeaked against the white floor when she spun around and sat on the bench to my right.
I lifted my eyes to a tall man with a mop of wavy blond hair. Not bright blond, but a sexy color with a few dark shades mixed in. He had the face of an angel and the indigo eyes of a devil. He could have been a male model in a fashion magazine. When he raked his fingers through his hair, he revealed a prominent scar on his forehead. But it just added to the allure.
He also had about twenty gummy worms shoved in his mouth. After chewing most of them up, he looked down and grinned. “I don’t believe we’ve met, honeypie,” he said with a mouthful. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Ben.”
Oh. Ben.
Lexi’s new boyfriend had a bunch of brothers. I’d met two of them a couple of months ago when the electric company shut off our power. Ben and Wheeler were identical twins—except Ben had a perverted mouth and Wheeler had tats and chin hair in the shape of a circle beard. The mean-looking one didn’t say much and seemed like a guy who liked to pound people’s faces in. Ben might have been clean-cut, but he couldn’t take his dirty eyes off my ass. If I had to guess their age, I’d say around thirty. The man in the doorway had the same look about him—youthful and yet seasoned, but something flickered in his eyes and made me second-guess myself.
“I’m April Frost,” I said with a subtle wave of my hand.
“Denver Cole,” he replied, swallowing the last bite of candy. “I’m here to save the day, so you girls just sit tight and I’ll protect you.”
Lexi sighed and crossed her legs. “What are you doing on this side of town?”
“Austin sent me to check on you since I was in the area. Your mother ordered curtains,” he grumbled. “Can’t she just get them at Walmart like everyone else? No. She has to special order them,” he said, using his fingers to make quotation marks. “They’re in the back of the truck. I hope a tornado blows them all the way to Mexico.”
“Why would you wish something like that?” I wondered aloud.
He quirked a brow. “They’re lacy with flowers and shit on them. Sorry, but men outnumber the women in our house. Every time I see a doily or a new flower arrangement, my balls get a little bit smaller. Speaking of, you got any malt balls in there?”
Denver wandered over to the vending machine and put his hands on top of it, tilting it forward. The lights in the store flickered.
“Stop doing that,” Lexi said, losing her patience.
Then it happened. Total blackout.
A rising tide of panic set in and I catapulted to my feet. Before I knew it, I was unlocking the main door and running into the street. Lexi yelled from behind me, and the wind funneled my short hair around my head, whipping my bangs in front of my face. A few grains of sand stung my eyes as the wind battered me with relentless force.
Suddenly, a strong arm hooked around my waist and lifted me off the ground.
“Are you a bag of nuts?” Denver shouted over the wind as he hauled me back inside.
The lights flickered back on and he set me on my feet. Lexi watched with wide, uncertain eyes as he shut the door and the bell jingled wildly.
My heart pounded against my chest like a drummer in a parade.
Denver grumbled and folded his arms. “Saving damsel in distress: check. Nearly crapping pants while standing in the middle of a fucking tornado: check.”
Lexi wrapped her arms around me and we stood in the center of the room. “Sorry, April. I’m on the verge of freaking out too, even though it doesn’t show much. My coping mechanism is denial. We’ll be fine.”
Denver stuck his hand in a bin full of chocolates and I walked over and grabbed the collar of his T-shirt, yanking him back. “Those are for paying customers. We can’t afford to just give it away.”
When he winked at me, I got flustered and let go.
Something hard jabbed into my back and I glanced over my shoulder at the corner of the shelf. I pivoted around and knocked several bags of candy on the floor. Denver chortled, pinching his chin as he watched me step on them.
A flush of heat stung my cheeks.
Handsome or not, I hadn’t made up my mind if I liked him. I certainly didn’t enjoy being a klutz in front of any guy. I possessed an inner monologue voice that loved to criticize. Now she was saying, Smooth move.
Why did I have to turn stupid around men? I’d been in a relationship before. Then again, Nathan had cheated on me constantly, so maybe it hadn’t given me enough experience with men. Who had time to date? I had to focus on work and savings before I ended up living under a bridge, which was a frightening possibility if I suffered one financial misstep. No guy wants a girl with that much baggage at the airport.
“You’re kind of cute,” he said with a handsome smirk. “If I had a tail, I’d wag it.”
“Leave my friend alone, Denver,” Lexi scolded.