Make Believe: A Novella (6 page)

             
“What I’m trying to say is, will you promise to be my best friend, my lover, my missing puzzle piece for the rest of your life? April, will you marry me?” he said, smiling up at me.

“Yes
!” I said as tears spilled all down my cheeks.

“Thank
God for that! They make this look easy in the movies, but it really hurts the knees,” he said as we both burst out laughing.

“You are the craziest guy I know,” I said
, stroking his face with my hand.

“Are you sure you want
to spend the rest of your life with me then?” He couldn’t contain his smile.

“One hundred percent, yes,” I said as I crashed my lips into his and kissed him.

Yes, this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

“I love you
, April.”

“I love you too.”

“I have some more good news.”

“And what’s that,” I said, smiling at him.

“I finally found someone who can help out while Ant’s gone.”

“Really? Where did you find him?” I asked excitedly. Aiden and Anthony had both agreed that Anthony was going to take a month off work to help Jess with Ella-May
, which was a great idea in my opinion. The only problem was finding someone to help take over some of Anthony’s duties at the car repair. Aiden had been searching for the past couple of weeks, and now he had finally found someone.

“
Her,”
he corrected with a smile on his face.” She found us, and her experience is perfect. She’s moving to Nevada in a month so the temporary contract is perfect for her.”

“That’s great
. what’s her name?”

“Leah.”

“Well, she sounds nice, and at least, I might just see more of you now,” I said with a smile on my face.

“Indeed you will, beautiful,”
and he came back to my lips for one more kiss.

Chapter 3: Monday, October 7
th
at 5:57pm

APRIL’S POINT OF VIEW

I cannot even explain how it came to this or how it got so bad because the truth is, I really do not know.

I looked at Leah
— my head still aching from the baseball bat —sitting on the filthy floor of the basement. It was strange, that after everything, a huge part of me still felt sorry for her. She sat in the middle of the room with her head tucked deep in her lap. She had been humming the same tune for the past thirty minutes, and it was making me nervous. She was unstable, that was obvious. Crystal had spotted it from day one. She had her figured out and saw it all before I did. Leah didn’t care that I tried to be nice to her, for some reason she hated me. She told me at least five times today.

“S
hhh!” That sound caught me off guard. I had become accustomed to the silence of the room. It was almost comforting, like a lullaby, rocking me gently to sleep. “Stop crying,” she growled as she stood up and pierced her dark blue eyes into me. It was as if she was studying me. She was looking so deep into my soul, that I felt naked.

“Why are you doing this?” I whimpered as the raw rope scratched my wrists. At least she
took the blindfold off and I was finally able to adjust to the light in the room. Apparently, she “wanted to see the pain in my eyes.” I had no idea what that meant or what I had done to create such rage in one person, but I had. “You’re in love with Aiden, aren’t you?” I asked weakly. My lips were dry from the lack of water, and my stomach was growling fiercely.

The
horrible sound that left her mouth shocked me. I froze. It was not a normal laugh, like when you share a joke with a group of friends. It was dark and twisted.

“In love with Aiden,” she repeated. “Is that what you’re afraid of? That I can take him if I want him?” Her words were slow and direct. “All this time
, and you still haven’t figured it out, have you? Look at me, April. Take a real good look because I want to see the exact moment when it all falls into place,” she smirked.

Chapter 4
: Nine Days Earlier

AIDEN’S POINT OF VIEW

Waking up next to April is something that will never get old. The fact that she was going to be my wife was making me go crazy.

“Why are you staring at me?”
she grumbled as she kept her eyes slightly closed.

“Just thinking about how incredibly sexy my soon
-to-be wife is.” I smiled at her. Damn that word felt great coming out of my mouth.

“You like the sound of that, huh?”
she chuckled as her eyes fluttered open. This woman was
beautiful
in every damn way.

“I do,” I teased.

“Getting practice?” She laughed as I looked at her in confusion.

“
I do
,” she repeated.

“Oh, I don’t n
eed practice. It’ll come as easily as breathing,” I said, letting my lips cover hers. I felt her body shift to the side slightly, which was my green light to take the kiss deeper. I let my hand slip over the curve of her hip as I pulled her against me.

“I never get tired of your ‘good mornings’,” she giggled
against my lips.

“And I never get tired of giving them
to you,” I smiled. I let my lips travel slowly up the side of her jaw, knowing exactly what it does to her. I heard a moan escape her beautiful lips as I let mine gently brush the side of her neck.

“Aiden,” she breathed in a
way that nearly drove me right over the edge.

“Mmm,” I breathed against her s
kin, shifting more of my weight on top of her.

“You’re going to
be late,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice steady.

“
I don’t care,” I whispered, continuing my assault on her neck.

“Leah’s first day, remember?
”

“Ahh,” I moaned as I
remembered about Leah. I had decided to hire her as my personal assistant just until Anthony came back. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but right now I was slowly starting to resent it. I reluctantly stopped moving, but still buried my head in her neck. I loved her smell.“I’m calling a ‘to be continued’ on this moment,” I stated before gently lifting my body off hers. She just smiled up at me, making it ten times harder to leave. “I love you,” I whispered before leaving one last lingering kiss on her lips.

“Love you
, too,” she whispered. “Now go and get ready!” she ordered as I chuckled to myself.

“Yes, boss,” I said
. I jumped up and ran to the shower.

* * *

My mini make out session with April earlier had me pretty worked up, and what should have been a ten-minute shower turned into thirty.

Dressed in my black jeans and a tight fitting blac
k t-shirt, I grabbed my leather jacket and headed toward the kitchen. A smile slipped onto my face as I watched April sporting a pair of blue short, shorts, and a white tank top.

“You really, really are trying to kill me, aren’t you?” I whispered in her ear
and slipped my hands around her waist. I heard a quiet gasp leave her lips as I pulled her back against my chest.

“I hadn’t planned to, no,” she replied. I knew she was
smiling; I could hear it in her voice.

“Good, because dead people can’t do what I plan to do to you later
….”

The clearing of a very familiar voice caused me to stop mid
- sentence.

“You know
, even after eight straight years of seeing you two behave like love sick puppies, it still grosses me out.”

“Remind me why you thought that it was a good idea to give my sister a key to our house again?” I asked as April began chuckling.

“In case of an emergency.” She just grinned at me.

“Yeah, this isn’
t an emergency,” I grumbled, trying to keep my eyes off April’s bare legs.

“I think you’ll find that shopping for
a wedding dress is an emergency. I’m taking my Maid of Honor role very seriously, Aiden,”Crystal pointed out.

“I didn’t even ask you to be my Maid of Honor yet,” April chuckled.

“But you’re going to. I’m just saving you time since you have so much to do already.”

“She’s
your
sister,” April said, smiling at me.

“And
your
best friend. Anyway, as interesting as it is to be talking flowers and dresses, some of us have work to go to,” I said before kissing April on the lips and planting a kiss on Crystal’s forehead and messing up her hair.

“Aiden!” I heard her scream
. I continued walking out the door with an extremely satisfied smile on my face.

I got
into my car, set up my phone for hands free, found the number I wanted, and drove off.

“Hey
, douche!” The voice came in loud and cocky.
No change there then.

“Seriously, Ant
! What are we, in high school?” I smiled, shaking my head at my stupid best friend.

“No, I didn’t even use that word in high school
, but now that Ella-May is here, I need to make sure I’m down with the
kids
.” I rolled my eyes.

“She’s one day old.”

“It pays to be prepared my friend. I need to know what lines these little jerks are going to try and use on my baby girl.”

“
Not every kid is like you were, and do you even know what a ‘douche’ is?” I asked while laughing to myself.

“No, what?”

“Google it. Anyway, I didn’t call to talk about your expanding vocabulary,” I said. “I called to talk about Leah. She starts today.”

“Ahh, the PA. So, is
she hot?” I could hear the sound of a smirk in his voice.

“Ant, you’re an idiot
. You know that, right?”

“Hey, a guy has to ask. Don’t want her scaring off potential clients, right?”

“Oh, how noble of you. If only I was half the man you are.”

“
A dream many share, my friend.” I could hear him chuckling over the phone.

“Anyway, her resume
was pretty impressive, and her situation makes her perfect for the job.”

“How so?”

“Well, she only plans on staying in California for a month, then moving on to Nevada after that.”

“
So she’s moving to the desert then?”

“Well, she’s going to live with her father, apparently he’s not too well. He lives there.”

“Interesting, so she’s happy with the whole arrangement?”

“Yeah, it was perfect
. She knows you’ll be back in a month, and she’ll be gone by then.”

“Sounds too good to be true
, but I’ll take it anyway,” he said.

“There’s not much you wouldn’t take, let’s face it.”

“Hey, that’s not true! I don’t take orders from Jess, no matter how hormonal she is….”

“Excuse me
?” I tried not to laugh too loudly when I heard Jess’ voice in the background.

“Where did you come from? I thought you were upstairs getting dressed.”

“Oh, I bet you did.”

“Someone’s in trouble,” I laughed.

“Shut up,” he mumbled into the phone.

“What did you say
?”

“No, not you baby!
I’m on the phone.”

“
Oh, I know that because I heard your little conversation about my hormones!”

“It wasn’t a conversation
, just one sentence….”

“Shut up, Anthony!”

“Er, I’m going to have to go. Catch you later....” The phone went dead, and I was left laughing to myself in the car. A sudden knock on my window startled me. When I looked up it was Leah.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said as she moved a few stray strands of brown hair from her eyes. I could see the slight hint of a smile on her face
, but I could tell she was trying to hold it back.

“You
didn’t,” I replied, stepping out my car. I cleared my throat, and said “Morning.”

“Morning,” she said,
biting her lip and averting her blue eyes.

“O
K, maybe I was a little shaken up….”

I was cut off as she let her laugh loose, bringing a slight smile to my face.

“Sorry, I’m not usually a victim of laughing fits. I was a little early and saw you sitting in your car. I didn’t know that knocking a window would scare you so much.”She was making no effort to hide the smile on her face anymore.