6. Julian
Hobbling down the stairs with my phone held to my ear, I listened to my manager’s rant. I just got done listening to my coach’s lecture. I felt like an errant child who constantly messed up rather than a grown man who was in charge of his own life. I couldn’t even get into an accident in peace without getting an earful after. What were you thinking? You have a lot of people counting on you. You couldn’t have waited until the end of the season to go joyriding? That was what I’d been getting all morning. What I wanted was for everyone to just shut up and let me recover in peace.
“Jesus, Monica, what are you? My manager or my mother? Spare me the lecture, will you?”
“You know better than to be a smart ass with me.”
My mouth snapped shut. My manager was a fifty-two-year-old mother of three originally from Louisiana. She could get downright scary. That’s a major part of why I was able to break into so many areas outside of hockey. The woman was a shark of a manager. I sighed. “Alright, don’t bite my head off. Look, I’ll be fine. Despite my injuries, I can still go to the functions and photoshoots you have booked for me.”
“You need to rest. Heal. Forget the damn photoshoots.”
“No way.”
“Julian,” she sighed. “My oldest is about your age. You know you’re more than just my ten percent profit of the shitload of money you make, right?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I know. You wouldn’t have invited me to your house all the time to fatten me up with Cajun catfish and grits if you didn’t truly care.”
“Shut up.” She chuckled. “Seriously, I’m going to make the calls to cancel everything. You’ve only got months before the season starts so sit your ass down until you’re healed.”
“Absolutely not. We worked hard to get that Adidas deal. I’m not canceling.” I winced when I stepped too hard off of the last step, but I tried my best to hold in the pain, not wanting Monica to worry. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and stopped in my tracks. April sat around the kitchen island holding a mug. She was about to take a sip from it, but she froze when she saw me. Our eyes collided. “Uh… Monica, sweetheart, let me call you back.
“Boy, what did I tell you about calling me sweetheart?” she growled before abruptly hanging up.
I had to swallow a chuckle. Confession: I called her that just to piss her off so I could get the pleasure of hearing her slip into that New Orleans drawl. My gaze shifted from April to Mom, who was blissfully unaware of the tension seeping into the room.
“Julian, honey,” she said, greeting me with a bright smile. “I’m making you breakfast.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Faye still hadn’t gotten the memo that I was no longer eight years old. “Thanks.”
“Look who stopped by?” she said.
“Just stopped by?” I gave April a once over. She wore light blue scrubs. My lips twitched. The top was decorated with butterflies. She looked like she was ready to do a shift on a pediatric ward rather than nurse a grown man. Same colorful April. I didn’t hate it. I never did.
“Well, she’s going to be nursing you back to health, aren’t you April?”
“I’m just here to―” April said at the same time that I said, “I’m fine.”
April’s cheeks turned crimson. I looked at her from my periphery as I limped over to the coffee machine. Since when did blushing become so…hot?
“I told you I didn’t need anyone, Mom. I’ll be leaving in a couple of days.”
“Actually, it’s best if you have someone tend to those cuts you have on your legs, and…” April stopped talking when I directed my scowl away from Mom and towards her.
The last person I wanted in my personal space was April freaking Bennet. She was the cause of my accident. I massaged the bridge of my nose. Okay, I couldn’t really blame her for my memories of her distracting me. I was just in a foul mood, and it worsened upon seeing her...especially since I’d made a fool of myself the other night in the hospital.
“Yeah, whatever.” Fine, if it made my mother feel better to have a nurse here, I’d play along.
“I thought you’d be happy to have April here, Julian.” Mom gave me a reprimanding look for being rude. “You two went to school together. Weren’t you two friends?”
An awkward silence ensued. I rubbed my heavily stubbled jaw while April’s shoulders visibly tensed. Mom was scourging the refrigerator so she missed the glare April directed at me. I lifted a brow. Clearly, she still hated my guts. I didn’t know how I felt about my nurse hating me. I glanced warily at the medical bag. She probably had sharp objects like needles in there that she could use to take her revenge.
When she got no answer, Mom straightened and turned to glance at us questioningly.
“Yeah, yeah, we were cool,” I lied.
“Great friends,” April backed up, then blushed profusely.
I sank my teeth into my lower lips to hold back my grin. The little liar. She was adorable when she fibbed.
“Good.” Mom clapped her hands. “Well, I have a few errands to run so I’ll leave you two to it. Julian, make sure you eat up.” She waved a hand over the plate of waffles, bacon, and eggs she’d prepared.
I almost groaned out loud when April smirked. She probably thought I was a momma’s boy. Mom could be so embarrassing sometimes.
“Andy, we’re leaving in five!”
“But I want to stay with Miss April!” he shouted back from upstairs.
Mom huffed. “I’d never subject April to more than five minutes with you, Casanova.”
Hanging my head, I chuckled. Andy was a riot. Plus, we hung out a lot when I wasn’t working or traveling so he’d picked up on the art of flirting.
Mom glared at me over her shoulder. “He’s like this because of you.”
I shrugged then grinned unabashedly.
When April and I were left alone, my amusement vanished. Slowly, I turned to face her. She put her mug down and squared her shoulders. I almost rolled my eyes. It was like we were squaring off for war or something, like we were still kids. She once called me a selfish dickwad with the intelligence of a worm. Of course, that was after I made fun of her silly bedazzled jacket with the humongous plastic daisies sewn onto it. In my defense, I was a thirteen-year-old asshole. I chuckled at the memory and April’s perfectly arched eyebrows scrunched together.
“What”s so funny?”
“Memories,” I muttered.
Her eyes narrowed, and I swore I saw steam come out of her ear. Her memories of me weren’t that great, I was sure. A little ashamed of the stupid things I’d said as a kid, I hung my head and sighed. “Look, April―”
“Your mom hired me, right? I can go if you want and get someone else to come in.”
I blinked. “Is that what you want?”
“What I wanted was never to see you again. But, hey, we can’t always get what we want.”
I blew out a long breath. Yup, she still hates me. “Yeah...I’m sorry about the other night. Whatever I might have said, I didn’t mean it.”
Lie. April was a total babe, and I did want to hug her just to have her amazing rack pressed against me for a few seconds. She sure had filled out. Not even the loose scrubs could hide her curves. Jaw clenched, I forced my attention away from her chest to make eye contact.
“I want you here as much as you want to be here, but I’m leaving in a couple of days. It makes no sense to go through the process of hiring someone else.”
April peered at me with contempt, and I was reminded why I didn’t like her much sometimes. I mean, I always thought she was cute, but a little nuts. Who incorporated flowers into everything they wore? Who had to save every freaking animal and insect in nature?
Huh. I totally understood why she became a nurse. She cared about everyone and everything. That wasn’t a bad thing. It occurred to me that perhaps I should go for women with a compassionate nature like April rather than the shallow ones who only see dollar signs when they look at me...but, I digress.
Who spent more time hiding in the park hanging out with animals more than she hung out with people? A crazy person, that’s who…or a goddamn Disney princess. It wasn’t her quirks that had rubbed me the wrong way. It was the way she always looked down her pretty little nose at me. As if she thought she was better than me, better than all the guys in school...but mostly me. Because maybe I had a slight thing for the nut job hippie. Now I was glaring at her as hard as she was glaring at me.
You know what? It didn’t matter what I might have felt for April Bennet once. She still looked at me the same way, still detested me, and hell, I didn”t care. None of that mattered because I’d leave Oakland and her behind in a matter of days.
“Stick around, nurse. It makes no difference to me. How about a little privacy to enjoy some grub?” I nodded to my breakfast.
She gave me a dirty look as she slid off the stool. “I’ll wait in the living room, patient.”