Chapter 17
SPENCER
She shakes her booty in my kitchen. That’s what April does when she thinks nobody is watching, and she’s focused on her latest creation.
She keeps her ear pods in and dances around.
I even caught her in full-on down-to-the-floor moves while she sang "It’s Tricky" by Run DMC.
She had no idea I caught her until she turned around.
But today, I return from dropping Hadley off at school to find April rocking her hips as she swirls a wire whisk in a bowl, unaware that I’m back.
The moment my hand rests on her lower back where I'm standing behind her, she’s startled at first, until she melts into my touch.
“Hmm, I thought you had a meeting with a sponsor.” She wiggles against me.
“Canceled,” I whisper into her ear.
April slowly turns to look at me. “Oh, so you thought you would pencil me into your calendar for a workout?” She gives me a warning glare.
It’s been a few days since I asked her to stay, but she wanted to help Piper with the baby, and I don’t have many opportunities to get April alone, as I’m busy taking care of Hadley.
“We’ll see about that.” I tip her chin up with my finger, drawing her sight to me, and I’m tempted to press a warm kiss against her lips.
She seems to be onto me and tickles me away. “Down, boy. Go throw some balls or something. I need to get this frittata in the oven.”
I still don’t know how she manages to come up with a new recipe to cook every day.
“How about a swim before lunch?” I ask.
April gawks at me. “Do you literally fuck like a rabbit in the off-season to make up for baseball season when you keep it all in?”
I interlace our fingers, well, only with one of her hands, as the other is busy whisking. My need to keep her close unnerves me slightly, but I’m past the point of caring, this is what I want in this moment.
I'm already scolding her with my eyes as a grin tilts on the corner of my mouth. “It’s not that I don’t have sex during baseball season, I just don’t do random hookups. If I’m in a relationship, then we work it out.”
April bursts out laughing. “What in the world does that mean? Oh my God, you literally have a sex schedule around your games, huh?”
“That’s maybe a stretch.” Slightly. Barely.
“Good luck to her then.” She returns to her experiment, and it causes me to pause that she doesn’t see herself as a contender. It shouldn’t bother me. A relationship is not what we are doing, but it feels close.
The sound of the door opening makes my head perk with attention to my mother walking in, carrying a laundry basket. She has the security code so she can come in when she wants, but she normally doesn’t unless it’s important.
“Oh, hey, sorry, I didn’t realize you have company.” My mother assesses the scene with intrigue as she slowly sets the basket on a chair at the kitchen island.
“It’s fine.”
I notice in the corner of my eye that April is straightening her apron as she watches my mother enter the picture.
“I guess you two only met briefly. Mom, this is April. April, my mom.”
A genuine welcoming smile spreads on my mother’s face. “Wonderful to meet you. Sorry, where are my manners.” She stretches out her hand. “I’m looking at you so strangely, but I just thought you were staying for a few days.”
April quickly wipes her hand on the apron before giving my mother a handshake hello. “Uhm, the plan kind of changed.”
My mother’s face immediately whips to my direction. “Fun.”
I roll my eyes and clap my hands together. “What brings you by? How was the getaway?”
“Can’t go wrong with Arizona. We’re planning our next trip already. Your father wants to take me to Yellowstone so I can fulfill my Kevin Costner fantasy.”
I shudder from the thought while April chortles a laugh and returns to her oven pan.
“I forgot I had all this laundry for Hadley. I was going to just leave it here and hoped to check if you lined up a babysitter for the coming period?”
My head drops slightly, and I rub my cheek while I groan. “The babysitter we had lined up dropped out due to a sick relative. I have my team reaching out to another agency to find someone.”
My mom begins to look in her purse, probably for a Tic Tac if I know her well enough.
“Spencer, it needs to get sorted out. Your father and I can’t watch her forever.
I love my grandbaby, and we will help when we can, but you know that it isn’t what.
..” She pauses when she realizes she's struggling to finish the sentence.
I save her and jump in. “It’s fine. I mean, I really just need someone to cook and clean, and I can take care of Hadley.”
April offers me a soft reassuring smile before she turns to put her food in the oven.
“I’m happy to hear it, but you still need someone as a backup. Even in the off-season, you have all those fancy meetings, and you train a lot,” my mother explains.
I sigh, as she makes valid points. “I’ll find a way, okay.” I’m getting slightly frustrated with this conversation; I don’t enjoy being reminded of what I can improve on.
My mother turns her attention to April who doesn’t notice, then returns her gaze to me. My mom’s eyes grow big, as it is her way of asking for an explanation. I mouth back, "Friend." She subtly shakes her head that she doesn’t believe me.
“I hope my son and his daughter aren't wearing you out,” my mother says, attempting conversation.
“Not at all. Hadley is adorable,” April comments.
“April has gotten Hadley to experiment with food,” I add.
“Maybe you should be her next nanny then,” my mother jokes.
April smiles. “I think you need a professional for that role, and I’m heading back to the city soon anyway.”
Right, because April doesn’t live here in Lake Spark unless I have a sex tape about to be leaked.
“Well, I’m going to leave you two alone. I have errands to run. By the way, you remember Hadley has her check-up with the pediatrician next week, right?”
I salute my mother. “Yeah, it’s in the shared calendar.”
My mom waves to April and she says goodbye. A minute later, we are free from my mother’s watch.
But still, I heave a sigh at the reminder of my responsibility. It makes me feel like everyone is waiting for me to fail when all I want to do is prove them wrong.
Leaning against the fridge, I wonder if this feeling of missing a piece will ever go away.
April nudges my arm with her own and comes to my side, and we both look forward at the ground. “She seems nice.”
“Can’t complain.”
“Hadley will love having more time with you and less with a babysitter,” she points out.
I’m not entirely convinced, and my face stiffens as I feel my lack of assurance set in.
April gives me a soft look, almost empathetic, as if she wants to say something more, but instead she smiles shyly and looks away before walking to the other side of the kitchen to grab Pickles’ leash.
“Don’t be in a grumpy mood today,” she calls out. I’m bewildered as to how she understands my brain because I’m not exactly on the express train to happy right now. The last few minutes put a damper on my day.
Before I can argue, she is out of sight but not out of my mind.
Tiptoeing to Hadley’s bed, I’m careful to lift the pillow under her head while she sleeps. Thankfully her night light is on, which gives me enough coverage to ensure my task is successful. Pickles perks his head up from where he is lying at the end of her bed.
Slipping the hundred-dollar bill under Hadley’s pillow, I grab her little plastic treasure chest that holds a tooth.
I stroke her hair and take in the view of her lying there like a little angel holding a stuffed butterfly.
My journey out of her room is a slow walk, and I stop at her door to get one more image of her in my head, because every moment is another one gone, right? When I’m gently closing her door behind me, I’m startled.
“Tooth fairy duty?” April whispers as she leans against the wall in the hall, wearing her little shorts and tank. She must have been watching me this whole time, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
I step to her, holding up the little treasure chest as proof. “First time.”
“Oh yeah?” She arches a brow, and her fingers claw my shirt. “What’s the going rate these days?”
“One hundred.”
Her jaw drops, and she shrieks softly. “What? Are you crazy? Five would have sufficed.”
I shrug. “Anything else you care to critique in relation to my tooth fairy skills?”
“Nah, but the tooth fairy is kind of hot.” She pulls me closer.
Finally. We’ve been simmering in flirtation since we slept together. This is our moment to sizzle and pop.
An approving hum draws out of my throat. “No shit, the tooth fairy does it for you?”
“Uh-huh.” This look on April is familiar. It’s hungry, sultry, and playful.
Which is why I follow her as she tows me along to my room and walks me straight to the edge of my bed. Before I can process, I’m sitting and she’s swinging a leg on either side of my waist to straddle me.
“This is not the role-playing scenario I had in mind,” I joke.
“Nah, me neither. But watching you do the dad thing back there was… it does things to a woman.” She drags her lips along my neck, and my dick is already hard.
I plant my hands on the sides of her body underneath the flimsy shirt. “What kind of things?”
“Dirty things. I would definitely go on the tooth fairy’s bad list.”
I snort a laugh, as this is slightly ridiculous, but I’m always a team player. “What in the world could you do to get on the bad list?”
“Use my tongue in inappropriate ways.” She flashes her eyes at me.
I pull her flush against my body, and we fall back against the mattress. “I’m all game for a demo.” Yet I wrap my arms around her and rub soothing circles on her back, keeping us in an embrace.
She peers up at me and studies me before she sighs a breath, but in a relaxing manner, not an annoyed way. April must pick up that I need a minute. I guess I’m having a delayed reaction to the fact that my little girl is having milestones.
“I… was wrong.” She pops her lips.
“About what?”
“You are a great dad.”
Looking down at her, I appreciate her words and the fact she genuinely means it.
“That’s not what you said a week ago,” I remind her.
“I was wrong.”
My eyes grow wide. “Say that again.”
“I… was wrong,” she declares again.
I didn’t realize that I needed this confidence boost, but it feels good. Sometimes, I feel like people around me are just waiting for me to fail. None of this was planned, after all.
The corner of my lip tugs, because I want to smile but don’t want to appear that my ego is getting a boost.
Ah, what the hell.
“I think this tooth fairy deserves a reward,” I mention.
April giggles as she adjusts her body and sits on top of me, wiggling her hips and creating friction against my cock before she slips down my body. She playfully brushes her lips along the waist of my jeans, tugging the button free, and her tongue hits the corner of her mouth in the process.
She peeks down into my boxer briefs before pulling them lower. The moment her lips wrap around my tip, my eyes instantly close from the feeling of her tongue gliding along my length.
I groan from the sensation. “You should go on every bad list of every fictitious character there is.”
April pulls off for one second with swollen lips, her breathing labored. “I bet Santa has a whip.” Then she’s back on me.
I cradle her head between my hands, gently guiding her and holding her when she decides to take me deep.
Her eagerness only ups the ante, but it’s watching her that is the true bonus of this moment.
“Right there,” I breathe out as she finds the perfect movement.
This is going to be short-lived if I don’t do something, but I want to be selfish. I’m allowed to be, I remind myself. Especially when I know I’ll make it up to her another time.
And fuck me, because I’m already anticipating another time. I don’t think this is how we planned this whole situation to go.
She moans, and any logic exits my brain because she brings me back to the moment where there isn’t a care in the world, just us having fun.
“April,” I warn. “Be a good girl.”
She understands and wraps her lips tighter around me. I swear I see colors in the air when I unload into her mouth, stroking her head as she works harder, and her eyes seek approval because that’s who April is, a pleaser.
“You like that? Hmm? Taking every last drop?” I grit out as my climax overpowers me, especially when I feel her swallow.
With purpose, she slowly licks up my length until she circles my tip for good measure, creating space with a satisfied look. She walks her long fingers up my torso as I lie there, completely relaxed.
“There is no other way to do it,” she rasps.
“You could leave me hanging.”
She waves her finger in front of my face. “Ah-ah, I wouldn’t dream of that since I have every intention of being repaid.”
April begins to shift her way up my body with her knees on either side of me, straddling me.
“Why, whatever can I do to such a wicked girl?” I play along.
“You tell me. You are the one with magical powers tonight.”
I feel my energy kickstart again, or it’s the fact that I can feel she is ready for me where her pussy rests against my ribs.
A smirk possesses my lips. “Sit on my face, let me taste how much you’re turned on from fucking me with your mouth.”
She blushes but willingly moves until my head is trapped between her thighs, her pussy within a breath’s distance, and I smell her sweet honey arousal. She glances down at me, maybe unsure or maybe to taunt me.
I kiss her inner thigh, tugging aside her skimpy sleep shorts to expose her core.
“Don’t set yourself up for failure, sailor,” she taunts, a phrase she said to me once on that very first night.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I promise. “Bite into your arm if you need to, we can’t have you noisy, and I intend to eat you like a meal before my dick is buried deep inside of you.”
Her eyes enlarge slightly and look impressed. “Don’t go too crazy, I need to walk back to my room after this.”
Her wet sweetness hits my lips before I can protest. Something inside me wants to say that she can stay the night and sneak out early.
Then again, fun is all we’re doing. No?