Dream Like Nothing's Impossible Page 6

  A few moments later, April came out. She stopped dead when she saw him. “Oh. Hi,” there she went squeaking again.

  “Hey.” Even with her apron on and her hair caught up under that silly hat, she was still gorgeous. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Being her friend would mean that he still got to see her a lot, even if he wouldn’t be able to do all the things he really wanted to do with her. He shoved his hands in his pockets and approached the counter, hoping she wouldn’t notice the effect she was having on him.

  “Are you hoping to get some breakfast dessert?” she asked with a smile.

  He nodded. He couldn’t say what he was really hoping to get—her! That was never going to happen. He smiled. “Yeah, after we talked about it the other day, I decided I should start coming to you instead of going to the grocery store,”

  She looked pleased. At least that was something. “Oh, good! I told you I’d be able to put a smile on your face.”

  If only she knew!

  “Do you trust me? Can I make you up a selection of what I think you’ll like?”

  “That’d be great,” he said. Even though she wasn’t doing too well at knowing what he’d like so far. She didn’t get how much he liked her. Maybe she’d do better with the pastries. “Thanks.”

  He watched her fill a box with a selection of doughnuts, brownies, and Danish. She looked up at him with a smile. “Do you see anything else you want?”

  He had to bite his tongue. Of course, he did, but she wasn’t interested! “I’ll take whatever you want to give me.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him—did she understand what he meant? No, she couldn’t. He heard a stifled giggle and turned to see Renée coming in from the back. Had she been there listening? The way she was grinning at him, it felt uncomfortably like she had.

  “What brings you in here?” she asked. “I don’t think you’ve ever graced us with your presence before, have you?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. It seemed she was onto him, and she was out to embarrass him. Damn! He shrugged. “I thought you’d be happy to gain a new customer now that you’re taking over the place. And April was trying to convert me away from store-bought goodies and onto the good stuff.”

  She patted April on the back. “She’s awesome, isn’t she?”

  He nodded. She really was.

  “And she works so hard; I think she deserves a break.”

  April turned to look at her. “I just had a break this weekend. We both did, with the bakery being closed for the last of the remodeling.”

  “Yes, but I mean a break right now. You should go and get some lunch.” Renée grinned at Eddie. “The pair of you.”

  Eddie grinned back at her then looked at April, hoping she might like the idea as much as she did. His heart sank when he saw her shooting a dirty look at Renée. That must only mean that she was pissed at her friend for landing her with having to have lunch with him. He wasn’t proud of it, but he was going to make the most of the opportunity anyway. If she didn’t want to, she could back out. She was a big girl; she could say no.

  She turned back to him with a smile that looked genuine enough. “Do you want to?”

  He nodded vigorously. “I’d love to.”

  “Okay, then. Just let me grab my purse.”

  “You’re welcome,” said Renée with a smile once April had gone.

  Eddie raised an eyebrow. “I thank you, but I don’t think April will.”

  Renée laughed. “Oh my God, you two are both as bad as each other!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t think she’s absolutely thrilled at the chance to spend some more time with you?”

  He shook his head. He didn’t.

  Renée laughed again. “Then you’re both either blind or stupid!”

  “What…” He didn’t get chance to finish the question as April came back out with her purse in her hand and the silly hat gone from her head.

  “Shall we?”

  He nodded and held the door open for her. As she walked through, he turned back to give Renée a questioning look. What had she meant?

  She shook her head at him with a rueful smile. “You’ll figure it out.”

  “Sorry about that,” said April when he caught up to her on the street. “Renée tries to make sure I get a break; you don’t need to be landed with me. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do.”

  He shook his head. He wasn’t sure why Renée had engineered him this opportunity, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let it slip through his fingers. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. Do you want to eat at the Boathouse, or would you rather go to Giuseppe’s?”

  “Ooh, can we go to Giuseppe’s? I love their pizza, and so does Marcus. I’ll take some home for him.”

  “Your wish is my command.” As he said that, he wondered about what Ben had said the other day about finding out what her wishes were. He slipped his arm through hers and turned her around to head to Giuseppe’s.

  She looked up at him in surprise and for a moment he thought she was about to pull away from him. To his relief, she didn’t.

  Her face relaxed into a smile. “Why, thank you, my friend.”

  As if he needed it ramming home any harder that he’d been friend-zoned from the get-go!

  He was glad that Giuseppe’s was quiet. They were the only people sitting in the courtyard out back.

  April looked around. “I’ve never eaten here before.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you liked their pizza?”

  “I do. I love it, but Marcus and I order it for takeout as a special treat.”

  “Ah.” It made him wonder how things were for her financially if pizza was a special treat. To him, it was a quick and easy fallback option when he hadn’t made it to the grocery store. “How is the little dude?”

  She nodded. “I think he was sleepwalking when I left him at the Morgans’ this morning.”

  He hadn’t thought about that. “What time do you start work?”

  She made a face. “Four or five o’clock; Renée and I take turns to open up.”

  “Damn!”

  She nodded. “Yep. It’s bad enough for me, but poor Marcus.”

  “Aww, that must suck.” He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth; she looked so sad.

  “I know, but what can I do? It was so good of Ben to give me the job, and now Renée’s keeping me on.” She brightened a little. “She was talking this morning about maybe hiring someone on to do the morning shift, so keep your fingers crossed for us?”

  He crossed his eyes at her. “Fingers, toes, eyes, I’ll keep everything crossed for you on that one.” He loved the way she laughed. She seemed so much younger when she did. He wished he could make her laugh all the time, take all her worries away… And where the hell had that thought come from? He blew out a sigh before he realized he was doing it.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Something wrong?”

  “No, I just think too much.”

  “What were you thinking?”

  He could hardly tell her! He shrugged. “Thinking about Marcus having to get up in the morning like that made me remember what my own life was like as a kid. It wasn’t much fun.” Shit! “I don’t mean that life isn’t fun for Marcus. You do great by him.”

  She shook her head. “It’s okay. I know what you mean. He’s doing better since we came here. And honestly, I know that he’d much rather get up at four o’clock every morning than have to go back to our old life.”

  Eddie nodded. He wanted to ask her about their old life. About her ex. How must he have treated Marcus that the kid had reacted the way he did over the fishing pole. He didn’t want to push her for more than she wanted to share.

  It was her turn to sigh. It seemed as though she did want to share. Maybe she just needed to talk about it, and she didn’t have anyone else to talk to. “I wish I’d been stronger. I wish I’d been able to stand on my own two feet and tell Guy wher
e to go. I wish I’d been strong enough to make him leave Marcus alone, and to leave me alone. I wish I’d even had the strength to just run away.”

  “But you did, didn’t you?”

  “Not all by myself, no. It took other people to help me get away from him.”

  “At least you had friends to help you.”

  She shook her head sadly. “They weren’t even really my friends. I knew them years ago when we were all kids. One of them was a guy I dated for a little while in high school, Mason. Guy always hated him, and when he got back together with his girlfriend after ten years apart, Guy tried to break them up.” She stopped and stared away into the distance.

  Eddie wondered if she was going to tell him any more. He waited patiently.

  Eventually, she turned back to him. “Guy told Gina, the girlfriend, that Marcus was Mason’s son.”

  Eddie stared at her. That didn’t even make sense. “Why?”

  “Because he wanted to break them up. Gina knew that I’d dated Mason before she did and apparently she thought he’d broken up with her to get back with me. They hadn’t seen each other for ten years, and Guy wanted to make her believe that Mason was a horrible man who’d fathered my child and let another man raise him.”

  Eddie didn’t know what to say. This Guy sounded like one sick, twisted bastard. “So he claimed that Marcus wasn’t his own son, just in an attempt to mess with other people?”

  She nodded, sadly. “And he tried to make me help him.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I’m not proud of this, but he made me tell Gina that she should believe him, that Marcus was really Mason’s.”

  Eddie shook his head. He couldn’t process that. “Why would you ever do that?”

  A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. “Like I said, I’m not proud of it, but I had no choice. He said he was going to take Marcus away from me if I didn’t. He was going to keep Marcus and get rid of me. I would have done anything to make sure Marcus didn’t end up living with him.”

  Eddie nodded. He could see that. “So, what happened?”

  “Gina didn’t believe me. She and Mason are both strong; she made me tell her the truth about why I would say such a thing. And when I did, they helped me. You know Chance, Missy’s brother?”

  Eddie nodded. He knew that Chance had brought her here, but he didn’t understand how he fit into the whole story.

  “Well, he’s Mason’s best friend—more like a brother, really. When he found out what was going on, he got in touch with Missy to see if she could help find me a job and somewhere to live. He and Mason picked up Marcus and me from the house one night when Guy went out, and then he drove me all the way down here. Ben gave me the job at the bakery and one of the cabins till I found a place to rent.” She shrugged. “And here we are. So you see, if it were left up to me by myself, Marcus and I would still be living that horrible life, under Guy’s roof, under his thumb.”

  He didn’t like that she kept putting herself down. “It took balls for you to do what you did.”

  She shook her head. “Chance and Mason and Gina did it all for me.”

  “No. They helped you, but you had to be strong enough to accept their help. I’ll bet you were scared to death, and I’ll bet it would have been easier to just stay there than to take the risk and break free. You did that, don’t put yourself down.” He couldn’t help it. He reached across the table and took hold of her hand. “We all need help sometimes.”

  She nodded. Her eyes were filled with tears. “Thank you.”

  The server came out with their food and broke the moment. April pulled her hand away from his so she could dab at her eyes. He hated that she’d had such a rough time. He wanted to make life better for her, and for Marcus. And he wanted her to see how far she’d come, how strong she really was.

  Chapter Seven

  April was waiting at the front door when Marcus got off the school bus. She smiled when she saw him wave at his friends as it pulled away. At least five little hands waved back at him. She was so happy that he loved school here. He’d settled in so well, and so quickly. She’d been starting to believe that he was doing okay. Until the way he’d reacted to losing Eddie’s fishing pole in the water. That had made very clear just how affected he still was by the way his father had treated him.

  “Hey, Mom.” He smiled back at her as he opened the front gate and trotted up the path.

  “Hi.” She wrapped him in a hug and ruffled his hair. “How was your day?”

  “It was good. How was yours? Can I have a snack? I’m starving.”

  “You can. In fact, I’ve got a special snack waiting for you. Go take a peek in the fridge.”

  He hung his backpack on the end of the banister and looked up at her. “Doughnuts again?” He didn’t look too thrilled.

  She laughed. “Not this time, no. Go see.” She followed him through to the kitchen.

  “Pizza? Yum!” he cried as he pulled the box out and set it on the table.

  She reached a plate down from the cupboard. “Yeah, I went out for lunch today, and I saved you some of mine.”

  “Who did you go with?”

  “Eddie.”

  Marcus smiled. “I like Eddie.”

  She smiled to herself as she popped the pizza in the toaster oven. “I do, too.”

  “And he likes you.”

  She whirled around to look at him. He was grinning at her. “Why do you think that?”

  He shrugged. “I dunno. You can just tell.”

  April shook her head. She couldn’t just tell. But Renée had told her that Eddie liked her, and now Marcus was saying the same thing. Could it be true? No, she just wished it could!

  Marcus was watching her.

  “What?”

  “You like him, like him, don’t you?”

  “Don’t be silly; he’s just a friend. Most people around here have a girlfriend or a boyfriend they hang out with. I don’t, and Eddie doesn’t, so we’re just hanging out as friends.”

  Marcus shook his head adamantly. “Nope. You like him, and he likes you. Soon you’ll be boyfriend and girlfriend, and I can’t wait.”

  That made her suck in a deep breath. She didn’t want him going hoping for things that weren’t going to happen. She didn’t want him setting himself up for disappointment. “Listen, I know you like the idea, but I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  Marcus sat down in the chair opposite her. He reached over and patted her hand. “You know what Eddie told me the other day?”

  April’s heart hammered as she shook her head. She wondered what Eddie might have told him.

  “He said I shouldn’t just believe that grown-ups are always right, and I’m always wrong.” He smiled. “That helped me a lot. He was talking about when grown-ups are being mean, like Dad. But it’s true when grown-ups are being dumb, too.” He smiled. “And I think you’re being dumb. Eddie likes you, and you like him.”

  April stared at him. She didn’t know what to say. Uncertainty spread across his little face. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”

  “No!” She shook her head rapidly. “It’s good that you’ve learned that, and I’m happy that Eddie helped you. I’m just a bit surprised that you think I’m dumb.”

  “I didn’t say you are dumb, just that you’re being dumb about Eddie.” He smiled kindly. “But then girls can be pretty dumb about being girlfriends and boyfriends. You can’t help it.”

  She had to smile at that. “And what do you know about girlfriends and boyfriends?”

  He dropped his gaze, and she could see a touch of color in his cheeks. “Taylor says she’s my girlfriend now.”

  “And do you like her?”

  He nodded without meeting her gaze.

  “Well, good for you. You can invite her over if you want.”

  “”Maybe.” He looked up at her with a sly smile. “You mean like Eddie invited you over?”

  She laughed and got up to get the pizza. “Maybe.”

  ~ ~ ~

&nbs
p; Eddie pulled up a seat at the bar and smiled at Kenzie.

  “Hey, you! What can I get you?”

  “I’ll take a beer.”

  She went to get it from the fridge and set it in front of him with a smile. “So, what have you been up to? Anything you want to tell me about?”

  He shook his head. “I think I’ll just wait for you to tell me what I’ve been up to. It seems that’s what everyone wants to do these days.”

  Kenzie laughed. “Aw, diddums. He’s trying to sneak around with April, and he doesn’t want anyone to know about it.”

  “I’m not sneaking around with her at all. We’ve been hanging out. That’s all.”

  “That’s all?”

  He nodded.

  “Why, what are you waiting for?”

  He laughed. “Hell to freeze over. I think that’ll happen before she’s interested in me as anything more than a friend.”

  “Bullshit! She likes you.”

  “You know, Kenz, I’m getting tired of having this conversation with everyone I run into. Can we leave it?”

  “Sure, sugar. You leave it alone if you want to. You get there in your own time, but believe me, you’ll get there.”

  “Yeah, so anyway. Where’s Chase?”

  “He’ll be here in a minute; we had Ethan over after school, and they weren’t finished with their chess match by the time I had to come to work.”

  Eddie laughed. “Chase plays chess with Ethan?”

  Kenzie nodded, there was so much pride in her smile. “Yep. Ethan taught him how and still beats him every time, but he loves it. It was a trade for Chase teaching him how to play guitar. He’s getting pretty good at that now, too.”

  “How long did it take Chase to teach him?”

  She shrugged. “He had the basics down in a couple of weeks, and he practices all the time. Why?”

  Eddie closed his eyes. He’d asked Kenzie to leave the subject alone, and here he was going back there. “Because I’m going to be teaching Marcus.”

  Kenzie gave him a knowing smile. “Well, good for you. Marcus is a little sweetie.”