April Cooper rifled through the mountain of notes
on her disorganized desk. Her boss had given her four novels to read and review
before the following Monday, the Open Authors Orientation Day at Highland
Books. HB Inc. was a multibillion dollar publishing company set in the business
district of Seattle, not too far from April’s apartment at Bridgeport.

It was six o’ clock in the evening and she was
only now making a dent.

Her boss, Ted, had laughed when he found her bent
over her computer with her nose an inch from the screen. She looked up and
returned his smile, stretching out her aching fingers.

April still hadn’t had the opportunity to tell
Ted about the job offer she had received from Lex. She wasn’t sure she should.
She didn’t even know if she could take the job anymore, not until she knew what
Lex was up to. She shook her head and saved another reviewed manuscript.

Working on the movie would create an awkward
situation. Even though Lex had no idea she had overheard about his secret
meeting with Violet, she was a terrible liar, and he was very intuitive. He
would figure out something was wrong within the first ten minutes of seeing
her.

She could still hear his disappointment the last
time she had given him an excuse;

“Are you sure you can’t come tomorrow?”

“I’m sorry. I have to work.”

“It’s Sunday, April.”

“I know…I have to do extra work to prepare for
Monday.”

“What about after work?”

“I work late.”

He had sighed into the phone and she had felt
guilty. It had become a pattern.

Commotion made her look up. Ted emerged from his
office and looked at her. His smile was cheerful.

“How are those manuscripts coming along? Almost
done?”

April nodded. “Almost. I’m about half way through
the last one. I was going to finish it tomorrow but I can take it home if you’d
prefer.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. You’ve got time.” Ted
headed for the elevator. He carried his briefcase and jacket, going home for
the night.

Once he was out of sight, April felt the fatigue
hit her. She put her head in her hands. She couldn’t find the strength to
finish organizing the last manuscript. She slipped her feet out of the heeled
pumps she had paired with her grey dress pants that morning. The relief was
immediate and she let her eyes slip shut for just a moment.

A vacuum woke her. She yawned and looked at the
time.
Shit
, she thought. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

Slipping her shoes on, she gathered her handbag
and jacket.

She pressed the button for the elevator. The
doors opened with a ping. She pushed the parking garage button and watched the
doors slide together, agonizingly slowly. She just wanted to get home.

April shut her eyes as the doors locked in place
and she was enclosed in silence, the sound of the vacuum getting fainter as she
travelled to the underground parking.

The doors opened and she made her way across the
paved floor of the parking garage, nearly losing her footing several times,
shuffling her feet. She slid into her car and started it, turning the key.

April’s journey home seemed to last forever. She
locked the door when she was inside her apartment.

As she slid onto the couch, her head began to pound
from staring at the computer all day. She didn’t understand how some people
could do it day after day, for their entire life.

Her cell phone buzzed in her hand. In her
exhaustion, she didn’t even check the number before answering it.

“Hello?”

“April, thank God.”

Lex. Much to her surprise, she felt relieved to
hear Lex’s voice. The only thing she wanted in that moment was to curl up in
his arms. She wanted to smell his cologne and feel his warmth. Any reservations
she had about him evaporated and she felt an unexpected wave of comfort wash
over her.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Baby, how are you? Can I…can I see you?”

April’s eyes filled with tears and she didn’t
know why.

“April?”

“Yes, you can see me. When?”

“Whenever. Everything okay?”

Closing her eyes, she said, “Can you come now?”

Lex paused, the silence throbbing down the phone.
He spoke to someone in the background. The sound was muffled. “I’m on my way.”

April hung up the phone and went to the bedroom
to change out of her work clothes. As she pulled on jeans and an over-sized
t-shirt, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were dark and her cheeks
were sunken. She had lost even more weight. There was nothing to her anymore.
She was as white as a ghost.

The buzzer on the wall rang. She jumped up and
pressed the intercom.

“Ms. Cooper. A man is here to see you.”

“Let him up. Thank you.”

April ran to the hall mirror and ran her fingers
through her hair roughly. She pulled out the few tangled knots and pinched her
cheeks. She put a smile on her face and opened the door when Lex knocked.

He was dressed in black Wrangler jeans and a red
V-neck t-shirt. His collarbone showed in the triangle of exposed skin. Her
stomach was clenched tighter than she had thought possible and she flung
herself on Lex.

“April?”

She clasped her lips to his and kissed him with
everything she had.

“I need you. I need this. Please.”

Lex swung her into his arms in one motion and
carried her to the bedroom. Their mouths never left the others as they rolled
together, creating their own faultless version of perfection, their slice of
heaven.

“You still haven’t told Ted about the job?”

April shook her head, licking her fingers. Her
entire body was covered in either pizza sauce or flour. It was always a
terrible idea for April to be in the kitchen, yet she hadn’t even hesitated
when Lex had suggested they make pizza.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Lex asked.

She shrugged. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“You tell him you’ve been offered another job.
It’s better to hear it from you than read it in a magazine. Actually, I’m
surprised he didn’t see it in the newspaper.”

“See what?” April turned back around.

Lex nodded. “When the paparazzi saw us at the
hotel after the festival.” She nodded. “They wrote about it. I described you as
a potential co-worker. Did you expect them to just pass up that bit of dirt
about what critics are calling The Movie Event of the Year?”

April laughed and turned back to her dough. Lex’s
pizza was on top of the oven waiting to be cooked; now it was her turn.

“I guess not,” she said. “I’d actually forgotten
about that.”

“Here,” he said, guiding her hands on the dough.
“Like this. If you press too hard, you’ll squeeze all the air out.”

“That’s bad,” April said.

He nodded. “Those little pockets of air are good.
That’s how you know you’ve done your job right.”

“Like this?”

“Perfect.”

Lex’s lips found the hollow at the base of
April’s throat. As he grazed his mouth along her shoulder and across her back
to the other side, she shuddered.

“I can’t concentrate when you do that. I’ll lose
my air pockets!”

Lex chuckled and turned away, grabbing the pizza
sauce and placing it beside her. “Sauce next. Then toppings, then cheese and
then cook. Easy.”

“When did you learn how to make this?”

“When Cash and I moved out of our parents’ house,
he went off to work but I wasn’t old enough. The only thing I could do was
learn to cook. It sure beat eating Mr. Noodles and Kraft Dinner every day of
the week, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!”

April laughed. “How old were you when you moved
out?”

“Twelve. Cash was sixteen.”

“Why so young? That’s not even legal.”

Lex shrugged and turned the oven on. “Our home
life wasn’t very good. My folks weren’t exactly…stable. As soon as Cash was
able, he moved out, and took me with him. I still owe him for that. I can’t
imagine where I’d be now if he’d left me there. He bought me my first guitar,
you know. It was a piece of shit. Didn’t stay in tune overnight. But I still
have it.” A ghost of a smile hinted at his lips. “He worked three jobs just to
put food on the table. Not many places paid a 16 year old enough for rent.
No-one expects them to need it.”

“How did you get into music then?” April
sprinkled cheese on her pizza and slid it onto the rack with Lex’s.

“Cash took me to the radio station. Well,” Lex
laughed. “Dragged is more like it.”

“You didn’t wanna go?”

He shook his head. “I was so shy. Cash was the
only person I’d ever sing in front of. Then the guy at the station, and then
the whole world. I still had the worst stage fright.”

“How’d you get over it?”

“I’m not sure, actually. It sort of just happened
out of the blue. One day I was terrified, and the next I felt like I was at
home. It was the most comfortable I’d ever felt since I was a child.”

The oven beeped; it was up to temperature. Lex
slid the pizzas in.

“You still get that feeling?” April asked.

He nodded. “But like I told you, lately it’s been
different, like something is missing. I don’t know why.”

April wrapped her arms around his waist and
hugged him tight. “You’ll figure it out.”

Lex kissed her forehead. “I have to admit, it feels
a lot better when I have you right
here
.” He squeezed her, stealing the
breath from her lungs.

April relaxed into his arms and sighed. “I
agree.”

As she nibbled on pizza later she had to admit
that Lex actually knew what he was doing in the kitchen. It was just another
great thing about him. She steeled herself and breathed deeply, then asked him
the question that had been on her mind for weeks.

“Is there anything going on with you and Violet?”

Lex was surprised. “Where did that come from?”

“Just answer the question.”

He frowned. “No, there isn’t.”

“Was there ever anything going on?”

He nodded, chewing absentmindedly. “At one time,
I thought we could be together. But that was before I met you.” He took her
hand.

April nodded. She could see the sincerity in his
eyes. Why had she waited so long to ask him? She had wasted precious time.

“What made you think about that?”

Oh right. That’s why.

April’s cheeks flamed. “I heard you speaking to
her on the phone the last time we saw each other. You were talking about going
to see her, and I thought…”

“That was for business. I know it bothers you,
but she’s still my coworker. I can’t just cut her out of my life.”

“I know that! I was just…I was overreacting I
guess.”

Lex scooted his chair close to her. He took her
hand off her lap and kissed it. Holding it, he said, “You are my angel. She is
my job. I love
you
. But I
need
both of you.”

April nodded. “I understand.”

He raised one eyebrow.

“I’m trying to understand.”

He chuckled and returned to his place opposite
her. “Now eat. All of it.”

April chewed on a piece of crust and watched him
intently. She could do this. Why hadn’t she asked him before what the meeting
had been about? She could have saved herself a lot of heartache. She’d been
worried he’d get upset about her prying. Her heart swelled. She loved this man.
She wanted to spend her life with him. But there was one thing that had to
happen first.

“I’m gonna take the job,” April said.

Lex grinned. “Really?”

“I’ll tell Ted tomorrow.”

He stood and picked April up off her chair.
Swinging around in his arms, she laughed out loud. She rarely got to see this
giddy side of Lex and she was glad she had been able to bring it out. He
laughed with her and squeezed her tightly.

“Ooh, I’m so happy! It’s going to be so great!”

April couldn’t keep the smile off her face and
she hugged the man she loved.

BOOK: Ties that Bind (Sunshine & Shadow Book 3)

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