Free Blocked by Lisa N. Paul Page B

veins. How could someone who seemed so gentle be so callous? Even worse, how could he have misjudged her so completely? For over a month, he’d watched her, taken notice of the way she handled herself at the gym. While she didn’t talk to people her own age, she offered kind smiles and soft words to the elderly men and women who approached her. She even went as far as to admit her interest in him.
    “Wow, okay.” He tried to keep the disappointment from his voice, but hiding the anger proved to be too damned difficult. “I didn’t realize that men who had children were such a travesty, April—”
    “Are you kidding me?” she interrupted, her laughter sounded forced and laced with pain. “I don’t have a problem with kids! I have a problem with men who sneak around with women other than their wives. I have a problem with married men acting like they’re single while their spouses are busy loving them exclusively with nothing less than their whole heart. That’s where my problem lies.”
    Each of her words was an iron brander, and blue fire blistered his skin and seared his soul. They had him knifing up on the sofa and slamming his feet firmly on the hardwood floor. She thought he was an adulterer, a lying bastard. That alone would have sliced him in half had her agony not been evident in the shallow breaths he heard coming through the line. Were those quiet sounds sobs? She was divorced. Had her husband cheated? Left her for someone else? His anger defused faster than air leaving an unknotted balloon. “Oh my God, April, I’m not married. I would never, ever do that to any woman, especially not one that I pledged to honor.”
    Silence once again screamed through the phone until he heard another shuddered breath.
    “April, hear me out, okay?”
    “Go on,” she whispered.
    “My wife, my daughter Charlie’s mom, died more than five years ago.” When he heard April’s gasp, he knew the whole truth needed to come out before any more assumptions were made. “I would have never cheated on her, April, but I can also tell you that she and I wouldn’t have stayed married. I’m sorry that she’s gone, because no one should lose their life that young, and now Charlie doesn’t have her mother, which breaks my heart. Does that make sense to you?”
     
    * * *
     
    SENSE? MY GOD, the last thing any of this made was sense. April’s mind was a Tilt-A-Whirl, and her stomach was feeling the effects. Of course it was possible for the man to have a child and not be married—Jesus, hello, pot, meet kettle. She wanted to kick herself for being such a closed-minded little brat. Not every man was a low-life scum. Not every man was Ben. When he finished his explanation with the fact that his wife was deceased, April wanted to search for the nearest volcano and plunge headfirst into the darkened pit.
    “Decker.” She sighed as she held the phone between her shoulder and ear and hugged herself tight. “I am so unbelievably sorry.”
    “You don’t need to apologize, April.” While his words rang true, his tone sounded defeated and exhausted.
    She felt like such an asshole, treating a perfectly nice man like shit based solely on the mistakes of her ex. But Ben’s betrayal cut deep, and even though years had passed, her wounds still ached. Sometimes they still bled.
    Sitting back on the king-sized mattress, April pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her fluffy golden throw blanket over her chilled body. Decker had opened up to her. Now it was time to do a little sharing of her own.
    “I do need to apologize, Decker. In fact, I owe you huge.” He tried to interrupt again, but April hushed him. “It’s my turn to talk, big guy, so simmer down.” His deep chuckle made what felt like a tight fist around her lungs loosen just a bit, at least enough to allow some oxygen to flow and words to release. “So… I also have a child, a little boy named Elijah. And he is everything to me.”
    Unlike the ridiculous