Zero expectations, p.3
Zero Expectations, page 3
Zach nodded. “It’s my job to look out for her because she’s my baby sister.”
Haven’s eyes twinkled with pure appreciation for the five-year-old mind. “Well, I bet you do a great job of looking out for her.”
“What’s your puppies’ names?” Zoey asked, and I could tell that she was just itching to hug one to death.
“Well, I don’t have names for them yet,” Haven told her. “I just got them today.”
“Can we pet them?” Zach asked.
Haven looked up at me. “Can they? They have their shots and everything,” she said as she stood up to talk to me. “We just got back from the vet a couple of hours ago, in fact.”
I said the first thing that came to my mind. “How in the hell don’t they have names?”
Chapter 4
Haven~
I’d laugh if the man didn’t look like he was going to have a heart attack at the very notion that my dogs didn’t have names yet.
“Daddy, that’s a bad word,” Zoey scolded.
“Yeah, your children are present,” Zach added, and it really was hard not to laugh. If I had to guess, I’d say that Zach was probably repeating something that their mother or grandparents might say.
“Sorry,” Roman muttered, and it was absolutely enthralling to see a grown man reprimanded by his small children.
Zach looked up at me. “But he’s not wrong. Why don’t they have names?”
Tearing my gaze away from the grumpy and sexy man in front of me, I looked back at Zach. “I just haven’t found names that click,” I explained. “I don’t want to saddle them with the wrong names.” I made a face. “It would suck to have the wrong name, don’t you think?”
“That would suck,” he agreed. “I like my name.”
“I like my name, too,” Zoey chimed in before I could say anything.
“Good thing,” Roman muttered under his breath, and I really, really, really wanted to laugh.
“Can we pet them, Daddy?” Zoey asked again.
“Yes,” he said, finally giving them permission. “But be careful. They just got their shots, and they might not be feeling so hot.”
“Shots suck,” Zach remarked before dropping down to play with the dogs.
“They really do,” Zoey quickly agreed before joining him on the grass.
I looked back up at their father, and if I were a stronger woman, my ovaries wouldn’t be taking note of how hot my neighbor was. Granted, I’d seen him before, coming and going, living his life, but I’d never seen him this close up, and the man was definitely swoon-worthy.
Roman had to be about six-foot-two, and he had dark brown hair with light brown eyes. His eyes were light enough that they reminded me of amber, and those lashes that he was sporting made them pop out in that bedroom gaze kind of way. He kind of reminded me of Rudi Dollmayer, though his hair was darker and his face looked a bit more serious.
As for his body, it was easy to tell that he worked out, though he probably didn’t. In the two years since I’d moved to my house, I’d noticed that he had two vehicles, a sporty SUV and a work truck with the words ‘Scott’s Redesigning’ on the sides. It was obvious to see that he was a landscaper of sorts with the little woodland pictures on his logo. So, it was also rather obvious that his work was probably what kept him in shape, and what a shape it was. He was tall, had a broad chest, muscular arms, a flat stomach that probably boasted of some pretty hot abs, and though I couldn’t see his legs underneath his jeans, I bet the man had no problem holding a woman up against the wall.
Swoon.
Nevertheless, men weren’t on my radar right now. Sure, I had needs just like any red-blooded woman, but men on a whole sucked, and I needed a serious break from their bullshit. Men claimed that women were complicated, but we really weren’t. All a man had to do was hold down a job, pay their fair share, act respectably enough, not cheat, and remember a goddamn birthday, for Christ’s sakes. I mean, was that really so damn hard to do?
At any rate, as hot as Roman Scott may be, he wasn’t here for me to ogle him. Though he didn’t have a wedding ring on, that didn’t mean much. A lot of men that worked with their hands didn’t wear wedding rings. There’d been lots of times when my father would leave his off while at work. It all depended on what he’d had going on that day. Plus, they were also a safety concern. They could easily get snagged on something, ripping off your entire finger in the process. Besides, his kids were a dead giveaway that this guy was taken. Hell, even without the kids, I couldn’t see this man being single. Women probably fainted like fourteenth-century virgins every time that he walked near them.
“Your kids seem really sweet,” I said, trying to make small talk, though it was obvious that he wasn’t happy about meeting my dogs.
“Are they both boy dogs?” Zach asked.
“Yes, they are,” I answered.
“Nicodemus and Justin,” Zoey called out, causing both her father and I to look down at her excited face.
“What?” I asked, wondering who in the hell Nicodemus and Justin were.
“Their names,” Zach added, but his tone sounded like he was judging me for not knowing who these two guys were.
“Who are Nicodemus and Justin?” I asked, knowing that I was going to lose some serious cool points right now.
“It’s from their favorite movie,” Roman explained.
“Oh, yeah?”
“The Secret of NIMH,” Zach went on. “It’s about these rats that got smart because some mean people did experiments on them.”
“Nicodemus is their leader, and Justin is his best friend,” Zoey continued to explain.
“They have to help Mrs. Brigsby move her house because it’ll get run over if they don’t,” Zach said, taking over.
“They owe her a favor because of her husband, so they help her,” Zoey finished.
“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say because I’d never seen the movie, and I was still stuck on the fact that they were rats.
Roman looked over at me. “It’s a very old movie that my parents introduced them to, and now it’s their favorite movie of all time.”
I looked back down at the kids. “I’ll have to check it out.”
“You can call them Nic and Tin for short,” Zach suggested. “But when they’re in trouble, you have to call them Nicodemus and Justin, so that they’ll know they’re in trouble.”
“I call him Zachariah when he’s in trouble,” Roman explained.
“And Zoey?” I asked, curious.
“I call her Zoe,” he answered.
“So, what do you think?” Zoey asked. “Do you like their new names?”
I rolled my lips inward, doing my best not to laugh at how these kids had just named my dogs. It was sweet, cute, endearing, and it also reminded me that the world wasn’t all completely crap.
“I think those names are perfect,” I semi-lied, not daring to hurt their feelings. While Nicodemus and Justin hadn’t been nowhere on my list of names, how could I say no? Two innocent children were naming my dogs after something that was special and important to them, and I’d have to be the biggest asshole on the planet to ruin that.
“You do?” Roman asked, throwing me a look of disbelief.
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “I like the idea of them having full names that I can scold them with.”
“You know, you don’t have to do that,” he said. “My children will live if you name your dogs something else.”
“I’m sure that they will,” I agreed cheekily. “Still, Nic and Tin are cute, simple, and fun.”
Roman just stared at me a bit before turning his attention back towards his kids. “Okay, I think it’s time for us to go,” he said, ruining their good time.
“But-”
“Now, Zoey,” Roman said sternly, cutting off all hope of negotiations.
Both children stood up, though Zach was still petting the dog’s head. Honestly, I didn’t blame the kid. Pets were the greatest thing ever. They loved you unconditionally, and while they might crap on your rug or knock a vase over, it was better than picking up a man’s dirty underwear because he had no clue how to use a hamper.
Ignoring the anti-fun father, I looked down at the kids. “Well, thank you so much for visiting me and helping me name my puppies,” I told them. “I’m going to order their tags as soon as we get inside.”
“You’re welcome,” they said in unison, their manners shining through.
Looking back up at their father, I said, “It was nice meeting your children. They’re very sweet.”
Roman lifted a brow, clearly reading between the lines and noting how I hadn’t said that it was nice to meet him, too. “They can be at times,” he drawled out slowly.
Turning my attention back to the kids, I said, “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys around, huh?”
“Probably not,” Zach replied. “Daddy doesn’t like the neighbors.”
I started laughing, no longer able to keep it in. “Oh, okay.”
“I never said that, Zach,” Roman protested, but I just waved away his rudeness.
“Its fine,” I chuckled. “Have a good night.”
Instead of masking in the awkwardness, I took Nic and Tin inside, leaving them all still standing in my front yard.
Chapter 5
Roman~
I was three beers in and still feeling irritated as hell over the existence of women, Zoey, Phoebe, and my mother not included in that irritation.
After Haven had left me and the kids standing in her front yard, it had taken me a second to realize that she really hadn’t enjoyed meeting me and that was bothering me for some reason. I hadn’t been rude or…or rude, or…I couldn’t think of a single thing that I’d done to make our meeting unpleasant. I’d even given her an out with the whole naming of the dogs thing.
“Dude, you look like you’re mad at the world,” Alec snorted. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you have woman troubles.”
Lucius let out a deep chuckle. “That’s one thing that Roman definitely doesn’t have.”
It was Friday night, and true to this threat, Lucius had recruited Alec to come over and have a few beers. Though I was limited to what I could drink because the kids were home, I still wasn’t a light weight. As long as shots weren’t involved, I could put away a respectable number of beers before getting drunk. Though not an accomplishment worth calling my parents about, but still.
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. “I just don’t get it,” I grumbled like an entitled jackass.
“What’s that?” my brother asked.
We were sitting on the deck in the backyard as the kids played on their playset. Again, because I had a tendency to overcompensate for their shit of a mother, my backyard looked like the goddamn city park. While my property had always been expertly manicured, when the kids had gotten old enough, I had redesigned my backyard to accommodate their need to play and grow. In fact, my backyard was the perfect family setup. My entire home was, actually.
“Why women have to make shit so goddamn difficult,” I answered, causing both men to wince in their beer.
“Dude, that’s a question that’ll never be answered to anyone’s satisfaction,” Lucius stated. “Especially, when they consider us the problem.”
If it were anyone other than my brother and best friend, I’d sound like a woman hater. I’d sound like a misogynistic asshole. I’d sound like a douchebag that kiss and told everything. However, I wasn’t any of those things. I was a man still pissed off at his ex-mistake, no matter that it’s been five years or so.
When I’d met Naomi, it’d been at Perryman’s, a bar a few towns over. Lucius and I had been there to attend a college football game because I’d gotten some free tickets from the university for a job that I’d done for them. While I liked sports just as much as the next guy, I preferred pros to college, but the game had still been a good time.
After the game and the win, the bars had been packed and Perryman’s had been no different. We’d been drinking and having a good time when Naomi had approached the bar to get a drink. Tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and sporting a killer body that been put on glorious display that night, it hadn’t taken much to strike up a conversation with her.
We had ended up going to a motel that night, fucking until we had run out of condoms, and it’d been such an easy vibe that I’d had no problem exchanging numbers with her, even though we had lived a few towns away from each other. Naomi had seemed very chill and very fun-loving, and I’d fallen for her bullshit, hook, line, and sinker.
For about a month or so, we had hooked up randomly, depending on how our schedules had lined up. While I had no idea what Naomi did for a living nowadays, at the time, she’d been a hair stylist, her schedule depending on her clientele.
Naomi’s true nature hadn’t shown itself until she had tried to pin a ‘surprise’ pregnancy on me after only a few weeks of fucking around. While the whole world knew that condoms weren’t a guarantee, I’d always been vigilant with my safe sex practices. There’d never been a broken condom between us, so there was no way that she could have gotten pregnant by me.
No fucking way.
I’d also told her as much when she had ambushed me with the news. Of course, she’d gone off, accusing me of all kinds of nefarious bullshit, but I just hadn’t been able to wrap my mind around her being pregnant. I’d always been so goddamn careful because I had refused to be an unfortunate statistic.
There’d also been the fact that I had refused to do the ‘right thing’ by her. When I’d made it clear that I wasn’t going to marry a woman that I wasn’t in love with, that’s when things had gotten super ugly between us. Demanding a paternity test had just been the icing on the cake.
When Naomi had dropped the kids off with me, she had made it very clear that she had viewed it as my punishment for not being there for her, especially after ‘all that she’d done for me’. After pointing out that all she’d done for me was take my dick, there’d been no going back after that. She had abandoned her children in some warped bid to punish me, but the joke was on her. Zach and Zoey were the loves of my life, and Naomi had blessed me the day that she had dropped off the kids. Being their father was the farthest thing ever from being a punishment.
Luckily for me, Naomi hadn’t been a total rust stain on society. She’d done me the curtesy of leaving the twins’ birth certificates and medical information, something that I still thanked God for. That was how I knew that Zach had been born before Zoey. That’s also how I knew their blood types and all that important stuff.
“So, what’s the plan?” Alec asked. “Staying single forever?”
“Well, since the woman that I’m looking for doesn’t exist, I’m not sure what else to do?” I huffed.
“And what kind of woman is that?” Lucius asked, a know-it-all smirk on his face.
“One that doesn’t bitch,” I complained. “One that doesn’t hit me with all my failures as soon as I walk in the front door. One that doesn’t hand me a list of shit that needs to be done before she’ll spread her legs for me. One that doesn’t just offer up blowjobs and the ass on anniversaries or holidays. One that doesn’t know how to just let me be a man while I let her be a woman.”
Alec started laughing. “Dude, this is 2022. You better not let the masses hear you say shit like that. They’ll come looking for you with torches and pitchforks, talking like that.”
I shot him a look. “I’m not saying that women belong in the kitchen or anything stupid like that,” I corrected. “All I’m saying is that I’d like a partner that isn’t going to turn me into her own personal whipping boy or work horse. I want someone that’s not going to give me shit if I want to go have a beer after work, because I work hard all goddamn day.”
“C’mon, Roman,” Lucius chided. “Not all women are like that.”
“Hey, their personalities are a cliché for a reason,” I argued. “If they weren’t like that, then it wouldn’t be assumed that they are all like that.”
“So, let me get this straight,” my brother started. “You want a woman that…what? Doesn’t speak? You want her to just greet you at the door in some sexy lingerie with a beer in her hand, then let you go to sleep after she blows you or gives you the ass?”
“Find her, and I’ll fucking steal her from you,” Lucius joked.
“I just want easy,” I clarified for both the assholes.
“You’re better off looking for a unicorn in the wild,” Alec drawled out sardonically.
“No shit,” Lucius agreed. “Besides, easy sounds boring as fuck.”
I looked over at him after taking another pull of my beer. “That’s easy for you to say,” I harrumphed. “You’ve never had a Naomi Feldman in your life.”
“Touché,” he replied as he tipped his bottle in my direction.
“Dude, considering that the twins are the best things to ever happen to you, I’d say it’s time to let it go,” Alec remarked. “Let that hate go and move on with your life.”
“I’m very attached to my hate, thank you very much,” I informed him. “I think I’ll let it keep me company a little bit longer.” I looked between both men. “Besides, I have children I need to think about now. I can’t just be bringing random pussy around them.”
“You’re going to die a bitter, mean, old man,” Alec predicted.
“Yeah, well, better bitter and mean than shackled to a woman that I end up not being able to stand because she’s nothing like she pretended to be until she got that damn ring on her finger,” I snorted.
Lucius let out a low whistle. “Damn, man.”
I finished off my beer. “Look, I know that I’m sounding…harsh, but…I can’t afford to be wrong again,” I reminded them. “Yeah, most women aren’t awful, but it takes just one to ruin everything that I have going on . Plus, what woman wants to date a man that’s always going to put his children first?”
“Many, actually,” Alec answered. “Lots of women find that quality appealing.”
“Yeah, until there’s a time when I actually do pick my children over her,” I pointed out. “That’s when the jealousy comes out.”
