No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

CHAPTER 20

I’m sorry for what I said during burpees.

-Fran to Taos

FRAN

“Taos asked me to go meet his grandmother. The woman that raised him,” I said to my sister the next day.

I’d gone to her house when Taos had to go to the gym, and I hadn’t really wanted to go.

When I’d woken up that morning, I’d started my period, and the last place I wanted to go was a gym where I’d have nowhere really to sit and curl into a ball as I died.

So Mavis’s place it was.

Mavis raised her brows at me. “Oh yeah?”

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah.”

“What’s the problem?” she wondered.

She steadily wiped crumbs off her kitchen counter onto the floor, after which her dog, who had to be at least a hundred and ten at this point, licked them up to the best of his ability.

I licked my lips. “I want her to like me.”

Mavis snickered. “Fran, everyone freakin’ likes you.”

She had a point. I’d never met a single person, besides Maria and her friend, Sonia, that didn’t like me.

I was a very likable person… at least I tried to be.

Speaking of Sonia.

“When I dropped Taos off at the gym today—so I can use his car without being followed around in mine—it was to see Sonia there waiting for him.” I sighed. “It’s like she picked up right where Maria left off.”

Mavis snorted. “Sonia was always into Taos. I’m talking, really into him. I think she’s a lot of the reason that Maria finally decided to leave Taos.”

“What happened there?” I asked.

“It was a big thing at the gym, because she came in pissed as hell that he wasn’t home. Again. And then she said, it’s the gym and your job or me. I seriously don’t think that she expected him to pick the gym and the job.” Mavis answered.

Mavis was snickering by the end of it.

“And anyway,” Mavis continued as she threw the wet rag in the sink and turned her eyes toward me. “Sonia was over there with this huge Cheshire cat smile on her face. You could tell that was exactly what she wanted. And when Maria tried to come back, it was also at the gym, but he refused. Said that he’d already filed divorce papers. Maria cried. Sonia consoled her while also smiling as she patted her back. Everyone clapped when they both left.”

I shook my head, leaning my backside against the counter next to her.

I squirmed, feeling the pull of sore muscles from this early morning’s sexual encounter with a certain someone. Which had me thinking…

“How do you know if a man is big or not?” I asked curiously. “I mean, I’ve slept with someone before. It was less than a stellar encounter. But how do I know if…”

“If he has a big cock?” Mavis’s eyes were sparkling.

“Yes,” I answered.

Vlad took that moment to cry out that he was finished with his nap, causing Mavis to sigh and jerk her head for me to follow.

“How big are we talking here?” she wondered as she walked.

I followed behind her, going to the changing table and pulling out a diaper to ready and a set of clothes to change Vlad into as she pulled him from his crib.

“I’m talking, big enough that…” I turned around when I saw Vlad in her arms. “I can’t talk about this with him here. It feels wrong to have this discussion around my nephew.”

Mavis rolled her eyes. “Google it then.”

I very well might.

Because looking at my nephew’s innocent little blue jean eyes so much like my own, I knew that I couldn’t finish this discussion now.

“How do you get anything done with him around?” I wondered.

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t.”

Then she proceeded to get him dressed, despite his wiggling and playing with his wiener, in less than two minutes.

When she had him once again in her arms, she handed him to me. “Hold him while I go get dressed.”

I did, giving him the biggest kiss ever as I moved.

His little baby giggles gave my heart a pang.

“I want to have babies with Taos,” I blurted out.

Why don’t you just go and blurt out everything, Francine?

“I can’t wait to see our grandmother’s reaction to that.” Mavis snickered.

I groaned.

My grandmother, from the bottom of her heart, hated children. She hated even more that Mavis had a child and didn’t get her career as advanced as she could have, which ruined her every chance.

Or so our grandmother said.

“I don’t really care what she thinks,” I told my sister. “And you know it.”

“I know it,” she confirmed. “But when that money stops coming in like mine did, then you’ll think differently.”

I groaned. “I don’t use it all that often. Only in emergencies now. And, just sayin, but you’re getting yours.”

“Now I am, yes. But only because she was forced to release the funds to me because of my age,” Mavis countered.

Before, she was able to take it away because there was a clause in the paperwork that stated it could be stalled if we got pregnant out of wedlock.

Something in which Mavis most certainly had done.

“Well, she can’t touch it now. It’s yours to do with as you please,” I pointed out.

When she ‘came of age’, our grandmother was no longer the keeper of our funds that had come from our parents upon their deaths. Now, she was the sole individual who had control of our accounts. Whether she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock or not.

Which probably drove my grandmother insane seeing as she no longer had any leverage to hold over our heads to keep us in line.

“She called me last week, left me a voice mail, and told me that I was being dumb for not taking the promotion,” Mavis said.

Mavis worked at the hospital like I once had, though on a different floor. A few months ago, Mavis had been offered the position of charge nurse. Only Mavis hadn’t wanted it, because it meant more hours. Which she most definitely didn’t want.

And obviously, since my grandmother had an ear in every fucking thing, she’d heard, and then lamented Mavis’ decision.

“Well, she called me last week and told me that my job was waiting for me at the hospital, and to stop being a little baby about a few whispers, and to go back,” I countered.

Mavis snickered. “Doesn’t she know that you like what you do now?”

“She does,” I said. “I told her last time she told me my job was still waiting for me.”

Mavis shook her head, slipped her feet into low-heeled boots, and then stood up.

“Come on,” she urged. “We have to go see someone about a driveshaft.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Let’s go,” she ordered. “We can talk about cocks and shit to Murphy.”

Sure enough, five minutes later, we were pulling into Murph’s auto shop.

“Can you get Vlad?” she asked.

I nodded and got out of the car, moving to the back passenger side of the van where Vlad’s seat sat.

Once I had him out—and I did have to admit, it was really nice having such a wide opening to get him out as opposed to the small area I had in my car—I brought him up onto my hip before pressing the button to slide the door closed.

When I looked up, it was to find Murphy and Mavis in a silent glare-off.

I blinked, trying not to smile.

My lips weren’t listening to my urging, though, because before I could stop it, a small smile curved up the corners of my lips.

I started snickering when they continued to glare.

“Are we going to do this all day or…” I hedged.

Vlad shrieked when he finally turned and saw the man doing the glaring.

Mavis sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“We need you to tell us how to take a driveshaft out.”

Murphy blinked at the two of us, unsure what to say or do in regards to Mavis’s words.

I didn’t even know what to say or do when she came up with her harebrained schemes half the time. Now, I just rolled with it.

Murphy shook his head, as if he was trying to clear the confusion out of his brain before he spoke.

“I’m sorry, but what?” he rumbled.

I studied the man as Vlad practically leaned out of my arms to get to Murphy.

Murphy looked like he’d gladly take him out of my arms, but the fact that his hands and half his body was covered in enough grease to cause Mavis—the woman who hated dirt and grime more than anything in the world—to have an apoplectic fit stilled his movements.

“We need you to teach us how to take out a driveshaft,” Mavis repeated.

I looked at Mavis, then to Murphy who was once again stunned into silence, and grinned.

Mavis and Murphy couldn’t be any more different from each other.

Where Mavis was small, blonde, pale and waifish, Murphy was tall, very strong, and had the most beautiful dark hair that fell perfectly in a messy cascade around his face.

Mavis never left the house in anything but pristine clothing. Murphy looked like he didn’t own clothes that didn’t have grease covering them.

Mavis was the good girl through and through, and Murphy looked like he could be the bad boy that soiled the good girl.

Mavis had a thing for Madden, but if I was being completely honest, I didn’t think she knew what she wanted. She had a dream of a house, two kids, and a dog with a white picket fence. For some reason, she had always pictured a man like Madden being her ‘endgame.’ But Murphy? Murphy looked like he’d set fire to Mavis’s lawn, knock her up with five or ten kids, and enjoy every single second of it.

I couldn’t wait to see how this played out…

Vlad leaned over again.

“Oh, just take him,” Mavis griped.

Murphy took Vlad and grinned as he did, making my heart squeeze at the sight.

Once Vlad was settled in his arms, Murphy looked at Mavis with a frown.

“If I show you, will you leave?” Murphy grumbled.

I looked from Mavis who narrowed her eyes to Murphy who was looking at Vlad as if he were his son, and not some random woman’s he didn’t like.

“Yes,” Mavis replied sweetly.

“If you get in trouble for this, just don’t fuc—freakin’ blame me,” Murphy ordered.

He then proceeded to tell Mavis exactly how to take out a driveshaft.

When he was done, Mavis picked up the wrench that he’d been using and said, “I’ll bring this back in an hour.”

Before Murphy could say a word to the contrary, Mavis had Vlad in her arms, and she was all but marching down the driveway to her minivan.

Before I could move in her direction, Murphy caught my eye as he started to curse. “Don’t let her do anything stupid.”

I snorted. “Yeah, like I was ever able to control Mavis Pope.”

Something in Murphy’s eyes hardened at that name, and his face closed down.

I fell into step beside Mavis after giving Murphy a questioning look.

“Why does he hate you so much?” I asked. “Because, I swear, I was getting vibes of him really being into you. While on the other hand, he hated that he was really into you.”

Mavis looked at me. “You don’t remember Murphy, do you?”

I frowned. “I guess not. Why? What am I missing?”

“Do you remember Alessio Romano?” she asked.

The moment she said Alessio’s name, I was taken back to a little boy that lived on our property with his mother. His mother was a maid at my grandmother’s estate. She lived in her own little small house at the back of the property, and every once in a while, I would see Alessio, her son, running around the back part of our property.

Until my grandmother asked them to leave because Alessio’s mother ‘couldn’t control her son.’

“They lived on Grandmother’s property. In the old carriage house at the very back. Grandmother fired her because Alessio kept coming onto the main part of the property,” I recalled grimly.

“Alessio is Murphy.” She dropped that bombshell.

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

“What?” I gasped.

“Yep, and he hates me because when they were kicked out of Grandmother’s house, they had to live out of their car for almost a month before his mother was able to find more work.” She shook her head. “I fucking hate our grandmother.”

Speaking of our grandmother…

“She called me today while I was in bed with Taos. I ignored it, and she’s called me every fifteen minutes since.” I pulled out my phone and showed her all of the missed calls. “She hasn’t stopped.”

“She won’t stop until you answer.” Mavis snickered.

She was right. My grandmother thought she was above all the most important person in the world. If the President of the United States, the Queen of England, and God himself were in the same room, my grandmother would expect to be served lunch first.

She was that selfish.

Mavis pulled to a stop outside of an apartment building and parked.

I frowned hard at the location.

It was one of the nicer places in town. An apartment complex that was newly built, had state-of-the-art security, and was so hard to get into that there was a year-long waiting list.

“Why are we here?” I asked finally.

“This is where Heather Trudell lives.” She paused. “The reporter who thought she would be funny by plastering your name and face all over the newspaper.”

My brows rose. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she snarled then got out.

That was when I realized why she’d asked Murphy how to take a driveshaft out.

Because, over the next ten minutes, Mavis grunted and grumbled as she did just that.

I sat in the back of the van, watching the newest Hotel Transylvania with Vlad, and tried not to think about how many laws we were breaking.

And, of course, like clockwork, the cops showed.

I reached over and closed the van door, hoping beyond hope that they wouldn’t notice me sitting back here.

My luck didn’t hold out.