NFH 02 Perfection (7 page)

"So? Wake her up and have her come get
you. She should be awake when watching the baby anyway," he pointed
out.

Jason snorted. "Wow, you really are an
asshole."

Trevor simply nodded. "Yeah, pretty
much."

"She was falling asleep at her desk so
Dad called up Jill and Mary. They came and got her and one of them
drove her and the car home and Dad decided to take Cole home for
the night to give her a break," Jason said, sounding
exhausted.

"Why didn't they have you bring her
home?"

"They wanted to give her a break from
all my fussing," he said, pouting.

Knowing there really wasn't much
choice in the matter, Trevor threw the car into drive and headed
towards the center of town. He still couldn't believe the lovesick
bastard sitting next to him was the same man who'd fucked their
Cousin Eric's fiancé at the rehearsal dinner to win a bet. Granted,
he'd started that bet, but that didn't change the fact that his
cousin had changed and not for the better as far as he was
concerned.

Not that he'd ever admit it, but
Trevor had always been intimidated by his cousin, not in looks of
course, but just in the way everything came so easily to Jason,
especially when they were kids. Jason learned to tie his shoes at
two, ride a bike by three, read at two, and pretty much dominated
any sport he played while Trevor had to ask his mother to tie his
shoes for him until he was seven, still rode a bike with training
wheels while all their friends were popping wheelies on two wheels
and he was ashamed to say that he hadn't learned how to read until
he was fifteen and that was only because a teacher discovered that
he'd been getting other kids to do his homework for him, including
Jason.

Finding out that he was dyslexic had
been one of worst moments of his life. He still remembered the look
on his father's face when the school counselor explained that he
needed to be placed in special classes. That's just about the same
time his father started to call him retard, telling him how glad he
was that they didn't share the same last name and canceling their
weekend visits. When he did show up, which wasn't often, he spent
most of their visit talking about how great Jason was and how much
he wished Trevor was more like his cousin.

Two months after he started the
special classes he brought home a report card full of C-'s and D's,
but he'd been so goddamn proud of that report card because he'd
earned it all on his own. His father had taken one look at his
report card before backhanding him, knocking him on his ass in
front of his cousins and friends.

While everyone else ran to get help,
Jason took it upon himself to beat the shit out of the man. Jared
and the rest of his mother's brothers came running out of the house
minutes later and had to tear Jason off the man so that they could
get in their hits.

To this day he wasn't sure if it was
the embarrassment of getting his ass kicked by a fifteen year old
kid or the shame of having him as a son, but he hadn't seen or
heard from his father since. After that day he stopped trying in
school and gave up on everything, content to sit back and watch as
his cousin Jason kicked ass in life.

As much as he tried when they were
kids he just couldn't hate Jason. He was a funny, laid back guy,
who could be an asshole and embarrass the ever loving shit out of
him, but he was always a decent guy and Trevor loved him, not that
he would ever admit that. He'd never begrudged his cousin anything
in life because he was family and even though the bastard was
insanely smart and a Harvard grad to boot he never acted like it,
making it easier for Trevor to be around him and not feel like the
loser that he knew he was.

After Jason met Haley he'd changed. He
became more serious and cut his asshole ways for good and made
Haley the center of his world. As a result Trevor no longer knew
how to relate to his cousin. They no longer hung out and Trevor
avoided the man at work just so he wouldn't be reminded that the
man with the perfect like was slumming so he could save up enough
money to build the wife that he loved and adored the perfect house.
How the hell could he relate to that?

He couldn't and had absolutely no
plans to try. Marriage for him wasn't going to be about love,
romance, and fairytales. It was going to be about finding the woman
of his dreams and keeping her. His wife was going to be the one
thing in his life that everyone envied and she was going to be
absolutely perfect.

"Where are you going?" Jason
asked.

"To your house?" he meant that as a
statement, but truth be told he had absolutely no idea where his
cousin lived, which was kind of sad since he'd helped him
move.

"Take a left at the next set of
lights," Jason said, chuckling softly. "You'd know where I lived if
you took us up on the dozen or so dinner invitations we shot your
way each month."

"I've been busy," he lied.

"Uh huh," Jason said unconcerned. "So,
your girlfriend seemed nice. Totally wanted me by the way, but
that's understandable."

Trevor couldn't help but frown,
wondering who the hell Jason was talking about. "Who?"

"Zoe," Jason said, gesturing for
Trevor to take a right turn. "She seemed a little shy, but I liked
her," he simply stated. "Cole liked her, too."

Trevor just barely stopped himself
from rolling his eyes. "First off, she's not my girlfriend and I'm
actually pretty insulted that you'd think I'd date someone like
her. Secondly, I don't date woman based on your son's
opinion."

Jason snorted. "You should. My son has
great taste."

He threw the man a sideways
glance, wondering if he was high. "Are you trying to tell me that
you found
Zoe
hot?" If he said yes, Trevor was turning the truck around and
taking the man to the nearest emergency room to have him tested for
drugs.

"I didn't say that. I said she was
nice. Not at all like the women you usually date," Jason
said.

"What the hell's wrong with the women
I date?" he demanded, feeling pretty damn insulted. All the women
he dated were fucking perfect, well almost.

"They're all ice bitches," Jason
stated.

"No, they're not," Trevor argued, but
they usually were. Not that he'd admit it to his perfect cousin.
Besides all the women Jason dated before Haley were all stuck up,
annoying bitches so he really didn't think his cousin had any room
to talk.

"It's the next house," Jason said,
gesturing to a beautiful two story ranch with a perfectly manicured
lawn. Not that Trevor was surprised.

"Why don't you come in? I'll fire up
the grill and we can have steaks by the pool?" Jason
suggested.

"Can't. I have plans tonight," Trevor
said, suddenly feeling exhausted. It was kind of funny how that
happened these days. Ten years ago he would have taken his cousin
up on his offer, eaten him out of house and home, and hit the bars
until three in the morning before he picked up a piece of ass to
keep him company for a few hours and he'd still have his ass at
work on time. Now all he wanted to do was get his haircut without
falling asleep, go home, shower, rub some muscle gel on his aching
shoulders, and fall asleep in front of the television.

Getting old fucking sucked.

Jason looked like he was going to
argue, but in the end just nodded as he got out of the truck. "If
you change your mind the offer is on the table."

"Thanks."

"I still say Zoe is nice and that you
could do a lot worse," Jason said conversationally as he grabbed
his tool belt.

There was no way he was going to put
up with the suggestion that he should settle on someone like Zoe so
he did what he had to do.

"You do know that Zoe's a Red Sox fan,
right?"

The look on Jason's face was priceless
and he found himself still laughing about it an hour later when he
pulled into his driveway. He parked next to Zoe's piece of shit car
and headed for the door, running his hand through his now
thankfully short hair.

He glared at the freshly cleaned floor
mat, pissed that woman had wrecked his hard work and was tempted to
go back outside and stomp around in the dirt just so he could cover
those freaky looking puppies again, but he was too damn tired at
the moment to try. Tomorrow, he promised himself as he walked into
his apartment and froze.

It was.......

Clean.

Not only was it clean, but it smelled
like lemons. The rug was vacuumed, the furniture polished, dirty
clothes, and food wrappers were gone. It looked damn good, he
decided as he gave himself a mental pat on the back for coming up
with such a great plan. He walked into his kitchen and nearly wept
with joy when he spotted the empty sinks and counters. She'd even
put away the dishes.

He spotted a note on his counter with
a small pile of money. At that he frowned. He'd given her two
hundred and fifty dollars to fill his kitchen up with food and
she'd only spent a hundred of fifty of that. He'd have to tell her
to spend it all next time otherwise she'd be making multiple trips
to the store every week for him.

Wondering what she bought, he opened
the fridge door and felt his mouth drop open. His fridge was
completely packed with food. He moved onto the freezer and cabinets
and couldn't believe that she'd managed to buy twice the amount of
food that he usually bought with less money.

Zoe rocked, he decided as he returned
to the fridge and pulled out items to make a sandwich. After he
scarfed down three sandwiches and half a bag of chips he headed
upstairs and took a shower. He was just about to head downstairs
for that ice cream he'd been dreaming about when he thought he
heard movement next door. He really had to look into getting the
walls reinsulated, he decided.

"Zoe?"

"Yeah?"

He looked around his clean room,
noting the freshly made bed, laundry basket full of folded clean
clothes and felt like he should say something. "Thank you for
everything you did today," he said awkwardly, feeling pretty damn
stupid.

She chuckled. "You're welcome and
don't worry I'm keeping track of my hours, although I was tempted
to charge you hazard pay after I saw your bathroom."

He actually cringed at that. It had
been pretty bad and if she was anything more than a tenant and now
an employee he'd be pretty embarrassed, but she wasn't. So it
didn't really matter, he decided with a careless shrug.

"Let me know how many hours you got
and I'll pay you on Friday," he said, already dismissing her and
heading for the bedroom door.

"Okay," she said, laughing, making him
pause at the door.

"What's so funny?" he asked out of
curiosity. In the past two months that she lived here he couldn't
remember ever seeing her smile or hearing her laugh.

"Huh? Oh, just something in this book
I'm reading," she said, sounding relaxed, which he guessed was nice
and of course because of him since he'd improved her life with his
generosity.

"What are you reading?"

"
Twilight
."

Why did that sound familiar? It took
him a minute before it came to him. "Is that the vampire series
they made into a movie?" he asked. He'd heard a few good things
about the books and kept meaning to buy the mp3 file so he could
listen to it, but he never found the time.

"Yes, I'm reading it for the fifth
time."

Fifth time? Now he was intrigued. That
meant it had to be good. "Read some for me," he said, walking over
to his bed and laying back, resting his arms behind his head,
waiting expectantly for her to read to him.

She sighed heavily. "You can borrow it
after I'm done."

He snorted at that suggestion. It
would take him years to read a book and he just didn't have the
time or patience for that.

"I won't have time and you're reading
it now so it just makes more sense to save time and read it out
loud, don't you think?" he said, slipping into old habits. He'd
never had a problem convincing anyone that doing something for him
was actually to their benefit.

So he wasn't too surprised when she
said, "Fine," sounding totally put out, but that really didn't
bother him as long as she did what he wanted.

"You'll start from the beginning,
right?" he said, grinning when she let out a surprisingly cute
little growl.

"
Fine
," she snapped.

"There's lots of sex in this book,
right?"

"Oh yeah, there's lots of sex in this
book," she said brightly.

"Excellent."

Chapter
7

"Um, are you going to move?" Zoe asked
when he hadn't moved in over two minutes. "I kind of have to get in
there," she said, tentatively pointing past him towards the office
trailer. If he didn't move soon she was going to be late and she
really didn't want to start her first day on the job by getting
yelled at.