An Everyday Hero, page 1
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About An Everyday Hero
Dedication
Keep in Touch
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
A Message from E.J.
Also By E.J. Russell
About the Author
Acknowledgements
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All person(s) depicted on the cover are model(s) used for illustrative purposes only.
An Everyday Hero
Copyright © 2018 by E.J. Russell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, and where permitted by law. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review.
Cover art: Cate Ashwood, cateashwooddesigns.com
Edited by Tricia Kristufek
ISBN: 978-1-947033-16-0
First edition
December, 2018
Second edition
March, 2020
Contact information:
ejr@ejrussell.com
A different kind of home invasion…
When Adam Tyler’s sister announced she was pregnant, Adam decided to move from Portland, Oregon, to Phoenix, Arizona, to fully embrace the uncle experience. However, he didn’t count on the move being delayed until three days before Christmas—and three days before his sister’s due date. And he definitely didn’t count on finding a scorpion in his bedroom. Cue the panicked calls to exterminators.
A different kind of knight to the rescue…
Garrett Strong doesn’t consider himself at all remarkable—his ex certainly didn’t think so—and Garrett’s pest-control business is circling the drain. Although Adam is his first new client in months, that isn’t the only reason Garrett goes above and beyond for him. He feels a real connection to the younger man and intends to do everything in his power to make sure Adam feels safe and welcome in Phoenix—venomous intruders notwithstanding.
An Everyday Hero is a short and sweet opposites-attract, age-gap rom-com featuring a fish-out-of-water geek (who still manages to get a bit soggy), a stand-up blue-collar guy (who can’t see his own worth), unexpected additions to the holiday festivities (some less welcome than others), and more than one serious discussion about the true meaning of the word hero.
For my friend Toni, who moved to Phoenix and found a scorpion in her living room.
Keep in touch with E.J.!
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“Oh-God-oh-God-oh-God-oh-God.”
Adam squealed. He could admit it. He absolutely, positively squealed because there was a freaking scorpion in his new house.
He raced across the room and out the sliding door onto the patio, kicked off his flip-flops, and waded into the pool.
Scorpions couldn’t swim, right?
He stumbled a bit but caught himself before he fell, rescuing his cell phone from a watery, chlorinated grave.
Okay. Now what?
He blinked in the bright sun. Oh. Sunglasses. He pulled them off the top of his head and jammed them on his face, wiggling his toes, so dark against the pale aqua pool bottom. Maybe I should become semiaquatic. However, spending the rest of his life underwater would seriously cut into his social life, such as it was, not to mention being really bad for his business. Computers were notoriously intolerant when it came to full-body immersion.
So instead, he googled exterminators, only to discover that Phoenix had a veritable shit-ton of them. I should have checked that before I moved. Anyplace with that many exterminators—especially ones that specialized in scorpions and, OMG, rattlesnake removal? I can’t even….
At least back in Oregon, all he’d had to deal with was moss and the occasional opossum or raccoon. And last he checked, moss wouldn’t sneak into your shoes and kill you.
Adam picked the first company in the list. “Hello, there’s a scorpion. In my house. I need to—”
“Yes, sir, we can schedule a technician for a week from Thursday.”
“A week from Thursday? The beast is in my bedroom this very instant.”
“It’s Christmas week, sir. We can’t—”
“Never mind. I’ll try somewhere else.”
But it was the same story with the next six companies. Nobody could come out and rescue him right now, and even though it was pushing eighty degrees, his toes were starting to prune up standing in the pool. Besides, Christmas was mere days away, for pity’s sake, and he hadn’t strung a single light or hung a single mistletoe bough. That’s because the movers have been delayed. Again. So I don’t have a single light or mistletoe bough.
He’d known in his gut that moving the week before Christmas was a lousy idea. He should have waited until the holiday frenzy died down in January. But his new niece was about to make her first grand entrance, and Adam wanted to fully embrace the uncle experience. That’s why he’d decided to move here when Candace told him she was pregnant.
But then he’d landed a big web design project and delayed putting his condo on the market, and then the first sale had fallen through, and then the second sale had fallen through, and when he’d finally gotten the thing off his hands, the buyers had wanted a long escrow, and God. He’d been damn lucky to find a house that was vacant in Candace and Luis’s subdivision.
Vacant except for a freaking scorpion.
“One more time. Please, Mr. Exterminator, save me.” Adam closed his eyes and stabbed the screen with one finger. He peered down at the random choice: Strong Pest Control. “Strong. Strong is good. I need strong. So let’s hope the company lives up to its name.” He repeated the number several times to memorize it, then keyed it in, since the listing didn’t even have a live link. Their web developer should be shot.
After five rings, he was about to hang up, but then the call finally connected and a deep, rather breathless voice said, “Strong Pest Control. This is Garrett. How can I help you?”
“There’s a scorpion. In my house.”
“Is this the first one you’ve seen?”
Adam’s belly clenched in horror. “You mean there might be more?”
Garrett chuckled, a warm burr that would have tickled Adam’s interest if it weren’t for the freaking scorpion. “Could be. When was your last service?”
“Never. I mean, I just moved in. I only got the keys today, but the house has been vacant for several months.”
“Hmmm. Chances are, the previous owners didn’t keep up with treatments. It’s kinda necessary around here. This is the desert, you know.”
Adam glared at the golf course beyond his chain-link fence, green and rolling and a total, complete liar. “Is there any possible way you could come over right now and save me—I mean, treat the infestation? I know it’s close to the holiday and all but—”
“Sure. Give me your address.”
Adam held the phone away from his ear and stared at it. Seriously? Seven no-time-until-a-week-from-never and then sure-give-me-your-address? He narrowed his eyes. What’s wrong with this guy?
“Just like that? Three days before Christmas?”
“I have to pick up work where I can. The exterminator business is a little slow.”
“That didn’t seem to be the case with the other seven companies I called, none of whom could fit me in.”
“Let me rephrase. My exterminator business is a little slow.”
Adam’s business consultant mental alarms clanged. Danger! Danger! Why is this guy slow and everybody else is slammed? “Um… I don’t suppose you have a website?”
“No website. I’m not really a computer guy. But I’ve got an ad in the Yellow Pages.”
Yellow Pages? WTF? How old was this guy? Sixty-three? His business wasn’t just slow—it was probably comatose. And there’s probably a good reason for it.
Adam took a breath to say thanks, but no thanks, when he glanced at the house. Oh my God, I left the door open! His resident scorpion could be inviting all his frat brothers over for a kegger right freaking now.
“Never mind.” Adam gave Garrett the address. “How soon can you be here?”
“You’re over in Ahwatukee and I’m in Tempe, so it’ll take me about half an hour at this time of day. Although the last-minute shoppers might tie up traffic a bit. But within the hour for sure.”
An hour. He could handle an hour. Couldn’t he? “Sounds perfect.”
“See you then.”
As soon as Garrett hung up, Adam thought of sixteen other questions he should have asked. Can scorpions jump? Will they charge if you get too close? What’s the land speed of the average scorpion? How long do I have to get to the ER after an attack?
Jeez, why hadn’t he done more research before this move? He could have been prepared with the appropriate protective gear, instead of dancing around in shorts and flip-flops because the temperature difference between here and Oregon was so great.
Just keep remembering the reason you’re here. His sister. His brother-in-law. His niece. Adam had the ultrasound pictures Candace had sent him already stuck to the refrigerator with Santa magnets. Family. That’s why he was here. Surely he could face the local fauna with fortitude if it meant being on the spot from the first minute he officially became an uncle.
At the moment, though, his fortitude was seriously lacking. He heaved a sigh and looked around his backyard. It wasn’t that big, and most of it was taken up by the patio and the pool with its concrete surround. But there was some natural landscaping against the fence between his house and the golf course. The lower part of the fence had some kind of ugly green mesh. Well, that has to go. The succulents looked more or less harmless, but the spines on the rotund cactus were longer than his fingers. Jeez, even the plants are out to get me.
But as Garrett had pointed out, this was the desert. He couldn’t expect the more or less benign foliage of Oregon.
This is home now. Not Portland. Get used to it.
After Candace had landed that great job here in Phoenix, Adam had thought he’d be okay staying behind in Oregon. Arizona wasn’t that far away. But since their mom had passed, Candace was his only family. He missed her. Even though he had lots of Portland friends—but no boyfriend, not since the Christopher debacle—they didn’t make up for his sister, who’d been there for him his whole life. She was his best friend. And now she was about to sprout a new member of the family. Adam was damned if he’d be an absent uncle.
So he didn’t regret moving. Mostly. If only she’d warned me about the wildlife.
He checked the time on his phone. Only twenty minutes? Jeez, he was going to be completely waterlogged by the time the Luddite exterminator arrived. So he still had plenty of time to call his sister. Yes, he loved her. Yes, she was his best friend. But she could have fricking warned him!
“Call Candace.” He started to shiver as the call connected. Standing in the water, even on a day that would qualify as borderline hot back in Portland, wasn’t doing much for his core temperature. That’s what happens when you have no extra body fat—and not many muscles either.
The call went to voicemail, damn it. He waited for the beep and then—pow.
“I cannot believe you didn’t warn me about the possible scorpion infestations, Candace. How can you reconcile bringing my niece into a house with deadly predators? I mean, scorpions? They’re only one step away from velociraptors. What if she sees one and mistakes it for a toy? Or worse, food? And yes, yes, I know it will be some time before she’ll do anything but eat, poop, and cry, but there’s such a thing as preparation! As safety! As parental responsibility! If you think that I—”
Beep.
Dang it. Just when he was building up a good head of rant steam. On the other hand, he didn’t want to alienate his sister when he’d gone through the trouble of uprooting himself and moving to the Hellmouth just to be with her.
His shivering had kicked up a notch, even though the sun was almost directly overhead. He crept over and climbed to the top step. This is stupid. You’ll have to get out of the pool to let the Luddite in anyway.
He bent down and peered at the concrete around the pool and hot tub. He didn’t see anything moving. Are scorpions related to chameleons? Maybe they’re cunning, like their velociraptor ancestors. Maybe they hunt in packs.
He could look it up on his phone, but he was afraid of what he’d learn.
When he heard the distant chime of his doorbell, a weird mix of relief and trepidation washed through him. Rescue was at hand! But first he had to make the trip through Mordor to open the door.
You can do this. He placed one foot on the pool ledge, holding on to the handrail in case he had to leap back again. When nothing swarmed him, he stepped all the way out and stared down at his wet legs. Great. I don’t have a towel.
The bell rang again. He padded across the patio, peering at the ground to make sure he didn’t discover new intruders with the soles of his feet, and slid into his flip-flops. A third doorbell chime goosed him into the House of Horrors, because what if the Luddite left before vanquishing the demon hordes?
You can walk through the great room. The venomous intruder is in the bedroom. Where Adam was supposed to sleep as soon as the movers delivered his bed. Oh God. Thank goodness his suitcase was over at Candace and Luis’s place. He was staying in their guest room until his house was habitable. Will it ever be? For that matter, could their house be infested too?
Since it would be rude to web surf in front of the man who was here to rescue him from certain death, Adam ditched his phone on the breakfast bar on his way past. He raced across the room, his flip-flops thwapping on the tile floor of the foyer. Bracing his hands on the front door, he steadied his breathing and prepared himself to face the Luddite. Don’t stare at the inevitable beer belly and jowls. You’ll look like that someday too, even if you’re a ringer for a beanpole right now.
He smoothed the front of his blue button-down, donned his best smile, and opened the door.
And nearly butt-planted from shock.
No beer belly there. Or jowls. Oh no, that right there would be freaking square-jawed perfection. The man on his doorstep was a good two inches taller than Adam, who topped six-one, and probably twice as broad through the shoulders. Not the hips, though, be still my heart. Ruddy cheeks, blue eyes, close-cropped light brown hair that might be slightly receding, but that was the only flaw Adam could detect.
“Adam Tyler?” Mr. Square Jaw grinned, and Adam’s knees might have wobbled. “Garrett Strong.”
More like Garrett the Strong, craggy, seasoned warrior. Really, all he needed was a kilt to be Adam’s dream man come to life.
“Yes. Um…. Please come in.”
Garrett held a clipboard—an honest-to-God clipboard, which made Adam’s eye twitch—and had a squarish padded bag slung over one shoulder. “From our phone call, it sounded like you were most concerned about the interior. You want to show me where you found the specimen?”
Specimen. That made it sound more like a urine sample than a potentially deadly predator. Maybe that was Garrett’s way of talking his clients off the ledge. His professional bedside manner. I wouldn’t mind having him at my bedside. Or closer.
Adam gave his libido a stern down, boy. Besides, he didn’t have a bed yet. And thank goodness for that. Otherwise the scorpions might be in it right now, lounging around while they watched Jurassic Park on Netflix.
“It was in the master bedroom. Through here.” Adam led the way from the foyer and across the great room, although he couldn’t make himself enter the master suite. “In there. By the door to the patio.”
Garrett glanced at him, a decided twinkle in his blue eyes. “It might be best if you stay back.”
“No problem.” I’ll just stand here and hyperventilate.
But as Garrett passed by and Adam got a good look at his ass in those very nicely fitting chinos? He couldn’t resist creeping down the short hallway and peeking in the bedroom door. Because Garrett might bend over and Adam didn’t want to miss that.
There had to be some bright spot in this whole fiasco.
Garrett caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. His client—Adam—was hovering in the doorway. Garrett turned away resolutely to do his fricking job. Doesn’t matter how cute the guy is. And he was seriously cute. Tall and thin, a scattering of darker freckles on his brown skin, and one of those haircuts—what were they called? Oh yeah. High-top fades with locs.
Garrett had always admired that kind of ’do, maybe because his own hair had always been so relentlessly straight and floppy—and now there was starting to be less of it in certain places too. A guy that pretty—and smart—probably wouldn’t be into a guy with early-onset male pattern baldness who made his living wrangling vermin.
Besides, Adam was young. Had to be at least ten years younger than Garrett’s own thirty-seven, and if he could afford to buy a house in this subdivision, he was way out of Garrett’s league in so many ways.
