by Mia Madison
That had to count for something, right?
“You’ve got some sauce on your cheek.”
Or maybe it didn’t.
Chapter 3
Our post-dinner conversation was a little less awkward than the one that came right after my unexpected arrival, but not by much. We moved out onto his front porch and chatted about mundane things—my parents, my time in college, how it felt to finally move out and be on my own.
It wasn’t until I noticed David creeping toward the banister by his steps that I realized he was trying to brush me off. A part of me wanted to ask if he had plans—a date, maybe—but there was no way to ask such a thing without my intention being completely obvious.
Before things could get truly weird again, I jerked my thumb in the direction of my house and said, “I should probably get some unpacking done before calling it a night. Thanks for dinner.”
“Thanks for the company.”
David reached out and laid a hand on my shoulder, much like he used to do years ago. It took every ounce of strength in my body not to shudder when I felt the warmth of his palm on my skin. Was it my imagination or was his grip a little more possessive than I remembered it being?
David’s chuckle snapped me out of my thoughts and I craned my neck to look up at him. He was taller than I remembered and his smiles still made me melt.
“Not gonna lie—you shocked the hell out of me just showing up like you did, but I’m glad you’re here. I think it’ll be good. Us being neighbors, I mean.”
My mouth was dry as a bone, so I nodded dumbly in agreement and forced myself to maintain eye contact as he continued.
“I remember what it was like living by myself for the first time. It takes some adjustment. If you ever need anything, you know where to find me.”
“T-Thanks. I’ll let you know.”
His hand was still resting on my shoulder and once I recovered somewhat from my mental overload, I realized how perfect the moment was. Between the moonlight, our close contact, and the fact that we were on his porch—the prime location for the goodnight kiss—it was downright romantic.
Kiss me. God, I’ll do anything. Please, please kiss me!
A slow smile spread across David’s lips and my breath caught in my throat. Did he also realize how this moment felt? Did he feel like we were ending a date as well? His hand left my shoulder and raised up to my cheek, hovering there for the briefest moment before…
He reached further up and mussed my hair.
“I’ll see you around, kid.”
You have got to be kidding me.
With a cheeky grin, he stepped back into his house, the door clicking softly behind him. I stood there stunned for a long moment before returning to my house and staring at my disheveled hair in the bathroom mirror.
“I’ll see you around, kid.”
Kid.
Kid.
I narrowed my eyes at my reflection, scowling as I smoothed my hair back into place.
“Oh, I’ll show you how much of a kid I am.”
It’s on.
The time when David left for work in the morning conflicted with my own work schedule, which meant early runs were no longer a viable option. Instead, I’d drag my tired ass home from work and put on my sexiest gym clothes, running past his house before he got home and trying to time my return with his. It took a few days to get it right, but I managed it.
He slammed the truck door and leaned against it, cocking an eyebrow behind his sunglasses as he shouted, “You still run?”
I slowed down a bit before coming to a stop a few feet away from him. I didn’t want to get too close—there was no way I still smelled fresh and clean from my shower that morning.
“Yeah. Got to stay in shape somehow, right?”
I stretched as I said the words and his head tilted downward. I couldn’t see his eyes behind the tinted lenses, but I could practically feel his gaze roaming over my exposed skin. As I rolled my neck and shoulders, I pushed my chest out, fighting a smile when I saw his hands twitch at his sides.
“Whatever works,” he murmured with a half-hearted nod, clearly distracted. “I prefer weightlifting.”
“I can tell,” I stared at his arms and bit my bottom lip to keep from licking them. “You look great.”
David let out a short huff of laughter that gave away his disbelief. I wasn’t exactly a bold woman, but I figured I could at least justify the red tint of my cheeks as being from exertion instead of embarrassment. Any other time and it would’ve been totally obvious. Satisfied that I caught him off-guard, I smiled.
At least until that dreaded word came out of his mouth again.
“Thanks, kid. So do you.”
Kid. That word would be the death of me. I anxiously awaited the day when he would finally see me as a woman and not as his friend’s daughter. As I jogged away, I started brainstorming ways to speed up the process.
When the weekend rolled around, I plopped down in my favorite living room chair with a book, pretending to read it while I sneakily snuck glances out the window at David as he mowed his lawn.
He was wearing loose shorts, a white tank top, and his usual aviator sunglasses. His dark hair was mostly slicked back with sweat, but there were pieces sticking up in different directions like he’d been running his fingers through it. I had to fight myself to keep from outright staring. I still hadn’t hung up curtains, so it wouldn’t be difficult for him to look over and catch me in the act. With that thought in mind, I returned my attention to the book on my lap and forced myself to focus.
Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to do. Soon, I became so engrossed in the book that I didn’t even hear the mower turn off. Nor did I notice the figure moving in my peripheral vision until there was a sharp knock on the window directly beside me.
I jumped so much I launched the book straight into the air. David’s laugh was so loud, I could hear the rich tone of it clearly through the glass.
“Very funny!”
David just continued to laugh before finally pointing in the general direction of my front door. I nodded and held up a finger, practically sprinting to the hallway to check my appearance before I met him on the porch.
My timing was beautiful. David was waiting down the steps using the bottom half of his shirt as a towel to wipe the sweat from his face, giving me a delicious view of his sculpted abdomen. My sharp intake of breath grabbed his attention and he lowered his shirt, his face red.
It’s from the sun. It has to be. There’s no way he’s blushing.
“How’s it going?”
“Good. How about you? You look like you’re about to melt.” I took a step back and waved my hand as I asked, “You want to come in?”
“Thanks for offering, but I’m good. I’m just dropping by to ask if you have a mower.”
“No. Is something wrong with yours?”
David grinned and shook his head, small droplets of sweat flying out on the grass.
“No, mine’s fine. You want me to take care of your yard or do you have other plans for it?”
“Plans? Like letting the grass and weeds grow so high that it resembles a jungle?”
“I meant more along the lines of hiring someone to take care of it for you or getting a mower yourself.”
Truth be told, I hadn’t even thought about it. I knew the owner of the house was out of state, so he surely wouldn’t be doing it for me, but taking care of the yard myself never even crossed my mind. I was too fixated on the man on the other side of it.
“I… didn’t really think about it, to be honest. So, yes—I would really appreciate if you did it. How much should I pay—”
He held up a hand while shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it. This one’s on the house.”
He started to walk away and I scrambled to keep him there, if only for another minute.
“Wait! Can I at least make you dinner to thank you?”
David nodded and cracked a smile. “Yeah, that sounds good. It’ll be nice t
o eat something that wasn’t frozen or takeout for a change.”
While he got started on cutting the grass, I buzzed around the house to prepare for what I hoped would end up being more like a date than our last meal together had been.
Chapter 4
I was so wrong.
Dinner that night didn’t turn into anything remotely resembling a date. If anything, it was somehow even more awkward than when I dropped in on him the first time. The conversation was stilted, and while he did appreciate the meal itself, he bolted at the first available opportunity. To say I was disappointed would have been an understatement.
Even though I knew he felt the tension as well, we spent more time together than ever. We hung out a lot on the weekends, but it never went the direction I wished it would. At best, he’d treat me like a friend—at worst, he’d call me ‘kid’ and ruffle my hair like I was still fourteen.
My patience wore down a little every day. David and I interacted a ton, but he seemed downright indifferent to any attempt I made to flirt with him. While he always seemed happy to see me, I had no reason to believe his excitement was from anything other than the odd friendship we had formed. I wasn’t in the position to pass up a friend, though the fact that he didn’t want more stung worse than I cared to admit.
As time passed by and summer started shifting into autumn, the faith I had in my plan faded and the feeling that I had made a mistake grew stronger. After yet another week of disappointment, I found myself agreeing to pick up extra shifts just to avoid seeing David.
Different shifts meant different coworkers, which was how I ended up meeting James.
He seemed like a nice enough guy. He always had a friendly smile for me and would stop to chat in the halls whenever he got a chance. After a particular meeting in the break room where I actually got a chance to really look at him, I realized that James was handsome. If I wasn’t so obsessed with David, I probably would have considered him sexy. Still, every time I looked into his pretty green eyes, I couldn’t stop myself from wishing they were the dark blues of the man I really wanted.
Despite how I felt, when James asked me to go out with him after a few weeks of our little run-ins, I accepted without giving it a second thought. David clearly wasn’t interested, so why not at least try to move on a little with a nice, handsome doctor? Though it did pain me a little that he was at least a decade older than me. David was bad enough as it was, but having a slight interest in another older man was starting to make me believe I had a type.
The night of the big date came around and my doorbell rang a few minutes earlier than expected. Smoothing down the fabric of my little black dress, I forced on a smile that hopefully would cover up the weird anxious feeling in my stomach that was growing larger by the second.
When I opened the door to reveal David, that uncomfortable anxiety felt like it exploded and shot all over my body in an instant. True, I was trying to move on from him, but I was also hoping he wouldn’t actually find out about my date until after I decided whether I even liked James in that way or not.
David took in my outfit with raised eyebrows—lingering on the short cut of my dress and my high heels—before he looked up at me with a frown.
“Going somewhere?”
His accusatory tone pissed me off. We hadn’t made any plans to do anything that evening, yet he still expected me to be available for him.
My eyes wandered down to the bag of takeout and the DVD he was carrying and my anger slowly started to melt. A huge part of me wanted to cancel the date just so we could spend more time together even though I knew it wouldn’t do me any good.
Damn him. Why couldn’t I just let go?
“I am. Rain check on the movie?”
David didn’t reply right away. We stayed locked in a silent stalemate for a very long moment. I watched with a confused frown as his jaw clenched and unclenched several times. It was an odd thing to witness.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, um… Dinner, dancing. I’m not really sure where.”
“So it’s a date.”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t exactly a question, but I felt compelled to answer anyway. His reaction almost felt like getting the third-degree from my father about a boy who liked me, which just made me feel even worse about the situation I put myself in.
There was never going to be anything between us. The realization slammed into me like a truck.
And it hurt.
“Who is he?”
“A doctor at my hospital,” I muttered as I tried to mentally pull myself together. David frazzled my nerves like no one else. “His name is James.”
“First date?” he asked, tone clipped.
“Yes.”
“And you’re wearing that?”
“What’s wrong with it?”
David suddenly stepped forward, breathing hard as he crowded me. His eyes were hooded and I gasped when I felt a finger touch my neck. In a daze, I looked down and watched as he trailed the digit down to touch just above my cleavage before he snatched his hand away. He took a single step back and leaned down to touch the hem of my dress, rubbing the fabric between his fingers.
“A dress like this on a first date might give a man the wrong idea,” he said lowly, his eyes snapping up to meet mine. “Do you at least have panties on? Cause you sure as fuck aren’t wearing a bra.”
“Wha—Yes!” I exclaimed, my face flaming.
“What kind?”
“I-I don’t—”
David growled and pushed me back against the wall. My heart beat wildly as he pressed his body so close to mine that I could feel his body heat. The gentle friction of our clothes made my nipples harden into stiff peaks and David groaned low in his throat when he leaned in enough to feel them against his chest.
“You’ll be the death of me, baby,” he murmured against the shell of my ear, sending shivers racing up my spine.
The pet name alone was enough to make my head spin, but his other words caught up to me after a brief moment. Before I could ask him to elaborate, the sound of a car approaching made me open my eyes. I saw the silver Mercedes pull to the curb and stop and I quickly pushed David away from me as I tried to straighten myself up.
Not that I intended to go on the date anymore. There was no way I could—not with whatever just happened between me and David. No, I would tell David to wait for me and rush down and tell James that I wasn’t feeling well and—
“You wait here. I’ll take care of him.”
The words barely left David’s mouth and he was already storming down the steps. He had enough presence of mind to set down the food containers first and that simple action gave me the strength to shake myself out of the trance I’d been in since he touched me. I started to carefully make my way over to them in the grass, cursing myself for the heels I chose as they sunk into my lawn and made it difficult to walk.
I stole a glance up to the men as I walked and began to panic. The tension between them was palpable and I could sense the looming violence if I didn’t put a stop to it. David was speaking quietly to James, but the other man wasn’t backing down. If anything, James looked like he was just as ready as David was to start swinging.
When David took a step closer and balled his hands into fists, I cried, “Wait!”
Unfortunately, I was so busy trying to break up the fight before it started that I forgot to mind my footing. My heel sunk into a particularly soft spot and next thing I knew—I was flying forward with nothing to grab hold of. I fell flat on my face, my ankle screaming with pain as it twisted.
“Emily!”
David was at my side before I fully registered what happened. Dazed, I let him roll me over and cracked open my eyes as he started ghosting his hands over my body, checking for injuries.
“Are you okay?”
“My ankle—”
James appeared in my view a second later, his brows pulled together in a frown. He started to kneel beside me until David growled and
pushed him out of the way.
“Don’t fucking touch her!”
“For fuck’s sake—I’m a doctor! Move,” James growled back between clenched teeth.
I’d never seen either man so angry. The two glared at each other for a long moment before David finally looked away with a grunt. James rolled his eyes and gave me a tight smile before kneeling at my feet and gently inspecting my ankles.
When James found a tender spot and I hissed in pain, David’s warm hand found mine and squeezed softly. I squeezed back, unable to stop myself from smiling despite the pain and total embarrassment I felt.
“I don’t think it’s sprained,” James announced after another minute of inspection. “Put some ice on it tonight and get some rest. I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you’re feeling and we’ll take it from there.”
“But our date—”
He cast a dark look toward David and said, “I don’t think our date was going to happen either way.”
“You’re right,” David practically snarled. “She’s spoken for.”
James looked back at me once more, studying my face closely like he was searching for any sign of distress. I gave him an apologetic smile and nodded, silently telling him I was fine being left alone with David. He conceded a moment later with a nod of his own and a soft promise to check in on me the next day.
David waited for him to drive away before lifting me in his arms and carrying me into the house. He placed me on the couch with an order to stay put. I tracked his movements by sound—going outside for the food, locking my front door, bypassing the living room for the kitchen, the microwave turning on—until he finally reappeared with an ice pack.
After propping my hurt ankle up on a pillow, he slid off my heels, his hands lingering there for a long moment. I could sense the internal battle he was having, though I had no idea what was running through his mind until he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my foot.
