Summary
Briley Anderson hasn’t been in a serious relationship for the past two years. The pain of her last breakup has made her wary of giving her heart away again. She spends her days flipping houses and her down-time baking treats for her neighbors. Falling in love wasn’t in her plans, but then again, neither was her next-door neighbor.
Leah Daniels is a divorced mother of two and a grandmother at the age of forty-nine. Love was the last thing she was looking for, especially with a woman sixteen years her junior. All she was hoping for was a quiet neighborhood to raise her fifteen-year old son. What she hadn’t expected was the unavoidable draw she felt toward Briley.
Through laughter, heartache, love, and fear it’s up to Briley and Leah to figure out if what they’ve created is strong enough to make a relationship last and if taking the chance on love is really worth the risk.
add romance and mix
add romance and mix
shannon m. harris
Sapphire Books
Salinas, california
Add Romance and Mix
Copyright © 2018 by Shannon M. Harris. All rights reserved.
ISBN EPUB - 978-1-948232-07-4
This is a work of fiction - names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without written permission of the publisher.
Editor - Kaycee Hawn
Book Design - LJ Reynolds
Cover Design - Treehouse Studio
Sapphire Books Publishing, LLC
P.O. Box 8142
Salinas, CA 93912
www.sapphirebooks.com
Distributed by Smashwords
First Edition – February 2018
This and other Sapphire Books titles can be found at
www.sapphirebooks.com
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my Grandma, whose red cake is a staple at holidays and special occasions. It doesn’t make an appearance in this book, but it is hands down my favorite cake.
Acknowledgments
This has not been an easy writing year for me and this book is testament to me pushing on. It went through three plot changes until I was satisfied with the finished draft. I have to give a huge shout out to Linda North whose help was instrumental in this book being completed. Thanks to Chris and everyone at Sapphire Books for all they do to ensure a quality product is produced.
Chapter One
Briley leaned against the wall as she looked out the window with her arms crossed. With keen interest, she watched as Leah, her next-door neighbor, moved around in her front yard. The tight khaki pants Leah wore made her ass look fantastic. Briley groaned but couldn’t take her eyes off Leah’s slim frame.
From a distance, Leah looked larger than life, but in reality, Briley thought she was around five feet two, a good three to four inches shorter than her. All she had to go on was that one time she’d passed Leah on the sidewalk. When Leah had smiled at her, Briley became so flustered that she’d quickly walked past her without saying a word. Briley hadn’t made a move to introduce herself. It was not one of her finer moments.
Today, Leah wore her ever-present oversized sunglasses and had her curly blond hair in a ponytail sticking out from the back of a ball cap. Briley would never admit it, but watching Leah was her favorite pastime. Just not in a stalker or creeper way. At least she hoped not.
Leah and her son, Evan, had moved into the house next door ten months ago. Briley knew Leah was fifty and her son was sixteen because Mrs. Hanlin had told her the day after they’d moved in; she’d also mentioned Leah had an ex-wife, another daughter, and two grandkids.
Briley pushed her black framed glasses up the bridge of her nose as her eyes moved from Leah’s tight ass, up a toned body, only to lock eyes with the woman who had taken her sunglasses off and now nibbled on the earpiece. With a squeak, Briley jumped back from her window, lost her footing, and fell backward to land on the floor. “Oh.”
Kat, Briley’s older sister by two years, jumped up from the couch. “You okay?” She popped the rest of her cheese Danish in her mouth, then looked out the window to see what held her sister’s attention. “Does this have anything to do with that woman staring at your house and laughing?”
“What?” Briley scrambled up, leaned back against the wall, then crept toward the window, where she glanced out. Leah was turned away from her and talking to Ms. Hanlin, their busybody with a heart of gold neighbor, and gesturing to Briley’s house.
“Do you have a thing for your neighbor? You sure do stare at her a lot.” Kat was tall and imposing at almost six feet and all lean muscle, as opposed to Briley’s five-foot-six frame. They both took after their mom with chestnut hair, but Kat had their dad’s blue eyes and Briley their mom’s green.
Kat had arrived the previous day after quitting her job the month before, packing up, and driving halfway across the country to move in with Briley. They’d talked about Kat needing a change for months and Briley had offered her spare room, as long as Kat paid part of the expenses, got a job, and figured out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. The sale of Kat’s condo, which netted her a tidy sum, also helped her make up her mind. Briley understood being stagnant, but she also knew Kat would go crazy if she sat around doing nothing for too long, hence the requirement of her looking for work.
Briley grimaced and flicked her hand in the air, hoping Kat would let it drop. “I don’t even know her.” Luck was not on her side.
Kat looked skeptical. “You don’t? That doesn’t sound like you at all. You know all your neighbors.” Kat pointed out the window and scrunched her nose up. “She lives right next door.”
“Your point?” Briley lifted her eyebrows.
“Is her house the one you and Brandon wanted to flip, but the owners wouldn’t sell to you?”
Eight years ago, she and Brandon, one of Briley’s best friends, had decided to pair up and try their hand at flipping houses. They’d researched for months before they felt ready to take the plunge. The first year they’d only flipped two houses, and although they’d made a good profit, they’d also made countless mistakes. Every year since, they’d improved, and last year they flipped ten houses and banked a sizable profit. Jacob Anderson, LLC was flourishing and a dream come true.
“The owner’s reason was that she wanted the house to keep its integrity.” Briley shrugged. “Who knows? I still don’t think that was the reason, but I guess we’ll never know.” She peeked out the window again.
“You haven’t introduced yourself yet?”
Ignoring Kat, Briley walked into the kitchen, where she topped off her glass of milk and downed half of it before setting it on the counter. She scratched her nose. “Well…” She ran her hands through her long hair and slumped against the black granite counter top.
“I see,” Kat said slowly. “How long has she lived here?”
“Ten months,” Briley mumbled.
“You have to speak up if you want me to hear you.”
Before speaking, Briley drained her glass. “I said ten months. Okay.” She threw her hands in the air. “Ten months and no, I don’t know her.” She avoided her sister’s penetrating gaze. “I have yet to introduce myself to her, at least properly, but I have spoken to her son quite a few times.”
That made Kat sit up straighter in her chair. “Seriously? You’ve spoken to her son, but not her?” Kat pointed to the table and Briley pulled
out a chair and flopped down in it.
“I…I.” Briley clamped her mouth shut and decided not to mention the sidewalk incident. “I…I attempted to, but when I was walking up to her house, with a basket of baked goods, I became flustered and came back here and never attempted to again. I doubt if she even saw me.” Leah stood on her porch at the time. Of course she saw her.
Kat laughed. “You ran back home? Good grief.” She quickly sobered. “But, don’t you give baked goods to all of your neighbors weekly? Surely, with her having a kid, you would make sure and deliver a basket to their house?”
“Yes, I do give baskets out weekly and her son has caught on and comes out to get theirs.” Briley suddenly found something interesting on the ceiling. When the stress of her flipping houses got the best of her, she would bake. Some people used drugs, alcohol, or sex to take the edge off. She used baking.
“Wait a minute.” Kat snapped her fingers in front of her face to draw her attention away from the ceiling. “You talk to her son and give him their basket and yet you are able to avoid her. You live in the same neighborhood. She lives right next door. You know you’re being an asshole, right?” Kat paused and wrinkled her brow. “Do you have a crush on her?”
Briley shook her head and laughed. “I do not have a crush on her.” At Kat’s, ‘you’re lying’ face, she quickly added, “Okay. I have a crush on her.”
Kat shot up her right hand, palm out, to stop Briley from saying more. “She’s straight, isn’t she?”
“No. Mrs. Hanlin said her ex is a woman. I’ve never met her but I am attracted to her and everyone that mentions her, particularly Mrs. Hanlin, always says how nice she is. I see her and Evan laughing outside when they grill out every week. I like her from a distance. I haven’t worked up the nerve to actually talk to her yet.” She sighed, dragged herself out of the chair, walked into the living room, and fell onto the couch.
After settling in the recliner, Kat motioned for her to go on.
“It started out as me not giving her my cupcakes when they first moved in, then Halloween happened and what I’m calling the First Incident.”
“Wait, let me get comfortable.” Kat wiggled against the recliner cushion. “This is going to be good.”
Briley rolled her eyes. “You know I always put decorations out. Well, I put mine up, then she put some out. When she saw me looking at her yard, she winked at me. She winked. So, I did what any reasonable person would do. I bought and put out more decorations. Then Mrs. Hanlin told me that Leah was going to give out full size candy bars.” She slapped her hands on the couch cushions.
Kat laughed and pulled a knee to her chest and wrapped an arm around it. “You went out and bought full sized candy bars, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did.” A small smile graced her lips. “The kids loved it.”
“I bet they did. Didn’t you dress up as Supergirl?”
She nodded. “It was a big hit with everybody.”
“What did Leah dress up as?”
“She dressed up as Captain Marvel. Her son dressed up as Spiderman. Her daughter and son-in-law were in town with their two kids. Before you ask, no, I did not talk to them either, but the kids were super cute.” She had a silly smile on her face, thinking about the kids in their Superman and Harry Potter costumes.
“Actually, that’s awesome. I would love to have seen Leah’s costume.”
Without missing a beat, Briley picked up her phone, scrolled through the pictures, then handed the phone over to her sister.
“Briley, she looks wickedly cool.” Kat scrolled through a few photos. “Her grandkids are adorable.” She handed the phone back. “She must have put a lot of work into her costume and you just happened to get a picture of her wearing it. It’s like she’s posing for you.”
Briley ignored Kat’s remark about Leah being a grandmother and tossed the phone to the end of the couch. “Mrs. Hanlin said she spent months working on it. Her son enjoys cosplaying, so she thought it would be a good bonding experience for them both.”
“You do, too.” Briley waved her off. “Okay. Is that the end of your feud?”
“You know how much I love Christmas.” Briley placed her arm over her eyes.
“Briley, what happened?”
“The Third Incident. I decorated, then she decorated. Then I decorated some more, then she did. For a solid week, we would one-up each other. I ended up spending half of my Christmas money on decorations. Mr. Balkin would sit bundled up in his lawn chair across the street and watch us to see what the other one would come up with. You know how competitive I am. She just wouldn’t stop.” Briley sat up and lifted her legs onto the coffee table. “I won the Christmas decorating competition and was mentioned in the paper.” She had the paper displayed in a frame on her bedroom wall. It had taken her years to place first.
“I know. You sent Mom and me both a copy of the paper. Framed.” She paused for a moment. “It seems to me that you both have a part in this. She obviously was trying to get your attention. Maybe this was the only way since you’ve been ignoring her. Which doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“You know I bake every Christmas and I went all out this year. Spent weeks baking and making candy, then packing everything up. I made everyone a small basket of goodies and passed them out.”
“You didn’t give her one?” Kat picked up a throw pillow and hit Briley in the head. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Briley glared at her, straightened her glasses, then hugged the pillow to her chest. “Evan, Leah’s son, had told me they were going to his sister’s for Christmas. I thought about giving them one for a hot second, but decided not to since they were leaving. Then Mrs. Hanlin, because it’s always her, said that Leah saw her basket and asked her about it the day before they left. Mrs. Hanlin told her that it was from me. Leah then proceeded to tell her that she didn’t get one, and Mrs. Hanlin said for a second, she and her son looked sad.”
Kat shook her head. “Wow. That’s…I don’t know what to say. Wow.”
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re disappointed in me. I’m disappointed enough in myself for the both of us. I should have given her a huge basket to take with her for everyone to share.” Briley waved her hands in the air. “She makes me nervous. Kat, you don’t even know.”
Kat’s gaze bored into Briley. “It doesn’t bother you that she’s a grandma?”
“She may be a grandma but she’s only fifty. You know age doesn’t matter to me. She’s gorgeous, right?” Briley had thought about the age difference, but the sixteen years between the two of them didn’t matter to her. There had been a twenty-year difference between their parents and they were married almost forty years before their dad had died in a motorcycle accident a few years back.
“She is and I just wanted to make sure about the age difference.” Kat stood, walked around the coffee table, sat down on the couch, and drew Briley against her side. “I don’t care how big of a crush you have on her; you need to do something to make up for your shitty ways. Maybe bake her some cupcakes.” She frowned when Briley stiffened in her arms. “Is there more?”
“Incident Four.” Briley glanced away sheepishly. “Look. You know I don’t have a green thumb, but did you get a look at her flowers? They are amazing. So, when I saw her planting them, I went out, bought a few pallets of flowers for myself, and planted them. I thought that if I impressed her with my mad gardening skills it would be easier to strike up a conversation. One day while I was watering said flowers, I caught her staring at me. She shook her head, winked at me, then walked into her house.”
“Briley, what flowers? I didn’t see any when I got here yesterday.”
“They died.”
“Say what?”
“They all died.” Briley buried her head in Kat’s neck. “I couldn’t even keep some stupid flowers alive. What kind of loser am I?”
Kat laughed and kissed her on the head. �
��Don’t be dramatic. So your mad gardening skills are nonexistent. Just the fact that you tried tells me that you like her.” Kat laughed and squeezed her once more, before standing up. “I think it’s time we settled this.”
“Wait.” It took a moment for Kat’s words to register but when they did, Briley jumped up from the couch, misjudged her momentum, and tripped over the coffee table. Kat barely caught her in time to stop a minor catastrophe.
“Easy.”
Briley threw her arm off, heart pounding in her chest. “Where are you going?” She ran in front of Kat and plastered herself against the front door. “You are not going over there.” She didn’t know why she told Kat anything.
The glare Kat threw her way should have stopped Briley in her tracks, but she wasn’t thinking straight.
“Don’t tell me what I’m not going to do.” Kat crossed her arms. “It never worked when we were growing up and it’s not going to work now. I am going to do what you haven’t worked up the nerve to do yet. I am going to introduce myself to Leah.” She grasped Briley by the shoulders and shoved her aside. “You should find a way to make this right. Besides, I could have gone through the backdoor. Oh, and,” she said, “don’t think I didn’t catch that you skipped over the second incident.”
Briley slid to the floor when the door shut behind Kat, then quickly scrambled to the window, peeked out it, and couldn’t believe her eyes when Kat marched next door and joined Leah, who was walking away from her mailbox.
They shook hands, exchanged words, then Leah pointed to her house. Kat nodded, followed her down the walkway, up the steps, and disappeared behind Leah’s bright red front door. Briley flung the curtain back and dropped down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.
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