The week passed with Logan occasionally catching my attention while picking Oliver up from school, but other than that, we went our separate ways. Oliver, on the other hand, enjoyed hanging out in my tree house and after a little convincing, he managed to talk me into fixing it up.
Truth was, it wasn’t exactly safe the way it was now. Between the rotting floorboards and rickety ladder, it was an accident waiting to happen. To my complete surprise, Tuesday morning on my regular day off, I opened the door to two burly men, dressed neatly in maroon polos and khaki shorts.
“Um, can I help you?” I asked, standing in my doorway, fresh from my morning shower.
“We’re here to help with the tree house in the back,” the tall man explained. It was then that I noticed the toolbox in his hand.
“I didn’t—” I shook my head, scrunching my brows.
“Mr. West told us you’d be home today and to help in any way you needed on the place.”
“Oh,” I muttered, taken aback. It made sense since it would be his son playing there. Instead of walking next door, insisting I could do all the work myself, I smiled politely. “Go on around back and I’ll be out in a moment.”
By the end of the day, my old hangout looked brand new. I painted the old furniture bright–blues and greens, while the men did the real work. Oliver came over just before dinner, making a beeline for the new, sturdy ladder.
“Wow, this is great!” he exclaimed, climbing up.
I followed behind him, smiling as he took a seat at my previously hot-pink table. “Blue is much better.” He grinned.
Oliver helped me hang some of the old signs from my childhood, and then ran home for dinner explaining he’d bring over some of his artwork to hang later.
Later came and went—with no sign of Oliver—so feeling pleased with the events of the day and wanting to thank Logan, I walked next door and rang the buzzer. After waiting another minute, I rang it again, and then turned to leave. Maybe they went out.
The moment I stepped down the first step, the door opened. I turned back, smiling, expecting to see Oliver or Logan. Instead, there stood a tall, blond supermodel. At least she could pass for one. She wore nothing but a black silky sheet pressed around her barely twenty-one-year-old body.
She giggled back at someone in the house before turning to me. “Oh, you’re not Zoey,” she panted, her heavy accent was foreign to my ears. I watched the girl’s expression drop to disappointment.
At a loss for words, I saw the lights of a car pull up and watched another perky blonde wearing a men’s button-down shirt passing for a dress saunter up beside me.
“There you are!” The first girl giggled, licking her lips.
“Come on ladies, I don’t enjoy being left waiting.” Logan’s voice filled me with disgust.
I rolled my eyes hoping Oliver was no longer home and turned to leave.
“We’re coming baby. There’s some girl here who’s not with us. Should I tell her to leave?”
“She’s definitely not with us dressed like that.” The second girl laughed, her accent matching the others. She looked me up and down and then smiled wickedly. “Unless this is a country bumpkin role playing thing you got going on. I bet you’ve got some great tits hiding underneath there.”
Insulted, I scoffed, stunned and looked down at my oversized, cutoff denim overalls and white tank top. With a shake of my head, my blood boiling, I snapped, “Enjoy yourselves, ladies. Make sure he pays you well, he’s got the cash.”
With that, I turned and stomped back down the drive.
“Cassandra!”
I stopped, standing by his gate and looked back to see Logan standing in his open doorway, his perfect body bare besides a pair of black boxer briefs. He was staring straight at me, his face alit under the glow of the porch light. He titled his head just the slightest and opened his mouth but then shut it tight again. There was nothing he could say.
I sighed, disappointed, and continued home with a new sense of sadness for Oliver.
Logan West was a pig. That wasn’t going to change no matter how much I wanted to believe differently.
The next day after school, Hilary showed up ready to drag me out of the house to go find the perfect dress for my blind date the next night. Reluctantly, I agreed.
“So what do you know about this guy?” I asked as we entered the small boutique sporting a giant sale sign in the window.
“Not much, but Caleb says he's a hard worker,” she replied, holding up a low-cut, red dress that looked more streetwalker than first date.
“No.” I made a face, shaking my head. “Absolutely not.”
Hilary shrugged, hanging it back on the rack, and continued on her search. I already explained on the drive over what I was looking for—sexy and sweet, but not too revealing. In other words, nothing that reeked of desperation.
“So, what’s this Kurt like?” I asked, wandering toward a rack of shoes.
“He’s…cute.”
I looked over at her, narrowing my eyes. “You have at least met him, right?”
“Of course.” Her voice sounded insulted, but then added in a whisper, “Once.”
“Once?” I gasped and my entire body grew rigid. “You said he asked you about me!”
“He did, which is when I met him.” Her voice was soft, aware she was busted.
“Hilary!” I placed the nude heel in my hand back on the shelf, and turned to leave.
“Hear me out, please.” She grabbed my arm to stop me.
“You have ten seconds.”
“Kurt came into Haven looking for a job a week ago. Caleb said he knew the guy from a friend and agreed when Kurt explained he’d been having trouble affording an apartment. Kurt noticed you during the speed dating night and asked me if I’d help set something up.” She sighed, and released her grip on my arm. “Caleb insisted if you guys went out that you do it there so he could keep an eye on you, but Kurt seems innocent enough.”
I exhaled a deep breath through my nostrils, lips pressed tightly together. I shook my head and slowly looked around the brightly painted store. What was I getting myself into?
Hilary must have caught onto to my resolve. A small smile crept over her lips. “Look, he's seems nice all right, and I think you'll have at least one or two things in common. Maybe he won't be Mr. Right, but he could be Mr. Right Now. You need to have some fun, Cassandra. You were with Mark for five years, time to date a little and see what’s out there.”
I looked her straight in the eyes. “Fine, but he better not be some creep, or perverted old guy!” She laughed and I couldn’t hold the frown on my lips any longer. I chuckled, and brushed past her, grabbing the heels I’d picked up earlier.
“How old is old?” I heard her ask a short moment later.
“Hilary!”
“Just kidding,” She laughed when I threw a sandal in her direction. “Trust me, just don't overthink everything he says, and tomorrow night will be fine.”
A mischievous spark shimmered in her eyes, and I took that as my cue to hurry up, and pick an outfit.
So, shall we head over to the lingerie department?” Her voice lit with amusement.
I rolled my eyes, and grabbed the four possible dress options we had placed on a rack and without a reply to her absurd comment, I slipped into the small changing room.
Truth was, it had been over a year since I last had sex. Even though I refused to have a one-night stand with my charming neighbor, maybe relieving some pent-up tension with Kurt wouldn’t be the worst thing. I missed it more than I would ever let on. Not just the sex, but also the safe and tender feeling of being wrapped up with someone I can’t get enough of. With Mark, it was always rushed but there were those few special times afterward where he would cuddle up behind me. They were rare—he enjoyed a cold beer and a loud sports game after sex—but I cherished them more than anything.
Maybe Kurt could give me that, at least for one night. I sighed, switching my thoughts away from anything depres
sing and shook the notion from my head, laughing at the ridiculous thought.
“Any luck in there?” Hilary called out.
Pulling back the curtain, I revealed the little black dress that hugged my body in all the right ways, but did not scream slut.
“Wow, yeah that's the one.” She grinned as I twirled in front of the long mirrors.
I agreed. It was perfect.
“So I have to ask, did something happen with Logan?”
My head shot up, confused as to why she would even ask. Did Logan say something to Caleb?
“No. Why?” I continued staring in the mirror but my thoughts no longer had anything to do with the dress.
“Nothing.”
“Hilary,” I warned, turning to face her, arms crossed over my chest.
“Fine.” She sighed, looking around nervously. “Caleb said Logan was at Haven last night and that he was really down on himself. Completely the opposite of what Caleb is used to seeing. He even went home alone.”
All I could do was march back into the dressing room. I didn’t care nor did I want to hear more.
“He also was asking a lot of questions about you.” Hilary continued through the curtain.
Curiosity had me interested against my better judgment to change the subject.
“Like what? If I charge by the hour?” I bit my lip. Why did I just say that?
The curtain flew open and Hilary rushed inside, shutting it behind her.
“What?” her voice was dripping with repulsion.
“Ugh, it’s nothing.” I finished dressing, ignoring her impatient stares.
“Obviously it’s something. So either tell me or I’ll be making a pit stop at Logan’s.”
Unsure of what to tell her without freaking her out, I slid on my flats, and moved to walk past her. She blocked my way.
“Talk. Now,” she demanded.
I told her everything about what I saw and all she could do was stare at me in disbelief. “So you think the man hired prostitutes?” She shook her head. “Half the women in town want to sleep with him. Why pay for it?’
“I have no idea.” I made a face. “But I just want to forget it happened. So can we please not talk about him again.”
She nodded and allowed me to exit the dressing room.
“This is just another reason why you need a date. Something to get your mind off how shitty men can be and remind you how much fun you can have with a good one.”
She was right. What was I doing waiting for my knight in shining armor? Men were all the same, and I was a fool to think I’d be surprised by any of them. I was fresh out of college, and while there, I never lived the true college experience. I bit my bottom lip, butterflies fluttering wildly inside me. Tomorrow night I would have some fun, one way or another.
After paying for the dress and heels, we headed to my house, relaxing on the back porch. I confessed to Hilary that I would let down my guard and give Kurt a fair chance. Who knew, maybe we really would hit it off. She was thrilled, and to my complete shock, she pulled a box of condoms from her purse and tossed them in my lap.
“What the hell?” I shrieked. “You gonna set up a health clinic?”
“Hey, better safe than…well knocked up.”
I tossed them back. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Hilary reached back, slid open the screen door behind us, and tossed them on my kitchen counter.
I opened my mouth to complain when she smiled. “Is that Oliver?”
Oliver was skipping toward us. Abort condom conversation. Hilary looked pleased when I shot her an irritated glare.
I turned my attention back to Oliver. “Yeah,” I nodded, smiling to myself. Something about the small tot always made me smile.
“Hi, Cassandra,” he said as he stopped in front of us.
“Hey buddy, this is Hilary. You met her at the carnival last week.”
“I remember, Caleb is your friend, and he’s awesome!”
She giggled, nodding in agreement with him.
“So how have you been?” I asked, placing my glass of water on the table beside me.
“Great, sorry I couldn’t come back over last night. Daddy had an important meeting so I had a sleepover at my cousin’s.”
“You stayed over on a school night?” My voice came out as disturbed as I felt about it.
“Yeah, Daddy said his clients were from out of town.” His face melted into a slight frown. He looked down and instantly the smile was back when he held up a paper bag he’d been holding. “But I brought over my artwork now, and Daddy even helped me pick out awesome frames to hang them.”
I couldn’t help smiling. Logan was a grown man, who was I to care what or who he did in his free time. His clients, as he called them, were definitely from out of town, so at least it wasn’t a full lie.
“All right, let’s go hang them up.” I stood up. “I’ll race you!” With a playful grin, I ran past him.
Chapter Eleven
Lowered Inhibitions
I stood outside Haven for what felt like forever, my entire body painfully alive and rigid. My hands were clammy and trembled as I ran them down my short black dress and pulled on my best confident smile. My feet carried me at a snail’s pace through the door, the unnerving need to turn around and run was echoing through my mind. This was a giant step for me, enormous, but one I needed to take in order to put myself back out there in the dating world. Just the word—dating—terrified me beyond justified reasoning. Mark had been my first and only boyfriend. What was I supposed to know about dating and about what men expected?
“Cassandra?” A tall, dark-haired man stepped away from Caleb, who was leaning against the bar with a clipboard in hand.
Caleb winked with a soft smile and headed off behind the bar.
“Hi, you must be Kurt,” I said, holding the smile on my face as smoothly as possible. My cheeks stung from the force it took, but it was the only way to control the bundle of nerves racing through me as he drew closer.
I was going to kill Hilary for this. The man was at least thirty-five, and considering this was my first real date ever, he was not what I was expecting. I’d never even considered dating someone more than five maybe ten years older, let alone almost fifteen years. I had to admit though, she wasn’t lying. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way.
His hair was long, hanging just past his jaw, tucked behind his ears and I couldn’t help noticing his eyes, an intense, deep-grey shade that clouded with a dark glimmer when he did a quick once over of my body. He was dressed in simple beat-up blue jeans and a plain white tee. The man was all muscles with a large amateur looking tattoo running up his forearm.
I knew Hilary’s intentions were not to help me find a steady boyfriend, but more to help dip my toes back in the water. The condoms sitting on my kitchen table right now proved that point. Judging by Kurt’s cool demeanor, he looked plenty experienced in helping a girl do just that.
“Wow! I knew you were pretty but—” He titled his head to the side, his lips curling up into a crooked smile. “seeing you up close, gorgeous is be a more fitting description.”
I smiled, biting my lip as heat spread over my cheeks. “Thanks, you’re not too bad yourself.” Okay, I could do this. Taking my hand, he placed a small kiss on my knuckles. I felt my confidence grow as Kurt guided us over to a small table in the corner.
He was making tonight even easier than I expected. He was sweet, attractive, and with a few drinks, I would have the courage to open up and try to get to know him a little. One fun date could possibly be the best thing for me. Part of me wanted to hit it off with Kurt just so I could officially move on from my past with Mark. The bastard would no longer be my only lover.
If we heated things up tonight in that department it would also help soothe some of the ache I felt whenever I spent time around Logan. As much as I hated to admit it, Logan did things to my body I couldn’t explain, and until I put out those flames he kept igniting, I was bound to attack his perfect body so
oner or later. That was not an option.
Against all rational thoughts, in the back of my mind, I found myself thinking if all I wanted was a night of passion, maybe giving into Logan could be done—with a mutual agreement that it never be spoken of afterward. Just sex. Nobody would have to find out, and nothing would need to change.
I shook my head clearing the absurd idea. What the hell was the matter with me? I couldn’t stand the complication that would cause, us being neighbors. Not to mention, I was completely repulsed at his little ménage à trois the other day. I was definitely not his type.
Sitting across from Kurt, I held up the menu debating what I was in the mood for. Well, beside a careless one-night stand, preferably with my arrogant neighbor.
“So, what made you want to work here at Haven?” I asked, lowering my menu to catch his gaze. It wasn’t the most appealing job in town, not like Logan’s anyway. I inwardly berated myself for thinking of him yet again.
“I um, recently moved to town. Needed a job and Caleb was nice enough to offer. It’s nothing permanent, just until I find something else.”
I nodded with a small smile. The waitress came over to take our drink order and Kurt ordered a bottle of wine. The man was reading my mind.
“So, I hear you’re a teacher.” He pushed his menu to the edge of the table. I caught his gaze and found myself being drawn into him.
I swallowed; something in his expression was sexy, but dangerous. It was new and exciting. “Yes, kindergarten.” My voice cracked. Where was the damn waitress with our drinks? I needed that wine to help me relax, pronto.
“That sounds…interesting,” he chuckled.
Finally the waitress appeared, setting down the bottle and two wine glasses.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, watching as he filled my glass. Quickly, I downed the entire thing, looking up through my lashes, slightly embarrassed. He gave me an impressed look before refilling it for me with a smirk dancing across his lips. It was nothing like the smirks Logan threw my way. I looked away, annoyed he was still in my thoughts and took another sip of the sweet wine.
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