It was nine o’clock and the business district was waking up. Shopkeepers were sweeping and then hosing down sidewalks in front of their businesses. Natalia realized it would take her a while to get used to a lifestyle that seemed to move much slower than she was used to. She’d had to drive to a restaurant off the interstate for breakfast, because Ruthie’s, the local eating establishment, did not open to the public until eleven.
She walked into Grand Hardware and saw a man who looked like a department store Santa Claus without the red suit. His bright blue eyes sparkled like polished blue topaz when he smiled.
“Good morning, ma’am. How can I help you this morning?”
Natalia returned his friendly smile with one of her own. “I need two gallons of high-quality latex, semi-gloss paint, several brushes, and some rollers with extension poles, a pan and liners, tape, and drop cloths.”
The rotund middle-aged man with snow-white hair and a matching mustache and beard patted his belly over a bibbed apron. “What color are you looking for?”
The kitchen was a stark-white, a shade she found it much too sterile. “Let me see your paint samples.” It took her less than five minutes to select a color labeled harbor mist. It was a pale blue-gray, a shade that would complement the stainless-steel appliances and bleached pine cabinetry. “Do have paint that can cover stains?”
“That means you need one with a primer. It will eliminate you applying more than one coat.”
Forty minutes after walking into the hardware store, Natalia had selected everything she needed to give the kitchen a new coat of paint, while Johnnie Lee Grand talked nonstop about the preparations for the town’s upcoming Memorial Day parade until he left her to wait on another customer.
She loaded her purchases in the cargo area of her SUV, and then drove down the street to the supermarket. An hour later, the shopping cart was nearly overflowing with items to stock the pantry and the refrigerator-freezer. Natalia generously tipped the young man who bagged and stacked the bags neatly in her vehicle. She was more than impressed with the selection of fresh meat and poultry in the butcher department. She could not remember the last time she would have structured her work hours where she would be able to come home and prepare dinner for herself. Natalia rarely ate fast food, and the hospital’s cafeteria menu, although deemed nutritious, rarely varied from day to day.
The downtown area was bustling with activity when she left the supermarket and headed back to the house. It was May 1, and while winter was just loosening it brutal grip on Philadelphia, spring was in full bloom in southeastern West Virginia. The daytime temperature was in the low seventies, trees had put forth their leaves as did flowering plants their colorful yield. The cacophony of bird chatter as they flitted from branch to branch had become music to Natalia’s ears.
I think I’m really going to like living in Wickham Falls, she mused, as she maneuvered into the driveway to the house on Stewart Avenue. Most of the homes along the street sat on one-square-acre parcels that were larger than those in other areas of the town. And of all of the houses on the avenue, the one she occupied was the smallest.
She’d just exited the SUV when she saw her neighbor sitting on his porch. “How’s the thumb?”
He rose and leaned over the porch railing. “It’s still swollen, so I’m taking your advice and icing it.”
Natalia smiled. “That’s good.”
“Do you need help unloading your car?”
She shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“I think you do,” he countered when she set several bags on the ground.
“I’m really good here.” Her protestations were ignored when he came down off the porch and stood next to her.
“Why don’t you go and open the door and I’ll bring everything in?”
Natalia tilted her head and stared up at the man with balanced features and large golden-brown laughing eyes. Stubble on his strong, square jaw enhanced his overt virility. She had viewed more naked men than she could count since entering medical school, yet there was something about her neighbor’s physique that reminded her of the perfection of the male human body. And it was obvious he worked out because she couldn’t detect an ounce of fat on his torso under the white T-shirt.
“It’s all right, Mr.—”
“Collier,” he said, interrupting her. The name is Seth Collier. And yours? Because as neighbors I shouldn’t have to refer to you as Dr. Hawkins.”
“It’s Natalia. I can take the bags. I don’t want you to reinjure your thumb.”
Seth smiled, exhibiting perfectly aligned white teeth. “And if I do, then you can tend to me again.”
Natalia returned his smile. “If I treat you again, then I’ll have to send you a bill.”
“That’s okay because I do have medical insurance. Now, please go and unlock your door so I can bring in your groceries.” He peered in one of the bags. “You need to put your perishables in the fridge before they go bad.”
“Okay.”
She walked up the porch to her house and unlocked the screen door, and then the inner door. Seth had brought in four bags, setting them on the floor in the living room, when she walked past him to bring in more.
“What are you painting?” he asked when he placed the paint cans next to the bag with the brushes and rollers.
“The kitchen.”
Seth crossed muscular arms over his chest. “Who’s going to do the painting?”
“I am.” Natalia picked up the bags with the dairy products and headed for the kitchen.
Seth followed, carrying two bags in each hand. “That’s not a small job.”
She smiled at him over her shoulder. “I know. It should take me a couple of days before I finish. I didn’t have to buy a ladder because I found one in the utility closet near the back door.”
“You could finish a lot sooner if I help you.”
Natalia gave Seth a lingering stare. She did not find him off-putting or even threatening, but she wasn’t used to strangers offering their services within hours of her meeting them. “Don’t you have a job, Mr. Collier?”
“It’s Seth, and yes I have a job. Right now I’m on vacation, so I’m trying to be neighborly and also appreciative for you treating my hand. If you hadn’t, then I would’ve had to wait for Dr. Franklin to open his office before he could see me, or drive six miles to the county hospital and spend half the morning in the ER. You’re new to The Falls, and I want to let you know that folks here always help out their neighbors.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I am new here, so it’s going to take a while before I get used to your way of doing things. And how can I repay you if I allow you help me?”
A hint of a smile tilted the corners of Seth’s firm mouth. “I’d like a home-cooked meal.”
A laugh slipped through Natalia’s parted lips. “You want me to cook for you?” Seth nodded. “How do you know if I can put together a palatable meal?”
His eyebrows lifted a fraction. “You didn’t buy all of this fresh food just to look at it. Otherwise you would’ve selected prepackaged meals.”
“What about your wife or your girlfriend, Seth? Do they cook for you?”
“No, because I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend. My cooking skills are passable, and when I don’t cook for myself, then I’ll occasionally eat at Ruthie’s or the Wolf Den. I’m certain you passed Ruthie’s on your way to the supermarket, while the Wolf Den is a sports bar located between here and Mineral Springs.”
Natalia began emptying the bag with milk, butter, eggs, and yogurt and cheese. She could not begin to imagine why a man who looked like Seth wasn’t married or involved with a woman.
“What exactly do you do when you’re not on vacation?”
“I’m a deputy.”
She blinked slowly. “You’re a US deputy marshal?”
“No. I’m Wickham Falls’ deputy sheriff. And what brings you to The Falls?”
Natalia opened the French door refrigerator and then moved s
everal open boxes of baking soda to the back before she stored the perishables on shelves and in drawers. “I’m here to assist Dr. Franklin.”
Seth applauded. “Well, it’s about time he hired someone to help him out. Folks have been known to spend hours in his office waiting for him to see them just for a follow-up visit.”
“That’s because he’s very thorough,” Natalia said in defense of her new boss. She’d watched him examine one of his patients who had come in complaining of back pain.
“Thorough and very, very slow,” Seth countered. “When do you want to start painting?” he asked.
“Today,” she confirmed.
“If we work together I’m certain we can finish today.”
Natalia wanted to tell Seth that she still had to unpack boxes, but didn’t want to appear ungrateful. “If I’m going to spend the entire afternoon painting, then I can’t cook for you.”
“That’s not a problem. I’ll take you to the Wolf Den tonight and you can cook for me tomorrow.”
Natalia did not want to believe her neighbor had mentioned taking her out to eat as if it was something they’d done before. And she hoped he didn’t think of it as a date, because she wasn’t ready to date any man, even one as attractive as her next-door neighbor. “You’re really on this kick for me to cook for you.”
“I told you it’s been a while since I’ve had a decent home-cooked meal.”
Despite his obvious arrogance, Natalia did not want to believe she had hit the jackpot when it came to a neighbor. Not only was he tall, dark, and deliciously handsome, but he was also willing to donate his time to help her paint. “Do you usually moonlight as a painter in your spare time?”
Throwing back his head, Seth laughed loudly. “Not quite. My dad was a local handyman.” He held up his left hand when Natalia opened her mouth. “Don’t say it,” he warned softly.
“Don’t say what?” she said, as she struggled not to smile.
“You were going to mention my hitting my hand instead of the nail.”
“That’s called an accident,” she said, rather than tease him about his mishap with the hammer. “Give me about twenty minutes to put everything away and for me to change my clothes, and then we can begin painting. I’ll leave the door unlocked for you.”
Her eyes met Seth’s. The magnetism coming off him in waves held her captive until Natalia dropped her gaze. She could feel pinpoints of heat stinging her face and she was grateful for her darker complexion to conceal what would’ve been an obvious blush. And she also prayed he hadn’t caught her staring at him like a starstruck groupie coming face-to-face with her idol.
Seth gave her a mock salute. “I’ll see you later.”
Natalia exhaled an audible breath of relief when Seth walked out of the kitchen. She had relocated to Wickham Falls to become a small-town doctor, and had no intention of falling under the spell of her sexy neighbor.
Don’t miss
The Sheriff of Wickham Falls by Rochelle Alers,
available September 2018 wherever
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Copyright © 2018 by Rochelle Alers
ISBN-13: 9781488037887
Taken by Storm
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