The Girl Nest Door (Green Valley Shifters Book 2)

by Zoe Chant

  Chapter 14

  Andrea walked as slowly up her front walk as she knew how, hoping she would catch the attention of Shaun without having to actually go to his door.

  To her joy, she was still unlocking her door when she heard the creak of his steps on his porch.

  “Andrea?”

  “Shaun!” Andrea realized she sounded far too eager and cleared her throat. “I, ah, have something for you.”

  Shaun was silent for a moment and Andrea rushed on. “I was at Ted’s Hardware and picked up the fuse you needed.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Shaun protested.

  “It was a couple of bucks,” Andrea said dismissively. “And I was there anyway.” That was a lie. She’d had no other purpose at Ted’s but to pick up the fuse and hope that she ran into Shaun so she could give it to him.

  “Thank you,” Shaun said, sounding gruff in the shadows of his ill-lit porch. “I... really appreciate it.”

  “I also wrote you up some instructions, in case I didn’t run into you,” Andrea said shyly. “Let me go grab them.”

  In the stillness of her own empty house, Andrea took a deep breath and reminded herself that what had happened was just a thing. This was not courtship, and she wasn’t really trying to catch his attention or angling for a repeat of the night before.

  She was just being neighborly.

  And sort of hoping that the thing happened again.

  She tripped back down her walk more briskly than she’d walked up it, and vaulted over his gate to close the distance to his house.

  “I may have had a little too much fun writing this,” she confessed, suddenly shy to hand over the pages. “Here’s the replacement fuse, and I brought a flashlight, in case you didn’t have one.”

  “A flashlight?” Even looking confused, Shaun was devastatingly handsome. “There’s a light in the laundry room.”

  “You have to turn off the power to the house before you switch out a fuse,” Andrea scolded him. “It’s here in part one, in big letters.”

  Shaun laughed. “Of course. I’m an idiot,” he said sheepishly.

  “The jury’s still out on that,” Andrea teased him. “You want me to give you a hand?”

  “Yeah,” Shaun breathed, and they were suddenly taking about the other kind of electricity.

  He was going to kiss her, Andrea was suddenly sure. He was going to kiss her again and all she could think about was the way his skin smelled and the way his bare chest had felt under her fingers and how he’d filled her.

  He swallowed, instead of leaning in. “Yeah,” he repeated firmly. “That would be great.”

  Andrea stuffed her memories back into the past where they belonged. “Let’s go play with electricity,” she said in her best enthusiastic preschool teacher voice.

  Chapter 15

  “That’s the ground, we don’t have to mess with that, there’s the hot, and that’s the return. Some of these old houses aren’t color coded reliably, but mostly red or black is hot, white is the return, and bare or green is ground. You’re lucky; I think the guy who wired my house got a deal on black wire, because it’s arbitrarily used as ground in a bunch of places, and that can get confusing.”

  Andrea deftly unscrewed the first connection while Shaun held the flashlight over her head. He was hard as a rock and if she backed up an inch, she’d figure out exactly how badly he wanted her.

  “Now your turn,” she said, turning and brushing up against him.

  For a moment, Shaun’s brain completely shut off.

  Andrea patiently put the screwdriver into his hand as if she hadn’t noticed his rock hard cock. “It’s not scary, I promise. All the power to the house is off and nothing can hurt you.” She slipped the flashlight out of his hand and held it pointed at the box. “Go ahead and unscrew the next part.”

  Shaun took a deep breath and awkwardly unscrewed the last connection on the fuse, nervous under her scrutiny, and tense with his need for her.

  Andrea showed him how to rock the fuse out of the base, and handed him the new one. “Just press it into place.”

  It wasn’t what he wanted to press into place, but Shaun obediently popped the fuse in and when Andrea nudged him, then replaced the wires into the new connections, twisting the screws in tightly.

  “Done!” Andrea said cheerfully. “Let’s just put the panel cover back up, and go throw the switch!”

  “That was it?” Shaun said bemusedly. “I thought there would be a lot more to it.”

  They lifted the panel cover into place and Shaun screwed it down.

  “How’d you learn to do this?” he asked, tightening each screw carefully.

  “I inherited my parents’ house when they died; none of my extremely successful siblings had any use for an aging house in the small town they didn’t want to come back to. And I couldn’t afford a plumber or an electrician, so I learned a lot on YouTube.”

  Shaun recognized this as a dangerous moment.

  It was the start of an actual conversation, the kind of thing where they talked about their families and ended up bonding about shared middle school experiences.

  Though probably, her experiences didn’t include turning into a tiger in the locker room of a boarding school unexpectedly.

  “Shaun?”

  His promise haunted him.

  His son didn’t want him to like Miss Andrea. Not seriously like her. And he owed Trevor so much, for so many years of his life that he’d missed. He couldn’t break that promise and dissolve the trust they were just beginning to build. Not even for a woman who set him on fire with a single golden glance.

  Our mate, his tiger insisted.

  It’s just... physical, he replied, barely able to form words because she was standing close in the tiny room, and the flashlight was casting her curves into sharp relief.

  “Shaun?” she repeated, and it was almost a whine, as full of need as his own body.

  The flashlight and screwdriver clattered to the floor as he reached for her and she moved to meet him.

  If they made love any less urgently than they had the night before, it was not by much.

  He carried her all the way to the couch as she wriggled out of her t-shirt, kissing every inch of skin as she exposed it, and was shucking off his pants before she got her bra off. She wrestled him out of his shirt as he did the same with her shorts, frequently at odds as their limbs tangled. Then, finally, he was buried in her again and she was clawing at his shoulders as he drew her into an orgasm that shuddered around his cock.

  It was with great effort that he was able to resist joining her in the throes of pleasure, but he paced himself carefully and was able to raise her up again, her gorgeous body arching in a second agony of bliss below him as he finally released.

  The couch was too narrow to comfortably lie next to each other, and Shaun feared that smothering her with his weight would put a crimp in their neighborly friendship, so he only gave himself a moment to catch his ragged breath before he rose up and attempted to reassemble his clothing.

  Andrea lay panting only a few breaths longer, then sat up to clean herself and do the same.

  “Daddy?”

  Trevor’s thin, tired voice from the top of the stairs made them both freeze.

  “Daddy, why are all the lights off?”

  “I was just working on the electricity, kiddo,” Shaun said loudly as Andrea grimaced and yanked her shirt over her head as quietly as possible. “I’ll fix it in just a second and come up and tuck you back in.”

  Trevor seemed to accept that, and padded sleepily back into his room.

  “I’ll flip the breaker on my way out,” Andrea whispered as she crept for the front door, her bra stuffed into a pocket.

  Then she was gone, and after only a moment, the lights sprang back to life.

  Chapter 16

  It was odd to have Shaun on her porch for once, and Andrea had to stare for a moment.

  He was so handsome in the afternoon sun, with his neatly
trimmed blond hair and gray eyes. He had clearly not shaved that morning; a dust of stubble made Andrea want to reach out and stroke his perfect jaw.

  “Your flashlight,” Shaun said, handing it over. “We... ah... left it on last night, so I replaced the batteries for you.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Andrea protested.

  “You didn’t have to buy me a fuse,” Shaun reminded her.

  “Daddy!” Trevor’s voice was happy and demanding from across the wide yard. “Come push me more! I’m going too slow!”

  Andrea had to laugh.

  Shaun managed to look both pleased and put upon. “I swear, the kid never gets tired of the swing. I should tear that rusty old thing down.”

  “You’re loving every minute of it,” Andrea accused him.

  Shaun’s smile, slow and sheepish, was all the admission he needed to give.

  “Dadddddyyyyyy!”

  “Better go,” Andrea said with a smile of her own that she knew must look foolish. “Dinosaurus Trevorus is calling.”

  “There was one other thing. I meant to ask last night, but... ah...”

  Shaun was not the sort of guy that Andrea would expect to see blushing, but she was glad that she’d been able to witness the adorable phenomena. Even the tips of his ears were pink.

  “Ah, indeed,” Andrea said with a grin.

  “Dinner,” Shaun said desperately. “I wanted to make you dinner. A real dinner. To prove that my culinary talents are somewhat above boxed noodles in primary colors. And to thank you for your help.”

  Andrea’s heart was in her throat. Not a date, she reminded herself. It wasn’t a date. “I’d love to,” she said, feeling shy. “My next night off is Thursday.”

  “Thursday,” Shaun said, pouncing on the word. “Yes, Thursday. Are you allergic to anything? Vegetarian?”

  “I’m easy,” Andrea said, then sorely regretted her choice of words. “I mean... ah... anything sounds good. My own culinary talents are pretty much limited to boxes and sandwiches, so I won’t be picky.”

  “Daddddddyyyyyy!”

  “Thursday,” Shaun repeated.

  “Thursday.”

  She watched him walk away across the lawn, his gait a graceful stride that called Andrea to follow.

  She was stroking the flashlight in her hands reflexively. But it wasn’t just Shaun’s glorious body that she found herself desiring.

  She wanted to sprint after him and push Trevor on the swing, to romp with both of them across the grass. She wanted to laugh and play with them in the front yard, not caring who saw them. She wanted Shaun to kiss her in sunlight, to hold her hand, to push her hair back from her face...

  Andrea bit the inside of her cheek.

  Shaun wasn’t wrong, she reminded herself. Trevor was in a fragile place, so recently abandoned by a mother that Andrea had never thought was particularly good at the role anyway. Shaun was fighting an uphill battle to win the little boy’s trust and find his footing as a father, and she could only complicate that bond right now.

  Her hawk muttered in her ear, discontent.

  I know, she agreed with it.

  Rather than continue to stare out of her window after him, she resolutely turned back into her house, where she spent several long hours looking ineffectively at her laptop keyboard, listening longingly to the laughter from the yard next door.

  Chapter 17

  “What are you making, Daddy?” Trevor was in full-on superhero dog mode, a red cape draped over his back as he crawled into the kitchen with his nose in the air. “It smells like gardens.”

  “I’m making spaghetti,” Shaun told him. “Miss Andrea is coming over for dinner, remember? I hope you like spaghetti.”

  “I like spaghetti,” Trevor said skeptically. “But I don’t like sauce.”

  Shaun stopped stirring. “How can you like spaghetti if you don’t like sauce?” At least he hadn’t protested Andrea’s inclusion in the meal.

  “I like the noodles,” Trevor said, as if it was obvious. “And I like cheese sprinkle. But not sauce.”

  Shaun wondered if this was the sort of parenting battle he should pick. Surely most of the nutrition was in the sauce. But noodles and ‘cheese sprinkle’ at least had good protein, and Trevor seemed to do a good job eating his vegetables most of the time. Sauce was probably not a hill Shaun needed to die on.

  “No sauce for Superdog,” Shaun agreed, stirring the sauce again carefully. “In fact, no spaghetti for Superdog. Only little boys at the dinner table.”

  Trevor sat back on his heels and gave a little roar. “What about lions? Can I be a lion at the dinner table?”

  Shaun’s blood ran cold and he stopped stirring again. “No,” he said swiftly. “Not at the dinner table.” Would he have to cancel his dinner at the last moment? Pack Trevor up and retreat to the city to find a preschool that specialized in shifter children? Was there even such a thing?

  “How about a horse?” Trevor said, neighing.

  Shaun tried to take comfort in the fact that he was clearly cycling through animals to pretend to be. Probably he wouldn’t shift again. Probably. It was just a coincidence that he’d picked a lion.

  “Nope,” he said as lightly as he could, giving the sauce a careful stir.

  “A cow?” Trevor mooed convincingly and giggled.

  “Not a chance,” Shaun said.

  Trevor continued to moo until there was a knock on the door. Shaun felt his chest seize.

  “I’ll get it!” Trevor cried, rising to his feet and scampering away.

  He had no reason to be so nervous, Shaun told himself. It wasn’t a date. It was just a neighborly dinner, nothing more.

  “She brought pie,” Trevor called from the front door.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Shaun said, coming to the kitchen door and stopping.

  Andrea was dressed convincingly casually, in a checked country shirt with rolled up sleeves and blue jeans with knees worn white. “Gran had one leftover last night, and I shouldn’t eat it all myself!” She chewed on her lip and gave a shy, crooked smile.

  Shaun had never seen anything more gorgeous or perfect.

  “She brought pie!” Trevor repeated rapturously.

  “My one baking failure,” Shaun confessed as Andrea brought the pie into the kitchen. “I can bake bread, and make a decent cake when the circumstances demand it. But pie has always eluded me.”

  “You made bread!?” Andrea said joyfully. “I thought I smelled it, but decided I was delirious. And oh, the spaghetti smells heavenly. You, Mr. Powell, are quite the catch, let me tell you.”

  She said it lightly, teasing, but clearly recognized at the same time that Shaun did the danger of the statement. For a moment, they simply looked at each other, eyes full of conflicted longing.

  Trevor, looking between them suspiciously, quickly said, “I want Miss Andrea to come see my new shelves. Not you, Daddy. Just Miss Andrea.”

  “I’ve got to watch the sauce,” Shaun said gruffly, turning back to the stove. “It will be about thirty minutes, still.”

  “I’d love to see your shelves,” Andrea agreed, taking Trevor’s hand and disappearing up the stairs with him.

  Listening to them play was a terrible mixed joy. Andrea’s clear laughter, Trevor’s non-stop chatter, just far enough away that he could hear the sound of it but not make out any words, filled the house.

  It sounded like a home.

  It sounded like his home.

  “It’s not a date. It’s not a courtship. It’s just a dinner,” Shaun reminded himself fiercely as he cut open the package of spaghetti noodles. “A neighborly dinner.”

  Trevor liked Miss Andrea, but he clearly didn’t want his father to have more to do with her than he already did. Whether he remembered the promise he had coaxed from Shaun or not, his preference was clear, and Shaun was trapped.

  Chapter 18

  “Oh, Trevor, your room looks amazing!”

  Shaun had clearly spent some time clean
ing and organizing, and a stack of new shelves with fabric cubes had absorbed a massive amount of the clutter. Andrea suspected that there had also been judicious use of trash bags.

  The play house had been re-assembled in a new, larger configuration. “That’s Daddy’s seat,” Trevor pointed out, indicating a pillow inside the tent. “You can sit there.”

  “Are you going to sell me stuffies today?” Andrea prompted.

  “No, I’m not a seller today,” Trevor said cheerfully. “Today I’m a super dog. We’re hiding out from the bad guys and looking for clues.”

  “Oo,” Andrea indulged. “What kinds of clues should we look for?”

  His imaginative play required a great deal of earnest explanation and complicated backstory, and Andrea gave it half her attention as she tried to figure out why the new shelves made her feel so hopeful.

  “Oh!” she said suddenly.

  “Right!” Trevor said eagerly. Apparently her revelation had been timed well to his conversation. “It’s a clue! Now we know where the secret base is!”

  “That’s awesome,” Andrea told him, in part as an answer, in part in response to her own realization.

  If they were really moving at the end of the semester, in just a month, was it likely that Shaun would be buying new shelves and storage? Or had he reconsidered?

  Had he reconsidered because of her?

  Maybe she just had to be patient, maybe her hawk was right, and they were meant to be together, just not yet.

  She could wait, for a guy like Shaun, for the relationship she was sure they could have.

  “Five minutes!” Shaun called from downstairs.

  She could wait five minutes, she thought and had to laugh, even though Trevor didn’t understand why.

  “Okay, Daddy!” Trevor called, but when he prepared to launch back into their play, Andrea stopped him.

  “Don’t you think we should clean up a little and then go set the table?”

  Trevor considered this skeptically, then reluctantly agreed. They dumped the toys that had migrated out back into their fabric boxes and tromped together down the stairs.