by Bryn Donovan
She’d be his neighbor for a few weeks. Plenty of time for good things to happen. He wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, of course. His demon only showed up when he cared about people.
Casual hookups, short flings—those were no problem. Hell, he was good at them.
He asked Nicole, “So you’ve got friends here, family?” Probably she’d know that he was trying to find out if she had a boyfriend.
“No. Just me.” Her eyes darted as though looking for a way to change the subject.“I really lucked out with the housesitting, though. That place seems so big after my studio in Bucktown.”
“What part of Savannah do you want to live in?”
“I don’t even know yet.” She shrugged. “Maybe close to my new job downtown. I’m a paralegal.”
“You work with lawyers? And you said my job sounded tough.” Another corny joke, but he couldn’t resist, because he wanted to see her laugh again.
It worked. Then she took a sip from the mug. “Good coffee.”
“You want cream or sugar? Forgot to ask.” It had been a little while since he’d made coffee for a beautiful woman. That explained why he hadn’t caught himself before measuring out ten full scoops of coffee.
His fixation with counting to ten, which had been so strong when he was a child, only lingered in a few ways now. He couldn’t bring himself to set the alarm for anything but ten after the hour. When he walked, he mentally counted his steps in intervals of ten. And whenever he made coffee, he had to make ten cups. It was why he bought cheap coffee.
“I’ll take some cream.”
Aaron suddenly recalled the smelly carton he’d disposed of the day before. “I don’t have any.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Oh-kayy.”
He stood up. “I have milk?”
“Yeah, that works.” With the laughter in her eyes, she looked adorable and sexy at the same time.
Once he’d splashed some milk into her coffee and set the milk bottle on the balcony railing, he asked, “Why Savannah? Must be plenty of lawyers in Chicago.”
Her gaze slid from his again. “I was ready for a change.” There was more to this story. “And I only looked for jobs in the South. I hate the cold.”
Mack ambled over to her to beg for cuddles. “You can push him away if he’s bothering you,” Aaron said without real conviction.
“Of course he’s not.” She set down her coffee to oblige him.
There was nothing cold about Nicole, that was for sure. As she told Aaron about her childhood pets, her animated gestures and her bright laugh expressed a warm personality, filled with life.
His ringtone interrupted her. “Hang on, I’ll decline that,” he said, getting up to pull the phone out of his back pocket. The screen displayed the name of Wade, his best friend since college, who could definitely wait. Aaron punched a button. He immediately realized his mistake.
“Ah hell, wrong button,” he muttered to Nicole and put the phone up to his ear. “Hey buddy, can’t talk. I’ll call you back.”
“You’ve got a girl over there.” Childish delight filled his friend’s voice. Wade knew him way too well. Aaron stood up and took a few steps away from her as his friend asked, “Anybody I know?”
“Let me explain what ‘I can’t talk’ means. Oh wait, I don’t have time.” Nicole grinned at this, which gratified him.
“All right, I get it,” Wade said. “I had a pretty great weekend myself.” His voice dripped with innuendo.
Aaron’s friend had no idea how good he had it—having sex with a woman who was his best friend. Actually, Wade did know how good he had it, which was somehow even worse.
Covering these feelings, Aaron snorted. “Congratulations on seducing your own wife.”
He couldn’t resist another glance at Nicole. Energy almost crackled between them. He wanted to seduce her, and she knew it. His groin tightened, and he turned away slightly from her, willing his body to stay in check.
“Hey.” Wade sounded wounded. “It’s not as easy as you think.”
Aaron chuckled. “Fair enough.” Wade and Jess had a toddler, so that was probably true. Their life wasn’t all easy, even if it seemed more or less perfect from where Aaron was standing. “Talk to you later.”
He feared the interruption would result in Nicole leaving, so as he sat back down, he turned the conversation back to her. “Buddy of mine from college. Where’d you go to school?”
It worked. She told him about UIC and her college job in a pizza place, and he followed up with questions about her family.
Rain started to fall in big lazy drops, making them both get to their feet at once. “The devil’s beating his wife,” Aaron said. “Come on inside.”
As she followed him back into the kitchen, she asked, “What did you say?”
“What? Oh. That’s what you call it when it’s raining and the sun is still shining.” Clearly she’d never heard the expression before. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he conceded.
She cupped both hands around the coffee mug and shuddered. “It’s awful.”
“Well, he is the Devil,” Aaron said.
An awkward silence hung between them. Aaron had been just about to ask her to dinner, but his offhand comment had cast a shadow.
Nicole glanced at the bicycle on the wall. “Do you ride a lot?”
“Mm, not as much as I’d like to.”
“I was thinking it would be fun to get into bike riding again. I bet there’s a lot of good places around here.”
Here was his chance. “Sure. We should go out to Tybee Island today.”
“Oh, I don’t actually have a bike.” The tips of her ears turned pink.
“We can rent them there. That rain’s not going to last. You ever been to Tybee?” She shook her head. “Ah, you’ll love it.”
The pink reached her cheeks, making her look downright irresistible. Did she ever blush all over her body? He’d like to see that.
“It’s been years since I’ve done it,” she was saying. “I probably don’t remember how.”
He gave her his best smirk. “I don’t know if you know, but there’s this saying about riding a bike.”
“I probably shouldn’t, without a helmet.”
That excuse was, as his dad would say, weaker than circus lemonade. “You can pick one up at the Walmart.”
She gave him a mischievous look. “Why do you say the Walmart?”
Aaron shrugged. “Okay, you can pick one up at a Walmart.” She giggled, and he said, “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Come to think of it, you can rent a helmet, too,” he told her. “So are you coming?”
Nicole scrunched up her face, clearly wavering. Aaron said, “Aw come on, it’s beautiful. We could go before sunset. Leave here around four o’clock?”
“Um...okay. You want to come by?”
Inwardly triumphant, he said, “Yeah, that’s perfect.”
As she left, he couldn’t help but notice that her ass was about the best thing that had ever happened to a pair of jeans. It reminded Aaron of the stupid joke his dad would always make to his close buddies about his mama, the one that had mortified Aaron as a little kid: I hate to say goodbye to her, but I love to watch her go.
He hadn’t been sure at all that she’d agree to the bike ride. She’d seemed so nervous when he’d first met up with her on the sidewalk. No, not nervous—scared. And it didn’t seem like it was just that he and Mack had startled her. What was it, then?
Once she was sitting on Aaron’s balcony and talking, she’d relaxed. Obviously, she was brave, moving to a new town where she didn’t know a soul.
And she’d understood what his work was like, without him even telling her. Talking about mental illness, in any shape or form, made a lot of people uneasy. It didn’t seem to have that effect on her.
Mack gave a short whine. Aaron bent down to pat him on the head. “I know, buddy. You still need a walk.” They’d just left the house when they’d run into Nicole. He clipped Mack’s leash to his collar again. “Okay, but we can’t go past her house this time. Otherwise she’ll think we’re creeping on her.”
CHAPTER THREE
Several hours later, Nicole stood next to a red rented cruiser bike.
Getting used to riding a bike again was something she’d have preferred to do privately, like on a back street somewhere. At three in the morning. Not in front of an insanely charming near-stranger. But of course, his charm was exactly what had gotten her to do this.
Well, it was just a bike ride. She hadn’t betrayed her living-life-on-her-own resolution. Yet.
She looked up at him, already on his bike. Amusement glinted in his eyes. She said, “If I fall down, you can’t laugh at me.”
His mouth dropped open in exaggerated affront as he spread his arms wide. “What do you take me for?” When she still hesitated, he said, “If you fall down, I’ll catch you.”
“How are you going to do that if you’re on a bike?”
He winked. Lightning-fast, so that she almost wasn’t sure she had seen it. Who even winked any more? It was obnoxious—and a true skill. He said, “I’ve got lots of talents.”
Oh, I bet you do. Nicole got on her bike and headed down the trail, wobbling only a little.
He came up alongside her. “See? You’re doing it!”
She enjoyed the familiar yet almost forgotten sensation of riding. “You know, I wasn’t even good at this as a kid,” she told him. “I couldn’t ride without training wheels until I was eight years old.”
“That’s not so bad.”
“It’s terrible.”
He tilted his head in reluctant agreement. “It’s only a little terrible.”
A pair of cyclists zipped around them. She said, “Once I get used to it we can speed up.”
Aaron gave her a sly sidelong look, the corners of his mouth turning up. “I don’t mind going slow.”
Lush palms lined either side of the trail. Their glossy fronds stirred in the damp salt breeze that also toyed with the ends of Nicole’s hair.
The sunlight carried a magical quality, maybe from the humidity, making everything look soft and bright. It was like riding through a color photo of somebody’s favorite vacation from decades ago.
She was happy. She tried to keep still inside and not think about it too much, so that she wouldn’t startle the feeling and send it flying away. “It’s so beautiful in this part of the country,” she told him.
“You came at the right time. You wouldn’t be saying that in the middle of July.”
“I like the heat,” she insisted.
“I’m talking about the palmetto bugs.”
She craned her neck to look at him. “What are those?”
“Giant cockroaches that fly.”
“You’re lying.”
He held up a palm. “Hand to God. They’ll fly right at your face.”
Nicole shuddered. “Eww.”
“I’ll protect you,” he pledged.
“Oh, okay,” she said, her voice light, but his words made her feel warm inside. He was talking as though he’d be around several months from now. Not that it meant anything. It was just a joke.
“And then there’s the vampire bats, but they’re more in the country.”
Nicole’s head whipped around. “What?”
A grin spread across Aaron’s face. “Not really.”
“Don’t tease me like that. I’m very gullible.”
“Oh, right,” he drawled. “Poor innocent girl from downtown Chicago.”
Nicole was almost on top of the turtle before she saw it. With a small shriek, she jammed on the brakes and jerked the front wheel to the side.
For a suspended moment, she was falling: she knew she couldn’t stop it, and she knew it was going to hurt. She tried to break the impact with her open hand, but she still hit the ground hard, her legs tangled up with the bicycle.
“Nicole!” In the next instant, Aaron threw himself on his knees beside her. “Are you all right?”
Tears had sprung to her eyes, from the shock as much as the pain, but she forced them back. Crying like a child would humiliate her. She sat up and extricated her legs from the bike. Then she brushed the grit and gravel from her palm, wincing at the sting and the thin smears of blood.
Aaron’s face was white. “I’m fine,” she said.
As if he didn’t hear her, he said, “I want to make sure you didn’t break anything.” Nicole jumped as his hands settled high up on either side of her thigh. He only stroked down the leg, checking for fractures. She allowed him to check the other leg as well, although he was overreacting. As rattled as she was, she liked having his hands on her.
“I’m fine,” she repeated. “I just hurt my hand.” She scrambled to get up. He rose to his feet first and offered her an arm. Once she was standing, he said, “I’m so sorry.”
Nicole peered at him. “For what?”
He forced a smile. “I said I’d catch you.”
Nothing was his fault. She had agreed to come out here, and he hadn’t known animals would cause trouble. She asked, “Is the turtle okay?”
“You braked for a turtle?” He looked around and then pointed to it, moseying its way into a patch of tall grass by the side of the trail.
“Well, he looks fine, at least,” he said. Nicole smiled and picked her bike up off the ground, using only the fingertips of her left hand.
Aaron asked, “You want to head back?”
“No, I can still ride.”
Although her joints ached and she felt a little shaky, she had no trouble reaching the beach. “Ah, it’s so pretty,” she breathed. The sky behind the long dock had just begun to turn hues of orange sherbet and gold.
“Let’s stop here a minute,” Aaron said, getting off his bike. Nicole did the same, laying hers down in the sand.
The gentle slap of the waves soothed her spirit. An older couple walked near the shore, hand in hand.
It was probably the most romantic date she’d ever been on. Even if she had fallen down. And even if it wasn’t really a date. Or was it?
Would it be such a bad idea to have a quick fling with Aaron, while she was staying in Francie’s house? That was what a lot of women would do, right? It didn’t have to turn into anything serious.
But she’d never been into casual flings. And something told her that with Aaron, she’d feel anything but casual.
A pelican flapped above the surface of the water, searching for something in those depths, and then dove, going after what he wanted. Aaron turned toward her.
Nicole said, “We should get back after all, I guess. My hand is really starting to hurt.” It didn’t hurt any worse than before.
Disappointment flickered in his eyes, but in an easy voice, he said, “Whatever you want.”
In her back pocket, her phone vibrated once. “Excuse me.” She carefully drew it out and was happy to discover the screen hadn’t gotten smashed. Lucky that she’d landed on her left hip and not the right side of her butt.
She read a text from Cristina, her good friend from Chicago. How are you? Had the worst date ever last night. I might swear off men too, lol.
Nicole sighed and put the phone back in her pocket.
By the time Aaron got home it was dark. He put a pot of water on the stove to boil for spaghetti.
Once a week or so, he ate at a bar and grill with a couple of his coworkers, who were also friends, before their shift. On Sundays, he had an early dinner at his parents’ house. His sister always came over with her son, though her husband usually had a shift at The Home Depot, and she always brought some kind of healthy salad made out of a grain or a vegetable that
nobody else had ever heard of. Mama made barbecued chicken or ribs.
He made dinner for himself most nights, and that was fine. Tonight, though, it struck him as lonely.
Damn. He really liked this girl.
That was why her fall on the bike had triggered him so badly.
A part of Aaron’s brain wasn’t wired right. It wanted to convince him that he was going to hurt somebody, or even that he’d already done so.
He’d been nine years old the first time it happened, after his grandmother had died. Looking at her body in the open casket at the visitation, he’d been sure that he’d poisoned her and didn’t remember it. He’d been too ashamed and terrified to tell anyone that he thought he’d killed her, and his parents thought he was simply unglued over the loss of his memaw.
Fears like this had tortured him at various times. For a solid year in grade school, after he learned about sleepwalking, Aaron became convinced that he’d sleepwalk and stab his father to death. He tried to stay awake all night. During the day, he could hardly keep his eyes open. His parents took him to the doctor, thinking the fatigue was a symptom of some illness. It was, but not the kind they’d imagined.
When his first girlfriend had gotten in a car accident in high school and broke her arm, he had become obsessed with the idea that he’d broken it, even though he didn’t remember, and she was covering for his crime. He made her promise over and over that it had really been broken in the accident, until she got freaked out, broke up with him, and told everyone he was batshit crazy.
His last attempt at a girlfriend had been back in college. After all his therapy, not to mention the meds, he thought he could keep things under control.
For the most part, he had. But when she threw a dinner party at her off-campus apartment and wanted him to help chop vegetables, he refused, not wanting a knife in his hand. She got mad and said he was sexist for refusing to set foot in the kitchen, and it led to a full-blown argument.
Too late in the fight, he tried to tell her the truth. She didn’t understand what he was saying. “You think you’re going to stab me? What the hell!” Even once she seemed to grasp that it was a fear and not a desire, she said he needed to stay away from her.
