Girl Next Door: The Complete Series

by C. C. Wood

  “I’m calling an emergency girl meeting.”

  It was the morning after I realized I was being a complete idiot and falling in love with a guy I’d known for all of a week. During my drive from the high school to the middle school, I called Cat. Since I accompanied choirs at both the middle school and the high school, I ended up driving to three different schools during the day. I made the most of my drive time and called one of my besties.

  “Oh shit. What happened?” she asked.

  I rubbed my hand over my forehead. “It’s too complicated to explain over the phone and without an alcoholic beverage in my hand. Are you free tonight?”

  “Sweetie, if you have a problem, I can be free. I’ll call Nat and find out what she’s doing for the night. I’ll text you with a time. Are you cool with going to Nat’s house? Now that she’s in the last trimester, Aidan doesn’t like for her to drive a lot. Poor man is convinced that she’ll go into labor in her car and give birth to their baby on the side of the highway.”

  I grinned. Aidan was an awesome guy, but he was super protective of his wife and unborn child. And by super protective I meant almost obsessive about taking good care of her. He had tried to get her to quit her job when she hit the sixth month of her pregnancy. Nat had only laughed. When he pushed, she threatened to neuter him. He decided to ‘compromise’ and told her to he would let her work part time. She told him that she would make sure he got out of the insane asylum in time for his daughter’s birth because she loved him. Even if he was a chauvinistic asshole.

  Finally, Aidan gave up and just settled on doing everything he could to make her life easier until the baby was born. Because I valued my life, I didn’t tell her that I thought it was sweet that her hubby wanted to take care of her while she was pregnant. My Nat was fiercely independent, and had a very hard time letting anyone do things for her.

  “That’s fine,” I told Cat. “I want to see how the nursery turned out anyway.”

  With all the craziness in my life the past couple of weeks, I hadn’t had time to go by and see what Nat and Aidan had done.

  “Great,” Cat said. “I’ll text you later and tell you what time to meet me at Nat’s.”

  We hung up, and the rest of my day went by in a whirlwind. Cat texted me to meet her at Nat’s at six and that we would do Girls’ Night In with dinner, drinks for me and Cat, and conversation. Nat couldn’t drink with us, but she did threaten to take pictures of us doing stupid shit if we got drunk.

  I sent a text to Troy, telling him that I would be spending the evening with my girlfriends. His response was to call me.

  “Babe, are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just a few days ago someone trashed your bedroom and cut up all your clothes.”

  “True, but they haven’t done anything since then and before that there was activity every day. Maybe whoever did it decided that they had done enough.”

  He was silent.

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” I said.

  “Okay, I don’t like this but you call me when you get there and when you leave. I’ll meet you at your place later.”

  “Yes, Sire,” I joked.

  “I’ll let you kneel before me later, wench,” he retorted.

  I giggled. The man was quick with a comeback.

  “Bye,” I said, and I disconnected.

  The rest of my day flew by. After playing for the last choir of the day, I left the middle school and headed over to the music store where I taught lessons. I had a couple of lessons to teach, then I could head to Nat’s house for dinner.

  As usual, most of my students hadn’t practiced, so the half hour lessons seemed twice as long. My last student was pretty consistent, though, and I always enjoyed her lessons because not only did she have a lot of natural talent, she worked hard, and she was eager to learn new things. I walked out of the store in a great mood.

  Even the horrible traffic couldn’t dampen it. I was so looking forward to spending more time with my girlfriends and then going home to see my guy. I parked in front of Nat’s house at five after six and walked up the sidewalk to the front door with a smile on my face.

  I rang the bell and Cat yanked it open a few seconds later.

  She took one look at me, and the grin I was sporting, and called over her shoulder, “Fucking hell, Nat, Amy’s in love. She’s finally gonna quit the flavor of the month club!”

  Nat’s resulting squeal was ear-piercing, even with me still outside the house and her in the kitchen in the back. God that girl was loud. And what the fuck was Cat talking about?

  “Flavor of the month?” I asked.

  “Every time we have a party you bring a different guy,” she explained.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m not dating all of them. Some of them are just friends.”

  “Whatever,” Cat said. “Maybe you think that you’re just friends, but I bet they think differently.”

  Since she was right, I changed the subject. “Can I come in or are we gonna have girls’ night in on the porch?”

  She stepped back and ushered me inside.

  “Margarita, Mojito, or martini?” she asked.

  “Martini.”

  “Nat, make Amy a martini!” she yelled.

  “Okay!” Nat called back.

  Cat led me into the living room and there all kinds of finger foods, antipasti, and little hors d’oeuvres arranged on the coffee table. Nat did stuff like that all the time. She loved to cook and have dinner parties, cocktail parties, and pool parties. Hell, if it was a type of party, she loved to throw it. Except for swinger parties. No way would she share Aidan. Or sleep with any of her friends’ husbands, whether they were good-looking or not.

  Cat and I sat down on the couch and started filling small plates with food. Nat arrived with my martini in hand. I thanked her and took a sip. It was extremely dirty. Perfection. That woman could make almost anything taste good, even pure alcohol.

  After a minute of munching, Nat looked at me her plate perched on her huge belly, one hand rubbing the round mass. “So, tell us about the guy.”

  I sipped my drink before I spoke. “You remember the neighbor I was telling you about,” I said.

  Cat and Nat groaned dramatically.

  “No, not that guy. He was a douche! You said he played loud music in the middle of the night,” Nat said.

  “Forget the loud music,” Cat interrupted. “I thought he was a manwhore.”

  I expected this reaction. I spent the last five weeks bitching about Troy and now this sudden turn around.

  “He wasn’t as bad as I thought,” I answered.

  “I thought he was smoking pot in the backyard!” Nat exclaimed.

  “That wasn’t him. He’s a cop. He’s actually in the narcotics division.”

  “A cop!” They both threw their heads back and cackled. “That may be worse than a druggie. I bet he’s all macho and bossy.”

  He kind of was. “Hey!” I said. “As I recall, the Hart brothers like to pretend they wear the pants in your households.”

  They looked at each other and laughed.

  “True,” Cat admitted.

  “Okay. So anyway, I’ve been having some problems at the duplex. and he’s been helping me. Well, the first time he tried to help me, I ran off. This was after my car was keyed and he kissed me. Then someone broke into my bedroom and destroyed most of my clothes and bedroom furniture. We had sex the next morning.”

  For the first time in our lengthy friendship, my loudmouth friends, Cat and Nat, were speechless. They both stared at me, mouths hanging open.

  Nat recovered first. “Someone keyed your car and broke into your house?”

  Cat was more concerned with the sex. “You screwed a guy you’ve only known three days? Amy, you know better!”

  The fact that Cat was scolding me about having sex with a man I barely knew was hilarious. That girl was never slutty, but she was also not a prude. I knew she’d had a
couple of one-night stands.

  Nat threw a grape at her. “Shut it, Cat. I want to hear more about Amy’s car being keyed and how her bedroom was destroyed.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know who did it or why. My house was egged on Saturday. I got a bag full of flaming dog poo on my porch and my car keyed on Sunday. My bedroom was destroyed on Monday. It’s been a crazy week.”

  They sat and stared at me.

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  “Why in the hell didn’t you call me?” Nat asked. Her voice was very, very loud.

  “Um, because you’re about twenty years pregnant. You have more important things to worry about.”

  “Well, why didn’t you call me?” This was from Cat.

  “Because you have a husband and a baby boy. You have enough on your plate.”

  Nat shook her head. “Not good enough. Tell us the truth.”

  I sighed and set my glass on the coffee table. “I didn’t call you because I didn’t know who was doing this or why. At first I thought it was just kids from the high school playing a prank, but Troy seems to think it’s something else.”

  Cat’s eyebrows lowered into a fierce scowl. “Are you safe in the duplex?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I really don’t know.”

  “Well then, you’re coming here to stay with us,” Nat said.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know who’s doing this or why. What if they follow me to your house?”

  “Then I’ll shoot the bastard,” Nat stated calmly.

  I believed her completely. But that wasn’t the point.

  “You’re pregnant, Nat. I refuse to risk your safety.” I saw Cat open her mouth and I pointed at her. “Same goes for you, fire crotch. Sean is only a few months old. I will not put any of you in danger. Also, don’t forget that Troy is a cop. He can shoot someone and there will be fewer questions.”

  They didn’t like it, but they knew I had a good point.

  I grabbed my drink and a mini quiche off my plate. “So, do you wanna hear more about the first time Troy and I had sex or not? I’ve listened to the two of you brag about your sex lives so much, I think it’s only fair that you listen to me now.”

  I could tell they didn’t want to drop it, but they did. For me.

  Three hours later, we had consumed almost all of the food. I limited myself to one martini and one glass of wine. I had also told the girls quite a bit about my escapades with Troy. When I told them about the kitchen scene and yelling at Troy to finish what he started, they both burst into laughter.

  It was after nine, and I was tired. I hugged them both and said my goodbyes. Being the good friends that they were, they watched me walk to my car. When I was safely inside, with my doors locked, I waved to them.

  As I drove away, I clicked on Troy’s number in my speed dial.

  “Castillo,” Troy said when he answered.

  “Hey, Troy. I’m on my way home, okay?”

  “Okay, babe. Be careful and I’ll be on your side of the duplex waiting on you.”

  “See you in ten,” I said before I hung up.

  I liked the way he told me to be careful and the fact that he would be waiting on me in my house when I got home. Shit, I had it bad. If I didn’t watch it, I’d be asking him to come over every night. It amazed me how easily I grew accustomed to snuggling up to his side at night.

  A few minutes later, I pulled up under my carport. I climbed out of the car and walked around to the door that led from the carport to the kitchen. Just as I put my key in the lock, a hand descended onto my shoulder, and I screamed.

  As I shrieked, I whirled around to find myself face-to-face with Grayson.

  “Oh my God, Grayson. You scared the shit out of me. What the hell are you doing here?”

  He looked at me sheepishly. “I wanted to come by and apologize for the things I said on Sunday.”

  I arched an eyebrow. After he admitted that he played me so he could have sex with me, I was disinclined to believe a single word that came out of his filthy, lying mouth.

  “Apology accepted. Have a nice life,” I said.

  “C’mon, Amy. Can’t we talk?” he asked, putting his hand on the door jamb above my head and leaning into me.

  I pressed myself against my door and tried to decide if it was worth the potential assault charge to knee him in the nuts without provocation. Or if I should just open the door and go inside.

  That decision was taken out of my hands when the door behind me flew open, and I fell backwards into Troy.

  At his first look at Troy, Grayson’s face paled. Then he looked pissed.

  “Oh, I see how it is. I work for months to get a piece of that pussy, and you give it up to your pretty boy neighbor in less than a week. Or were you fucking him behind my back, Amy? Is that why you wouldn’t spread your legs for me? You were already spreading them for the wetback.”

  I gasped. Before I could spew the vile things that I was thinking, Troy was in front of me, his hand planted in Grayson’s chest. He shoved him back one handed, and Grayson flew into the side of my rental car. I winced, praying that there weren’t any scratches. Even with the rental insurance, I didn’t want any more paperwork to fill out.

  My ex straightened and took a step toward Troy but pulled up short when he looked down. I followed his eyes and saw Troy’s pistol in his right hand. I realized he had heard me scream and come running with his sidearm.

  Without taking his eyes from Grayson, Troy clicked the safety and stuck the pistol in the back of his pants. My eyes widened. I knew that was a huge no-no, but I kept my mouth shut.

  “Leave,” Troy growled.

  Determined to save face, Grayson straightened his shirt. “I’m here to speak with Amy. I don’t believe you have the right to tell me whether I get to leave or stay.”

  Troy glanced at me over his shoulder. “Do you wanna talk to this dickhead?” he asked, jerking a thumb toward Grayson.

  Shaking my head, I said, “No. I told him that just before you opened the door.”

  I watched as the muscle in Troy’s jaw went so tight that I thought it would snap. Then he turned back to Grayson.

  “There’s your answer. Neither one of us want you here. You need to leave.”

  Grayson shot me an ugly look. “Cunt,” he spat the word as though it were saliva.

  In the blink of an eye, Troy was all over him, shoving him against my car and sticking his face directly into Grayson’s line of sight.

  “Now, you listen to me and pay very close attention to what I’m about to say. You stay away from Amy. You are not even good enough to be stuck to the bottom of her shoe. You are lower than shit. If I catch you bothering her again, I will make your life hell.”

  Apparently Grayson was stupid as well as an asshole because he sneered, “Oh, how are you gonna do that? Refuse me service at the car wash where you work?”

  I saw Troy reach into his back pocket and pull out his wallet. He flipped it open, probably to show Grayson his badge.

  “No, shithead. I’m a fucking cop, and I can fuck with you a lot worse than you can fuck with me.” He grabbed Grayson by the collar of his shirt and jerked him around to face me. “Now, apologize for calling Amy a nasty name and I might let you be on your way without detaining you, and calling dispatch to have them send an officer to haul you down to the station for the night.”

  Grayson looked at me. “I’m sorry for calling you a cunt, Amy.” It was obvious he didn’t mean it, but it was also obvious that he found this humiliating, so I still found satisfaction in that.

  Troy must have understood that he wouldn’t be able to get a more sincere apology from my ex because he shoved him away from the car, towards the street.

  “Now, get your scrawny white ass outta here before I decide the paperwork is worth it and shoot you.”

  Throwing one last angry look in my direction, Grayson walked across the street to his car, jumped in, and drove away with a squeal of tires.

  Troy turned back
to me.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he roared.

  I stared at him in confusion. Why the heck was he yelling at me? All I had done was walk from my car to my door. Grayson had ambushed me.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “You have some weirdo messing up your house and your car and you’re casually standing out here talking to your ex. Are you trying to send them an invitation to mess up you?” he yelled.

  “What?” I shrieked. I sucked in a deep breath and forced myself not to scream my next words. “In case you didn’t notice, I was trying to get away from Grayson. I asked him to leave. He didn’t listen. I planned on getting inside the house and shutting the door in his face, but you happened to come barreling out with your freaking gun in your hand!”

  Troy put a hand on my hip and pushed me inside the house. He followed me closely, his expression thunderous. That did not bode well for the nice evening plans I had to snuggle up under the silky sheets on my bed.

  “You know that someone has been watching you. I’ve told you, and the detective who was here Monday told you, that their behavior is escalating. This week your mattress was slashed with a knife. Next time it might be you. You have to be vigilant.”

  “I’m doing the best I can, Troy.” I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know why you’re freaking out over this so much. We’ve been together less than a week, and you do not have the right to talk to me this way, much less blame me for the behavior of my ex-boyfriend!” I was yelling, angrier than I had ever been.

  “Maybe I’m this upset because I’m not done fucking you yet,” he sneered.

  For the first time in my life, I completely lost my shit. My sisters and I hadn’t fought a lot when we were kids, but we did fight. We also didn’t fight like girls, with slaps and hair pulling. We used fists, elbows, and knees. So I threw a right hook straight at his smug face. When he dodged that, I used my momentum to grab his shoulder and try to throw a knee in his gut.

  Other than a few fights with my sisters as a child, I had never, ever tried to hit another person in anger, but he pushed me too far. I was falling in love with the bastard and all he was doing was fucking me.