The King Next Door

by Maureen Child

  Small favors, Nicole thought.

  “Thanks, Jim,” Griffin said, shaking the other man’s hand. “Good to see you. Say hi to Kathy for me, okay?”

  “I’ll do it.” He walked toward the fire truck, and Griffin joined him. “Maybe we could do dinner some night, huh?”

  Firemen were still moving around her lawn, rolling up hoses, talking, laughing together. The crowd of neighbors was breaking up, with only the nosiest lingering. Jim and Griffin were still catching up and Connor was now “steering” the big fire truck with a wild grin on his face.

  Nicole had zoned out. Let the two old buddies make plans for beers and burgers. Let her son revel in little-boy daydreams. Right now, she was more concerned with what she was going to do next. The sad truth was, she had no clue.

  “You okay?”

  She glanced up, surprised to find that Griffin had joined her again. “Not so much.”

  “Yeah, I can understand that,” he said, “but you’ve got insurance, right?”

  “Of course I have insurance,” she snapped, then bit her lip. It wasn’t his fault she was in a mess. Well, she supposed technically it was his fault since he’d ripped the light fixture out of the ceiling while he was changing a bulb she hadn’t asked him to change. But it wasn’t as if he’d set out to burn down her kitchen.

  “Then don’t wind yourself up so tight,” he advised. “You’re safe. Connor’s safe. The house can be fixed.”

  “I know,” she said firmly, trying to convince herself more than him. It was true, after all. She’d find a way to get it done. She could maybe take a loan out on the house, though she really hated to do that. It was paid for and not having a mortgage payment every month was a blessing she never took for granted. Still, it wasn’t as if she had a lot of options. She also didn’t want to discuss any of this with Griffin.

  “You’re right. We’re all safe. The rest will get handled. Now—” she looked over at the fire truck and her happy son “—I think I’ll go collect Connor before he stows away on the truck and I never see him again.”

  “Okay, then, you want to go in and take a look?”

  “Not really,” she admitted.

  “It’ll be okay,” Griffin said.

  She looked up at him. “Have you ever noticed that people say that whenever things are absolutely not okay?”

  “Good point. But not looking won’t change anything.”

  “Also a good point.” She sighed heavily and glanced at her house briefly before walking to the truck. There she retrieved her now-sulky son from the fireman who was his new best friend. When she walked back to Griffin, Connor on her hip, she said, “You don’t have to go in with me.”

  He only looked at her for a long second, and in his eyes, she read plainly that he wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed.

  “Yeah, I do.” He waved to the firemen, then followed her around the side of the house to the back.

  Funny, just a couple of hours ago, she’d been minding her own business, stealing peeks at a barely dressed Griffin while he lounged in a hot tub. Now they were banded together to inspect what she suspected was complete devastation.

  Her stomach jumped with nerves and worry, but there was more than that, too. Thanks to Griffin’s presence, she was even more on edge than she might have been. Nicole actually felt him behind her. It was almost like an electrical charge on the air.

  Oh, God. Electrical charge.

  Electrical wiring.

  Fire.

  Yeah, this was no time to be indulging in a hormonal surge.

  She came around the corner of the house, saw the back door standing open and, for a second, could only think about the flies and bugs that were no doubt racing into the house. Then she realized insects were the least of her problems. She steeled herself for whatever she was going to find, then climbed the three short steps and went inside.

  There was no way Nicole could have steeled herself enough.

  The kitchen looked as if it had come through a hurricane. Water everywhere. Smoke stains on the ceilings and walls, like black shadows crawling across the paint. The ceiling itself was pretty much torn out. The plaster that had first rained down on them when Griffin pulled the fixture free was nothing compared to what the firemen had done to contain the fire.

  Gaping holes stared back at her when she looked up, as if the house itself was glaring at her accusingly. Plaster dust and water, congealed into a heavy paste, littered the worn counters, and the floor was covered in the stuff.

  “Oh. My. God.”

  She wanted to cry. And scream. And grab a shovel and a broom and start returning her world to normal. But as her gaze studied what was left of her ceiling, she knew it was going to take a lot more than elbow grease to get this job done.

  “House is dirty!” Connor shouted, clapping both hands.

  Instinctively, she tightened her grip on her son.

  “It’s a wreck,” Griffin pointed out unnecessarily.

  Nicole stood in one spot and did a slow turn, letting her horrified gaze take in the destruction. For the first time, she understood completely what the phrase her heart sank was referring to.

  “I don’t even know where to start to clean this up,” she murmured, shifting a look through the open doorway into the living room. That room hadn’t entirely escaped, either. Furniture had been pushed aside and puddles of water had gathered on the hardwood floor.

  For one second, she remembered the last time her house had been flooded, when her pipes sprang a leak and Katie had rushed over to help, dragging Rafe King along with her. It was the first time she’d met Rafe. And now, here she was, her house was flooded and yet another King was on hand for the occasion.

  “You don’t have to clean it up,” Griffin said from behind her.

  “You see anyone else signing up for the job?” It would take her hours, she thought miserably.

  “We’ll get a cleaning crew in here,” he suggested.

  “I can’t afford that,” she argued.

  “Well, you can’t do it alone, and I’m not doing it,” he said.

  “Who asked for your help?” Nicole’s temper, already frayed by the fire, began bubbling.

  “Not you,” Griffin said and folded his arms over his chest. Shaking his head, he blurted, “You wouldn’t ask for help if you were neck-deep in quicksand and sinking fast, would you?”

  “If you think that’s insulting, you’re wrong,” she told him. “I can take care of myself. Been doing it for years.”

  “And because you can do it, you should?”

  Connor squirmed again and rather than keep trying to hold on to him, she stalked past Griffin and walked out into the backyard. At least here she wasn’t surrounded by what was left of her house. The cloying smell of wet smoke wasn’t choking her. And she wasn’t as tempted to sit down on the ground and cry just for the hell of it.

  Setting Connor down, she watched him race off to the flowerbed and his beloved shovel. Sunlight played on his blond hair and his sturdy little legs pumped with his eagerness to get back to playing.

  When Griffin walked up behind her, Nicole didn’t even look at him. “I know you’re trying to help, but it’d really be best if you just went home.”

  “Right.” He moved to stand in front of her, forcing her to look up at him. Those blue eyes of his were fixed on her, daring her to look away. So of course she didn’t. “You really think I’m just going to walk back to the house and hop back into the hot tub? Adventure over? End of story?”

  “Why not?”

  He laughed shortly. “I think I was just insulted, but we’ll let that one go for now. What I can’t figure out is if you’re really this stubborn or if it’s an act for my benefit.”

  Stunned, she stared at him. “Why would I do anything for your benefit, Griffin?”

  “Just what I was asking myself,” he muttered. “But if you’re serious about this, it’s just as crazy. I’m not going to leave you here alone with a t
wo-year-old in the middle of this wreck.”

  She wasn’t sure why he was upset. It wasn’t his house that had caught fire. “You don’t get to decide that.”

  “Well, then, you should decide it. How are you going to manage with no power? No kitchen?”

  Nicole didn’t have an answer for that. Yet. She’d figure something out, though. She always had. Her gaze shifted to Connor, sitting in the shade, singing to himself as he piled dirt from the flowerbed onto the grass. Everything in her softened and toughened up at the same time. She would do whatever she had to. For her son. “This is my house, Griffin. Where else am I supposed to go?”

  “Next door with me.”

  “What?” Her gaze shot to his.

  He pushed one hand through his hair and this time Nicole was so stupefied by everything else around her that she barely noticed the flex of his muscles or the dip of his board shorts at the movement.

  “The fire was my fault.”

  “True,” she said, then shook her head when he winced. “I mean, no. It’s not. Not completely.”

  One black eyebrow lifted and she idly wondered how people managed that. Then she sighed. “You were trying to help.”

  “And burned down your kitchen.”

  She gave him a wry smile. “I didn’t say you had helped. I said you were trying.”

  He smiled, too. “Look, Rafe and Katie’s place is huge.”

  “I know,” Nicole said. “Ever since they got married, Katie complains that she’s never sure what her house is going to look like from one day to the next. Rafe is always adding something or tearing something else out and building bigger…”

  She’d never envied Katie the financial security she’d gained by marrying into the King family. But sometimes, late at night when she was alone, Nicole silently admitted to being jealous of the love Katie had found. The security of knowing she didn’t have to handle everything on her own. She and Rafe were so good together that Nicole couldn’t help wishing that somehow, someday, she might find that same kind of love for herself.

  Of course, her romantic history read like a Greek tragedy, so she’d accepted the fact that the chances of that happening were slim to none.

  But, she had always consoled herself, she had her son. Her business. Her home.

  Well, until today she’d had a home. She looked over her shoulder at the house that wouldn’t be livable for weeks.

  “Nicole, you know it’s the best answer. Hell, the house is so big, we won’t be in each other’s way.” Griffin moved in closer. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe. For you or for Connor.”

  “Probably not…”

  Clearly exasperated, he asked, “You really want to live in a hotel while this place is fixed?”

  No, she really didn’t. Not only was the thought of trying to keep her nearly three-year-old son contained in a tiny hotel room exhausting, but there was the cost to consider. She couldn’t afford to fix the kitchen and live in a hotel.

  “Besides,” Griffin added, “this way, you’ll be close by while they’re working on your place and you can stay on top of things.”

  True. All true. But she hated owing someone. She took care of herself and her son and she’d done a damn good job of it, if she had to be the one to say it. Depending on someone, accepting favors from anyone, was just something Nicole didn’t do. Not anymore. Not since her ex-husband had taught her the hard way that the only person you could count on was yourself.

  She looked up at Griffin and ground her teeth together. He looked so sure of himself, fresh irritation spiked inside her. Mainly because, though she didn’t want to admit it, Nicole knew she didn’t have a choice, and she really hated that.

  But, she told herself, the truth was, if this had happened when Katie and Rafe were at home, Katie would have insisted that Nicole and Connor move in. So having Griffin extend the invitation wasn’t really much different, was it?

  Her mind laughed at the pitiful rationalization. Hmm. Happily married couple offering her a place to stay, or a matching offer from a gorgeous, single guy who made every one of her hormones stand up to do a fast boogie. Sure. Exactly the same situation.

  Frowning, she pushed that thought aside.

  Boogying had not been a part of the offer, sadly.

  Besides, she reminded herself, Griffin had started the fire in her kitchen.

  “You know it’s the only solution,” he said.

  “Yeah, it is.” Nodding, she glanced back at the kitchen and tried not to picture what it looked like in there. Instead, she imagined it after the work was done. Maybe, if it wasn’t too expensive, she could upgrade it a little. Maybe this would turn out to be a good thing.

  Then her gaze shifted to Griffin, who was watching her out of brilliant blue eyes. His tanned, muscled chest caught her attention for one wild second. If he had been temptation living next door…what was it going to be like living with him?

  *

  It was a nightmare.

  The next morning, Griffin rubbed eyes gritty from lack of sleep and told himself he might as well get used to it. Sure, Rafe and Katie’s house was big. But he’d been exaggerating a little when he’d assured Nicole that there was plenty of room for all of them.

  He’d forgotten that all of the bedrooms led off the same hallway. His room was directly across the hall from Nicole’s, and he could have sworn he heard every move she made during the night.

  She’d paced, then sat on the bed with a telltale squeak. Then she’d been up and pacing again. Several times she opened her bedroom door and took the four steps to the room where Connor was sleeping. She’d open that door, walk across the wood floor, pause. Then back across the room, close the door and pace in her own room again.

  Okay, it wasn’t the noise that was bothering him. Hell, he’d been known to sleep through a fireworks display, complete with M-80 rockets. No, it had been picturing Nicole, blond hair tousled, bare feet whispering across the floor, that was doing it to him. He wondered what she slept in. Nightgown? T-shirt? Nothing? He’d seen enough of her body in the tank tops and shorts she wore to know that he’d like to see more.

  Knowing he couldn’t was annoying the hell out of him.

  But he could do this. Play the white knight. Offer her sanctuary, a place to stay, and he could do it all without groping or seducing her. Didn’t sound like much fun, but he could do it.

  She was a mother, for God’s sake. And then there was Katie’s threat to consider. Besides, he was thirty-three now. That was the magic number. The age he’d decided would be the end of his days as a player. The age when he would damn well mature whether he wanted to or not.

  “And I really don’t want to.”

  “Are you talking to yourself?”

  He glanced up as Nicole came into the kitchen, Connor on her hip. She was wearing white shorts and a bright pink tank top with matching pink polish on her toes. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and twin silver hoops winked at him in the early sunlight.

  “What? No.” He shook his head and focused on the cup of coffee he held between his palms. “I’m just thinking.”

  “Wow, you’re a noisy thinker.”

  Connor shouted, “Down!”

  Griffin winced. It was too early for conversation and way too early for chipper.

  “Want some milk, baby?” Nicole asked.

  Griffin almost said no thanks.

  Connor shouted, “Milk! And cookies!”

  Nicole laughed. “No cookies for breakfast.”

  Griffin looked at the boy. Such a cute kid. Would it be wrong to put tape across his mouth?

  Nicole brought Connor some milk, then took eggs from the fridge and a skillet from the cupboard. She was as comfortable in Katie’s kitchen as she was in her own. “Can I make you something?”

  “No, I never eat breakfast,” he mumbled, concentrating on the coffee. Caffeine. The secret to survival.

  “It’s Connor’s favorite meal,” she said, and started scrambling eggs, setting the skillet
on the stove and in general making a clatter of noise that had Griffin clenching his teeth.

  “I’ve decided that I’m going to look at this whole situation as a gift,” Nicole said from her place at the stove.

  “Is that right?” Griffin reached out and took away the spoon Connor was beating against the tabletop. The little boy’s features screwed up, his bottom lip poked out and a sheen of tears filled small blue eyes. Griffin sighed and handed the spoon back.

  Just keep drinking coffee, he told himself and stood up to get a refill.

  “Well, like you said,” Nicole continued, “I have to have it fixed anyway, so I’ve decided to try and look at it like redecorating rather than rebuilding.”

  “Probably a good idea,” he allowed as he took his seat again. Connor grinned at him and pounded that spoon with all the fervor of a rock-band drummer.

  Griffin was not a morning person. He preferred conversations over a late supper with plenty of wine. He never spent the night with any of the women he…dated, so the morning-after chat had never been on his agenda. Now, not only did he have a woman to talk to, but a two-year-old to endure.

  Usually he greeted morning with all the enthusiasm of a condemned prisoner facing execution. Today, even more so.

  Nicole set scrambled eggs in front of Connor and the little boy used his fingers to eat while he continued to pound the spoon. Griffin sighed, then asked himself just when exactly he’d turned into an old crank.

  “Connor has preschool,” Nicole was saying, “so as soon as I drop him off, I’ll be back here to make some phone calls to the insurance company and a contractor…”

  Griffin took a sip of coffee. “You take care of calling the insurance company and I’ll call King Construction,” he offered. “They’ll take care of it and give you a better deal than you’d get anywhere else.”

  He watched her and saw refusal glint in her eye a moment before she nodded and said, “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

  She might appreciate it, he told himself, but she also didn’t like having to accept favors. He could understand that even as he would have swept right past her refusal if she had argued with him.