“It wasn’t just what you were doing, it’s how you did it. You were so patient with everyone. You made sure every elderly resident in the neighborhood was paired with other neighbors who could look out for them. It was the first time I was able to truly see the type of person you are. Generous. Kind.
“Then at Thanksgiving, when you helped out the local Girl Scout troop with their food drive. You don’t even have kids, but there you were, seeking donations along with the other mothers.”
“I’m a former Girl Scout,” Leah said. “The organization gave so much to me. I just think it’s right that I give back.”
“That’s the thing, Leah. Not everyone operates that way. Hell, hardly anyone operates that way. Most people are too concerned with their own lives to worry about others these days. But not you. You’re always willing to help people in need. I recognize it because it’s the same philosophy I try to live by. When I saw that in you, that’s when that run-of-the-mill lust started to shift into something else.”
Her heart swelled with a mixture of pride and gratefulness. When she volunteered, it was never about getting praise for her work, but it was nice to see her efforts get notice by someone who shared her same values of giving back to the community.
What Caleb saw in her was the same thing Leah saw in him every time he went out of his way to help out one of their neighbors. A part of her had always suspected that their social consciences matched in that way.
“Yet, even after your feelings developed into something more than just physical attraction, you never said anything to me?” Leah asked.
“I almost did.”
Her brow drew downward in confusion. “When?”
“About a month after I moved in,” he said. “I decided to just go for it and ask you out. I knew things would be awkward if you turned me down, but at least I would have tried, right?”
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“I got put on a case that required me to be available twenty-four seven. The assignment only lasted a couple of weeks, but by the time it was over that silver Lexus had started showing up in your driveway.”
Derrick.
Leah’s shoulders dropped with sudden disappointment.
“I decided to wait it out, hoping that it wasn’t anything serious between the two of you, but then his car started showing up more often.” Caleb shook his head. “The first morning I woke up to find it still parked in your driveway gutted me. Knowing he’d been there with you all night ate at me for weeks.”
The pain she heard in his voice cut through her.
“But the thing that hurt even more was coming to the realization that you would have probably turned me down anyway,” Caleb continued.
Leah’s head jerked back. “Why would you think that?”
“Easy. I just compared myself to Derrick.” Caleb ticked items off on his fingers. “The car, the shoes, the suits. I figured if you were used to dating guys like that, then you were way out of my league.”
“That’s offensive,” she said.
He frowned, a puzzled expression marring his handsome face. “How is that offensive?”
“Because it makes it seem as if I’d choose a man based on what he has, rather than who he is on the inside.”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all. People tend to be attracted to like people. It’s just a fact, Leah. Hollywood has tried to sell that whole opposites attract thing, but it’s much rarer in real life.”
“And you think we’re opposites.”
“I thought we were. For months that’s how I consoled myself whenever I spotted Derrick’s car in your driveway, telling myself that we wouldn’t have worked anyway. But now I see that we have more in common than I ever realized.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Who would have thought you’d turn out to be an adrenaline junkie?”
She laughed. “I think that status applies to someone who actually goes out and does stuff. Not someone who’s most adventurous feat is choosing to take the George Washington Bridge during morning rush hour.”
Caleb reached over and tapped the center of her chest. “You’re one in here,” he said. “That’s what counts.”
Heat radiated from the spot where his fingers touched.
“I couldn’t fully embrace my inner adrenalin junkie when I was with Derrick,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of missed adventures to make up for.”
“I still don’t understand how you ended up with a guy like that,” Caleb said.
“It really isn’t that hard to understand,” she said. She moved over to where he stood, leaning her shoulder against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest. “Just a few days ago there was nothing you could tell me that would convince me that Derrick and I weren’t perfect for each other. I’d convinced myself of that. He checked every box off the list.”
“You have a list?”
“Everyone has a list.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah, so what was on your list?”
Leah rattled off the catalog of items she’d always told herself made the ideal mate. “Educated, gainfully employed, well-traveled, cultured.” She looked over at him. “But now I realize those things don’t matter nearly as much to me as I thought. I would rather someone who has a good heart and an actual sense of humor over someone with an MBA.
“And that list? That list is full of things other people convinced me that I needed in a man. It’s not what I’m really looking for.”
“So driving a nice car was never on the list?” Caleb asked.
Leah rolled her eyes. “Why are you so hung up on Derrick’s car?”
“Because for so long that’s all I ever knew about him. I hate that car with a passion. I knew things had gotten out of control when I found myself despising anyone who drove a silver car, no matter the make or model.”
Leah burst out laughing. “That’s harsh.”
“It’s the truth. That car came to represent everything I hated about him.”
“I have reasons to dislike Derrick, but you don’t even know him. Have the two of you ever officially met?”
Caleb shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I know enough about him to recognize that he doesn’t do some of the basic things I think a boyfriend should do for the woman he loves.”
“Such as?”
“That light bulb at your front door,” he said.
She tilted her head to the side, confused yet again. “What does a light bulb have to do with anything?”
“About a month ago, the light bulb at your front door went out.”
“I know that. I changed it,” she said.
“Yeah, you changed it, after it had been out for more than a week,” Caleb said. “When I first noticed it was out, I figured I’d change it for you. But when I came back outside with the replacement bulb that silver Lexus was pulling into your driveway. So I stayed back. And I waited.” His warm brown eyes were suddenly clouded with hostility. “You want to know what your fiancé’s solution was to the problem? To use the flashlight on his cellphone to find the keyhole on the door. He did the same thing the next three times he came over.”
Leah could practically feel the anger radiating from Caleb.
“Stuff like that never occurred to Derrick,” she said, then immediately wondered what made her jump to her ex-fiancé’s defense. But Leah realized it wasn’t that she was jumping to Derrick’s defense. She was trying to excuse his behavior because it was the only way to rationalize why she’d put up with him for as long as she had.
“That’s the fucking problem,” Caleb said. “It never occurred to him that he should care enough about your safety to make sure you weren’t walking up to a dark door at night. How could he claim to love you when he couldn’t be bothered to do something that basic? That’s Boyfriend 101.”
Caleb trailed his finger down her cheek. “You deserve so much better than that, Leah.”
She leaned into his hand and looked up at him. His face was mere inches from hers. Leah’s
gaze trailed from his lips back up to his soulful brown eyes.
“I would be better than that to you,” Caleb whispered.
In this moment, there was nothing that seemed more natural than joining her lips with his. Leah snaked her fingers around his neck and tugged, pulling until she could join her mouth with his.
The poignant tenderness in that first gentle brush of Caleb’s lips awakened something deep inside her, something Leah had not realized had been dormant. His touch was so light, so delicate, so attentive. Desire whisked through her bloodstream, warming her from the inside out, quickly blossoming into a seductive craving that screamed for more of him.
But Caleb seemed content with the slow and gentle pace he’d set. There was no rush, no pressure. Instead, Leah was the one who took the lead, tentatively licking at the seam of his lips, coaxing his mouth to open. An aching groan rumbled from somewhere deep in Caleb’s chest as he relented, parting his lips and driving his tongue into her mouth.
The effect of his ultimate surrender to the moment was devastating. He stroked his tongue with uninhabited abandon, plunging into her mouth over and over again. Sensation ruled Leah’s every thought, compelling her to deepen the kiss, to press against him, to seek out the hard contours of his body. She trailed her fingers along Caleb’s midriff and then up to his chest, savoring the feel of his taut muscles.
The sound of approaching footsteps jerked Leah out of the heady sensual fog she’d entered the moment Caleb’s lips touched hers. She pulled away from him just as the storeowner rounded the corner.
“Do you need any help?” the woman asked with a gentle smile. Her eyes widened as they darted from Leah to Caleb.
Leah’s heart pounded against the walls of her chest. Her breaths came out in embarrassingly shallow pants.
“Is everything okay?” the storeowner asked.
“Uh, yes,” Leah said. She picked up a ceramic dish from the shelf and handed it to the owner. “I’ll take this.”
“Excellent choice. The potter is a local.” She turned the plate over. “He signs the back of each of his pieces. I’ll ring this up for you at the front of the store.”
As soon as they were alone again, Leah turned to Caleb, but she didn’t get a chance to speak. He pressed his mouth to hers again with a swift kiss.
“Later,” was all he said before taking her hand and guiding her to the checkout counter.
Leah’s heart continued to beat like a tambourine as she waited for the storeowner to wrap up her new purchase. She couldn’t even remember what the dish looked like. Her mind’s entire focus remained on that ridiculously erotic kiss she’d just shared with her next-door neighbor.
Goodness!
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so affected by a man’s kiss. It was the care she’d felt in Caleb’s every movement, the consideration that came through with every gentle brush of his lips. That kiss had not been about his needs; he was concerned with hers. How could she help but fall for him?
It’s too soon.
Her mind practically screamed the words. Leah knew it would be best to listen to her inner voice, but the more time she spent with Caleb, the harder it was to heed the warning.
Caleb trailed his fingers along Leah’s bare shoulders, gliding them back and forth over her smooth skin.
“I think I should move to the mountains,” she whispered from where her head rested against his chest.
After dinner at Boone’s, a local eatery in the small town of Briarsted, they’d returned to Camp Firefly Falls and took up residence on the cabin’s back porch, facing the mountains. The clear night and the moon’s soft glow illuminated the majestic formations, providing a glorious view for anyone smart enough to stop and appreciate their beauty.
“I’d consider it,” Caleb said. “Although for years I’ve had my heart set on moving to Georgia.”
“To your grandparents?” Leah asked.
His chin brushed the top of her head when he nodded. “They owned about a hundred acres down there. Most of it was uninhabitable, but there was enough to sell to a group of developers who wanted to design a subdivision for city dwellers seeking a little country living. My grandparents held on to enough to give each of us grandkids a nice piece of land. I plan to retire there.”
“That won’t be for a while yet though, right?”
Caleb’s pause was long enough to rouse Leah from her resting position. She twisted in his lap and looked up at him. Despite the dimness, she could see the seriousness in his expression.
“Caleb?”
“You’re right,” he said. “It won’t be for a while. But for the past few months, I’ve been considering moving on.”
Leah couldn’t hide her shock even if she tried. “Why?” she asked.
He tipped is head back and released a deep breath.
“There was an incident on the job about four months ago,” he said. “It was…bad. Bad enough that I’ve been thinking long and hard about the path my career is headed.”
When he didn’t elaborate further, Leah asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
The barest hint of a smile stole across his handsome face. “Is that nosiness rearing its head again?”
“This isn’t me being nosy. It’s me being concerned. I can understand if you don’t want to get into it right now, but if it’s something you need to talk about just know that I’m here.”
“Believe it or not, it’s what this entire weekend was originally supposed to be about.”
Leah frowned. “I thought this weekend was about a fishing trip with your buddies?”
“That was my cover,” he said.
Her body stilled as her adrenaline spiked. “Wait a minute. Are you undercover this weekend?”
That fetched a genuine laugh from him. “No, that’s not what I meant,” Caleb said.
He shifted on the bench, stretching his legs out and then settling back so that she could resume the spot she’d occupied for the past half hour, resting against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and continued his fingers’ gentle glide along her bare arm.
“This weekend wasn’t just a regular fishing trip with the guys,” Caleb started. “They didn’t know that, but I’d made the decision that this weekend would be the one where I decided whether or not to continue with the DCJ or move on.”
“Do you no longer like working there?”
“I’ll be honest, it’s a tough job. Having to see the worse in humanity day in and day out starts to take its toll, especially in my division.”
“What division do you work in?”
“Human trafficking.”
Leah’s stomach immediately dropped. She couldn’t imagine the atrocities he’d witnessed on the job. She didn’t want to.
“I’ve seen things that keep me up at night,” Caleb said, as if reading her mind, yet deciding to tell her anyway. “You think doing a couple of tours in Iraq was hard? What I saw in the Middle East is nothing compared to the stuff I’ve seen up and down the Jersey Turnpike.” His chest rose with the huge breath he sucked in. “I’ve encountered some horrible shit on the job, but about four months ago there was an incident that changed everything.”
Seconds ticked by without either of them saying a word. Leah started to prompt him, but stopped. She wouldn’t push. Her heart already ached over whatever it was that had him questioning leaving a job she could tell meant so much to him.
After a solid two minutes passed, Caleb finally began again.
“About a year ago, a low-level drug dealer was arrested over in Union County. My division had been working with the DEA because where there’s trafficking, there’s also drugs. One of the dealers—a piece of shit named Tommy McCain—managed to get his case thrown out on a technicality.” He paused for a moment. “The most damning evidence against him was found in his car, but the search warrant my partner and I had was valid only for his apartment, so all that evidence we found in his car was thrown out.
“About four months ago, s
everal runaways were found in an old beat-up house in Bergen County. Turns out it was McCain who took them. He held them there for over a week, drugged them, and forced them to have sex with as many as twenty men a day. The oldest girl was fifteen. The other two were thirteen.”
Leah gasped. “Oh, my God, Caleb.”
“Can you imagine the nightmare those girls went through? Children.” Disgust imbued his voice. “It keeps me awake at night, Leah. If not for my mistake, McCain wouldn’t have been back out on the streets. Those girls never would have had to go through that.”
“But you can’t say that with certainty,” Leah pointed out. She turned so she could look him in the eye. “You do realize that those girls could have easily gotten caught up with someone else, don’t you?”
“But they didn’t. It was McCain. The guy who was free to roam the streets because I didn’t take the time to read over a damn warrant.”
The pain that slashed across his face tore at Leah’s chest. The grief he’d suffered over this was more than evident. It also made clear just how seriously he took his job. This wasn’t just a paycheck for him. He cared. He cared deeply.
“So, what happened?” She asked. “Was this McCain guy arrested?”
Caleb nodded. “But the damage had already been done. Those three girls will never be the same. Their lives are ruined.”
“Oh, Caleb, you can’t blame yourself for that.”
“Yes, I can. But I know that I can’t change it either.” He blew out another of those exhausted breaths and closed his eyes. He brought his hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. “My partner, Juan, had been anticipating a move out of state, and left soon after all of this went down. I put myself on desk duty following the incident because I wasn’t comfortable being back out on the streets, but my supervisor has been hounding me to get back into the field. I wasn’t sure if I was ready. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be ready.”
When he opened his eyes again and looked down at her, Leah’s heart broke in two. There was such hurt there. So much disappointment.
How could this man—a man strong enough to go to war for his country, to work tirelessly to lock up some of the worst people on the planet—ever be disappointed in himself? He was the kind of person everyone else in the world should strive to be.
Mr. Right Next Door (Camp Firefly Falls Book 6) Page 9
