by Leslie Kelly
“Don’t move,” he said, reluctantly dropping his companion’s hand. “I’ll find out what’s going on and be right back.”
He strode toward his pain in the ass of a sister. “Hey, kid, what’s up?”
“I’ve been waiting for you, big brother. I feel like I’m going crazy!” Sarah threw her arms around his neck, buried her face in his chest and began sobbing loudly. “I’m so miserable!”
So much for Welcome home. How’s it going? I’ve missed you.
He returned the hug, smoothing her hair, wondering what on earth the big drama was this time.
“I can’t believe you didn’t let me know you were home and ask me if I wanted to do something tonight,” she said.
“I figured you had plans with your friends.”
“I did. I mean, I do.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Everything fell apart.”
Maybe for her. But things had fallen into place for him, and he didn’t want anything to change that. “I intended to call you tomorrow. Now what’s wrong?”
“You will not believe who I ran into today.”
“The president?”
She pulled away and scowled at him. “No! Can you believe Lawrence Vandenberg is going to A.U. for his master’s degree and he lives right beside the campus and Mom never warned me?”
Oh. That. “I heard. Lulu mentioned it in an email.”
Sarah’s jaw dropped. “You keep in touch with her? After what her stupid brother did to me?”
“Not regularly, that’s for sure. She moved here. Mom gave her my email address so she could get some information on housing and stuff.”
That was the full extent of his contact with the girl-next-door, and he wanted to keep it that way. Lulu Vandenberg had been the most annoying next-door neighbor any geeky kid should have to endure, and he was lucky he’d made it out of his childhood with his sanity—and his tailbone—intact.
He did vaguely wonder how she’d turned out. Lulu had, after all, been one of the prettiest girls he’d ever known, not that he would never have told her he thought so in a million years. Maybe she’d grown up to be a hag, though he doubted it. Her emails had been friendly and chatty, brimming with self-confidence. Of course, Lulu had been that way, too. Always talking, always ready to hand out advice. She’d been a real know-it-all.
Nah. He didn’t really want to see how she’d turned out.
“She had the nerve to ask you for help after the way she always treated you when we were kids?” Sarah said, finally thinking of someone other than herself.
To be fair, Lulu hadn’t been all bad. They’d actually gotten along fine much of the time, usually by ignoring each other. It was just that she was so damned bossy, and good at everything. She’d out-played him on the basketball court, had ridden her bike in circles around him while he still struggled with his first ten-speed. She was the bravest and the toughest when it came to playing truth-or-dare. She was also dangerous—he’d been a witness to the great playground fight, when she, at age eight, had slugged an eleven-year-old boy who made fun of six-year-old Lawrence for still having a teddy bear.
And of course there was the ladder incident. Sometimes, when he sat down just the right way, he still got a twinge out of that forever-cracked tailbone.
“It’s no big deal. Mom asked me to help out. Lulu’s her best friend’s kid. What was I supposed to do, say no?”
“Well, hopefully you told her the safest place in the city to live is Anacostia,” Sarah said with a heaping helping of spite, since that neighborhood was one of the most dangerous in the district.
Chaz grunted. “Let it go, little sister.”
It was kid stuff, and he’d tried to forget it. That said, he did hope his Realtor had found Lulu an apartment far away from his own neighborhood.
“What, exactly, did Lulu tell you about Lawrence?” she asked.
“Just that he was coming here to go to school, too.”
“Did she mention that he was doing it so he could be close to some girl?”
Chaz stayed quiet, sensing a trap in the question.
Eventually Sarah continued. “Because he happens to have a girlfriend! And I think they might be living together!”
From several feet away, where he’d left his sexy witch, he heard a cough, but he stayed focused on Sarah, knowing he had to hear her out, give her a brotherly word of wisdom, and then send her on her way. “And that’s your business...why?”
She sputtered. “Well, he had to have been aware I’m at A.U. He did it on purpose, came here just to get close to me and try to make me jealous.”
“Is it working?”
“No, it is not. That’s ridiculous.”
“Great. Then there’s no problem.”
She gritted her teeth and literally growled at him. “Of course there’s a problem.”
He had never found out exactly what had happened between his sister and Lawrence. Nor was he sure he wanted to. Knowing his sister, and well aware that Lawrence was a great guy, he had to assume Sarah had been at fault, not that he was about to say that to her. He valued his eardrums too much; she would scream the neighborhood down if he accused her of being anything but the injured party in that long-ago breakup. The key being long ago.
“Sarah, it’s been years. Why haven’t you moved on?”
Her bottom lip pushed out and her big blue eyes grew moist. He could see unshed tears, illuminated by the street light overhead. Damn it, his sister really could turn on the waterworks.
“You just don’t understand.” Sniff. “Of course you’d take his side. You’re such a guy.”
“I understand breakups and exes. I’ve had my share.”
He didn’t add that he was the one who usually did the breaking up, his job being a lot more important to him than anyone he’d ever dated. And most women his age didn’t want to wait around for weeks at a time while he jet-setted his way across the globe chasing stories.
There had been one who’d seemed like she could handle it. She’d assured him she could, in fact. Then he’d come home early from a trip and gone to surprise her at her place.
Surprise! She was dating another dude on the side, and had been for a while.
They hadn’t had any exclusive agreement or anything, but she’d told him flat-out that she wasn’t seeing anyone else. He could take a woman who dated others, but he would not put up with one who lied. In his line of work, where he had to rely on sources, he had absolutely zero tolerance for liars. He’d devoted most of his efforts to tyrants and warlords, but even the lowliest liar could do serious damage. He’d seen friends’ careers ruined because of other people’s falsehoods, which was bad enough. Worse were the deceptions that put others in harm’s way. In some of the darker, more dangerous countries he had visited, deliberate lies had lured journalists to their own brutal deaths, and Chaz was always slow to give his trust and quick to take it back if it were betrayed.
“Listen, why don’t you go ahead with your plans for tonight. Go have fun, you’ll feel better. I’ll take you out for breakfast on Sunday.” Seeing that she was considering it, he added the key point. “I’ll bet running into you didn’t make Lawrence change his plans.”
That did it. The crocodile tears dried immediately and her shoulders squared. “You’re right. I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he ruined my Halloween.”
“Atta girl,” he said, squeezing her arm and gently pushing her toward her car. He opened the door and helped her shove all the loose fabric of her costume inside.
She rolled down the window and blew him a kiss. “Thanks, Chaz. Happy Halloween. Have fun with your...oh, where’d she go?”
“Who?”
“Weren’t you with someone?” she asked, craning to look through the windshield at the sidewalk.
The empty sidewalk.
He didn’t panic. “She must have gone up to the porch to wait for me.”
Sarah sat up higher in her seat and peered toward the front of his house. “Nope, nobody there.”
“I’m sure she’s around,” he said, not worrying...not really, anyway. “Call me tomorrow about breakfast.”
Sarah agreed and then backed up the car and drove away. The second she was out of sight, Chaz spun around to return to his companion. He assumed he’d find her in the shadows of one of the large live oak trees that lined the front of the row of townhouses. But she wasn’t there.
His heart rate kicked up. He strode toward his own place, searching the porch and the walkway, then retraced his steps.
“Are we playing hide-and-seek now?” he asked out loud, feeling stupid for not having gotten her name. He didn’t particularly want to call out, “Hey, sexy witch who just gave me the best blow job of my life, where are you?”
Dry leaves scuttled along the sidewalk and a strong breeze howled up the empty street, whistling between the cars. There was no other sound. No response.
No beautiful woman.
Not believing his own senses, he looked again, retracing their steps, checking behind each car, going all the way up to the corner. By the time he reached the bank vestibule and saw it empty, something akin to panic made him break into a sweat until he was almost running to the bar. But somehow, he knew even before he went inside and scanned the entire place, table by table, that he wasn’t going to find her.
Every minute, every step, every peering glance reinforced in his heart what his head had already begun to accept.
She was gone. His mystery woman, the one he’d been sure was going to become his utter sexual obsession, had disappeared.
5
LULU WOKE UP the day after Halloween to a dull headache, but she didn’t attribute it to the devilish red drinks she’d consumed at the bar. Oh, no. The ache behind her eyes and the throbbing in her temple had been caused by the long hours she’d lain awake, kicking herself for two things: first, leaving with Chaz and indulging in that wickedly erotic encounter at the bank; and second, running out on him right before they went into his house to have the kind of wild sex she knew would have lived in her memories forever.
Her brain was more regretful about the first, her body the second.
“You are so stupid,” she reminded herself as she rolled out of bed and eyed her wild, red-tinted hair in the mirror over her dresser. “Not to mention a damn coward.”
She’d been all set to risk it, to take a chance and hope Chaz wouldn’t recognize her after they had the kind of sex that was probably illegal in some states.
Then his spoiled kid sister had shown up—to complain about Lulu’s sweetheart of a kid brother. It had taken a lot of willpower to stay quiet when Sarah had made the comment about Lawrence living with a girlfriend, which was news to Lulu. She’d gasped so loud she’d had to turn the sound into a cough to cover the reaction.
Plus, not only had Sarah brought reality crashing down on Lulu like a ton of cement, but she’d also upped the risk factor. If Lulu hadn’t gotten out of there, it was very possible Chaz would have invited her over to meet his sister. And while Chaz hadn’t seen or heard her in years, Sarah definitely had. They had spoken last summer when they’d both been visiting their respective parents. If Sarah didn’t figure out who owned the face behind the mask just on sight—by the shape of her mouth or the darkness of her eyes—she would almost certainly recognize Lulu’s voice.
Overhearing part of their conversation had added fuel to the fire beneath her feet for another reason, as well. There was just too much baggage between her and Chaz. It hadn’t been easy hearing Sarah remind her brother of how much he disliked Lulu, and ask why he’d ever agreed to help her with anything.
Did Chaz really hate her? His sister had made it sound as if he had reason to. Oh, yes, she’d been a little shit to him on occasion, but she’d never been vicious or deliberately cruel. God, she hated to think he might be carrying scars even deeper than the ones she’d taken for granted.
The very idea had made the whole escapade seem tawdry and unkind. She had no business tricking a night of sensuality out of a guy who hated her guts. Going home with him like that was akin to stealing. He had every right to know who she was and shoot her down, and she’d taken away his chance.
So she’d played the coward and darted away while Chaz and Sarah had been talking. She’d slipped around the side of the townhouse row, heading for her own building down the block and entering the back door. Watching through her window as he’d gone looking for her, she had bitten her lip and let tears fall from her eyes as she recognized his frustration.
“Frustration is better than fury.”
Right. And Chaz would be furious if he found out who she really was. Meaning she had to be more careful than ever not to give him any clue that she was the woman who’d been on her knees giving him the blow job to end all blow jobs last night.
Although she loved her cute apartment, and her neighbors, and the area, she suddenly found herself wishing she’d found a place in another part of the city. Now that he was home, chances were good she would run into Chaz sometime soon. She only hoped she was ready to come face to face with him again, without revealing everything she was thinking.
Trying to put the memories of the night before out of her mind, she went to take a long, hot shower. The spray-in hair color was temporary, but she still had to wash her hair three times before she felt confident the glittery stuff was completely gone. And after she got out of the shower, brushed her hair, and spotted a few incriminating auburn streaks, she went right back in and washed it again.
Finally, when she’d made sure to remove every wisp of color and had thrust her witch costume into the darkest corner of her closet, she pulled on jeans and a sweater, wanting to get out of her apartment. It was a beautiful fall day—sunny, breezy, the sky clear and Robin’s egg–blue—and she was determined to stop hiding inside and go out to enjoy the weather. Winter wouldn’t be far away now, and while it would never be as bad as the winters in the mountains of western Maryland, where she’d grown up, she knew she’d soon be missing these sunny, cool days.
Heading out her door and down the stairs, she bumped into the couple who lived in the apartment directly above hers. She hadn’t known them long, but she already liked them a lot, appreciating the way the women had immediately been neighborly without being intrusive.
“Hey, Lulu,” said Marcia, who was carrying a bag of groceries in one hand and was shoving her glasses up her nose with the other.
“Morning,” she replied, holding the front door of the building open so Marcia and Peggy could come inside with their groceries.
“Did you have a good Halloween?” asked Peggy.
“It was...interesting,” she admitted.
That was an understatement.
“It must have been if you slept so heavily this morning that you didn’t notice all the commotion around here,” Marcia said, her voice filled with amusement.
“Why? What happened?”
“Peggy played hero for some kid whose kitty got stuck in the tree out front. She climbed up to rescue it.”
Lulu’s eyes widened in surprise. The tree was a monster; she’d seen last spring’s kites still tangled in its branches. “You didn’t go too high, did you?”
Peggy groaned, embarrassed.
“Yes, she did,” said Marcia, dropping an arm across the other woman’s shoulders. “She made the mistake of looking down.”
“I never knew I was afraid of heights,” Peggy said, gazing at her feet and scuffing her toe on the tiled floor.
“I had to call 911 and a fire crew came and helped her down.”
“Damn, I missed hot firefighters?”
“Well, there was one hot one,” said Peggy, “but I don’t think she was your type.”
“She wasn’t yours, either,” said Marcia with a smirk as she held up her left hand, on which glittered a gold wedding band. The two had gotten married this past summer, happy to be in a city that celebrated freedom and let them live their lives exactly as they wanted to.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Peggy, lightly kissing her wife’s cheek. Turning to Lulu, she asked, “Where you off to?”
“Just out for a walk. It’s too nice to stay inside.”
“Definitely. Tomorrow’s supposed to be even nicer. Why don’t you join us out back for dinner then? We’re going to have one final grill-out of the fall. The couple from the first floor is coming. It’ll be a BYOM party.”
“BYOM?”
“Bring your own meat.”
Promising she would join them the next day, Lulu said goodbye to the couple and headed outside. She turned right at the sidewalk, as usual. Then she hesitated. Chaz’s house was so close, she’d have to walk right past it. He might be sleeping off his travel jet lag. Or he might be sleeping because he’d been up all night wondering about the woman who’d run out on him. Or he might be wide awake, plotting his revenge.
Hell. It was worth taking a different route today.
She spun around, ready to do exactly that, when a male voice called out, “Hey, you! Wait a minute—stop!”
There was no denying that voice, or the demanding tone.
It was Chaz.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she turned around to face the music. There was no point delaying the inevitable. She’d have to see him sometime and part of her just wanted to get it over with and stop worrying about it.
Another part was wondering how, exactly, she would react if he recognized her not as his childhood nemesis, but as his almost-lover of the previous night. He’d seen her from behind, but had called out with something that sounded like desperation. So she suspected he’d been searching for his mystery woman, and believed he’d spotted her.
