Neanderthal Next Door: Enemies to Lovers, Mountain Man Next-Door, Halloween Romance

by K. C. Crowne

  I shook my head – I didn’t even need to think about it.

  “No, I don’t need that. I can stay at Lizzie’s. It’s fine.”

  “Are you serious? I’ve seen where Lizzie lives – it’s a bachelorette apartment. That’s no place for a mother and her son to live. Not to mention being around a woman who lives that kind of lifestyle.”

  “There’s no ‘lifestyle’ involved. She’s a good woman and a good friend. I won’t listen to you insult her.”

  But he’d been right about one thing. Lizzie’s place was small and suited to a single person, not two adults and a growing boy.

  I had nowhere to go.

  I slumped back in my chair, trying to process everything happening.

  “Whoa!” Parker’s voice yanked me out of my daze. “That’s so much food!”

  “Eat up, little guy,” Adam said.

  Parker ran over and took one of the plates, piling it high with waffles and eggs.

  “This looks so good,” he said. “And thanks for the PlayStation!”

  “Sure, kid,” Adam replied, mussing Parker’s hair as he sat down. “And if you’re really good, I might be able to get you the new one before anyone else in town has it.”

  “Are you serious?” Parker asked.

  “No,” I said, sternly. “You don’t need a new one.”

  My phone went off in my pocket – the alarm to let me know we needed to get moving for school.

  “Parker, take a few bites and come on; we need to get moving.”

  “Oh, that’s another thing,” Adam said. “Your car needs some major work. I’m going to have a mechanic come to the house to take a look at it today. But in the meantime, I want you to use one of my cars.”

  I didn’t have the energy to fight with him.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Keys are in the garage. And make sure you let me know when you’re on the way back – security’s real sticklers about people coming and going whenever.”

  In a daze, I went with Parker to the garage, taking one of the sets of keys. I opened the door, the gates around the massive home seeming more like a prison.

  With every moment that passed, I felt like it was more and more the case.

  Hunter

  It was Friday night, but I sure as hell couldn’t tell the difference.

  I’d been at the Snake Pit since noon, throwing back beer and half-watching whatever sports were on the TV in the corner of the bar. There weren’t any windows in the joint, so I couldn’t tell what time of day it was.

  So much the better. Good thing about bars like the Snake Pit was they had a way of cutting you off from the outside world. You get enough booze in you and let the TV do its thing and the apocalypse could happen outside for all you knew.

  The clientele of the place was the usual mix of bikers and thugs, a couple handfuls of men and women playing pool and taking shots and talking in loud voices. A few cheap Halloween decorations were here and there, all serving to make me think about how Parker was going to feel when he learned I wasn’t coming to trick-or-treat with him.

  But I couldn’t change that now. The damage had been done.

  My face was killing me. I’d won the scrap the day before – three-on-one were odds I didn’t have any trouble with. But one of the pricks had gotten in a lucky shot, his fist catching me right in the eye. Lucky for me, the damage was mostly cosmetic. But it still stung like hell.

  The bartender came over and topped off my beer, tilting his head to get a look at my black eye.

  “Let me guess,” he said. “You should see the other guy?”

  I smirked. “Guys.”

  His eyebrows flicked up in an impressed manner.

  But I didn’t give a damn about looking tough to any bartender. I wanted to drink until I couldn’t think straight, until I couldn’t focus my mind on the woman and the boy I’d hurt.

  On the far side of the bar, a woman nodded to me, catching my eye. She was blonde, her eyes blue, her clothes and tattoos letting me know that hung with rougher crowds, her smile sending the message she was mine for the taking.

  But the idea of sleeping with a woman who wasn’t her…it was unthinkable.

  What the hell was wrong with me? I’d hurt Mandy, sure, but didn’t that come part and parcel with the life I’d chosen to live? All I’d wanted was to be by myself, and there I was beating myself up for staying isolated.

  I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to think about anything.

  “Another shot,” I said to the bartender. “Make it a double.”

  He nodded and smirked before pouring me a stiff drink. But right as I raised it to my mouth, a hand clamped down on my wrist.

  “The fuck you think you’re doing?”

  I turned in the direction of the voice, bringing into view a hulking biker almost as big as me.

  I cleared my throat and spoke slowly.

  “There’d better be a damn good reason why you’re touching me, friend.”

  “I sure as shit ain’t your friend, shithead. Now, tell me what the fuck you think you’re doing looking at my woman.”

  At first, I wasn’t sure what the hell he was talking about. Then, when I caught sight out of the corner of my eye the blonde who’d been trying to signal my attention, I realized what he was talking about.

  But just like the night before, I was ready for a fight. And this guy, with his build and his scars, looked like he was ready to give me a good one.

  “Maybe you ought to learn to keep her closer,” I said. “Or maybe find a way to make her not so bored she’s looking for random attention.”

  He narrowed his dark eyes into hateful little slits.

  “The fuck you say?”

  “You deaf and stupid?” I asked, the adrenaline already pumping through my body, making me feel alive.

  If he wasn’t already wanting to beat the snot out of me, that comment did it.

  He stood up straight and squared his shoulders, getting ready to smash me into the barstool.

  But he didn’t get the chance.

  “There you are!”

  A familiar voice spoke.

  Goddamn Hugh.

  He stepped next to the would-be-fighter, locking eyes with me and shaking his head. In his crisp, white button-up and pressed slacks, he was a total contrast to the low-lifes in the bar.

  “I swear, I can’t leave alone for two seconds!”

  “Who the fuck are you?” the man asked Hugh.

  Hugh smirked. “I’m this guy’s babysitter, believe it or not.” He reached over and took my glass of whiskey. “Now, you know you’re not supposed to be drinking this stuff, right? It messes with your medication.”

  Hugh spoke to the man. “You’re going to have to excuse my friend – he just had his old lady walk out on him.”

  “Huh?” The man was taken aback.

  “So,” he went on. “You’re going to have to excuse him for acting a little out of pocket.”

  The man glared at me, and I glared at Hugh. Silence was thick in the air.

  “Fine,” the man said. “Whatever. Just tell this dumbass to mind his manners unless he wants to see what his whiskey tastes like going up the wrong end.”

  He shot me one more hard glare before turning and leaving, heading back over to his girlfriend.

  Hugh sipped my whiskey, letting out a satisfied “ahh” after he did.

  “Got to hand it to you – even when you’re in the depths of an emotional black hole you still go for the good stuff.”

  I snatched the drink from his hand, setting it back down on the bar.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked, Hugh dropping into the seat next to me.

  “Coffee,” he said to the bartender. “And one for my friend, too.”

  Moments later, two cups of black coffee on dirty saucers were plunked in front of us.

  “Drink up,” he said.

  “Not in the mood for coffee. And how about the question I just asked – what the hell are
you doing here?”

  He smirked, raising the steaming cup to his mouth and taking a sip.

  “I’m here to drag your ass back to Silver Pines.”

  Another question occurred to me after he said the words.

  “How the hell do you even know I was back here?”

  “Let’s just say…I’ve got a source on the inside – one that let me know you’d skipped town. And the Snake Pit’s where you’d always go when you needed to forget about the rest of the world.”

  “Nice detective work.”

  He flashed me a white-toothed grin. “That’s why I make the big bucks.”

  “Have you been talking with Mandy?” God, just saying her name hurt like hell.

  He shook his head. “Nope. But someone close to her. Anyway, that’s not important. What is important is that you pull yourself out of whatever funk you’re in and get your ass back to see her.”

  I snorted. “Not going to happen.”

  “And why not?”

  I moved the coffee aside and took my whiskey. But instead of shooting it like I’d intended, I only took a sip.

  “I tried to make something work there. But my past caught up with me.”

  “I thought you and Mandy went over all that – and she believed you.”

  “She did. But now that prick Adam’s threatening to release the information to the entire town. Doesn’t matter what she thinks if tens of thousands of people there hear a warped side of the story.”

  “And your decision was to…run away?”

  “To cut my losses. And to save her from dealing with the fallout of my bullshit.”

  Hugh sipped his coffee.

  “So you ran away and didn’t leave her any say in the matter.”

  “She didn’t need say in the matter. One of us had to make the hard call.”

  Another headshake of disbelief. “Man, you can be a real selfish prick when you want to be, you know that?”

  I was taken aback. “How the hell was that selfish? I took the damage, spared her the worst of it. Not to mention what she and her boy would’ve gone through had that gotten out.”

  He looked me over skeptically. “When’s the last time you ate?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Hugh looked around. “This place is kind of a shithole, but the food’s not bad from what I remember.”

  He flagged down the bartender and put in an order for chicken nachos – extra cheese.

  “That booze has soaked your brain,” he said. “Need something in your gut to get you thinking right – because you sure as shit aren’t right now.”

  “Tell me where I’m wrong.”

  “How about this – you got a woman back there into you that most men would kill for just a smile from. And on top of that, she’s got a son who thinks the world of you. And your solution to this whole mess was to up and leave without a word, not even giving her a chance to tell you what she thought of the situation. It was selfish as hell, Hunt. And the fact that you’re dressing it up as selfless…that’s proof positive you’re not thinking right.”

  “You don’t get it,” I said. “I’m the one taking all the pain.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re just thinking that because you don’t see how much she’s hurting right now that you did something noble. But you didn’t. What you actually did was make her pain even worse.”

  “But I told her. I didn’t leave her hanging.”

  “You broke it to her over the phone when you were already long gone. That’s different and you know it.”

  “Then…what the hell was I supposed to do?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not the expert, Hunt. But I can say what you did was a far fucking cry from it. Maybe tell her in person? Hear what she has to say on the matter? Just for starters.”

  I stared down at the bar, the surface scuffed and chipped, foul words carved here and there, likely with the point of a knife.

  “And now it’s even worse. You leaving was just what Adam wanted. Now he’s got her at his place, locked up like some kind of prisoner.”

  “What? How do you mean?”

  “Listen to this shit – he’s got her in the guest house, which you know is wired to the brim with security cameras. He has her phone bugged and is only letting her use his cars – cars he’s got GPS-tagged. And he came up with some cockamamie bullshit about how you ruined her cabin with your repairs. He’s had it condemned.”

  I was taken aback. “How the hell do you know this?”

  One more smirk. “I got someone on the inside, like I said. And once I heard, I might’ve put my skills to work checking the place out when Adam was gone.”

  I was still confused.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “The fact of the matter is you’ve got two choices: first is to stay here and drink yourself into oblivion in some shitty attempt to ignore the pain you’ve caused. Second is-”

  I didn’t need him to finish. “Second is to get my ass back there, apologize for what I did, and try to set things right.”

  “There’s the Hunter I know.”

  “But what if it’s too late? What if she doesn’t want to see me again?”

  “Then that’s her call. You’re going to have to do something that I know doesn’t come natural to you – give up the control, and hand it over to her. Let her decide what to do with you.”

  He was right. I put my hand on the glass of whiskey and pushed it back, instead sipping the coffee. The bartender came over and put a big plate of greasy, delicious-looking nachos in front of us.

  “Now, if you’re ready to do it, we go back tomorrow. But tonight, you sleep off that hangover. Though we’ve got something a little more important to do first.”

  “What’s that?”

  He leaned in, a smirk on his face.

  “We need to find you a Halloween costume. You’re going trick-or-treating, Hunt. And I’m coming with you.”

  Mandy

  It was Halloween, but I was hardly in any kind of holiday spirit.

  “Do you think he might come?” Parker asked, putting on his little boots for his Iron Man costume. “To surprise us?”

  “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, buddy,” I said. I was looking in the mirror, making the last few tweaks to my costume, which was some generic princess outfit I’d put together. I hadn’t been in the mood to do much more than that.

  “Why did he go?” he asked. “Was he mad at me?”

  “No,” I said, making my voice stern so he didn’t get any ideas like that. “Nothing that happened was your fault. He left because…I don’t know. He had his reasons.”

  “Will he come back?”

  “We don’t need him to come back.” Adam stepped into the living room where we were, dressed like a cowboy. “We’re going to have fun all on our own. We’re going to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood, and you’re going to get so much candy you’re not going to know what to do with it all.”

  “Oh,” Parker said, not a trace of enthusiasm in his voice. “OK.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes, stepping over to me. “What’s the deal with him?” he asked, his voice a sharp whisper. “What’s with this attitude?”

  “Hunter left,” I said. “He’s a little upset.”

  “Well, he needs to get over it. Hunter’s gone and he’s not coming back.” He said the final part loudly enough so Parker could hear, which only made him more defeated.

  “Shut up, Adam,” I all but growled. “He’s a kid.”

  “Well even so, that loser had no business being in this town. Him leaving was a blessing. Good riddance, if you ask me.”

  I was mad at Hunter, for sure. But hearing Adam say those words sparked something in me.

  “Well I didn’t ask you. This is hard enough as it is. I don’t need you rubbing salt into the wound.”

  “’Rubbing salt into the wound’?” Adam’s eyes flashed with rage as he stepped toward me. “Look at all I’ve given you, Mandy. You have a home, you have whateve
r you need. And now you have the audacity to complain about that man who nearly ruined your life leaving? What the hell is the matter with you?”

  “You need to calm down, right now,” I said. “I know what you’re doing for Parker and me and I’m thankful. But this needs to stop.” After I finished, I stepped over to Parker and kneeled down, wiping his eyes and smoothing his hair.

  Adam stared me down for a time, clearly having not expected to be talked to like that.

  “Let’s go,” he said. “The only thing that’s going to make you forget about him is time.”

  He went off, his footfalls heavy as he made his way to the front door.

  I was being tough for Parker, but deep down I was scared. Adam had been keeping us on a tight leash from the moment we’d come to stay with him. And the few times he had let me out of the house without a fuss, he’d made sure to text on the hour to know where I was.

  And I couldn’t quite say why, but it seemed like he somehow knew where I’d been, and that he was only messaging to see if I’d confirm.

  Stupid stuff to worry about. At that moment, I had a kid to make sure had a happy Halloween.

  “Let’s go, Iron Man,” I said. “You’ve got a big bag there and I’m thinking it needs to be filled with candy, pronto.”

  That put a smile on his face. “OK!”

  He hopped off the couch and I took his hand as the two of us went to the front door.

  “Are we still going to the party tonight?”

  “Mhmm,” I said. “And we’re going to have tons of fun. A bunch of kids from school will be there.”

  “Oh,” he said, sounding slightly disappointed.

  I knew what was on his mind.

  “You’ll be fine,” I said. “Just think of it as a chance to make some new friends.”

  He nodded, but I could sense he was apprehensive about it all.

  Poor kid.

  Hunter sure picked a hell of a time to leave, I thought as we stepped through the front door and out into the cool, evening air.

  Despite everything, it was a nice night. And there were worse neighborhoods to do our trick-or-treating in than Adam’s. A few other families were there, the voices of children filling the night air. But as we joined Adam and started off, all I could think about was how much I wished Hunter hadn’t gone.