Just Kidding

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I blinked in surprise.

  “That’s true,” I said. “I’ve never known anyone with Tourette’s before. You definitely don’t fit the bill of what I had pictured in my mind.”

  She grinned at me and I grinned back.

  “I have a slight case of OCD—obsessive-compulsive disorder—but again, that’s gotten a lot better with age, too,” she continued as she led the way down a narrow walkway to what I assumed was the vacant duplex. “And normally a stranger wouldn’t even see my tics at all, but when I get stressed—such as my dad getting electrocuted and being hospitalized—my symptoms seem to get worse. And I can’t control or hide them as well.”

  I felt for her.

  I really did.

  The next few minutes she went over the rules and regulations of the duplex. How if you had a complaint to please submit it to the office. Don’t confront my neighbors, etc.

  “We don’t mow your yards,” she said. “We do have a lawn service that mows the one in front of the office, so we can add you to the rotation but that’s gonna be like fifteen bucks a week.” She paused in front of a duplex.

  One side of the duplex was bare bones. Nothing out front to distinguish it as lived in.

  But the one next door had a grill underneath the carport. A toolbox with an even smaller toolbox sitting on top of it. A jet ski and a paddleboat.

  Oh, and a shiny black motorcycle that looked awfully familiar.

  “Mostly everyone that lives here is a police officer of some kind,” Hastings said. “This guy is also an officer.” She gestured to my would-be duplex mate. “There are really only two that aren’t. Me, I live on the very end.” She pointed in the direction of her place. “And another woman that lives across the street and two down from me. I think she’s a nurse anesthetist.”

  Wow.

  That was surprising as hell.

  “This is gonna be the safest place in the entire world,” I joked.

  She grinned. “You have no idea, Rowen! Nothing happens here that we don’t want to happen here.” She gestured to the toolbox under the carport. “I wouldn’t think that’d be able to be left anywhere else. But at any given time, there are at least one or two officers home. They monitor the place. Keep a watch on everything. Nothing happens here without their knowledge.”

  I had a feeling she was right.

  And I thought living at my parents’ house was safe.

  She finally walked into the open duplex and waved me in.

  “I came earlier and turned on the air so we wouldn’t die while you were looking,” she explained. “I just left it open since we were about to head down here.”

  I watched as she started to blink rapidly.

  Having a feeling that she didn’t want me to stare, I turned and surveyed the room around me.

  “Wow,” I breathed. “This is beautiful.”

  Prettier than anything else I’d ever been in that was a rental.

  My apartment in San Antonio looked like a dump compared to this place.

  “Rent is eight fifty a month,” she said as she continued. “You can either sign a year contract, or you can go month-to-month. The only thing with month-to-month is that if there’s a new increase in the rent, you’re gonna have to pay it.”

  That sounded fan-fucking-tastic to me.

  Mostly because I was planning on buying a house. I wasn’t sure when. I wasn’t sure where.

  But I knew that was one of my goals.

  My parents had shouldered my education expenses. My car was paid off. I didn’t buy anything I didn’t need.

  Which in turn meant that I had enough money to do what I wanted—like buy a freakin’ house.

  I just had to make sure that the job that I’d accepted would work out, first. Then I’d go house shopping.

  Until then, I would wait and live month to month when it pertained to rent.

  Score!

  “Month-to-month sounds great,” I said. “Do you need a background check on me or anything?”

  She was already shaking her head.

  “Nope,” she said. “All I need is some paperwork filled out. Then the first and last month’s rent. Then you’re good to move in.”

  I was starting to feel absolutely giddy.

  “Deal!”

  Chapter 6

  I don’t get the ‘zero fucks given’ thing. I have a ton of fucks. Fuck you. Fuck off. Fuck this. Fuck that. Fuck them. Fuck me.

  -Dax’s secret thoughts

  Dax

  The next morning I woke up to a loud racket coming from the front of my duplex.

  Popping one eye open, I realized that my alarm was about five minutes from going off.

  I found myself hurrying out of bed as if I had gotten a full eight hours of sleep instead of the two that I’d been allowed after a SWAT call from hell.

  I’d set my alarm for about half an hour before I would need to leave to pick up Rowen, but it was more than obvious that I hadn’t needed to.

  Hell, I’d gone to sleep thinking about her the night before, and now I’d woken up doing the same thing.

  What was it about the woman that had me tied in knots?

  Hearing what sounded like the door next to me closing, I frowned and began to move toward the front window in order to peer out.

  Did I have a new neighbor?

  I knew it wouldn’t be long.

  The place that I was living in was a freakin’ gold mine. Plus, it was one of the safest places in Kilgore thanks to all of the officers that were calling Shady Shores Duplexes, home.

  My eyes lit on a familiar red coupe, and my heartbeat started to accelerate.

  Frowning hard at the car, I watched and waited for the car’s occupant to come back.

  She did long moments later, pulling a box out of the front seat of the car before turning around and bringing it back inside.

  Excitement started to pour through my veins at the thought of her living next to me.

  But what if it wasn’t her living next to me? What if it was a friend of hers or something? And she was just helping them move?

  Unable to stop my curiosity, I walked back to my bedroom and picked up the first pair of pants I found—a worn and battered pair of blue jeans I’d worn to mow the yard in the day before.

  I’d had about an hour in between getting up and having to go get my mother that I’d used to mow the small yard.

  When I was done, I’d thrown my dirty clothes in the corner of my bedroom in my haste to get to the shower.

  Glancing down at my blue jeans, I considered changing them, but then thought better of it when I heard another car door slam.

  I didn’t like the idea of her pulling boxes in all by herself, even if they were light.

  Mind made up, I hurried outside and made my way to the duplex next door.

  After studying the yard and the curb, I decided that the person moving the boxes, and the only car there belonging to the one woman I couldn’t stop thinking about, likely meant that it was Rowen moving in and not a friend.

  Just as I took the stairs to her porch, I raised my hand to knock only to have the door ripped open right in front of me.

  “Oh!” Rowen said, her hand flying to her chest. “You startled me.”

  My eyes went to her chest, and I tried not to stiffen.

  She was wearing a black tank top with a bright pink sports bra underneath. There was also a tiny postage-sized square of fabric covering her ass and thighs. Meaning she was wearing shorts that just begged for me to rip them off.

  Fuck. Me.

  “H-hey,” she said. “So I was going to tell you as soon as you walked out here. I put a note on your truck window just on the off chance that I missed seeing you before you left. I brought donuts!”

  I was grinning widely at her as she jabbered, and by the time she was finished, I could tell that she was nervous.

  Why was she nervous?

  “I actually didn’t kno
w that you lived here, exactly,” she said. “I was meeting with the property manager’s daughter when she showed me this place. I saw your bike and thought it was yours, but honestly, I’m not all that good with bikes. I can’t tell this one from that one.”

  She pointed to my bike. Then the Ninja sports bike that Hayes, another buddy of mine that was also on the SWAT team with me, owned.

  They couldn’t be more different from each other.

  “Then I came over again last night, I guess sometime after you got done with whatever you were doing,” she continued. “Your truck was here, and your bike was gone. And since I’d seen that yesterday morning, I knew that you were the one that lived here.” She paused for a deep breath. “I swear I’m not a stalker.”

  At that, I couldn’t help but grin.

  “I never said that you were,” I told her. “You got anything else in your car that you need help with?”

  She licked her lips, and her eyes danced down my body.

  It was then that I realized I was shirtless, it was pretty damn nippy outside, and she was staring at me like two friends shouldn’t stare at each other.

  My nipples were hard as fuck due to the chill in the air, and I swear to God she was staring so hard that I almost moved forward just so she could touch.

  But she blinked, turned her head to the side, and stared at my ear as she said, “No, I don’t have anything else. I was just bringing over what was left in my car. I brought some of the stuff from my old room yesterday.”

  I glanced behind her into the duplex beyond.

  It was empty except for like three bags, a stack of blankets, and about a gazillion Walmart bags.

  “I need to buy a trash can,” she said. “And a washer and dryer.”

  I grinned at her.

  “I’d offer you the use of my washer and dryer,” I said. “But I don’t own one. I just take all my shit to my mom and she still does it for me.”

  She blinked.

  Then blinked again, much more slowly.

  Then started to laugh.

  “That’s funny,” she admitted. “And I’ll be doing that until I can afford to get one.”

  “What?” I asked. “Taking it to my mom?”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Funny,” she said. “But no, taking it over to my parents’ place. I’ll just have to be super careful about when I go.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

  “My parents are very, what you would call, randy,” she said. “I swear to God, I walked in there last night after dropping off a load of crap here, and they were making out in the kitchen. My dad almost had my mom’s shirt halfway off, and I nearly had to bleach my eyes.”

  I started to chuckle as I gestured for her to follow me over to my place.

  “Come make coffee,” I said. “And let me get dressed.”

  She swallowed hard and then nodded but switched directions halfway through cutting between our yard to run down to her car.

  She started closing doors and stopped before closing the last one, leaning over into her seat and reaching to the back floorboard.

  My eyes were so focused on her ass that I didn’t realize that Derek, her brother, had jogged up until he was nearly right on top of me.

  I cleared my throat and looked away from his sister’s ass, but that wasn’t enough. He’d still caught me.

  His eyes narrowed on me just as Rowen straightened up from her car.

  “Oh, hey, Derek,” Rowen said, sounding surprised. “Did you just get back from your run?”

  Derek rolled his eyes.

  “No, I’m just getting started,” he panted, dripping sweat so badly that it looked as if he’d just stepped out of a pool rather than gone for a run.

  I would know.

  I often looked like that after I worked out in Texas, too.

  It was just impossible to stay cool.

  “Oh.” Rowen eyed him. “Are you sure?”

  Derek popped his earbud back into his ear and said, “Have fun in San Antonio.”

  Rowen pulled the box of donuts from her seat and tucked them under her arm like one would a baby, then closed the door to her car before bleeping the locks.

  Derek stopped in his forward propulsion, eyeing the donuts.

  “You brought donuts?” he asked.

  She turned her body away from his and started up the path to my place.

  “I would’ve offered you one,” she said. “But you were a dick so…”

  Derek cursed as she walked all the way inside my place, acting as if she’d been there a hundred times before.

  “If I’d have known she had donuts,” Derek said. “I would’ve been nicer to her.”

  I snorted and started walking inside.

  He stopped me by calling my name.

  “Dax.”

  I turned to find him standing there, his earbud once again out of his ear.

  “Yeah?” I turned.

  “Don’t hurt her,” he ordered. “She may be my big sister, but I’ll kick your ass if you so much as make her cry.”

  I liked that he’d said it.

  “I’m not…”

  Derek rolled his eyes. “Sure you’re not.”

  With that he turned and walked away, shoving his earbud back into his ear and whistling to a tune that only he could hear.

  I turned around and headed back into my house, breaching the entrance of my place and immediately smelling the coffee.

  “You have an actual coffee pot,” she said as she looked at me.

  She had a donut in one hand, and white powdered sugar all over her breasts.

  She also had it all over her lips.

  It took everything I had not to lean over and run my tongue along those beautiful lips.

  “What?” she asked as she touched her head. “Do I have something in my hai… shit.”

  I scrunched up my nose.

  “It looks cute all stubbly like that,” I found myself saying. “But no, you don’t have anything in your hair. Or on your head. You have powdered sugar all over your mouth. And your…” I gestured to her boobs.

  She looked down at herself and shrugged. “It happens.”

  Then she proceeded to continue making a mess. First with the rest of her powdered donut she was eating, and then with a plain glazed one.

  Swallowing hard, I gathered up my clothes that were on the bar thanks to my mother doing my laundry yesterday and headed into my room to get dressed.

  Once in a clean pair of jeans, a simple white t-shirt, socks, and work boots, I found my concealed carry weapon underneath my pillow and fit it into place in the front of my pants.

  Shrugging the t-shirt down into place, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, then slathered some lotion onto my tattoos.

  I grinned at the naked girl that Rowen hadn’t even blinked an eye at when she’d seen it.

  Then again, she’d probably known about it. Vaguely I remembered her being there that day that my mom had first seen it—then promptly lost her shit.

  Needless to say, there wasn’t anyone in our close circle of friends and family that didn’t know about it.

  It’d been my first, and at seventeen, and pissed off at my ex-girlfriend for showing my ass all over social media, I’d thought it was a good fuck you.

  Especially since Rachelle had hated the woman that I’d gotten tattooed on my arm.

  It wasn’t anybody we knew, or anything. Just some random chick that I’d seen in a magazine of Rachelle’s. Rachelle had been reading Cosmo and flipping through the pages, and I’d seen her. When I’d commented that she was pretty, Rachelle had lost her shit and accused me of not liking her.

  Needless to say, I’d gone back to find that picture of the woman who was standing in the nude, only two large red, white, and blue stickers covering her areolas.

  Then I’d tattooed her onto my arm as a reminder that women were
assholes.

  Shaking my head out of those morose thoughts, I headed into the kitchen and saw Rowen eating yet another donut. This one chocolate covered.

  “Jesus,” I said as I looked at her. “You’re amazing.”

  She snorted and patted her belly.

  “I’m just a girl with a big appetite,” she said. “And I’m blessed with amazing genes that allow me to eat like shit and not gain weight.”

  Rowen was skinny, sure. But she was referring to herself as ‘a stick’ when she was anything but.

  She had generous curves, great breasts. Small, but the perfect mouthful.

  Not to mention she had legs for days.

  Smooth, toned, luscious legs that I would love to have wrapped around…

  “Do you want coffee?” she asked.

  I shook my head and started toward the cabinet with the coffee cups, pulling down the first one I saw and filling it up.

  “That’s literally a blank coffee mug,” she said. “Where does one get a plain, white coffee mug from?”

  I brought the mug to my lips and took a cautious sip.

  Then I reached for a donut as I said, “The Dollar Store.”

  She snickered.

  “Nothing wrong with that, I guess.” She hip-checked me. “I’m going to run to the restroom, go lock up my place and be back. If you get done before me, come over.”

  I didn’t have to come over.

  I met her at the halfway point between her side of the duplex and mine again.

  “Ready to ride?”

  She nodded once, looking worried now. “I guess so.”

  I frowned at her sudden change in demeanor.

  “What’s wrong?” I wondered.

  She sighed and ran her fingers over her head.

  “I…” She licked her lips. “I got a text from Theo while I was in there. He asked if I was around for him to stop by.”

  “Theo?” I asked.

  She shut down after that, leaving me to believe that this Theo guy had hurt her in some way. And for a guy to be able to hurt a girl, the girl had to have feelings for him in some way.

  And why the hell did that just burn a hole straight through my chest?

  Chapter 7