Chapter 4
4
Hume
"Cannonball!" Reece yells out before jumping as high as he can and crashing into the water, sending waves in every direction.
When he resurfaces, Drew yells out, "Nice one, son, but next time, less yelling."
"No, no, no," I chime in, handing Drew another beer. "Be as loud as you want," I yell out to Reece who's swimming to the edge of my pool. I clink my beer bottle against Drew's. "Teenagers need to be free to express themselves. However loudly they want to. It's good for their development."
Drew stares at me like I've lost my mind. "How many beers have you had?"
I chuckle. "This is my second. I'm fine."
I'm more than fine, actually.
Tenley has laid down the gauntlet, and I'm not going to take it lying down. I may have been mad as heck and only half awake, but every molecule in my body responded to her seductive, Let me see what you can do, baby challenge last weekend.
She wants to see what I can do? Well, I'm showing her, doing what any normal neighbor would do—retaliating in an equally juvenile manner.
In the week since we exchanged words at her petty zoo party, she's burrowed her way even deeper into my subconscious. I cannot stop thinking about her—at work, with my search and rescue buddies, whenever I see her car pulling up in her driveway at night.
No woman has ever affected me like this before. I'm like a high school kid suffering through his first crush. No, wait. Even my high school crush on Cindy Crawford wasn't this all-consuming, this constant, this…big.
At least the issue with my ears has eased off for the time being, leaving me clear-headed for the fight I suspect is coming my way. I've invited my buddies and their wives and kids around for an afternoon of grilling and pool games. My way of showing Tenley I can be just as noisy during the day as I am at night. It's called versatility, people.
"Cannonball!" Reece calls out again, letting out an equally loud holler before charging toward the pool and flinging himself into the air.
My eyes drift from his impressive jump to the figure torpedoing her way toward the fence line. Knew it. I grab a bottle of suntan lotion and head over for our showdown.
"Afternoon, sweetheart," I say, putting on as much of an arrogant twang as I can, seeing how that seems to annoy her, and I'm all about annoying her as much as humanly possible. "Would you mind rubbing some lotion on my back?"
To my surprise, she takes the bottle from me. Oh, I wasn't actually expecting to have her rub lotion on me, but heck yeah, I'll take it. This is my lucky day. She glares at me for a few seconds, her blue eyes blazing…and then throws the bottle onto the ground. Okay, that makes more sense.
She huffs, and if she's annoyed, it's not really working. She looks downright adorable, and, for the record, way hotter than Cindy. "What are you doing?" she demands.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I gesture over my shoulder. "I'm throwing a little party. I did invite you, but like always, you ignored it."
"You did not invite me," she retorts, as if the very thought of me doing something nice is abhorrent to her.
"I did ," I insist. "I left a note on your front porch just like I left you several notes when you moved in, offering to help you with whatever work you might want to do around the place."
She glares at me the way I do at Chewy when she lets out one of her monstrous nighttime farts, then presses a finger to the bridge of her nose and exhales. "Whatever."
"We are in a war, right? Or was that petting zoo party something I can expect to be a regular occurrence around here?"
She opens her mouth to say something, decides against it, and starts walking away. Desperate for her to stay, er, I mean, engage, I blurt out, "The offer still stands, by the way. If you need help with your place. I know it's hard to find contractors at the moment. I'm flat-out busy myself, but I'm sure I could find some time."
She returns to the fence line slowly, her gaze probing into me. "And why would you want to do that? We're technically at war, as you pointed out."
"Sure, but we're also neighbors, so at some stage, we're going to have to find a truce. Unless we want to continue making each other's lives difficult?"
We're two grown adults, and since I am the older one, it makes sense for me to try and act like it. At least a little.
She blows out a breath, sending a loose strand of hair that had fallen on her face flying into the air. "I don't want that."
"Neither do I. And just so you know, I'm having a few of my guys over next week to soundproof my shed."
She perks up. "So no more night time banging?"
My brain breaks, like eggs splattering into an omelet bowl, when I hear the word banging come out of her mouth. I clear my throat—as well as my mind from the X-rated rabbit hole I've fallen down—and reply, "Correct. No more… banging at night."
Her long fingers tap against the top of the fence. Nope. Can't look at them without imagining what they might feel like scraping up my neck. She takes a deep breath, drawing attention to her chest, and nope, can't look there either without descending back into X-rated territory. My gaze flicks to her plush lips… Definitely cannot look there.
A low growl escapes my throat. Why does she have to be so darn gorgeous?
"Fine. I have actually been struggling to find contractors, so I appreciate the offer. I'm pretty sure walls are meant to be straight, right?"
"Yeah. They are." I grin, assuming she's joking. Then again, knowing the state of disrepair her house has fallen into over the years, maybe she's only half-joking. "I'll come over sometime after work next week."
Three days later, I'm at Tenely's house, going room to room with her, compiling a list of all the work that needs to be done. She may have been kidding about the walls, but not by much. Her front porch is sagging, likely caused by the roots of a nearby tree pushing against the foundation of the house. Over time, I suspect that could be the reason the walls have become crooked.
There's a long laundry list of issues with this place, and it's going to take a lot of time—and money—to work through them all. I'm not looking forward to breaking the bad news to her.
"So, what brought you to Cedar Crest Hollow?" I ask, making a note of a loose light fixture in the dining room.
"Nope." She folds her arms across her chest, looking effortlessly breathtaking in a soft pink linen blouse and taupe high-waisted, wide-leg pants she seems to be fond of. I've never liked those types of pants before, but now? Now I want to write to whoever invented them to express my gratitude for creating something that highlights Tenley's hourglass silhouette so perfectly. "We are not doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Chitchatting."
"You're anti-chitchat? Oh, wait." I lower my clipboard, read the look on her face, and take an educated guess. "You're against chitchat with me ?"
"Correct." She tries to bite back a grin, like I just beat her to what she was about to say herself. But it doesn't work. Her rosy, plump lips stretch anyway, and she tips her head back as far as it will go. "You are sooo frustrating."
"I'd ask you why you think that, but I wouldn't want to violate your anti-chitchat policy."
"Urgh. Stop being funny." Her expression softens, and she smiles.
And there it is. Record the date and time because I've done it. I've just made Tenley smile for the first time. It's a hard-won achievement, one I thought might never happen, but now that it has, I revel in my victory.
"I appreciate you coming over and going through all this with me. I have no idea where to even begin."
"I'm only doing an assessment. We haven't gotten to the work yet."
"I know, but…thank you. I never realized how much stress a house can cause."
"It's a big undertaking. Especially for one person."
Our eyes meet. She arches her brow. "Bold of you to assume I'm single."
I shrug. "I trust my intel."
"Who is it? Who's your source"
"I'll reveal mine if you reveal yours."
"Never."
"Fine, then." I click my pen and jot down a note about the cracked windowsills.
Once we've gone through the whole interior of the house, she leaves me to inspect the outdoor things like the roof, gutters and downspouts, and the patio.
Stepping back into her kitchen when I'm done, I notice we have a new companion. Chewy is sitting at Tenley's feet, looking up adoringly as Tenley playfully asks, "Have you been a good girl?"
Neither one of them have noticed me yet, so I linger by the back door, wondering what it is about Tenley that's stirred up something in me no other woman ever has. No other woman has even come close, and the crazy thing is, I hardly know anything about her.
Except that she's the type of person who buys a neighbor's dogs organic treats for when they come over, and she's obsessed with Star Wars . I grin when I spot four Star Wars mugs proudly on display in an open cabinet. I also know that she's feisty and independent. I don't know why she's moved to Cedar Crest Hollow or what possessed her to buy this place, but I want to.
I want to learn every little thing about her. What makes her tick. How she likes to spend her free time. Where the Star Wars thing came from. The craziest adventure she's ever had. Why she acted funny and pretended like she hadn't received my apology notes. Yes, plural, because after leaving her one and not getting a response, I left one every other day for a week. Plus the invite to the pool party.
I'm stuck on that. She doesn't strike me as the type of person who'd lie. And why lie about something like that? Maybe she's ghosting me…Or wait, is it gaslighting? I always get those two mixed up.
"Oh, hey." She notices me and smiles, dishing out the last of the cookie to Chewy, who proceeds to lick the inside of her palm clean in case there are any tiny crumbs left. "How did it go?"
I force a smile. "Let's take a seat and go through it."