Chapter 5
Tyler
Ava was as cute as a comic book character. One of those anime-style ones.
Her face was expressive, and every emotion she had ran across it while she talked.
Right now, her pretty face was saying that she felt spooked.
I shook my head. “It’s nothing, really. Go check if it makes you feel better. Maybe a raccoon in the attic? Maybe old boards settling. Maybe the wind knocked something into the side of the house. The first month I lived here, I investigated every last sound. Now I just ignore them.”
She knitted her brows together. “That was loud, though. Will you go check with me?”
I chuckled. This sweet woman was afraid of a little bump in the night.
I rose slowly to my feet, grabbed my cane and made my way back there, with Ava clutching my pajama bottoms like that was going to protect her somehow.
Opening the door to my bathroom, and then my bedroom, I said, “See? Nothing here.”
Another loud thud reverberated through the room. It was louder this time since we were in the bedroom.
Ava screamed and ran straight into my arms, hugging me tight around the waist. I almost dropped my cane. I was more surprised by her reaction than by the sound.
My arms reflexively wrapped around her, and I had to admit, she felt good there. So good my cock started to harden again.
“It’s nothing, Ava. Just one of those sounds.”
She shook her head and peered up at me with terrified eyes. “I don’t think so. That was something… otherworldly.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Ava pointed down at the floorboards. “The sound came from there.”
“Yup.”
I’d noted that in the past.
A lot of the sounds were like an old house settling in on its bones. But sometimes there would be a different kind of sound. Particularly the loud thumping that emanated from below a specific floorboard in the bedroom.
“I’ve been under the foundation. There are no mechanical parts or plumbing pipes under this part of the room.”
“What do you think it is?” she asked fearfully, still clutching onto me tightly.
“Honestly, I have no idea. It doesn’t happen all the time. I’ve gone weeks without hearing it. It happened more when I first moved in.”
She inched out of my arms and gingerly pressed her shoe onto the floorboard where the sound had emanated from.
“It’s loose,” she exclaimed, like we were uncovering the world’s biggest mystery.
“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to fix it. I just learned to walk around it.”
“Aren’t you even a little bit curious?”
“About what’s under my floorboards?”
She nodded rapidly.
The absurdity of the situation wasn’t lost on me. I was in my bedroom with a sexy woman dressed like a cat who wanted to tear my floor apart.
It might have been the whiskey talking because I said, “Fuck it. Let’s take the board up so you can see. It’s probably a family of mice or something.”
“There’s no way in hell that a mouse could be that loud.”
She probably had a point.
“Stay put,” I told her. Then I ambled down the hall with my cane, and right out the back door, to the shed in the backyard where I kept my tools. I pulled out a crowbar and headed back in.
The party was still going on at the house on the other side of the hill, but at least the fireworks had let up. Now I just heard loud voices and laughter. It was better than the booming sounds. I could handle hearing people having a good time even though I preferred not to hear it.
I made my way back into the bedroom, holding the crowbar.
Ava had stayed put for me, and I slowly eased myself down onto the floor next to her. Getting up would be an act of embarrassment, but I’d deal with it.
“Should you do the honors, or should I? I’ve been planning on installing new floors at some point. Might as well be now,” I rumbled.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“Because…”
“Because what?”
“Because I can smell the whiskey on your breath. What if you wake up tomorrow wondering how you let a fool woman talk you into tearing your floor apart?”
I laughed again. “Well, that’ll probably happen whether I’m drunk or sober. I wouldn’t get behind the wheel of a car right now, but I’m not shitfaced. I just had two shots earlier tonight.”
She assessed me, then said, “Maybe you should do it. Since it’s your floor.”
Sitting this close to her felt nice.
There was a strange part of me that wanted to lean over and plant a kiss on her mouth. But that seemed… presumptive as hell.
Instead, I focused on the floor.
I should sweep more often.
There were a lot of dust bunnies down here.
There was also a tiny notch I’d never noticed before.
“Look right there. Isn’t that odd?” I muttered.
I didn’t need a crowbar for this. I needed something small with finesse. Like my pocketknife. I went to pull it out of my back pocket, then realized I wasn’t wearing my jeans. I was in my pajama bottoms.
Fucking hell.
I hadn’t even thought about what I was wearing.
Gruffly I said, “Hon, would you mind grabbing my pocketknife out of my jeans? They’re in the hamper next to the closet. And, uh, would you grab me a t-shirt, too?”
Her eyes scampered right down to my chest, a slight flush forming on her cheeks. “Yeah. Sure.”
She rummaged around for a minute in my laundry basket, and then in my closet, and came back with both prizes in hand. She tossed the t-shirt to me first, and watched with a certain breathless excitement as I slipped it on over my head. Then, she handed me the pocketknife.
I dragged my finger across the notch. “See right here? I think this board’s been lifted before.”
Wedging the tip of my knife into the notch, I slowly eased the board up.
Then we both leaned forward, peering down into the darkness.
“Huh. It’s like a false bottom. I didn’t see this from under the house.”
“What’s that?” she asked as she pointed down.
I looked closer, then reached in, pulling out… a book.
No.
A diary of some sort.
“This looks old,” I said as I put it down on the floor between us, then peered to see if there was anything else.
There was.
I dug around one more time and pulled out a wooden box. It looked like a jewelry box.
“If this is some kind of lost treasure, I’ll split the profits with you,” I told Ava.
“Why would you do that?” she asked as she eyed the box keenly.
“I don’t know that I ever would have gotten curious enough to pry up this board without you. It took a half-naked cat woman to make me do it.”
“I’m not half-naked! I’m dressed more than you were up until a few minutes ago.”
I glanced down at the swell of her breasts peeking out of the top of the leotard. “Do you dress like this all the time?”
She put on an act of mock indignation. “And would it matter if I did?”
“I might ask you to move in if you do,” I joked back.
Her cheeks flushed even brighter, and she got a shy look on her face. If I were reading her signals right, Ava Appleton was attracted to me.
The attraction ran both ways.
I thought again about leaning over and kissing her.
Would that be crazy?
Yes.
Would there be consequences?
Yes.
Those consequences kept me from making a move, even though my dick was screaming at me that this was the perfect moment. We were both already down on the floor. The kiss could turn into a fuck really fast from this location.
And one thing I knew in life, I wanted to fuck this woman bad.
“Why don’t you open it?” I asked, gesturing at the jewelry box.
Whatever jewelry was in there, maybe I’d give it to her.