Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A grinding mechanical screech shook Cassie from a deep sleep. Her stomach flew into her throat, and she sat up with a pounding heart. What the hell was that? Was the house falling down? There was no way the bathroom cabinet she’d yanked off the wall yesterday was load-bearing.
Taco jumped to his feet at the end of the bed and barked at the window.
She fumbled for her phone and looked at the time. It was one minute after seven. She stumbled over to the window and threw the curtains open.
There was Noah, standing by the pool and running something through a table saw on a sawhorse.
Oh, hell no. She hadn’t fallen asleep until after 2 a.m. last night because she was ripping up carpet and rage-demoing.
She stormed downstairs and through the kitchen to the sliding glass door. It bounced off the wall as she slid it open and stepped outside.
“What are you doing, jackass?” she called across the fence. She hadn’t brushed her hair—or her teeth—and probably looked like she had just escaped The Hunger Games. But she didn’t give a damn. “It’s seven a.m.”
He looked up with a smirk. “Noise ordinance ends at seven. It’s seven-oh-one. Rise and shine, cupcake.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but he jerked the board back into the saw every time she tried to speak. She flipped the bird at him, then stormed back into the house.
She groaned and threw herself on her couch face down. The screeching of the saw was still audible through the closed door.
What had she done? Impulsively bought a house next door to a Grade A Douchecanoe whose fragile masculinity had escalated a couple of petty disagreements into an all-out war. How was she going to live under these conditions? Was his plan to sleep-deprive her until she caved and moved?
Over her dead body.
She took Taco out the front door to do his business since the backyard had become hostile territory. He kept shaking and looking at Noah’s gate.
Cassie bit her lip and took a deep breath. Rage was boiling up inside her. It was one thing for Noah to wage psychological warfare against her. But he was stressing out the rescue dog, who was nowhere near acclimated to his new home.
It wasn’t acceptable. And for once, she didn’t care what Noah thought about her.
“Come on, sweetheart,” she said. Taco scurried into the house after her. She put on his noise-canceling headphones and tossed him a baby carrot from the fridge. “You stay here. Mommy’s going to have a chat with the thick-headed dingleberry next door.”
She was about to slide open the back door but stopped when she saw the sun gilding her very pale legs. Fuck. She had yelled at Noah while not wearing pants. Again.
She muttered darkly under her breath as she scrambled into a pair of leggings and piled her hair on top of her head. Just as she was about to storm back outside, her gaze fell on the pan of brownies she had stress-baked last night.
Maybe a different approach would be better.
She yanked off some cellophane and wrapped up two of them before storming out into the backyard.
Okay, don’t rip his head off. There had to be a decent human being somewhere in there.
She almost stopped at the look he shot her. Two years ago, she would have bent over backward to make him comfortable and happy to be her neighbor.
But she wasn’t the same person she was two years ago. And after a full year of systematically deconditioning herself from people pleasing, she wasn’t going to allow another man to ruin her life.
She stood at the fence between their properties and thrust the brownies in his direction.
He heaved a sigh and turned the saw off.
God, he was good-looking. She fought to keep her focus on his face and not on the bulge of his biceps against the simple gray T-shirt.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“A peace offering.” She waved the brownies at him, but he crossed his arms.
“I don’t want it. I know what you did.”
“Oh, you mean when I showed your mom some easy ways to bring in extra cash and then ensured that there will be a continuous stream of veterinarians in training keeping watch over your animals? For free? You’re right. That was really shitty of me.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Because I want to help, Noah,” she said sharply. “Those animals need a home. Your facility is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Despite what you may think, I don’t want it to shut down. We’re all they have. And I want them to stay in the right hands—as rude as those hands may be.”
He looked to be considering it. “Why are you here, Cassie? Of all the places in the world. Why are you in Aster Hollow instead of Baltimore or DC?”
“It’s a long story,” she said. “I don’t want to get into it right now.”
He shook his head. “I don’t trust you.”
“Cool, I don’t trust you either. For god’s sake, I’m not some honeypot here to woo you so you’ll agree to sign over the sanctuary’s land to my evil real estate developer father.”
He narrowed his eyes. “How many Lifetime movies have you seen?”
“All of them, okay? But I’m not done,” she said with a wag of a finger.
“Of course you’re not.”
“Taco is new here,” she said.
“I’m aware.”
“He’s still acclimating to his new home. And it’s hard for him to do that when you’re firing up super loud machinery unexpectedly.”
He frowned.
“In the future, do you think you could give me a heads-up before that happens so I can take him out for a walk or something?”
“I didn’t think about Taco,” he said after a beat.
“I know. You were punishing me for playing music too loud last night.”
“So just to be clear, my woodworking is too loud, but blasting Sabrina Carpenter so loud the International Space Station can hear it isn’t stressful to him.”
“Sound doesn’t carry in space. It’s a vacuum. And no, it didn’t stress him out because…” Her cheeks grew warm. “I have noise-canceling headphones for him. Plus, he likes Sabrina, okay?”
Noah snorted, and she shot him a dirty look.
“I don’t want to be your enemy. Especially because you’re my landlord and I need you to come running when the septic backs up like you would for anyone else.
And I really need to create a safe and comforting environment for Taco, especially while he’s in this crucial adjustment period.
Can you help me out?” She held the brownies out to him again, then pulled them back in.
“Wait, do you have any food allergies?”
“No.” He crossed over to the fence and took the Saran-wrapped goods from her. His hand brushed against hers, and she nearly fell over.
“No, you don’t have food allergies, or no, you won’t help me out?”
“Allergies. I’ll give you a heads-up next time I fire up the table saw.”
“Thank you.” She smiled warmly. “And I will keep the music at a reasonable volume, especially late. I know you don’t like me, but I really think you’ll like Taco. I’m addressing the chewing thing, by the way. I bought him like eight hundred new toys.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Shit, her phone was vibrating. She pulled it out. “Oh, it’s Lyra. I should probably take it.”
“I didn’t realize you were friends with Lyra.”
“Not just friends. Half sisters. See you later.”
“Wait, what?” Noah called after her, but she ignored him.
“Hey,” she said into the phone. “How are you?”
“Oh, good. It’s just kind of a tough day.”
“Oh no. What’s wrong?”
“It’s my—our—mom’s birthday today.”
A pit formed in her stomach. “Oh, wow. I didn’t realize. That must be really tough.”
“Do you have anything going on tonight?” Lyra asked.
She racked her brain, but none of her work or home projects classified as dire.
“Nothing pressing. What can I do?”
“Andi and I have a weird ritual we do on Mom’s birthday to remember her. I was wondering if you wanted to join us.”
“Oh, I love weird rituals. As long as they don’t involve blood.”
Lyra laughed. “Maybe ritual isn’t the best word. More of a tradition. No bloodletting required.”
“Great. I’m in.”
“Okay. I’ll pick you up around dinnertime. Dress comfortably.”
“Perfect. What can I bring?”
“We’ve got it covered this time.”
Cassie hesitated. “Are you sure Andi’s going to be okay with me coming?”
“I’ve been working on her,” Lyra said. “She knows you’ll be there this time, which will help.”
“Okay,” Cassie said, but she wasn’t convinced. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for including me.”
“Happy to, sis. See you later.”
The line disconnected, and Cassie strolled back into her kitchen to make a cup of coffee.
She was making progress with her bio family.
Things at the clinic and the house were starting to come together.
Interviews were set up. And she had just successfully disarmed Noah’s assholeishness. Things were looking up.
She went to pull the creamer from her refrigerator but stopped when she saw the calendar. She inhaled sharply.
It wasn’t just her biological mother’s birthday.
It was also her wedding anniversary.