“That’s mine.”
“You’re kidding.” The wet, white blouse clung to her chest, revealing fantastic cleavage and the faintest outline of two nipples. “We’re next-door neighbors?”
“Looks like it.”Fuck.What a time for his dick to pitch a tent. Luckily he’d thrown on jeans this morning and not his usual khakis. Good Samaritans weren’t supposed to go hard on the job, especially not while looking out for vulnerable women.
The silence dragged. He counted each beat, willing his untouched-for-far-too-long body under control. But when she swung her hair on the seven-second mark, he forgot what came next. Christ. He almost forgot his damn name.
“All right then. Welcome to Love Street,” he broke the silence first, removing his glasses and giving the rain-spattered lenses a wipe with his shirt cuff. “Feel free to hit me up if you need more motivational speeches, or job advice.”
“Hey. Wait.” Her heartbreaking eyes widened as she fiddled with her front gate latch. “Can I ask you something? It’s probably stupid, but do you believe in signs from the universe? Or curses?” The next thunderclap lent a certain portentous punctuation to her sentence.
He paused, startled, before a furtive motion in his peripheral vision squashed any budding amusement. Across the street, Miss Ida May’s nose pressed against her bay window. Shit. It had been inevitable someone would see them talking. Any second the Back Fence chat room would be lighting up like a Fourth of July firecracker. What would be the headline this time? Some quip about how he knocked a woman head over heels?
“Signs, no,” he said firmly. “Curses, yes.”
Pepper nodded, holding his gaze with curious intensity before walking toward her porch steps. He shoved his glasses back on. It took him another few seconds to register the fact that he still stood there, staring. Quickly, he backtracked toward his place, raking a hand through his hair. His new neighbor was trouble with a capitalT. Better get on inside and chug a glass of ice water. That’s it. The heat messed with his head.
Everyone went a little crazy in this weather.
