“Don’t apologize,” he said. “I’ll get the door.”
He walked over to it and looked out the peephole before turning back to me. “It’s your neighbor, Nancy.”
I felt a wave of relief wash over me and also a new wave of embarrassment for how I had reacted.
Sarge came over to my side, half interested in what I was doing and the other half focused on the door Hector was now opening.
“Oh good. You’re still here,” Nancy announced at seeing Hector.
He moved back to let her into my apartment, and Sarge made his way over to her to determine whether she was friend or foe.
“Oh dear. Are you all right?” Nancy asked, looking at me.
Ugh. I really needed to work on getting a more stoic face.
“And who are you, precious hairy beast?” Nancy said, leaning down to pet Sarge, who had since decided she was his new best friend.
“That’s Sarge, Hector’s dog,” I informed her.
“Before I forget, young man,” Nancy said, turning to face Hector. “What are you doing Sunday night? Care to join a bunch of old ladies, plus Iris, in a fun game of cards?”
Hector said nothing at first, but I did briefly see his lip twitch.
“I can’t promise it will be the most exciting night of your life, but I can promise dinner and lots of delicious home-baked goodies,” she said, showing him her biggest smile.
“I’ll check my schedule and let you know,” he said, giving her a very small grin.
“You do that,” she said, pointing to him. “Anyway, I saw you both out walking that cute dog and decided to come over to remind you about card night and see if Hector could join. Plus, I wanted to give you this.”
She handed Hector two books, and even though I couldn’t see my face, I could feel the heat taking over and knew it was likely turning pink.
“These are mine,” Nancy explained. “Iris likes them a lot, and I thought you might enjoy them too. You know—to see what Iris enjoys.”
Oh, dear God, shoot me now.
“Uh, thank you,” Hector replied politely, taking the books from her.
“Okay, you two troublemakers. I’ll let you go for the night,” she said, clapping her hands together. “Behave…or don’t.”
She ended with a cackle as she moved to the door, Sarge following her, likely hoping for one last pet before she left.
Hector let her out and locked up before turning back to me.
“What’s with the books?” he asked, setting them on the kitchen counter as he walked toward me.
I felt my face heat even more because I knew the real reason Nancy had dropped them off.
“Umm…she is a bestselling romance author, and I guess she was just, um, looking to see if you might want to read them. You don’t have to,” I rushed to add, waving my hands in front of my face. “You can just donate them, or I’ll give them to my sister or something.”
“What’s got you all flustered?” he asked me, a small smirk tugging at his lips.
Did he know what kind of stuff was in those books?I doubted he would think this was funny if he knew.
“I’m not flustered,” I lied. “How about we just watch the movie? Or we could just go to bed.”
I hoped my redirect would allow us to move on from this topic and maybe pick up from where we left off when Nancy had arrived.
“I’ll allow that diversion only because I’m good with taking this to the bed, but just so you know, both my sisters and mom read romance books, so I know what’s in them,” he said, walking closer to me and grabbing my hips to pull me into him. “So, if there’s something in there you enjoy, I’d like to know what it is.”
