Before I can get up, Micah races to the door. “Stay there. I’ll get it.”
He opens the door, and though I can’t see who it is—his broad shoulders block my view—I can tell from the stiffening of his back and his white-knuckled grip on the doorframe that he’s not happy to see whoever it is.
When Karen’s nasal voice gets to my ears, I understand his tension.
“What are you doing here, Mr. Lindley? Your house is next door.”
“I didn’t know it was against HOA rules to make breakfast for my neighbor.”
Uh oh. Micah’s going full snark, and this isn’t going to end well if I don’t intervene. Karen’s liable to fine him before the ink is dry on his mortgage.
I set my plate down and rush to the door. “Karen, hi! What brings you here?”
She puts her hands on her bony hips. “I was just asking Mr. Lindley that same question. We noticed that the two of you got back rather late last night, and Tom wasn’t pleased with Mr. Lindley’s display at your front door.”
I’d forgotten all about Micah flipping off Tom, and I scramble for a reason that won’t be offensive. “He was just playing around. We thought it was strange that Tom was watering the hedges that late at night.”
Karen crosses her arms over her chest with a huff. “Well,someof us actually care about what this neighborhood looks like.”
That’s not a fair dig. I hire a great landscaping company, and I’ve seen Micah tending to his own yardwork every evening. It provides a great view when I’m eating my deliverydim sumor when I want something to watch other than what streaming has to offer.
To be honest, I haven’t watched streaming TV much lately during Micah’s yard work times.
I cast a sideways glance at Micah and see him seething. His jaw muscle twitches, his face is beet red, and I can hear his teeth grinding. I get the feeling Micah’s not any fonder of Karen’s antics than I am, especially when she’s making personal attacks. Which, when I think about it, is what most of her antics involve.
Karen continues, seemingly oblivious to Micah’s rage. “But I suppose when you’re having—ahem—adult sleepovers, landscaping takes second place in the grand scheme of things.”
I manage to put an arm in front of Micah before he lunges for Karen. Bitchy as she is, I know he wouldn’t be living here if he didn’t need a good home for Hailey, and I’ll be damned if I let our little date ruin that for him. “Micah’s great with his landscaping! Look: his yard’s immaculate. Hell, I was about to ask him to take over my lawn, too.” I turn to Micah, hoping to both distract him from Karen and redirect this nightmare of a conversation. “I pay a good company to take care of my landscaping since I’m terrible at it, but you do such a great job! How much would you charge to come over here and do some work on my lawn, too?”
Karen’s eyes narrow, and I realize she probably thinks my payment is going to be in the form of more of last night’s activities. Shit.
A little of the tension bleeds out of Micah, and like a flip got switched inside him, he turns to me and turns on the charm. “No charge for you, Iris. I’d be glad to take over and save you a bit of cash.”
Karen presses her lips into a thin line and raises a groomed brow. “Mm-hmm. I just bet you’re itching to take over anymanlytasks around here.” She turns on her heel and stalks off, but not without parting words.
“We don’t need scandal in this neighborhood. You two had better decide if you really want to go on living here.”
Not too veiled on that threat, though by my reckoning we haven’t broken any HOA rules that she can ding us on—yet. There’s nothing specifically stating that two residents can’t date, and there’s definitely nothing stating I can’t outsource my lawn care. She’s just blowing smoke.
Micah starts to take a step towards her receding form, but I continue to hold him back. “No, Micah. Hailey needs you. You can’t go to prison, and since her husband’s a DA, that’s where you’ll end up if you go after her. Just take a deep breath and come back inside. Have crepes with us.”
He pauses for a long while, too long, long enough that I think he might ignore my plea, but finally he grunts and walks back to the kitchen. I close and lock the door, and by the time I get back to the living room, he’s got his plate of food and is sitting next to Hailey on the couch, on the middle cushion—right next to where I had been sitting.
I sit on the remaining cushion and pick up my plate. Finally, I get to taste his crepe, and when I bite in, I let out what is probably the most obnoxious moan. I’m a little embarrassed by it, but Micah just smiles and winks at me.
“If you weren’t technically making that sound because of me, I might get jealous of the crepes.”
I wink back. “Oh, don’t worry. The crepe is delicious, and I doubt I’d get in trouble with Karen for eating it, but it’s got nothing on you.”
“Man, if Karen knew what you were eating in the theater, we’d be toast.”
I smack his bicep. “Micah! Hailey’s right there!”
Hailey looks up when I say her name, but she just shrugs and goes back to devouring her breakfast. I guess she either doesn’t understand what Micah was saying, or she doesn’t care what the adults are up to. It probably helps that I turned on a cartoon movie before I sat down. At least she’s at an age where there are easy distractions.
“She doesn’t know what I was talking about. It’s fine. Now, in like eight or ten years, I’ll have to watch my words a little more closely, but for now she’s good.”
“Daddy says bad words all the time.”
