He doesn’t know about the tingles.
He just sees a strange woman talking to herself, looking like she recently crawled out of a well.
He sticks his hands in his pockets as if trying to appear nonchalant. “Seems like it’s not just a day, but a bad one. Are you okay? Did you get in a fight with a fire hydrant? And where’s your emotional support cockatoo?”
A mad laugh breaks out of me at that thought.
The cockatoo in question is currently the cause of most of my problems.
“Let’s just say she’s currently in Cockatoo Jail for committing a crime of passion. I’m Rhea Wolfe, by the way.”
He sticks out his hand, and I feel a jolt of electricity when we touch.
Not in the “oh, it’s like it was meant to be” sort of way.
A literal shock, like touching a doorknob on the coldest day of winter.
He pulls his hand back and winces. “Oh, sorry. That happens all the time. Dry hands, thick shoes. I’m Hunter. So you’re new in town, huh?”
I nod and force myself to look up. “Brand new.” The longer I look at his muscular, tattooed forearms, the harder it’s going to be for me to avoid doing anything but that.
“Well, normally I’d warn you about parking in Maggie Kirkwood’s space. She’s got a mean fastball with an egg from that balcony. Or she did. Sometimes she would try to snipe me just for tossing work trash in the dumpster. She was mean as hell, if you’ll pardon my saying so, but she died a few weeks ago, so I guess you’re probably safe.”
I tuck away that bit about being mean. Didn’t Colonel say she wasn’t well-liked around town?
“So much for free eggs.”
There’s a frantic slapping noise, and we both look up to see a pink-and-gray blur caught in the ivory blinds and flapping madly.
“Oh, lordy,” I mutter.
“Looks like your parrot is currently the one who needs the emotional support. She’s not going to hurt herself up there, is she?” Hunter asks.
Doris—
No.Grandma Maggie.
Grandma Maggie pecks wildly at the glass as her wings strike the window again and again and her gray toenails scratch and scrabble furiously. She looks like she’s about to have a cockatoo stroke.
“She’ll be fine,” I say, waving at her. “At zoos, they call this enrichment.”
“Wait.” He looks at me more closely. “Why is your bird in Maggie’s apartment?” He glances at my Explorer, which is stuffed with most of my belongings. “Are you renting it?”
I’m not sure how much to tell him. I barely know what’s happening myself.
“I’m staying here awhile. Well, maybe. Probably. It’s complicated.”
Hunter peers into the back of the Explorer, where Doris’s enormous cage sits folded up on top of everything I own. He gazes up the wooden stairs to the apartment. “Do you have someone to help you move in?”
That thought did not occur to me until this very second, and suddenly the world feels desperately heavy. “Nope. Just me and Doris, and she had to give up powerlifting.”
With a winning smile, he walks over and opens the cargo area.“Think we can get the cage up there together, or should I get my friend Cisco to stop by after work?”
I’d honestly hoped I’d be on the ground floor somewhere. I never thought I’d be moving to a walk-up above the last video store in the world. Once unfolded, the cage is on wheels and is extremely sturdy, but I’m strong, and I know Hunter is strong, and he’s right here….
“If you have time and don’t mind, I’d appreciate it,” I tell him. “I think I can get everything else on my own, but the cage is a beast.”
He inspects the metal bars. “Okay, so you weren’t lying. Was this thing built to hold the Hulk?”
