“Wait!” Bree picked up her phone from the table. “Let me get your number.”
“Me too,” Denise said.
They exchanged numbers and Zoe left after talking to Elba and hugging April. All of a sudden, the afternoon seemed less exciting. Less bright. As if an overhead light had been turned off, dimming the room slightly.
His phone pinged. Hoping for a call for work that would give him an excuse to follow after Zoe and catch up, he looked at the screen. Denise had shared Zoe’s phone number.
“What did you do that for?”
“Just helping out.”
* * *
The dog lifted her head,looked at the back door, and barked once. Laying her head back on the dog bed, she shifted her eyes and stared at Tim as if to say, “Are you going to take care of that?”
Her excess movement was unusual enough to pique Tim’s interest. He pushed up from the couch and opened the sliding door to the backyard.
“Are you coming?” he asked the dog.
She groaned and sighed at the same time, a good indication that she was not going to go out with him. She’d done her part to alert him to whatever was out there, the rest was up to him.
“Bree was not kidding. You are the laziest dog that ever lazed.” Shaking his head, he stepped out on the small deck and scanned the yard.
His house backed up to a copse that hid the houses behind his and provided a semblance of privacy. One of the upsides of buying a house in a more established neighborhood, which was realtor speak for ‘old’.
“What do you want?”
He glanced sharply to his left and saw Zoe standing in almost the exact spot in her backyard that he stood in his. She was staring at something in the yard just beyond the weak pool of light cast by the bulb near the door. She really needed a couple of floodlights for the backyard.
“I don’t care. I got stuck in a window because of you. Do you know how embarrassing that was?”
“Who are you talking to?” he asked.
She shrieked and something ran into the trees.
“Puta merda!” She leaned forward with a hand over her chest. “You scared the shit out of me. Why are you lurking in the dark?”
“I’m not lurking. I’m standing outside my house.” He crossed the yard so he could talk to her without yelling. “What were you doing?”
She stared into the darkness behind the house. “Yelling at the raccoon.”
“The key-thieving raccoon?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know it was the same one?”
She shrugged. “I don’t, I just assumed it was the same one and it had come back to taunt me. Or beg for food. Maybe both.”
“If you feed it, it’ll keep coming back,” he said.
“I know, which is why didn’t give it any food.”
Tim held his hands up. “I’m just saying. They look cute, but they are a nuisance.”
“Yes, I got stuck in a window because of one.”
He grinned and crossed his arms, wishing he could see more of her legs, but Zoe was wearing loose pajama pants. “You’re blaming your bad decisions on a raccoon?”
“It’s was the raccoon’s fault. If it hadn’t stolen my keys, I wouldn’t have been locked out, and been forced to try to climb in a window.” She braced her hands on her hips. “In fact, I think Lifetime should do a special on the dangers of being led astray by devious raccoons.”
He had no idea what she was talking about. The t-shirt she wore pulled against her breasts, highlighting the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. He quickly came to the conclusion that he was a very weak man. The outline of her breasts under the thin material was going to be seared in his mind all night long.
“What?”
“Nothing. Never mind. I’m going to…” She pointed at the sliding door. “Go inside. Good night.”
Before he could form a thought or ask her to dinner, she disappeared into the house and he heard the lock click.
“‘Night.” He was talking to a closed door.Smooth. Real smooth.
