“My landlady. She’s… how do I put this…special.”
“Like ‘good’ special or ‘what the fuck’ special?”
“Well, she hates men, pets, and broccoli.”
I had to smile at that. Breeze was all kinds of quirky. Most of the people I knew wouldn’t run into a burning building to save their own mothers, and here she was shoving cats into duffle bags. Maybe this was what I’d been missing—the spontaneity that was life. The messy. The unpredictable. Like the wind.
Trying to calculate my odds with the veggie-hating shrew, I asked, “In that order?”
Breeze raised a brow, studying me in amusement. “Well, that’s an interesting question, Bodhi. I mean I don’t think it really matters in the scheme of things. My bet is she hates the thought of you, inanyold order.”
“Yeah but what you’re not factoring in is my way with women. I’m fairly confident I can whittle her list of hates down to two.”
She laughed, not the fake ‘you’re famous so whatever you say is hysterical’ giggle. But the more natural ‘I find you oddly humorous’ chuckle. I had to say, I preferred the latter. Although, to be fair, the fake laugh hadn’t bothered me until I heard Breeze’s genuinely awesome one.
“Okay Romeo,” She humored me. “I’d love to see you try.”
Maybe it was the way we met, but I wasn’t getting the fangirl vibe from Breeze at all. She obviously knew who I was given the fact she’d used my name well before we’d been formally introduced, but either she didn’t care about my celebrity or the blow she’d taken to the head had altered her reaction time.
Whatever it was, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the outlook of this girl. Both her disposition and her strength of character. It had been a long time since a person had caught my attention like she had. And, although I couldn’t get a full picture of what she looked like under all the blood, sweat, and tears, I could see enough to know she was, at the very least, an attractive girl. Lively deep blue eyes outlined in long, fluttery black lashes accented her pretty oval face. Were those lashes real or fake? I couldn’t tell, but they complimented the rest of her perfectly. Breeze was small framed and trim, yet had the body of a woman who still enjoyed the food on her plate.
Coming from an environment of required perfection, where starving yourself was the norm, it was refreshing to see a person comfortable in the skin she was wearing. Breeze was the real deal, the type of woman I wouldn’t typically meet but one I couldn’t seem to look away from.
“Oh, and did I mention my landlady looks like a grizzly bear and carries an arsenal of weapons specifically for your type of charming?”
Suddenly wooing the armed property-owner wasn’t the fun challenge I’d expected it to be. My face must have betrayed me because Breeze looked me up and down in amusement before saying, “Clearly you aren’t as confident in your wooing skills as you proclaim.”
“That’s not it at all, I’m just recalculating my approach.”
“Uh huh. Anyway, I’m not so much worried about you as I am the pets. They don’t have your special swagger to protect them.”
“This is true. So are we all just going to parade through her house and hope for the best?”
“We’re not going through her place. I live in the granny flat out back.”
“Well, then what’s the problem?”
“I just didn’t want us to become target practice, is all. Maybe I’m just being paranoid but, you know, her house is dark so she’s probably asleep.”
“Or… and I’m just throwing out a wild theory here… don’t you think it’s possible her house might be dark because the electricity’s out in the entire city?”
“Crap! The full moon’s so bright I forgot the damn power was out. Okay, that puts a slight wrench in things. We just need to be exceptionally quiet. Can you do that?”
“Well, I don’t know, Breeze. I can try.”
She laughed like I was some top-rated comedian. I liked that. And yeah, I could be quiet, but I had my doubts about yappy-pants in the backseat. Anything short of using actual chloroform didn’t seem worth the effort. But Breeze was out the door before I could voice my concerns, kicking her foot all around the back trunk area while reciting a variety of different spells to make it open.
“Abracadabra. Wingardium Leviosa. Expelliarmus.”
I hopped out and hurried to her side, eager to watch the show. “Come on,” I said. “Everyone knows all the Expelliarmus spell does is disarm the opponent. You need to use the unlock charm.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She rolled her eyes. “I should have brushed up on Harry Potter before driving a frickin’ Range Rover.”
I shoved her aside playfully. “Let me show you how it’s done. Alohomora!”
I waved my leg and the trunk’s cover began to rise.
Breeze shook her head. “You shouldn’t need a college degree to drive one of these things.”
