She sat, put her feet up on the railing and the blanket over her legs, and let out a long, slow breath. She was in. All her stuff was here now. Away from her old life. Away from Amanda. Of course, at the thought of her ex, her brain drifted to the spot in her head with all the questions.Why? Why had she gotten involved with somebody like her in the first place? And why had Sawyer not been enough for Amanda to make changes to her life, but this new woman was?
She shook her head, hard, and took a sip of her wine. “Nope. Not going there. No.” She spoke out loud before she noticed Jenna Murphy in the growing dusk, heading toward the porch from the sidewalk, Arnold trotting along on a leash next to her. She shrugged. “No need for alarm. Just me, your new neighbor, out here talking to herself.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Jenna said with a soft smile. Arnold pulled in Sawyer’s direction, so she pushed her feet off the railing and leaned down so she could pet him.
“Hi, buddy. Hi. Hi. Hi.” His whole back end wagged along with his tail as she spoke to him. “You’re so handsome. Yes, you are. Are we gonna be friends? Hmm? I think we are. Yes, sir.” When she looked up, Jenna was watching her with an expression on her face that Sawyer couldn’t quite read.
“Okay, Arnie, come on. Let’s leave our new neighbor to her peace.” A little tug and Arnold turned to head to his own door. “Good night,” Jenna said, and then she was gone, her door closed solidly behind her, and Sawyer was alone on the porch once again.
She’d noticed Jenna’s side of the porch when she’d arrived that morning. She hadn’t paid attention yesterday, but this morning, as she’d turned her key in the lock, she’d taken in the comfy-looking outdoor loveseat. A couple throw pillows leaned in the corners, and a round, black metal end table sat next to it with a coaster and a small vase of wilted flowers. A round indoor-outdoor rug brought the space together, and if Sawyer had ever seen a more inviting porch space, she couldn’t remember it now. To hell with the rocker, maybe she needed her own loveseat. Or maybe a porch swing.
She smiled at the thought and took a sip of her wine. A light breeze whooshed over her, and she pulled the blanket more tightly around her legs. She loved it here already. She could see herself here for a while, settling in, making friends, exploring her new neighborhood. Maybe she should get a cat.
A small chuckle escaped her. Amanda hated cats. That was reason enough for Sawyer to think about getting one, wasn’t it?
Let’s get settled in first.
She drained the rest of her wine, and much as she’d have loved tocontinue sitting on the porch and taking in the new neighborhood, she really needed a shower. With a sigh, she pushed to her feet.
Yeah, she’d made the right decision. All of it. The move to the other side of the city. The not telling Amanda where she was going. The starting fresh. All of it.
This was gonna be good. She was sure of it.
Chapter Four
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Shane stood there, his eyes wide, as if Jenna had just told him their bookshelves were actually made of chocolate and he could take a bite out of one any time he wanted. “What did she say when you told her?”
“I haven’t told her.” Jenna grimaced as she shelved a new order. “It wasn’t really the right time to. Plus, I have to live next to the woman, so starting a fight with her on day one didn’t seem like a great idea.”
Shane tipped his head one way, then the other. “I mean, I get that. Don’t you think it’ll come up, though? Eventually? Even in just casual conversation?”
Jenna shrugged. “Not necessarily.”
“Really?” He changed his voice so it sounded softer and more feminine. “So, Jenna, what do you do? Oh, I own a bookstore. Really? That’s so cool. I write a book blog. I have thirty thousand followers, if you can believe that. What’s your bookstore like? Maybe I can give it a shout-out.”
Jenna frowned as she met his gaze across the shop. “Okay. Fine. I just…” She dropped her head backward and groaned. “Of all the houses in the entirety of Northwood, she has to move into mine? I mean, what are the freaking odds?”
“It’s a crazy coincidence, that’s for sure.”
She’d managed to mostly avoid Sawyer Hall for the past couple of days, largely by not being home, which she felt guilty about, given how Wallace and Gromit looked at her with their sad kitty eyes every time she grabbed a jacket. When she was home, she’d stayed inside, watched as a new bed had been delivered, then a very nice rocker thatfound a cozy spot on Sawyer’s side of the porch. It was going to be hard for Jenna to sit and read romance in her favorite spot in the world—her loveseat on the porch—if her romance-hating neighbor was going to be out on the porch as well. As soon as she had that thought, she’d get mad at herself for thinking for even a second that she needed to tailor her activities to be approved by or to avoid completely her new neighbor. But then she’d think about the kind of conversation they might have or the disapproval in Sawyer’s eyes, and the whole train of thought would circle around and begin all over again.
She was driving herself bonkers.
A trio of women came into the store in that moment and yanked her out of her internal merry-go-round of thoughts, thank God. She couldn’t be wasting her time ruminating over Sawyer Hall. There was work to be done, readers to guide, and books to sell. And nobody was going to make her feel weird about her love of romance novels.
Two nights a week, she closed, and tonight was one of them, so she did her usual run home in the early afternoon to let Arnold out and give all the animals some treats to tide them over, since dinner was going to be late that night. One of her brothers could usually help in a pinch, but tonight, the animals would be fine.
The day went well, business stayed steady, likely due to the lovely early-fall weather. It was warm and breezy, and that seemed to be enough to coax people outside to wander around Jefferson Square. The more foot traffic, the more customers moseyed into BookLove. By the time Jenna turned over the Open sign, her feet were sore, her eyes were tired, and all she wanted to do was curl up on her porch with her dog, a glass of wine, and a good book.
When she turned into her driveway, however, the first thing she saw was Sawyer Hall sitting in her rocker, her feet up on the porch railing.
With a sigh, she exited the car and headed up the steps.
“Hi, neighbor,” Sawyer said, looking at Jenna through her black-rimmed glasses.
“Hey,” Jenna said, shuffling her keys in her hand, looking for the right one.
“Good day?”
