Through clenched teeth and pure panic, I answer.
“Yes, please.”
And my brain offers exactly one thought.
Fuck me.
Chapter 10
Spending time with May was certainly not in my plans today.
When I thought James was back in town, I’d pictured a relaxed night with beer and pizza, maybe sitting around catching up the way we usually do. Instead, I find myself standing in my neighbor’s house, watching the girl I’ve been crushing on since the first time I saw her move through her new space like she already belongs here.
Of course she does.
I’m not great at making the first move. I’ve had her number in my phone for days now, and I still haven’t worked up the nerve to do anything about it. But I am good at being useful. That has always been easier for me than putting my feelings out in the open.
So I carry her luggage. Fix the leak in her fridge. Change a couple of lightbulbs she didn’t even notice needed changing, andsomewhere along the way, I decide I’m going to help train her dog too, because that feels safe, and familiar, and like something I know how to do.
She moves slowly through the house, getting acquainted with it, touching walls, opening doors, taking it all in. She’s magic, plain and simple, and I can’t help but smile every time she passes through the room.
She takes small sips of her beer, kneels to pet the dogs, wanders past me without even realizing she’s doing something to my chest I don’t have a name for. When she finally heads upstairs, the house feels quieter in a way that surprises me.
I’m standing there, watching Skye and Neptune chase each other across the floor like they’ve already decided they’re family, wondering how a guy like me even begins to compete for a girl like her, when the doorbell rings.
The sound snaps me out of it.
I glance toward the stairs, half-expecting her to come back down, but she doesn’t. A minute passes. Then another. I hesitate, then finally call out.
“Hey, May?” I say, standing at the bottom of the stairs. “Would you like me to open the door?”
There’s a pause. One beat. Two. Three.
Then her voice drifts down from upstairs, and my pulse jumps.
“Yes, please.”
I adjust my hat out of habit and walk toward the door, expecting a delivery, a neighbor, anything ordinary.
I open it.
And there he is.
Tall, confident, and looking like the man who might steal this girl right from my fingertips.
“Holloway,” he says, eyes flicking past me toward the house. “What the feck are you doing here?”
Finn O’Donoghue.
Fuck.
Chapter 11
The door opens, and my smile falters because it’s not the fine lass I’m expecting.
It’s Aiden feckin’ Holloway.
“What the feck are you doin’ here?” I ask, already looking past him, trying to make sense of why this eejit is standing in her doorway like he belongs there.
