“What was that?” Holt looked up from the book he was once again reading.
“Nothin’.”
“That smile doesn’t look like nothing,” Holt joked, jerking his chin upward.
“Whatever. I’m goin’ out for a bit.”
Holt nodded, his attention returning to the book. “If she kicks you out, the door’ll be unlocked.”
Simon opened his mouth to deny it but shut it just as quickly. There was no reason to. He was going to Violet’s, and he was sure rumors would be running rampant by morning. As soon as one of her neighbors noticed a strange vehicle parked in her driveway, the rest of the town would hear about it.
There was an advantage to living in a big city. Anonymity wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But he trusted Violet to have considered that before inviting him to her house. That was part of the reason he’d walked away. From what little he knew of her, she wasn’t usually impulsive. The last thing he wanted was for her to do something she would regret tomorrow.
Not that he intended to do anything tonight that could cause regret. He had no expectations whatsoever besides getting to know a stunningly beautiful woman.
“No expectations,” he said aloud, rolling down the windows to admire the small town of Coyote Ridge as he drove toward her house.
It was not even ten o’clock on a Friday night, and a good portion of the town had shut down already. The lights were off in all the businesses along Main Street. From what he could tell, the diner and Moonshiners were the only places open. He knew from the sign he’d spotted at the diner that they would be closing soon. They stopped taking customers at ten Monday through Saturday and seven o’clock on Sunday.
It was weird not to drive by a McDonald’s or a Whataburger, many of which were open twenty-four hours. Not to mention Walmart, which, until the pandemic, you could find at least one within ten miles to go to if you had a craving at two in the morning. That wasn’t the case here. There were no big box stores, no all-night fast-food franchises.
What Simon found the oddest was the fact that he liked it. It was peaceful, quiet.
And there were stars visible in the inky black sky. He noticed them as he was getting out of his car in front of Violet’s house. Without the smog and lights from the city, you could see the stars twinkling high above.
Simon closed the car door and peered around. The address she’d given him brought him to a street lined with other houses very similar to hers. They were all relatively small, some having one-car, detached garages. Clapboard and brick on the exteriors, wrought iron railings on the porches, most of which were little more than four by four squares of concrete with one or two steps leading down.
He narrowed his gaze to Violet’s yard, what little he could see thanks to the security light that flashed on as he neared the house. The grass was mowed, the hedges separating her house from her neighbors were trimmed, and her flowers, what few there were, were a brilliant pop of color against the dark mulch in the flowerbeds. Like her, it was …cute.
Simon stepped up onto the porch and took a deep breath. As soon as he raised his hand to knock, he heard a female voice shouting from inside.
“No! No, no, no! Stop!”
Without thinking, Simon grabbed the doorknob, praying it was unlocked. He twisted and it gave—this was a small town; probably didn’t need to lock the door—so he barreled into the house. Thinking he was coming to Violet’s rescue, he felt like an idiot when he found her standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at what had to be the largest house cat he’d ever seen.
Oh, shit. Another came prancing into the room, tail swaying merrily.
“Harry,” she bit out. “We’ve talked about this. You cannot play with the popcorn.”
Since Violet clearly didn’t realize he was there, Simon cleared his throat.
Her head snapped up, a high-pitched squeal escaping while her hand slapped over her heart the same way it had at the store when she turned around to find him and Holt standing there.
She reached up and plucked her earbuds from her ears, frowning at him. “You havegotto stop doin’ that.”
Both cats turned to look at him briefly before turning their attention to the pile of popcorn.
Feeling the need to explain, Simon said, “I heard you scream.”
“Don’t bother to knock,” Violet muttered. “Just come on in.”
“I thought you were…” He let the sentence hang because she wasn’t paying attention to him, her eyes locking onto the popcorn spread out on the rug in front of the couch.
“He likes to play with the popcorn,” she explained as though it might make the scene make sense. “If I don’t give him any—and Ineverdo—he thinks he can take the whole bowl.”
Simon had no idea what to say.
Violet huffed a sigh as she dropped to her knees, turned over the upended bowl, and hastily started putting the popcorn back in it.
