“I’m Jay, by the way,” he said, still catching his breath. “I live across the lake. You must be new around here.”
This was the guy who lived in the cabin mansion worthmore than a thousand of mine combined?Of course,I thought.
“I’m Hope,” I replied. “Just moved in next door.”
He glanced at the crappy cabin behind me and raised a brow. “Wait… you’re staying here?”
“Yep. It’s my brother’s.” A little bit of defensiveness crept into my tone. For some reason, my pride needed him to know the state of the cabin was not at all my doing. “He’s a doomsday prepper. Very into knives and beans.”
Jay laughed, a husky, deep laugh, and then he was smiling at me again.
Dang,I thought. His teeth.
It was impossible not to admire the perfect symmetry of his smile. I’d seen hundreds of mouths in my life, thousands of teeth in every shape and size, and I knew it was rare to see such straight, pearly whites.
“That actually explains so much. I always thought the place was abandoned.”
“It definitely appears condemned,” I deadpanned.
That made him laugh again. That same husky chuckle and it made something flutter a little in my stomach.Okay, this was so not what I came here for, I scolded myself. I needed to get my life together, not add more things that could produce problems and anxiety.
“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “if you ever need help… trimming back the hedges or fixing the windows, I’ve got lots of tools at my place.”
I blinked. “Wait, really? You want to help me fix a crumbling survivalist shack?”
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Yeah, I’d love to help. Unless you think it’s weird to offer my help. I mean, I know we don’t know each other, but I promise I’m not acreep—” He trailed off, as if realizing I had no way of knowing anything about him. “I have references.”
I smiled. “I’ll let you know if I need a background check.” Was I really flirting right now? Maybe I should’ve had better instincts. I mean, he could be an axe murderer for all I knew.
But he seemed genuine. Would it hurt to get some help? Neighbors helped each other all the time with no strings attached.
“I’ll be around this weekend. I’m just next door.” He tugged Luna gently and gave me one last dazzling smile.
And I panicked.
Because I suddenly became very aware of hownotdazzling I looked. My hair was a rat's nest, and I was wearing a bleach-stained T-shirt and pants.
“Okay, cool. Bye. I mean—see you! At some point. In the future,” I stuttered, struggling to find the right goodbye.
His eyes sparkled with something akin to amusement.
“See you around,Remolino.” He tacked the word on quickly before I could even process it. Then Luna gave a happy little bark, and the two of them took off running into the trees again.
Remolino?
Did he just call me something in Spanish? That was Spanish, right? I was pretty sure, but I’d only taken a few Spanish classes in high school, and it had been years.
More than a little puzzled, I headed back up the driveway toward the cabin, muttering under my breath.
“Awesome. I meet my hot, rich neighbor looking like a swamp creature, and then he calls me something I can’t understand.”
I slammed the front door behind me and flopped downon the frumpy old couch. Too curious to leave the word floating around in my mind without a definition, I opened my laptop and spent the next five minutes trying to spell whatever he’d said.
It took a few tries, but I finally figured it out with the help of Google Translate.
Little Whirlwind.
So he had noticed my disgruntled appearance.
