Until I looked across the fucking street street.
Satan’s nutsack, I groaned.
Lila was watering her flowers, moving from pot to pot along the porch railing with a delicate patience, talking to each plant as she went. I had watched her do this three mornings in a row now and I was no closer to understanding why she felt the need to narrate the watering process to the plants themselves, but she seemed to find it productive. Her plants appeared to be thriving so I was not in a position to argue with the results.
I went back to the ward line and told myself I was focused.
The truck pulledinto her driveway at half past ten, and it was one I definitely didn’t recognize. Every muscle in my body went still as I waited and watched. The man who climbed out was tall, broad across the shoulders, radiating the easy confidence of an unmated Alpha who had never had much reason to be uncertain about anything. He reached back into the cab and pulled out a potted hydrangea.
Pool Hall Boy.
My first thought was that he was bringing her flowers, which was unnecessary because she already had flowers and watered them every morning while talking to them. My second thought was that she had come out onto the porch and was smiling at him with the particular warm smile she gave to people she had decided she liked. My third thought arrived quickly and without any complexity whatsoever.
I disliked him…a lot
I picked up the screwdriver I’d been using on the fence post and got back to work.
I didn’t meant to eavesdrop either… I simply had exceptionally good hearing, which is a physiological reality rather than a choice. The conversation happening across the street happened to be audible to me then that was a matter of acoustics and entirely beside the point.
"Figured your yard needed a housewarming gift," Ethan said.
Lila laughed. "You brought me a plant?"
"I remembered you saying you liked flowers."
"That's actually really sweet."
The screwdriver snapped clean in half and my gaze dropped to the metal in my hands.
It was old anyway,I lied to myself.
I set the pieces down with more care than the situation required and picked up another tool and returned my attention to the fence post with the focused discipline of someone who had maintained a Hellgate for five and a half centuries and was certainly capable of maintaining his composure for one Sunday morning.
I lasted four more minutes and before I knew it, I’d crossed the street without a plan. Which was not something I generally did. I had maintained a Hellgate for five centuries on the strength of always having a plan. But I was apparently past the point where planning was a resource I could reliably access on short notice, so I crossed the street and walked up to where Lila was crouched by the flower bed and said her name.
She looked up and something moved through her expression that she put away quickly. "Oh, hey…”
Pool Hall Boy straightened and offered his hand with easy confidence, "Ethan."
I looked at his hand. I was aware, that the appropriate response was to shake it. I shook it, briefly, and released it.
He had the grace not to comment. "Heard you're the neighborhood expert on the area."
"Not really,” I said.
A silence followed and I didn’t feel any urgency to fill it.
Lila pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose and looked at the sky with the expression of someone asking a question she did not expect the sky to answer.
Finally, she knelt to plant the hydrangea near the south corner of the flower bed and Ethan got down beside her. I stood with my arms crossed and watched in a bit of misery, wanting to snap the fucking guys neck.
Ethan picked up the small spade and started to dig and I said, without raising my voice, "Don't."
They both looked up.
"Why?" Ethan asked, with genuine and reasonable curiosity.
I shrugged, “Wrong spot. Tree roots."
