Page 7

As we passed each room, he told me not only the name of the residents of the room, but the people who had lived there before, the people who lived upstairs, and the people who lived downstairs from the exact apartment. And on no planet would I have been able to remember it all. But at least the names would sound familiar when I heard them again.

As I was walking with Jon, I ran into a couple of the residents. One looked shocked to see me, mumbled something to Jon about being late, and ran upstairs. The other, a young girl named Indigo, asked me about my pet. She’d apparently seen the carry case when I was walking in. I told her all about Pierogi. She held up a finger and then ran upstairs. She came back down with a baby carrot in hand.

“You want to meet Pierogi?” She was adorable.

“The food or the rabbit?”

“That’s his name.” The name always caught people off guard. I was used to it.

She bobbed her head up and down.

I let her inside, leaving the door open in case her parents realized she was missing and came looking for her. Jon excused himself to go finish his plumbing.

“He’s so cute. What happened to his ear?”

“Sometimes mama rabbits aren’t so good to their babies.” I left off where they had been known to eat their entire litters. No kid needs that knowledge.

“And you saved him?”

“Something like that.” He was supposed to be snake food, and I didn’t have the heart to let him end life that way. “And now he gets spoiled with carrots.”

“I have a cat named Marmalade.” She went on to tell me anything and everything about her cat and then asked to bring them down to play.

“I’m not really sure that cats and rabbits make the best playmates.” Saving him from a snake to give him to a cat didn’t seem like the best idea.

“It’s not just any cat. It’s Marmalade.”

Her dad called her, and she promised to come back with more carrots another day.

I went downstairs to grab one of the last boxes. On my way back in, I nearly crashed into one of the residents as I turned the corner. I looked up and saw a tall, broad-shouldered man who had me losing my words. I’d seen many attractive alphas in my day, but there was something about this one that drew me in. He was rugged and had a scar that reached up toward his jaw. I wanted to trace it all the way down, see how far it went.

I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to get the naughty thoughts that were starting to flood in to go away. This was my neighbor, not someone I should be drooling over at first sight. What was wrong with me.

He looked me up and down. And for a second, I thought he was going to talk to me. Instead, he turned back around and walked away.

“Hi,” I finally managed to get out, but he was already gone.

What a great first impression I made.

Back in my apartment, I grabbed Pierogi and sat on my bed. I needed to get a couch or something. Maybe I’d hit the thrift stores in a bit.

“If I was cute like you, that wouldn’t have happened.”

He looked up at me and did the little wiggle with his nose I loved so much.

“You’re right. He was probably just having a bad day. Next time, I’ll talk to him, or maybe I’ll make cookies for everyone here or something.”

But even if he hated me and every time he saw me he walked away, this place was still so much better than my last. I had no one making a mess except for my fur baby who was allowed to, any food I put in the fridge would be the same I got back, and no one was stealing my rent.

And if my sexy grumpy upstairs neighbor ignored me forever, at least he was nice to look at.

5

RADLEY

Sheridan was at the mailboxes when I came down for my mail.

He had a stack of forwarded mail for the former tenant who had lived at his address before. But that was Miles, and he now lived on the floor above.