Chapter 1
“Here are your keys, dear. Thanks for coming upstairs to get them. Now don’t let your neighbor across the hall scare you.”
Roz Wells took the key from Dottie, the apartment manager, and froze. “Scare me? Why would he or she scare me?”
“He’s Nathan Nourie.” She stepped closer to Roz and whispered, “I call him Nasty Nathan, and I assumed he might scare you because he scaresme. I’m told he’s harmless, but…oh, well, I don’t want to influence your opinion by relating my own harrowing experiences.”
“Harrowing?”Oh my freakin’ God.“What’s wrong with Nathan?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. All I can tell you is he works in a morgue and has an odd sense of humor. Downright morbid, if you ask me.”
Maybe she’s just easily freaked out.“Okay, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
Dottie folded her arms and humphed. “You haven’t met him yet. If I told you everything…but I won’t. I wouldn’t want to prejudice you.”
“No, of course not.” Roz rolled her eyes.
“In fact, most of the tenants here may take some getting used to. If I were you, I’d stay away from the women in 3B, too.”
“Why? What wrong with them?”
“Well, they seem to have gotten better lately, but they used to scream and holler all the time. Oh, and don’t get me started on my neighbor right across the hall here, Konrad Wolfensen, unless you like nudists. But you’re on the first floor, so you shouldn’t have to see what I’ve seen. I swear to God, my eyes can never un-see that.”
Roz wondered if leaving her comfortable apartment in Allston and moving to Boston proper had been a good idea, but she wanted to keep an eye on her best friend Merry, having learned her new husband’s secret.
She’d confided in her last winter. Merry said she was marrying a shapeshifter, and as crazy as it sounded, Merry was the most down-to-earth and stable person Roz had ever known. There had to be something to it, and Roz needed to know that her best friend in the world hadn’t made a horrible mistake.
“Well, thanks for the warning.”I think.“Oh! I almost forgot to tell you…you know that I’m Merry’s friend, right?”
“Which is why you were standing next to her at her wedding and why you knew her apartment was available before I advertised it. Yes, I remember.”
“Please don’t tell her I moved in. I want it to be a surprise.”
Dottie shrugged. “Suit yourself. She’ll be in Florida with my nephew while he’s in spring training. You know her husband, star pitcher for the Boston Bullets, is my nephew, right?”
Roz gave her a sardonic smile. “I may have heard about that.”Like each time I’ve heard you talking.
The door across the hall clicked open and a familiar-looking, gorgeous blond hunk stepped out of his apartment. A short-sleeved black T-shirt exposed luscious biceps and stretched across massive, taut pectoral muscles. When he turned around to lock his door, Roz noticed his tight butt and hair so long it almost reached his waist.
Don’t drool, don’t stare, don’t drool…
“Oh, hello, Konrad,” Dottie said with syrupy sweetness. “I was just welcoming our new resident.”
Some welcome.
“This is Rosalyn Wells. Rosalyn, this is Konrad.”
I wish I could shed thirty pounds twenty seconds ago. A hottie like him would never be interested in a lump like me.
“Oh, you’re Merry’s friend.” He nodded at the key in her hand. “Are you moving into 1B, her old apartment?”
“Yes, I am.”Why, oh why did I wear my oldest, rattiest sweatpants today?
“I remember meeting you at the burger restaurant a few months ago, and then I saw you again when you were Merry’s maid of honor. You looked ravishing in that blue dress, by the way.”
Roz was taken aback.Oh, no, he isn’t gay, is he? Good-looking, sensitive, notices and remembers details; sheesh. It’s always the good looking ones. But I’ll take a compliment wherever I can get it.
Merry was usually the one who attracted male attention. Roz had never considered herself memorable in the least. Her figure was less than svelte, and her dark brown hair was too straight to hold a style. She usually just swept it back into a bun for work. At least she liked her eyes. They were big and blue, but her eyeglasses hid them. Wearing glasses gave her an authoritative appearance, good for the courtroom, but lousy for dating. “You remember me?”
