Page 5 of Yours

“Love you, too,” Josh replied around another bite of ice cream while Ivy blew a kiss back to me.

After confirming what time Shawn would bring the kids to me, I hung up and decided to take a shower. The hot water did a great job helping me relax because the minute my head hit the air mattress, I fell asleep.

* * *

Muffledvoices woke me from my sleep, and the unfamiliar surroundings temporarily disoriented me when I opened my eyes. The voices got louder, although I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, and it sounded as though they were coming from the place connected to mine.

Grabbing my phone, I saw it was three in the morning. I rolled over and pulled the covers over my head to try to drown out the noise, but it was too warm to hide under the blanket. Since it was the middle of the night, I thought maybe whoever was causing the ruckus would quiet down quickly. Instead, the talking suddenly turned to moans which grew louder and louder.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I grumbled as I heaved myself off the air mattress.

I walked to my bedroom window, which I’d left cracked open to enjoy the fall breeze. Peeking through the mini-blinds, I saw a black Chevy truck parked in the driveway next to mine.

It didn’t take long before the moans morphed into a mixture of male grunting and female shrieking. Whoever the woman was, she sounded like a combination of a lousy porno actress and a dying cat. I closed my window, but I could still hear them on the other side of the wall. It was just my luck my bedroom wall connected to the other residence.

Climbing back onto my temporary bed, I couldn’t seem to get comfortable, and even if I could, there wasn’t anything to block out the sounds coming from next door. Earlier in the day, I’d been excited about my new place, so I hoped my neighbor’s nightly activities weren’t a regular occurrence.

* * *

When the alarmwent off on my phone, it felt as though I’d only been asleep for minutes instead of hours. I desperately wanted to hit snooze, but I had just enough time to get dressed and make some coffee before my first delivery window of the day.

The coffeemaker seemed to taunt me with its slow stream as I waited for it to finish brewing. I was an admitted caffeine addict and needed at least two cups before I faced the day. After I filled my favorite mug with the delicious liquid, I sat on one of the folding chairs around a card table I’d set up as a makeshift dining area the day before since I didn’t have any other place to sit.

As I was pouring my second cup, the doorbell rang. I jumped up, hoping it was the delivery guys with the living room furniture, but found my sister standing on the other side of the door instead.

“Hey. What are you doing here?”

“Nick went to check out a property with his dad, and Rita kept Chrissy at their house last night, so I thought I’d come over and see if you needed any help.”

I stepped to the side so she could come in. “Well, there’s not much to do until everything gets delivered. But I could definitely use your help.”

I hadn’t put any pictures or decorations up yet, as I wanted the larger pieces of furniture in place first. And since the kids were coming home later that day, I only had about twelve hours to at least get their rooms done.

Tessa followed me into the kitchen, where I made her a cup of coffee and added hazelnut creamer to mine. I handed her the creamer and watched in horror as she added an ungodly amount of sugar to her mug.

“So, how did your first night in your new home go?”

I shook my head in disbelief. “It was fine until my neighbors began having obnoxiously loud sex at three o’clock in the morning.”

She chuckled. “I’d get used to it if I were you.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Tessa raised a brow. “You know who your neighbor is, right?”

“Uh … no.”

“I swear I mentioned it—”

“Tessa! Who the hell is my neighbor?”

“Beckett Andersen.”

“Nick’s best friend?”

She nodded.

Well, shit.