Page 32 of Read With Your Heart

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A blurry-eyed blonde enters Tricia’s home, which as Tricia mentioned, is the mirror image to my house. Pam Carter examined all three of us for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning and then suggested Lena and Lys go to bed. Tricia has them share a room with two twin beds.

“Reminds me of when we were kids,” Pam huffed as Lena grumbled about sharing with her younger sister.

“You had a better bed,” Tricia teased, and Pam snorted.

“They were both twins. How was one better than another?”

I shake my head, slightly relieved to see sisterly bickering is the norm.

I’m offered a room between my sisters’ and Tricia’s. It’s small with a strange dormer, and I can hardly hold my head up in some spots, but the space offers a double bed, which my larger body needs. One day, I want a king-sized mattress with a solid frame.

“The sheets are clean,” she tells me, after pulling down the covers like I’m a hotel guest. She stands in front of me, while I block her exit, and our eyes catch. She has the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen. The brown-green mix reminds me of soft moss against the base of a tree. It’s the perfect metaphor for her—gentle and solid.

“Thanks for this,” I say, my voice too rough for the kindness she’s showing me and my sisters.

“It’s what neighbors do.”

“Not where I’m from,” I say, lowering my voice and my head.

“Well, you aren’t from there anymore,” she whispers before she touches my forearm and leans up on her toes to brush her lips against mine. It’s soft and sweet, like the tip of a pencil on the surface of fresh paper before my sketching begins. She brushes back and forth rather than applying pressure, and I’m reminded of when my lips touched hers in the bar in a show of defiance to her asshole ex. Suddenly, I’m shaking with restraint. I want to grab her and pull her to me. I want to lose myself in her. The reality of this evening is catching up to me, but too quickly, her mouth retreats.

“I’m glad nothing happened to you or your sisters tonight. It’s frightening to think it could have been . . .” Her voice drifts on the final word—deadly. If I hadn’t replaced the batteries in the detectors. If the gas had leaked for much longer. If the furnace had actually blown.

Tricia’s hand slowly slides from my forearm. Her gaze lowers, and she watches her fingertips brush over my skin before releasing me.

“Good night,” she whispers before slipping past me into the hall. I look up to see her retreating, pulling the door closed behind her. The soft click causes me to snap out of my stupor. My heart races. I realize too late I haven’t said a thing in response to her kiss, her touch, or her words. Frozen in place, I stare at the door that separates us and wonder what on earth I’d done right to get her as my decent neighbor.

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After a restless night, I’m feeling grumpier than usual, and Tricia is just too chipper in the morning for my taste. However, she knows just how far to push groggy teens, and my sisters easily respond to her attention. What do they want for breakfast? What would they like in their lunch? She’s too good to girls she hardly knows, but the effort to make the morning smooth doesn’t go unnoticed by me. The most surprising part is when she asks me if I’d like her to make me a lunch. Who does that?

“I’ll just get something in town,” I say although I have no idea what or where. I just can’t accept any more kindness from this woman. And as for her sweet kiss last night, I try to ignore it ever happened even though the touch of her lips on mine lingered well into the night.

After a long day at work, Jess Carter meets me at the house. His news could have a major impact on our future. While the morning was smooth, I’m reluctant to return to Tricia’s for another night.

“Mrs. Drummond sent me,” he begins, “even though I told her I’m not a HVAC man and neither is my brother, Tom. If the fire chief shut this place down, there’s nothing to fix. The furnace needs to be replaced.”

We stare at one another. “She’s not going to believe me if I tell her.”

“She doesn’t have a choice. Joe doesn’t want to serve her with an infraction, but he will if she doesn’t get this place up to code.”

“What do I do in the meantime?”

“Find another place.”

Shit. It’s just after October first. I already had a hard time finding somewhere that would rent for a full year since most places are tourist rentals and have weeks here and there marked off on their calendars.

“Know anywhere?” I ask hesitantly. If it were only me, I’d head back to the shit motel down the highway and just figure it out, but now I have my sisters, and we need more space than one room. Not to mention, they can’t live in a motel.

“My sister’s been wanting a roommate to share the cost of renting that house until her divorce. Why don’t you ask her?”

“I can’t move my sisters in with her,” I huff, a bitter laugh mixing with the sound, but my heart races like it did last night. Like when her lips brushed over mine.

“Why not? You need a place. She wants renters. You were each paying full price on these houses. Now you’d each be in for half.”

I can’t ask Tricia to allow me only half the rent with three extra people in the place, not to mention utilities. Lena takes a long freaking shower, and Lys’s computer sucks up the internet.