Page 27 of Come A Little Closer

Before the kiss.

It now seemed that everything would be divided into before and after that damn kiss. A kiss I still couldn’t get out of my head but really needed to work on just forgetting about.

I also needed to work on getting back to a place where she and I could talk freely—preferably with that spark in her eyes. I hadn’t meant to scratch where it wasn’t itching earlier. In fact, I hadn’t even really thought she would answer my questions.

Frankly, I’d been expecting her to deflect. When she had answered, my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I’d seen what it had cost her to tell me the truth, though. It certainly hadn’t been easy on her, but I’d also seen the moment she’d made the decision to open up. It had been a beautiful thing.

In that moment, she’d trusted me. Not enough to tell me the whole truth, but enough to give me the basics, which I suspected was more than she’d given most.

I was still skeptical about that college boyfriend of hers. Carter.

There was definitely more to that story. Her tone had changed when she’d spoken about him. For some reason, she’d been guarded about their relationship when she’d been far more matter of fact about the rest.

I wished I could let it go, but I knew the mystery was going to keep eating at me. It might not be any of my business, but I still wanted to know her and something told me that whatever had happened had played a big role in who she was becoming post-Carter.

I simply didn’t want that spark to go out in her eyes when she told me the rest of it, though. I wanted that spitfire to tell me the story, and I desperately wanted to give her back the confidence to find said spitfire within herself once more.

As I thought it over, I strode to my kitchen, happy that she’d agreed to decorate my house for the street fair. It meant she’d be spending some more time here this week. Hopefully, that would allow me the opportunity to right all the many wrongs I’d committed against her in the last couple days.

After pulling a ready-made meal out of my fridge and popping it in the oven, I poured myself a drink and picked up my phone to make a few calls, the first and most important of which was to Jake.

“Hey, dude. You feeling any better yet?”

I groaned. “Would you just quit it with that? I’m fine.”

“Sure, of course, you are,” he said, not sounding like he believed me any more than he had when he’d left my office. “What’s up?”

“Tallulah agreed to help with the party this weekend. I want you on it with her.” As I spoke to him, I took my drink to my front porch with me, hoping for some inspiration for the fair as I looked out at my neighborhood. “We need all hands on deck for this one, Jake. It’s important to the community around here.”

“You got it,” he agreed without hesitation. “Whatever she needs. We’ll make it work. It’s going to be great. I’m even a little bit excited now.”

“I’m glad,” I said dryly. “Hey, did you know⁠—”

“Hello, Niall,” Miss Jenny, my elderly neighbor, called over to me from across the street, cutting me off.

She was walking her ancient toy poodle, Noodles, and as always, she made a beeline to come talk to me as soon as she spotted me outside the house. She had no qualms about stopping to talk even though I was on the phone, and she usually pretended she didn’t even notice the device in my hand.

This time, I got ahead of it. “I’m going to have to call you back, buddy.”

“Tell Miss Jenny I said hi.” He chuckled before hanging up, knowing the drill well enough by now to know that my conversation with her would last longer than he wanted to hold on for.

I smiled at the woman who’d been living on this street since before I’d even been conceived. Miss Jenny was an institution in our neighborhood, her bohemian style of clothing and vivid blue eyes an inescapable sight to anyone who ventured onto our block.

“Hi, Miss Jenny,” I said as she hobbled across the street and grinned up at me from the sidewalk. Noodles yapped and immediately lifted his leg against my plants, but I ignored the rabid little creature and kept a smile aimed at my neighbor. “How are you?”

“It’s the street fair soon,” she said happily. “One of my favorite times of year, but you already knew that. Why wouldn’t I be wonderful with that right around the corner?”

“I’m sorry I asked,” I said playfully, giving her my full attention.

Miss Jenny was one of less than a handful of people who knew the lighter side of me, but it’d taken her years to get me to reveal that guy.

Tallulah was the only person so far who’d gotten to see him within weeks of just finding out my name. She had a definite way with me, that girl.

“Who is she?” Miss Jenny asked, genuine excitement in her voice as she leaned forward. “Don’t you dare tell me I’m wrong, boy. I saw that little smile on your face a second ago and I know it was put there by a woman. My Nico used to get the same smile when he thought of me. God bless his soul.”

I sighed. “Sorry to disappoint you, ma’am, but I’m as single as I’ve always been. I was just thinking about my plans for the party. That’s what put the smile on my face.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Best you do something about that soon then, child. You living in that big house all by yourself? It’s not right. You need the love of a good woman and to fill that old place with babies. You’re in your thirties. You should’ve been married at least ten years ago.”