AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ugh. This was the problem. My brain was doing all kind of calculating and twisty-turny thinking trying to convince me that maybe if I was nice to him, Rock would look at me as something more than an inconvenience to his pickle ball plans. Maybe he’d look at me like...
Like he was doing right now.
“What?” I practically shrieked.
“Just wondering if you were planning to get out of the car,” he said, chuckling.
We were home. And I’d been so absorbed in delirious confusion that I hadn’t even noticed.
“Of course I am,” I said, my voice haughty even though I didn’t want it to be. This man did things to me. Dammit.
We both stared over toward Mr. Mulligan’s side of the duplex as we headed inside. My neighbor had shifted dramatically in my thoughts since last night. Now I was a teeny bit afraid, and it almost made me glad that Rock was here.
“You don’t really think...”
“No way,” Rock said. “Might have some odd proclivities, but we all know vampires aren’t real. And if he is one, he must be into cat blood.”
“That’s why all the cats, you think?”
“Why else?”
I shook my head. My life had gotten really weird all of a sudden.
“What are you up to today, roomie?” Rock asked, sitting his enormous self on my couch and blinking up at me.
“Um. I have a shift this afternoon.” I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, feeling like a visitor in my own home.
“So lunch then? And I can drop you off at work.”
I felt myself frowning at him. “Why? Just because you’re stuck here for a few days doesn’t mean we have to be friends.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t be.”
“Don’t you have things to do?” I looked around me as if a stack of books labeled Things Rock Needs to Do might be laying on a tabletop.
“Nope. I’ll hit the gym while you’re at work. That’ll give me time to make dinner.”
“Oh god, please don’t cook again.”
It was Rock’s turn to frown. “I’m an excellent cook.”
“Don’t you have, like, family to visit with or something?”
“We just did that.”
I moved to the kitchen and poured myself another cup of coffee, sticking it in the microwave to reheat. “I mean like, immediate family? You grew up here, didn’t you?”
“I did,” he confirmed. “Where did you grow up?”
“I see how you avoided answering the question, but I’ll let you get away with it because I’m sensing you don’t want to talk about it.” I took my coffee from the microwave and carried it to the table. “I grew up in Alexandria for the most part. We moved here in high school.”
“Why?”
“My dad’s mom was sick. He’s from here. She died, and we never left.”
“So your dad is here.”
I nodded.
