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“Roger!” I call out and look around Mrs. Jefferson’s large evergreen. When I don’t find him resting underneath hunting unsuspecting birds, I keep moving down the street. “Roger, I’m going to go back to the hard cat food you hate if you don’t come back right now.” It’s a threat that usually works with my large kitty.
“Are you threatening your cat?” McJerk laughs like it’s unusual to talk to your cat.
“Yes.” I glare at him over my shoulder. “I can look by myself.” I would actually prefer not to have him judging everything I do.
My rudeness doesn’t deter McJerk in the least. “Where does he usually go?” And I want to kick him when I realize he isn’t even a little out of breath while I’m gasping for air.
“He usually stays in the house,” I wheeze out. “How are you not out of breath?” I hate naturally athletic people.
“I usually run a few miles every day.”
Of course, he does. I roll my eyes dramatically, knowing he can’t see it in the dark.
A gray streak jumps from the Andersons’ bushes and rushes straight for me. I guess the hard food threat finally convinced Roger to stop being difficult. I lean down, and my thirty-plus-pound cat jumps into my arms. I guess my spoiled kitty has had enough outside time.
“Holy shit.” McJerk blinks several times. “That’s a goddamn mountain lion, not a cat.”
I hug Roger close and cover his ears while glaring at my unhelpful neighbor. “He’s a normal-sized Maine Coon cat.” Who happens to love pizza and ice cream so he might be a little pudgy. McJerk stares silently at me as I turn toward my house. The entire walk back down the block, I fuss at Roger for causing all this. I’d do anything right now to avoid dealing with my new neighbor. “Thanks for helping me.” Although he didn’t do much except raise my blood pressure. “I have to get Roger home.”
His freaking long, muscular legs have no trouble keeping up with me as I rush home. When I reach my front yard, I turn to him. “Thanks again.” I give him a fake smile and turn away to call over my shoulder, “Welcome to the neighborhood.”
I’m a few steps from my front door when I realize Scrooge McJerk is right behind me. “Wait.” He places his hand on my shoulder as I reach my front door. “I’m not done talking to you. I don’t even know your name.”
“Jazzy Matheson,” I tell him as I make my way to the door. “I don’t have time to talk right now.” I need to get rid of him before something crazy happens. Like falling for his warm, dark brown eyes.
The door opens, and Skye comes strolling out, oblivious to the situation. “What happened?” She blinks sleepily. “I woke up, and the pizza was sitting on the table next to the door, and you guys were gone.” I take a step to the side and glance over my shoulder, and her eyes follow my movement. Her mouth falls open when she finally notices the handsome giant standing behind me. “Oh.” Her eyes widen as she looks back and forth between me and McJerk.
“Skye,” I guess I’ll have to introduce them. “This is our new neighbor, Scrooge McJerk.” I can’t help myself. “He yelled at me while I looked for Roger.”
“You like to push my buttons, don’t you, baby doll,” he grumbles behind me before holding out his hand to my younger sister. “Will Riordan.”
Skye looks back and forth between us several times before she steps over and holds out her hand. “Skye Matheson. We heard you were moving in soon.”
Before they can get into a long conversation, I hand Roger to my sister and turn back to our neighbor. “Thank you for your help.” Not that he was much help. He mostly followed behind me breathing down my neck. “We have to eat our pizza before it gets cold.”
My sister blinks several times at my silly excuse but doesn’t resist when I push her in the front door before slamming in our new neighbor’s face.
“That was rude,” she grumbles and drops Roger on the sofa. “He’s a hottie.”
“He’s a grouchy scrooge,” I insist, and my sister stares at me for a few minutes. “And I don’t want to talk about our new neighbor.”
She stares at me for a few moments before changing the subject. “Why didn’t you wake me up when you got home?” After a long day of stocking and inventorying our boutique, Curvology, I returned home to find my sister dead asleep on the sofa and didn’t have the heart to wake her up.
“You’ve only had four hours of sleep in the last two days.” I put the pizza on the breakfast bar and grab us each a paper plate from the cabinet. “I decided to let you sleep until dinner got here.” It was a great plan until Roger decided to throw a wrench in it by escaping.
“I appreciate it,” she groans and reaches for a piece of pizza. “I’m dead on my feet.”
We’ve been a little extra busy since Letty, our middle sister, met Lex, her soulmate, and cut back her hours at the store.
“Letty said she’d be in tomorrow so I can stay home and sleep.” Skye throws her feet up on the table. “I can’t believe how fast the store took off.”
It’s been crazy since we moved to town and opened our plus-size boutique using the small inheritance our grandmother left us two years ago.
Our parents haven’t been in our lives since they decided three little girls cut into their time to party. Gramma Liz took over raising us and did a pretty spectacular job of it.
To honor her, we decided to take a chance and pool all our inheritance money together to finance a boutique dedicated to curvy women since the three of us have spent our entire lives hunting for clothing that complements our full figures.
We chose Silver Spoon Falls for our new adventure after I traveled here for a conference. I fell instantly in love with the small yet quirky town and forced my sisters to come and visit to see for themselves. It didn’t take long for us to realize we’d found our forever home in the small Texas city.
