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She was half right. For Sam, the apartment building had become all trap, no booby. This wasn’t ending anytime soon as his day was turning into one embarrassing moment after the next. So much for making a charming second impression thanks to this cursed apartment complex.
He screwed the aerator onto the end of the faucet. “Sorry. This place keeps you on your guard.”
Those clear hazel eyes flicked to him with a slight smile on her lips. “That certainly explains this morning. This place must takeallyour guard.”
“Yeah, maybe,” was all he could say because whatever she did to him was happening again. All he could focus on were her lips, his mind replaying how soft she felt, and how she tasted of watermelons. Around her, he didn’t seem to have any guard at all. Even worse, she appeared to be the type of woman who’d push all sorts of buttons that didn’t need to be pushed. Half of him hoped she hated the apartment to save him the agony of ever having to deal with her.
“I’m going to look at the rest of the place,” Luna said.
“Yeah, sure.” He occupied himself with the kitchen faucet, turning it on. The water flowed with a steady stream, the issue resolved. He’d focus on fixing one problem at a time.
“The place comes with one parking spot,” he said, kicking himself for resorting to the same boring bullet-point information that had been posted on the apartment listing. Didn’t he have one interesting thing he could say? There had to be something… Oh, he had it! Sam cleared his throat. “The guy in apartment eight is pretty quiet. Lives by himself.” Quiet neighbors were a plus, right? “He’s a firefighter.”
Damn, Sam.He could almost feel Nate smacking him on the head.Why not continue telling this very attractive woman more about the handsome bachelor neighbor with hero-size muscles? Might as well introduce her to Firefighter Ryan right now.Between the two brothers, Nate had been the one with the smoother charm game. Sam was out of practice these days.
“He’s gone a lot though, so he’s…not around much,” he finished, cringing once more. Ghost Nate had to be shaking his head in disgust.
“Mm-hmm,” was all Luna said before moving into one of the two bedrooms. The zipping sound of Venetian blinds ascending came from the room. The window offered a glorious view of the trunk of a large sequoia tree and not much else. The mirror closet doors slid open followed by a bang.
Luna gasped. “Oh God! A little help.”
Sam rushed into the bedroom and found her wrestling with one of the closet doors that had slipped from the track. He jumped into action, his hands pressing against the mirror to take the weight from her. It took a moment to realize Luna was trapped between him and the door, his body pressed against her back. Without heels, she could tuck her head under his chin, which was something he missed experiencing or perhaps he only missed having a warm body in general to melt into.
Except, this wasn’t appropriate behavior toward a potential tenant. “Sorry.” He shifted the weight to one arm, allowing her to escape. Heat traveled across the surface of his skin as he popped the closet door into place. “Maybe the track is cracked. I can replace that.”
God, what a fucking disaster, he thought, following her into the living room. Second chances were clearly wasted on him because making an impression of someone who was smooth and charming wasn’t something in his wheelhouse.
Even while wearing a tank top featuring a roaring lion, instead of a silky green dress, Luna was far out of his league—not that he had much of a league these days. It wasn’t how she dressed but rather her posture, how she moved and talked, as if she aspired to the position of queen someday. She didn’t belong in a crap-shack apartment on Schnell Ridge Road.
“Would that be okay?” Luna asked.
Uuuuuuuh. What?
She’d been talking to him, and he’d been completely preoccupied with his own thoughts. He focused on the carpet, his hat hiding the view as if giving her mystery request careful consideration. His mind raced through common apartment inquiries. Was this about a pet? The building allowed small animals. Perhaps the tank top was a hint. Luna strutting around with a pet lion was a queen move. Although, she probably had some pampered designer dog named Peaches or something. How bad could it be? He decided to take the risk rather than admit he’d been so flustered and distracted he hadn’t been listening.
“Sure,” he said. This was the correct answer since her face lit with a high-wattage smile. Sam had never been so happy agreeing to some unknown thing in his life. Maybe charm was in his wheelhouse after all.
“Great. I’ll fill out an application then,” she said.
“I’ll get one from the office. Just so you know, there’s an extra deposit for a pet.”
Her expression slipped to surprise. “Oh. Okay. Good to know.” Her smile returned. “Maybe I’ll get one.”
Fuuuuuuuuck.
What did he just agree to?
Chapter Four
Luna had gonethrough a gamut of emotions today. Annoyed, embarrassed, crabby, sad, hopeful, dejected, crabby again, surprised, disappointed. Current emotion: conflicted. One thing she didn’t want to do was go into work. Instead, she stopped at the coffee shop, Pony Expresso, where she knew she’d find Mia.
As she predicted, her cousin-in-law was there with her best friend, Natalie, who was overseeing some remodeling going on in the shop.
“Ah, es mi prima favorita. Hola, Luna! ¿Quieres algo de beber?”
“What?” Luna asked over construction noise.
Both Mia and Natalie were Latina, but Natalie was full Mexican-American while Mia was biracial. Mia had told Luna she hadn’t grown up with much of a Mexican influence and was trying to reclaim her heritage. Learning to speak Spanish was one of those ways. Luna suggested she spend a few months in a Spanish-speaking country—oh, like Spain!—as a better way to learn a language rather than gossiping with Natalie, but Mia had shrugged her shoulders, and said something cheesy like,It’s really hard to kiss Ross from Spain.
