“He’s not really violent, mostly just mean and controlling. But he doesn’t like that I left, or that I took Ruff with me. Technically Ruff is his dog, but I’m the only one who ever loved him or told him he’s a good boy.” She directed the last bit at her dog, and his tail thumped happily on the ground.
I took a deep breath, preparing for the worst. “You seriously think he may come looking for you?”
“He said he was on his way.”
I had to stop myself from groaning out loud. So much for my plan to have nothing to do with Iola. With her safety at risk, I had no choice but to look out for her.
Mason might be the Lennox brother with the strongest compulsion to protect the vulnerable, but after our time in Mexico, that urge had been fused into the wiring of all three of us. If Iola was being threatened by her ex, I could no more keep my distance than I could keep myself from wanting to smile at her jokes.
“We’ll swap phone numbers.” I took out my phone. “And we should have a signal, in case you’re in trouble but don’t have time to make a call.”
“Like those flags they wave on ships?” Taking my phone, she punched in her number.
“Like a personal alarm. Get one that’s small enough to hang on your key chain, and I should be able to hear it from next door.”
“That makes more sense than flags.” She used my phone to call hers, let it ring once, then hung up. “Thanks for being neighborly, in spite of me calling you out for suspected panty perversions. Knowing there’s someone living close who’s willing to help makes me feel safer.”
Great. After putting her brother in jail I was about to make her homeless, and now she was thanking me for my good intentions.
Her dog gave a heavy sigh, then collapsed onto his belly as though he’d lost the will to keep standing. Letting out a loud fart, he dropped his massive head onto his front paws.
“His full name’s Lord Ruffington the Third. Can you tell he’s a valuable prize winner with a noble lineage?” Looking down at him, Iola shook her head, her lips lifting affectionately. “He’s worth more than I paid for my car.”
“He’s louder than your car.”
“You almost smiled again.” Her voice rose accusingly. “Your lips twitched on one side, just for a second.”
“Don’t assume it’s normal. Most people never see me smile. I once overheard my team of builders discussing whether I could be an emotionless humanoid android sent from the future.”
She gave me a skeptical look. “Is that true?”
“One hundred percent. And just to mess with them, I pretended to drink a glass of motor oil that was really cocoa thickened with molasses.”
“What did they say?”
“Actually, they didn’t say anything. They didn’t come back to work. I had to hire another team.”
Her laugh was as lovely as the rest of her, almost musical, and I was struck again by the perfection of her lips. They were the lips art students were taught to draw, with a full bow on top and a plump curve below.
Highly kissable lips.
Which was a disturbing thought, seeing as they were precisely the last lips I should ever think about kissing.
Chapter Six
Iola
Asher was looking at my lips, and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
I didn’t like the way my heart pounded. I didn’t like the heat that pooled in my belly, or the warmth in my cheeks. And I definitely didn’t like the sudden urge I had to lick my lips.
Or to lick him.
Since escaping from Benedict, I’d resolved to make the most of my freedom. Reclaiming my life meant I was finally having fun, eating all the foods Benedict had forbidden, going without makeup, wearing whatever I wanted.
But fun meant not getting drawn into a serious attraction to any one man. And when my stoic, inscrutable neighbor cracked a joke in a flat tone, without so much as a twitch of his deadpan face, it was so unexpectedly appealing I was in danger of falling at his feet.
Ruff had been lying still with his head resting on his paws. But now he jerked up and let out a low, cautious growl as though he wasn’t sure if he’d be told off for it.
Asher’s cat had reappeared. She jumped onto the fence at the front of his property and sat on top of one of the posts, every bit as cool as Asher.
In fact, as Nemesis leveled an unblinking stare at me, I realized how alike she and Asher were. Both sleek, collected, and giving nothing away. Asher was even wearing black jeans and a dark gray T-shirt, and he had an athletic way of moving that make me think of a cat prowling.
“Maybe people really do start to look like their pets after a while,” I said without thinking.
“Your jowls don’t hang quite as low as Ruff’s.” Asher spoke in his usual deadpan way, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ruff has me beaten when it comes to jowls. But I think he’s pretty handsome.” I glanced down at his big, goofy face. “He looks like a prehistoric teddy bear, don’t you think?”
“Mark Twain said the more he learned about people, the more he liked his dog.”
“That doesn’t answer my question about Ruff’s good looks.”
“I liked your drawing of him,” said Asher, still not answering.
“Your sketch of Nemesis was good too. Are you an artist?”
“When I was younger, I wanted to be. I studied art at school, but now I’m in construction.”
“Smart move. You know what an unmarried artist is called?”
“What?”
“Homeless.” I smiled, though it wasn’t entirely a joke. I’d tried to leave Benedict several times, but he’d kept an iron grip on our finances. I’d committed myself to going all-in on my art career until I could support myself by selling my paintings, but it had taken years.
Asher nodded seriously, as though he could tell I wasn’t just being flippant. “I needed to be able to support my family.”
“Kade seems to be doing okay on his own.” Then I realized that might not be what he meant. “Oh, unless you have kids or you’re married?” He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring but I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.
“No wife or kids. Just Kade, my father, and my older brother, Mason.”
It was sweet he wanted to provide for them. The realization that his family must be close made me feel a familiar ache. Not jealousy, exactly. More like an old longing I’d tried to outgrow.
“And a cat,” I said, glancing around. “Where’d she go?”
“On top of the mailbox.” He pointed behind me.
“How did she get from the fence to the mailbox without me seeing her?”
“She’s made out of shadows.”
Nemesis swung the back of the mailbox open and fished out a letter with one claw. With the letter in her mouth, she jumped down from the mailbox and slunk toward Asher’s house. Ruff followed her with his eyes.
“What’s she doing?”
“She collects other things besides panties.”
I watched Nemesis carry the letter around the side of the house and vanish, as Asher had suggested, into a shadow. “So your cat really does steal the panties from my washing line?” Watching the effortless way Nemesis had opened the mailbox, the last of my skepticism was fading.
“She also brings home shoes, socks, and stuffed toys. Once she dropped a kid’s drawing at my feet.”
I blinked at him. The sudden picture I had of Nemesis offering Asher my panties like trophies made my cheeks heat and my brain shift into joker-drive.
“Was it a paw-trait?” I asked. “It sounds sketchy.” A thump came from inside Asher’s house and Ruff growled again, his head up and his nose pointed toward the sound. “What was that?”
“Nemesis probably took the letter in through the window.” Asher looked down at Ruff. “The other day, she brought in a chew toy which may belong to your dog. You should come in and take a look.”
“You think your cat would steal one of my dog’s toys?” I shook my head. “He weighs a hundred a
nd seventy-five pounds, and she’s what? Eight pounds? Challenging him while he’s on the leash is one thing, but stealing his toy?”
“Come in.” He turned toward his front door, motioning me to follow.
“What about Ruff?”
“Bring him inside.”
Asher’s house had been built about the same time as Santino’s and it turned out to have the same dated style of tiles on the kitchen floor, along with the original cabinets, counters, and light fittings. But just like Santino’s house, the beach view was so stunning it didn’t matter that the house still had old fixtures.
Besides, Asher’s furniture was modern and tasteful, and he had some beautiful paintings on the walls. I recognized the work of a couple of up-and-coming painters who were starting to make a real name for themselves.
Looping Ruff’s leash around the leg of one of the stools in the open plan kitchen and living area, I told him to sit. Then I walked to the big back doors that lead onto Asher’s back deck. My gaze didn’t go to the ocean or the people on the beach, but to my own house.
I drew in a sharp breath. “Oh my God. I had no idea you could see my place so well from here. You look over my deck and pool area, and I can barely see your place at all.” Pressing my fingers to my mouth, I stared in horror. “Not that I’m in the habit of practicing naked yoga, but I’m glad I found out about your view before I decided to give it a try. Or before I did anything else embarrassing.” I hesitated. “Um. You haven’t seen me do anything embarrassing, have you?”
I was desperately trying to remember if I’d done anything shameful while on my back deck, like picking my nose or scratching an inappropriate part of my body. Come to think of it, both Asher and Kade could have seen me having coffee in my pajamas, or watched me pick my swimsuit out of my butt cheeks before heading to the beach for a swim.
When I glanced over my shoulder, Asher was still in the hallway where he probably hadn’t even heard my mini freak-out or the question I’d asked.
He carried a box into the living area and put it down on the kitchen island. “Take a look.”
Distracted, I walked over to peer into the full box, my jaw dropping when I saw how many things were in there.
Then I gasped. “This is Ruff’s!” I pulled out the rubber squeaky chicken I hadn’t even noticed was missing. When I handed it to Ruff, he bit down on it and the toy let out a loud squeak. “Your cat has some nerve.”
“She has issues,” he agreed in his deadpan way.
“There’s his ball.” I grabbed it. “And my missing sock. I thought the dryer had swallowed it.” I narrowed my eyes at Asher. “How come you don’t return this stuff to its rightful owners?”
He hooked his finger into something pink and fluffy. When he lifted it out of the box, it turned out to be a pair of novelty handcuffs. His eyebrow quirked. “You think I should go door to door with a box that includes sex toys and women’s panties, asking my neighbors if they’re missing any?”
I snorted a laugh. “What about putting a sign on your front door? If you’ve lost your sex toys, please knock.”
To my surprise, he gave a low chuckle, the sound as sensual and pleasurable as settling into a warm bath. “Or, No panties, no problem. Step inside and I’ll have you covered in no time.”
I swallowed. Both because it was the first time I’d heard him laugh, and because now the idea of losing my panties with Asher was starting to permeate through my brain. I only wished he’d been facing me when he chuckled, because I’d have given anything to see him smile.
“You’d have them lining up around the block,” I said hoarsely, not really joking. I was pretty certain I wasn’t the only woman in San Dante to have noticed how dangerously attractive Asher was. A sign like that would probably stop traffic.
When I’d had dinner with Kade, I thought he was the most handsome man I’d ever met. But Asher had him beat. He may not have Kade’s easy charm, but Asher was even more devastating. Maybe because he was more reserved. What woman could resist such a tall glass of dark, mysterious, and sexy?
“You should come to my art exhibition,” I said. “Six o’clock tomorrow night at the community center.”
“That wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Why not?”
He seemed to hesitate. “I don’t know how my brother would feel about it,” he said after a moment.
“Kade?” I blinked, surprised. “Your brother and I aren’t dating. Besides, I’m not really asking you out. I mean, it’s an art exhibition, so hopefully it’ll draw a crowd.” My stomach contracted. I’d been trying not to think about tomorrow night because it made me anxious, and now my nerves were returning. “If nobody turns up, I’ll try to brush it off. But it’ll color things, and my frame of mind could suffer.”
“You’re nervous about your exhibition?”
“I’m afraid nobody will come. So if you could bring several dozen friends along, that’d be a big help.” I shot him a smile to let him know I was joking about the last part.
Well, I was kind of joking.
Mostly.
Asher nodded slowly, the movement heavy, as though I’d handed him some kind of burden. “Then I’ll be there.”
“Great. Thank you.” I unhooked Ruff’s leash from around the stool. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Walking back down the hallway, Ruff’s shoulder grazed against a mostly-closed door, pushing it open. I glanced into what looked like a spare bedroom, the lack of personal belongings telling me it wasn’t in use. But when my gaze landed on the window, I stopped dead.
“You can see into my living room.” My voice rose with shock.
His window was higher than mine, so he looked down into my house and his blind gave an illusion of privacy. Because I couldn’t see into his house, I’d assumed it worked both ways.
“Do you watch me?” I demanded.
“I keep the door to this room closed and it’s hardly ever used.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He was silent for a moment, his face all but unreadable except for a tiny muscle ticking in his jaw. Then he seemed to come to decision, because he gave an almost imperceptible nod and said, “I watched your brother’s arrest from here.”
My heart stopped beating. I stared out the window, trying to picture it. How many police officers had gone in to arrest Santino? Was anyone else there? What had sparked it?
Though I had at least a dozen questions, I didn’t want to ask Asher. It wasn’t that I was ashamed my brother was in jail, exactly, but I wanted Asher to know he didn’t belong there.
“They should never have locked Santino up,” I said.
“Are you and your brother close?”
“We used to be. But after my parents died, my brother vanished. Fifteen years with no word, not even knowing if he was alive. Then from nowhere, I get a call from a prison inmate and it turns out to be him. Can you imagine?”
“It must have been a shock.”
I nodded. Santino had told me he’d been wrongly convicted of drug offences and wanted to transfer his house into my name so I could take care of it for him until his appeal could be heard. My mind was in such a whirl, all I wanted to know was how I could help him prove his innocence and barely registered he was giving me his house, offering me the perfect chance to get away from Benedict. I was so overwhelmed, I barely managed to take down the address before the call ended.
He’d had to hang up too quickly, and when my brain started working again I thought of all the things I hadn’t asked. Naively, I’d tried to ring him back and was told inmates couldn’t receive phone calls.
“Santino’s innocent,” I said. “Either he was framed, or they arrested the wrong person. He didn’t give me any details, but he should get out on appeal.”
“I’m afraid your brother’s guilty.”
I frowned, suppressing my flare of outrage with an effort. “How well do you know him?”
“Not well.”
“Then I understand how you got the
wrong idea about him, seeing as you saw him get arrested. But Santino’s no criminal.”
When I was a kid, I’d loved it when Santino watched cartoons with me. Though Mom wouldn’t let me watch South Park, Santino used to play episodes for me when she wasn’t around. We’d sit together on the couch with extra cushions piled up behind us, eating fries with extra salt and melted cheese, the way my brother liked them. Though half the jokes were so rude they went over my head, I’d laugh whenever he did, pretending I understood.
No man who’d watched South Park with his little sister could be guilty of anything terrible. It was an unbreakable rule of the universe, like gravity. Or the law of always bumping into people when you’re looking your worst.
“Iola.” Asher’s tone was no longer completely flat, and I could tell he was preparing to say something I wouldn’t like. “Your brother—“
“Stop.” I lifted a hand. “Don’t say anything bad about him. He’s a good person. You just don’t know him.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“I was thirteen when he left. He was seventeen, all alone, forced to fend for himself. I hate to think about the awful things that might have happened to him. I don’t know where he went, or—”
“He went to Mexico.”
I did a double take. “Did he tell you that?” Asher didn’t answer, but my mind was racing so fast, I was busy filling in the gaps myself. “Dad was originally from Tijuana. Santino and I were born and raised in California, but it makes sense he might have gone looking for Dad’s family. Maybe one of our cousins gave him a place to stay.”
Dad had fallen out with his family, so I’d never gotten the chance to meet them. When Mom and Dad died, they hadn’t bothered to contact us or even come to the funeral. It had been Mom’s brother who’d reluctantly taken us in. Still, if Santino had turned up on their doorstep after running away, Dad’s family might have helped him. I hoped so. At least it would have meant he had a place to go.
“You haven’t visited Santino in prison?” Asher asked.
No Fooling Around: Lennox Brothers Romantic Comedy Page 5