by Sara Rider
Who knew that her sisters and brothers-in-law would mesh so well with Eli and Julia? Within twenty minutes, Julia was already making plans with Chastity and Clover for a pedicure and wine night, and Eli was currently trying to finagle an invite to the next Cox family Sunday night dinner. She’d been a nervous wreck all afternoon preparing for this party, but the constant stream of chatter and laughter during the commercials had to be a good sign.
The microwave pinged, pulling her out of her distracted thoughts.
“A hologram?”
Startled, she turned around to see Jake standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and an unimpressed look on his face. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
His expression didn’t change, meaning he wasn’t going to shift tracks without talking about the giant elephant in the room.
She wiped her fake-butter covered hands on a tea towel hanging off her oven door. “Pretty good twist, huh?”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming.”
Judging by the chorus of gasps in the room when it was revealed Marcus Red Bear had never been alive and had only ever existed as a spectral projection created by the Arkons to infiltrate the Crimson Army, the twist was pretty damn good. Most diehard fans would have devoured the fourth book when it released at midnight last night, and already knew what was in store for the character, but for those who only watched the show, finding out the purported hero was actually a Trojan horse was an awesome shocker. “I told you it was worth waiting for.”
“How did you manage to keep that to yourself for so many months?”
She tore open the paper bag of popcorn and dumped it into the metal bowl while he loaded a couple plates into her dishwasher as casually as if he’d always lived there. He’d been around so much over the last few months that it was starting to feel like he did. Or, at least like he should. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”
He laughed.
“Fine. The non-disclosure agreement was a pretty good incentive. Do you think the party’s going okay?”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her toward him. “It’s going fantastic. You don’t need to stress about it.”
“It helps having you here.” She leaned into him, letting the tension and worry uncoil from her limbs.
“You know, I’ve got a secret of my own, and a pretty big urge to spill it.”
She tipped her head back. “What is it?”
“I love you, Clem.”
Her breath hitched. It was the first time he’d told her that. She spent countless hours every day immersing herself in the most gorgeous, lyrical phrases humankind had ever created, but those three words were the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard. “Did you know you’re terrible at keeping secrets?”
“What do you mean?”
“Every time you touch me or look at me, heck, every time you’re in the same room as me, you’ve been letting me know that. Everything you do tells me you love me. And that’s okay, because I love you, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. And it’s a good thing, too, because I was thinking it was time for me to ask you to move in.”
His smile was so big, it was hard to believe she was the one who put it on his face. “You won’t get sick of me?”
“Not a chance.” She rose up on her toes and kissed him.
The kitchen door swung open with a bang. “Hurry up, you’re missing the best part—”
Eli stood in the doorframe with a grin.
Jake tightened his hold around her waist. “We’re busy.”
“I can see that. I’ll just take this popcorn and go.” Eli grabbed the bowl from the counter and snuck out of the room, wearing a smirk on his face the entire time.
When the door shut behind him, Clem cleared her throat. “You sure you don’t want to get back to the show? If it follows the storyline in the book, there’s another good twist coming.”
He shook his head. “We’ll watch it later on DVR. The only story I care about right now is ours.”
He kissed her again, and for the first time in her life, she realized that the happily ever after wasn’t the ending of the story. It was just the beginning.
The end.
Excerpt from MAKE ME FALL (Books & Brews Series, book 2)
Dear Mr. Humperdinck Von Spackledick III,
Please refrain from further violating Shadow Creek Noise by-law 2011.684.
Signed, your neighbor
CC: the city by-law officer
Nora Pitts leaned back in her desk chair to read back her hastily typed letter. She’d considered going with Noisy McPuppyHater, but Humperdinck had a nicer ring. She needed to step up her game after her obnoxious neighbor responded to her last letter asking him to keep the noise down with a hand-scrawled note in her mailbox that said No problem, Princess.
Nope, that was not a shudder that just rolled down her spine. Sure, her nameless neighbor had the kind of look that could only be described as panty-dropping, but he also had the obnoxiously lazy charm of a man who’d never had to face any real consequences in his life. Not her type. At all.
The roar of an electric saw ripped through the air, as though her walls were made of clouds instead of hardy insulation and vinyl siding, nearly knocking her off her seat. Just lovely. Now she got to listen to that monstrous sound and the pounding bass from his stereo.
She moved her cursor to the bottom of the page and added one more line.
P.S. Your taste in music sucks. P.P.S. Put on a shirt.
Maybe it was mean, but considering he’d woken her up a couple nights ago with some weird disco song from the seventies, he deserved it.
God, why was it so much easier to make enemies than friends? She’d been living in Shadow Creek for six months, and her most significant relationship in all that time was with a man who hated her guts and didn’t even know her name.
Hopefully that would change tonight. It was her fifth meeting with her new book club. This time, she was determined to finally work up the courage to ask the women in the club to do something social outside of their monthly meeting, which meant tonight had to go perfectly. No awkwardly putting her foot in her mouth. No fretting about whether anyone actually read the book or spilled wine on her Berber rug. No acting like a skittish raccoon whenever anyone doubled-dipped their crudités in the hummus. All she had to do was relax and act like a normal, easy-going human being.
Why did that have to be so hard?
With a stifled groan, she sent her letter to the printer and checked on the lemon-poached baby artichokes cooling on the stovetop. She’d found the recipe on one of those gourmet foodie websites where every dish had a thousand different ingredients, and made three practice batches before she got it right. So far, it looked perfect and smelled even better. Please stay that way.
She popped a tray of meticulously crafted caramelized onion tartlets into the oven next, sending a prayer to the book club gods that her guests would appreciate the effort she’d put into matching the French-themed food to the novel’s Parisian setting. When the printer finished its job, she stuffed the letter in an envelope and headed next door. Her nerves lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July as she opened the mail flap and slid the note inside. Sure, it was a coward’s way of getting her point across, but confrontations weren’t exactly her strong suit.
The music ended abruptly as soon as the mail flap slammed shut.
She turned to scurry off, but the door flew open. “Got something to say, neighbor?”
Nora turned around slowly, ice freezing her spine straight. He was shirtless, like always, probably because his ego couldn’t bear to cover up that perfect six-pack, but this was the first time she’d seen said six-pack up close. His black sweatpants hung so low on his hips that his insanely sexy v-shaped cut lines peeked out.
“It’s in the letter,” she answered with an uncharacteristically rough voice.
He picked the envelope up from the floor and peered quickly at the note. “Ever consider i
t might be easier to talk about our problems face-to-face?”
Looking at his face was a bad idea right now because his light brown eyes framed by dark lashes, thick lips currently pulled into a wry grin, and messy brown hair left her completely tongue-tied. Instead, she let her gaze fall to the bead of sweat sliding down his chest, winding down his abs like a glacial river slowly chiseling its way through a rock face.
He laughed. Heat flamed her cheeks as she realized he was watching her watching him. “Are you sure you came here to talk about a noise problem?”
Of course he was the arrogant type who assumed every woman wanted in his pants. “There’s nothing to talk about. There are rules in this town and you need to respect them. That means no loud noise after seven p.m.”
His smile faded. “I’ll keep the noise down, but I need to finish the cuts on the new hardwood floors I’m putting in. I have to install them tonight or it’ll be another week before I can get into my kitchen.”
She might have had a little sympathy for him if he hadn’t spent every other Friday evening when she hosted her book club communing with his weed whacker. “No construction after seven.”
“No commercial construction after seven. That doesn’t apply to personal home repairs. I’ve read the bylaws, too. But maybe if you ask real nice, I’ll try to keep the noise to a minimum.”
She sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes shut. “Please, can you keep the noise down just for tonight? I’ve had a bad day and I’d really like this evening to go well.”
She hated begging, but she was at a breaking point. She needed something to go right in her life, even if it was just a stupid book club. In the six months she’d been here, nothing had gone the way it was supposed to. The lab she was promised at Shadow Creek College turned out to be nothing but a bunch of broken-down equipment and a single Masters student named Doug who liked to scratch himself in places she’d rather not be looking. She hadn’t made any real friends or found where she fit in. The only thing she had was this stupid rental house that she thought would be her dream home until she discovered it came with the world’s worst neighbor. But quitting now would be admitting defeat. Admitting her ex was right when he told her she couldn’t make it on her own.
She wasn’t ready to do that yet.
She opened her eyes, expecting to find him gloating. Instead, he was looking at her with pity. “Yeah, sure. I’ll try, okay?”
She exhaled shakily. “Thank you.” She spun around and trotted down his front stairs, needing to escape this foolish feeling as soon as she could.
“Anytime, Princess,” he called after her, making her stumble on the last step.
Keeping her mind on everything she needed to do—and off her neighbor’s hard, sweaty body—wasn’t easy, but at least Nora had made a list. Lists were one of her favorite things, second only to a perfectly organized cupboard. They made her feel in control. Organized. Calm. But for some reason the neatly printed purple words on her periodic table-themed stationery were blending together every time she looked at them.
Stupid, sexy neighbor. The only reason she was distracted by thoughts of him was because it had been a long, lonely time since she’d gotten more than her eyeballs on a man’s naked chest. But she wasn’t looking for a man, especially not an obnoxious one. She wanted to make friends. Girlfriends with whom she could go to the movies and share all the weird things Doug did at the lab, and cry to whenever life got just too freaking hard.
Friends she kept hoping the women from her book club could be, even though that seemed less likely with every meeting. Making friends was so much easier in grad school, where no one cared about whether she wore the right clothes or liked the right kind of music, or that she was uptight. It was so much harder in her thirties. Everyone seemed to have their lives established already. There was no one holding up signs saying Friends Wanted. No Tinder for people who wanted someone to call and kvetch with when life got too hard. She’d thought this town on the northwestern coast of Washington State would be a friendly, welcoming place, but she’d been wrong. Everyone here knew each other already.
Finding a Craigslist ad for a book club looking for new members had seemed like a godsend, but a few months in, she felt like there was still a big huge wall between her and the others. Like they only included her because of her baking skills.
Oh crap. The tartlets.
She ran to the kitchen and pulled the tray out of the oven. A little over-browned, but by some miracle not burned. She pressed her hands against her cheeks. How could she have forgotten to set the timer? She was a chemist, for God’s sake. Precision and dependability were supposed to be best traits. Unfortunately, she didn’t inherit them from her father, who’d called her this afternoon asking her how to renew his car insurance that expired two months ago. How a man who was considered a world expert on theoretical macroeconomics couldn’t figure out the basic functions of life after his separation from her mom, Nora would never understand.
Dealing with her dad had thrown her schedule completely off, mostly because she’d had to talk him out of driving anymore until this mess was sorted. She hated being disorganized. It made her stomach roil with nausea. She picked up her list again and read each item out loud, forcing herself to concentrate.
“Chill the wine. Prepare the cheese plate and—” The roar of her neighbor’s saw made her shoulders tense so hard, she dropped the paper. She gritted her teeth and picked it back up. “Finish the last chapter.”
Oh no. She’d forgotten that, too.
She found her library copy of the paperback on her bedside table and flicked through the pages as she walked back into the kitchen to plate the tartlets on a serving tray. The book was a slog, to put it nicely. Just once, she wished her book club would choose a book that didn’t involve weird old white guys waxing poetic about their penises.
The doorbell rang just as she skimmed the last page. Annie, Gemma, and Rose stood on the other side. “Hi—”
The power-saw thundered, drowning her words in the strident noise.
“Yikes,” Annie said. “I hope that’s not going on all night.”
Nora forced a smile on her face. It’s not like she wanted to host every frigging time, but after the first time these ladies had caught sight of her neighbor’s naked torso, they’d insisted on camping out in her screened-in back porch every single month. And he insisted on putting on a show for them. “He promised to keep it down as much as possible tonight.”
“Wait,” Gemma said, stepping into the living room. “You talked to Neighbor McStudly? You? The woman who stutters whenever he comes outside?”
She hated that stupid nickname. Even if he couldn’t hear them inside the house, she was pretty sure his ego magically grew a few inches every time they called him that. “I—”
“I didn’t think you were capable of talking to a man without getting all flustered,” Rose added with a laugh before tossing her sweater onto the back of the couch. Nora picked it up and brought it to the closet to hang up, then followed her guests as they traipsed into the kitchen to pick away at the food.
“Hi, um, shoes off, please,” she said meekly.
Gemma rolled her eyes and opened the bottle of wine she’d brought.
It’s fine, you can sweep later. Just relax and stop being so uptight. Still, Nora couldn’t stop herself from immediately wiping up the drop of ruby red wine on her white countertop.
“Yum, these smell good,” Annie said, popping one of the tarts into her mouth.
“Thanks, I—” The ear-splitting sound of the saw cut her off again. “They’re caramelized onion tartlets. I made them as a tribute to the book, but I also have an assortment of French cheeses. Brie, Roquefort, and gruyère.”
Rose frowned. “No dessert?”
Nora groaned. She’d forgotten to put the petit gateaux into the oven. “It’ll be ready after the appetizers.”
“We should get started before we miss Neighbor McStudly,” Annie said with a glint in her eye. She p
icked up the tray of food and carried through to the patio.
“I wonder if he takes commissions,” Gemma mused, lounging on the wicker loveseat with her glass of wine like she was a matriarch from Dynasty.
“I guess you weren’t as persuasive as you thought, Nora, because he doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” Annie said, pulling her hardcover copy of the book out of her purse.
Nora cast her glance to his yard. “I’ll sure he’ll be done soon.”
“I don’t mind, but it would be a lot nicer if he took his shirt off this time,” Rose said.
The fact he’d clothed himself felt like a small victory. Like maybe he was going to finish his cuts and then shut up for the rest of the evening. Probably just wishful thinking. She was so desperate for someone to be kind to her that she was willing to fall for his fake charm when he made that promise.
“Sorry, ladies. Just finishing up,” he called out with a wave that made his biceps flex. “And the shirt stays on this time. Unless you’re willing to share some of that delicious looking food.”
Everyone but Nora burst into a fit of giggles.
Nora flipped through her notebook until she landed on the page where she’d prepared some discussion questions. “So, how did everyone feel about Xavier’s relationship to painting? I thought the way he became obsessed with recreating Mary’s masterpiece once he became impotent was—”
“Ugh, I didn’t even get that far,” Gemma said. “The book was such a drag.”
“But you chose it,” Nora said, setting her notebook down on her lap and carefully placing the delicate string bookmark between the pages. Why was she even surprised at this point? Gemma never finished the book. It frustrated Nora that they insisted on reading the densest, most high-brow books straight from the New York Times bestseller list, rather than considering some of her suggestions for more entertaining reads. She spent her days reading dry-as-dust academic papers. When she was off the clock, she wanted to read for fun.
“Well, I thought the prose was lovely and stark. Poetic, almost. In fact, the entire thing was a bleak, lyrical broadside against the tyranny of political correctness.” Rose was the English major of the group and never let anyone forget it, even though Nora was pretty sure she was full of it half the time.