by Zoe Chant
“Always take the second steak,” a voice beside him unexpectedly advised.
A plump, gray-haired woman was reaching past him for a package of chicken and she winked at him.
Shaun smiled warily, not sure how seriously to take the wink.
“Big strapping man like you needs his steak,” she teased him. “Now, you must be new here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Shaun said automatically.
She looked at him critically. “You must be Harriette’s ex, Trevor’s dad. Shaun, isn’t it? You’re living in the Reynolds’ old place.”
Shaun didn’t know the origins of the house, but the reminder of Harriette made him frown without comment.
“You’d be right there next to Andrea, then.”
Just the sound of her name made Shaun’s heart rate increase. He growled something vaguely affirmative.
“I’m Marta,” the old woman continued, oblivious. “I live two blocks over, by Gran’s Grits. You’ve been there?”
“To your house?”
Marta laughed. “To Gran’s! Best little restaurant in town. Of course, Harvey’s isn’t much competition. They’ve got a liquor license, though, so they do better business. Andrea works there, you know.”
“At Harvey’s?” Why did the sound of her name reduce him to such idiocy?
Marta chuckled again. “At Gran’s. Waitresses in the afternoons after the preschool. She’s quite the looker, isn’t she?”
Shaun sputtered, utterly incapable of a coherent reply, and found something fascinating to inspect on a package of beef livers.
“No need to be coy with me, young man,” Marta said with spice as she herded him back towards the vegetables and checked the ears of corn that were available, handing him those that passed her inspection and clearly expecting him to put them in his cart. “I know everything that goes on in this town. It’s high time that girl settled down, and I don’t see a ring on your finger.”
As Shaun stared at her in shock, she continued breezily.
“I don’t think much of your taste if you married Harriette, but we all make mistakes when we’re young, and I imagine you figured that one out right fast.”
Shaun was startled into giving a guffaw of laughter. “I did, at that,” he agreed. It was hard not to like Marta, even if she was unnervingly straight-spoken. He reached up and got her a plastic produce bag at her imperious gesture.
She began to fill it with apples, tapping each one next to her ear to check for freshness. “I’m making you a pie, young man,” she declared. “And you be sure to share it with your neighbor, you hear?”
Then she was pushing her squeaking cart away from Shaun, leaving him to bemusedly wander over to select a gallon of milk and a flat of eggs alone.
His smile quickly faded as he remembered his promise to Trevor.
Marta may not have seen a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean he was free to follow his heart.
Chapter 10
“Saw your young man at the grocery store,” Marta told Andrea as she slid into the diner booth and took a copy of the laminated menu.
Andrea blushed.
“He’s not my young man,” she protested.
She thought about how Shaun had smiled at her, and wondered if he could be.
The idea put butterflies in her stomach and fire low in her belly.
Then she remembered how he’d shut the door on her face, and she shook her head.
“What can I get you?” Andrea asked quickly, fishing in her apron pocket for her pad.
“What’s the special?” Marta asked.
Andrea found the pad and flipped it to a new page. “Oh, right. Corned beef sandwich and coleslaw.”
“Does it look good?”
“I had one before my shift and it was the best sandwich Old George has ever made. A little salty,” Andrea said candidly. “Soda machine is still down.”
Marta handed back the laminated menu. “Special and iced tea, with plenty of sugar, like your new neighbor.”
“He’s not my... er... oh.” Whatever else Shaun wasn’t, he was her neighbor.
Marta laughed kindly as Andrea fled with her order.
Andrea had never been so glad of her reputation as an airhead. She managed to mix up refills, and nearly dumped a pitcher of ice cubes into Stanley’s lap; only shifter reflexes enabled her to catch the pitcher after she dropped it. She had to ask one of her customers to repeat their order after she caught herself staring at a bowl of macaroni and cheese, daydreaming about how Shaun had looked with a colander on his head, hamming it up for his son.
Ours, ours, ours, her hawk continued to hum in the back of her head whenever she thought of Shaun, not helping her concentration in the slightest.
She didn’t believe in mates... did she? It was more likely just a heady combination of hormones, wistful loneliness, and an utterly gorgeous new neighbor. She’d have to be stone dead not to be interested in him under normal circumstances, and add to that the fact that she’d been living basically like a nun since she’d come back from college... well, it was no wonder she was weak-kneed when she thought about him.
That made much more sense than magic and destiny.
No matter how much she longed for magic and destiny.
Chapter 11
Shaun wasn’t really watching out of the window for his hot new neighbor. He just happened to notice that all of Andrea’s lights except her porch light were out when he tucked Trevor into bed, and just happened to be sitting in the most uncomfortable chair in the living room with his laptop where he could see out the window to her front porch. And he just happened to be looking up from the work he was supposed to be doing when she came home, wearing an old-fashioned diner uniform.
The laptop was nearly unseated as he struggled out of the low, poorly-sprung chair with a curse.
It wasn’t that he was desperate to see her again, or have her alone to himself. It was just that he needed her help.
That was all.
He was out on his own porch in a flash, clearing his throat and calling quietly, “Andrea?”
He didn’t want to be too loud and wake Trevor, but Andrea must have good ears, because she paused with her hand on her open door. “Shaun?”
Hearing his name from her lips was a new kind of unsettling. Shaun had to clear his throat again.
“I wanted to apologize,” he said in a rush. “I wanted to get Trevor right up to bed last night, he was so tired, and I was rude with you, I’m sorry. I’m not very comfortable with this being a dad thing yet.”
“Oh!” Andrea said quietly. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Of course I understand.”
Shaun plowed on. “I was also wondering if you know why some of the lights in the house won’t turn on. Trevor had a lot of trouble going to sleep without the hall light on. A lot of trouble.”
“Let me guess,” Andrea pulled her door shut and came to the closest edge of the porch. “He was up seven times, because he was scared, he was thirsty, he had to pee, he couldn’t sleep without the light, he didn’t have the right stuffy, he was itchy, and he wanted one more hug.”
Shaun gave a gruff laugh. “Nailed it. Except that he had to go number two and that took approximately an hour.”
“You might want to try a ticket system,” Andrea said, leaning on her railing. The uniform didn’t show off nearly as much as the previous day’s tank top, but she was still all distractingly stacked curves and easy grace.
“A... ticket system?” Shaun dragged himself back to the conversation.
“Tell him he gets two tickets to get up after bed. Once he’s used them up, he can’t get out of bed again. Kids love tickets, and it will make him really consider whether or not his current reason for hopping up is worth using his ticket. Sometimes they are tired enough that just that extra moment of thought is enough stillness that they can let their body fall asleep.”
“You know a lot about kids,” Shaun said, a little enviously.
“I have a certificate in early ed
ucation,” Andrea said with a shrug. “But mostly I’ve learned this stuff from Patricia. She knows everything.”
They gazed at each other across the tiny hedge and the two sets of porch railings until Shaun couldn’t remember why he’d first called to her.
Then she looked down and cleared her throat. “You, ah, had a problem with your lights.”
“Lights,” Shaun agreed. “Right, lights. The light over the stairs and upstairs hallway, the upstairs bathroom, and the master bedroom.”
“Sounds like you blew a fuse. Happens in these old houses all the time. I’ll show you where the fuse box is.” Andrea sounded all business, and Shaun had better control of himself by the time she had walked to the sidewalk and back onto his lawn.
She walked into his house like she owned it. “I babysat for Trevor a lot,” she said as she showed him where the fuse box was tucked in beyond the shelves in the laundry room. She pointed out the correct switch and threw it.
“That should do it. But you ought to replace this other fuse.”
“So it doesn’t trip so easily?” The laundry rooms wasn’t large, and Shaun had to stand close to Andrea, terribly aware of how badly he wanted to touch her, and how careful they were to not brush against each other, and not quite look at each other.
Andrea shook her head. “The opposite, actually. Some of these fuses don’t match the wire gauge. It’s something people do way too much – if they find that they are blowing circuits, they put in a bigger fuse so it doesn’t trip so much. But the wiring just isn’t robust enough for what they are trying to do, and they’ve taken out their safety net. Fuses trip for a reason.”
Shaun had to stare. She wasn’t just hot and great with kids, she was smart and capable. The whole package. Everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. And their timing was just so wrong.
“Is there an electrician in town I can hire?” Shaun said, swallowing down his desire.
Andrea was startled into looking straight at him, and even in the dim utility room, her unusual golden-brown eyes were bright. “You don’t need an electrician. It’s actually a really easy thing to do. I... could show you.”
“Really?” Shaun wasn’t thinking about that kind of electricity any more, only the electricity that was humming between them.
“Yeah,” Andrea whispered.
“It’s a little... frightening,” Shaun murmured, no longer talking about the fuse box at all.
“Yeah,” Andrea whispered.
For a long moment, the faint buzz of the laundry room light was the only sound.
Then Andrea gave a helpless little whimper and stepped towards him, tipping her head up for the kiss that Shaun was already leaning into.
Chapter 12
Andrea wasn’t even sure what the conversation topic was anymore.
Shaun was so close, and so gorgeously tall and broad, and he smelled like earth after rain and like musk and like everything she had ever wanted.
She would have promised him anything at that moment, up to and including rewiring his entire house, and when he made the smallest of sways towards her, she could not help making a noise of helpless desire and moving to meet him.
His mouth was exactly what she’d been lying awake at night imagining, hot and fierce and demanding.
Her arms slipped up around his neck without resistance and the feeling of his arms around her, drawing her close, was like coming home. Andrea had been able to tell that he was built well through his tailored clothing, but now, pressed wantonly up against him, she could tell that had been the tip of the iceberg.
The man was ripped. The shoulders that filled out his shirts were knotted with muscles, and the arms under the shirt sleeves were thick and strong.
Without breaking their kiss for breath, he was lifting her off her feet and sitting her up on the washing machine so he wasn’t bending over so far. Andrea hooked a leg around him to hold him close, while she tried with lust-clumsy fingers to unbutton the shirt that was keeping her from the amazing planes of his chest.
Shaun seemed to be suffering no such clumsiness; he had already gotten the buttons down the front of her uniform undone, and was pushing it back with his fingers so he could move his kisses down her neck and into the swells of flesh waiting below.
He nibbled and licked at her breasts and Andrea buried her fingers in his thick blond hair and bit back the cries she wanted to utter. She spread her legs wider and squirmed against him, just at the right height to feel the bulge of his lust for her. She felt she might go mad with desire, and there was entirely too much clothing between them still.
Clearly feeling the same, Shaun retreated reluctantly from her cleavage and finished the job that Andrea hadn’t been able to concentrate on. She wasn’t sure if he actually unbuttoned anything or simply tore it off, but he was shirtless at last, and working at his belt.
Andrea slipped off her bra, secretly glad when seeing the freedom of her breasts made Shaun fumble his pants and take his own turn being stumped by a button. She reached down to release the button and unzip him slowly, walking fingers down to touch him through the silky boxers he was wearing.
His whole body went rigid. One hand, which had been reaching for her nearest breast, closed reflexively around it as he gave a guttural moan.
Andrea gasped.
If they had been eager until now, it became frenzied.
Shaun jerked down his pants and underwear, wrenching his shoes off without untying them. Andrea tried to wriggle out of her uniform, to find her apron hopelessly knotted behind her, too tight to shimmy down off her hips or lift up over her head. Shaun gave it a tug that made stitches pop, then sensibly stopped, lifted up the skirt and pulled her soaking underwear down past her shoes.
Then, finally, he was pulling her onto the thick length of his cock, and she was wrapping her legs around him to get him deeper, crying out in pleasure and need.
The washer was noisy and clanked with every frantic motion, and when the cold concrete floor seemed unappealing, Shaun, still buried inside of her, carried her to the only slightly less uncomfortable kitchen table for several lingering thrusts, then into the living room, where they made it no further than the start of the carpet before he was laying her down to drive into her until her world exploded in brilliant sensation and he was crying out and jerking his release into her.
For several long, panting moments, they continued to move together, the after-effect of her orgasm leaving Andrea’s limbs tingling and weak.
Shaun finally groaned and collapsed beside her and they lay and waited for their hearts to return to beating normally.
“Oh look,” Andrea finally said, giggling helplessly. “The light over the stairs is working now.”
Chapter 13
Pretending that his world hadn’t just been dumped upside down, Shaun craned his neck around to verify Andrea’s observation. Sure enough, the light over the stairs was on now.
Somehow, after a round of sex like that, he was half expecting to find that they had taken the power out for an entire block.
He was caressing Andrea automatically, tracing the tantalizing lines of her neck and her perfect curves and he made himself stop as soon as he realized what he was doing.
It was somehow more intimate than their frantic love-making had been, and he was already swamped in doubts.
There are no doubts, his tiger told him, sated and content.
We promised, Shaun countered.
He sat up, keenly aware of Andrea’s lush body still sprawled beside him. Even after that, he still craved her, and it was a challenge not to fall upon her with kisses and carry her off to his bedroom as his prize, even if he wasn’t capable of doing more than curling around her for sleep for a while.
Perhaps sensing Shaun’s second thoughts, Andrea sobered and sat up, brushing her loose hair back shyly. “I... ah... that wasn’t exactly how I was planning to help you with the electricity.” She turned her attention to the knotted straps of her apron, not meeting Shaun’s eyes.
<
br /> “Here, let me help you,” Shaun said before he could stop himself.
Andrea turned away and held her hair aside so that he could work at the impressive knot they’d managed to make. It took all of his self-control not to stroke her bare skin while he worked, and he was amused to realize that her blush showed at the back of her neck through the natural tan of her skin.
“Thank you,” he said, as he released the tangled fabric at last. “I... just... thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Andrea said shyly, pulling the uniform up over her arms and giving him a sidelong glance.
Shaun recognized that he was in deep water. He wanted to pull her close and never let her go, to ask her to marry him on the spot.
But he’d made a promise.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said firmly. “This was great, and you are...” calling her hot seemed both crude and painfully inadequate. “Amazing.”
Her intense eyes made talking to her distracting and Shaun had to look down, realizing he was still completely naked. “But this is a weird time,” he confessed, meaning it in several ways. “Trevor’s just been abandoned by his mom, and he needs stability right now, not a dad who’s navigating some sort of...”
Mate, his tiger tried to supply.
“Relationship,” Shaun said firmly.
“Oh, sure,” Andrea said too quickly. “I completely understand. This doesn’t have to be... a thing. I mean, it was a thing. Just a thing.”
“Yeah,” Shaun said, not sure if he was glad she was being so accepting, or if he hurt that she was agreeing so quickly. “Just a thing.”
Andrea giggled then, a warm, comfortable sound. “Helluva thing, though,” she said honestly as she stood. “I’ve got to find my underthings.”
See? Shaun told his tiger in triumph. She’s being completely reasonable about this. No ridiculous hangups about mates and destiny. It’s just a thing.
But neither he, nor his tiger, was completely convinced.