by Unknown
“Whoa, hold on,” he was saying but her heart thumped so loud she barely heard him. “I just didn’t want you to find out later and think I was some kind of spy. I know what he’s like and I won’t rat you out. Honest.” He crossed his fingers and gave her a hopeful smile.
Bethany wasn’t sure what to make of him. She’d built him up in her head to be a total asshole, but he seemed genuine and sweet, not at all like his uncle. It would be risky to take him at his word, but in replaying the scene in her head, she knew she hadn’t said anything really bad — Max had. She would just be cautious about what she said from here on out. Just in case.
“Good?” He seemed to be making a real effort to be neighborly, plus his crooked grin was irresistible, so she smiled back.
“Good.”
“It’s a nice evening,” he said, looking around the neighborhood. “Could I trouble you to show me around before it gets dark?”
Bethany eyed him. Her first instinct was to say no and hibernate in her cozy apartment, but it wouldn’t hurt to make nice with the landlord’s nephew. It also wouldn’t hurt her ego to be seen with such a bona fide hunk.
“Um, okay. There’s not much to see, just your average neighborhood.” She shrugged and started walking, letting him catch up to her. She didn’t want to feed his undoubtedly enormous ego by fawning all over him.
He jogged up next to her as they walked toward Mrs. Hiscock’s house. She was just taking her twin babies out from the backseat of her car so Bethany asked if she’d like a hand.
“No, I’m fine.” Mrs. Hiscock was frazzled and obviously exhausted, but she would never let anyone help with the babies. It was like a point of pride or something.
“Ma’am?” Max had sidled up to her slowly, like he was approaching a wild animal. And in the state she was in, Mrs. Hiscock kind of was. “I’d be honored if you would allow me to hold one of your beautiful babies.”
Bethany almost laughed. No way was this wildly overprotective new mom going to just hand off one of her kids to this complete stranger — a man, no less. When that’s exactly what she did — with tears of gratitude in her eyes — Bethany’s jaw nearly bounced off the ground. What the…?
“Really? I hate bothering people, you know?” While Max swayed with little Joey tucked in his arms, Mrs. Hiscock started to deploy a massive two-seater stroller.
“Oh, you don’t need to do that, ma’am. Why don’t you and Bethany take the babies and I’ll carry your stuff in. Would that be okay?”
Mrs. Hiscock blinked at him in surprise. “Why…that would be…wonderful,” she gushed, looking between Max and Bethany with gratitude.
Max handed Joey off to Bethany while Mrs. Hiscock gathered up Janey from her car seat. When she was sure no one was watching, Bethany dipped her head to take a whiff of Joey sweet baby smell. A little sigh escaped her lips and when she looked up, Max was smirking at her.
“Baby fever?” he whispered.
She shot him a dark glare but couldn’t hold back a quiet laugh. “They just smell so good!”
“Your secret’s safe with me.” The wink he gave her nearly melted her defenses.
Once they’d seen Mrs. Hiscock and the babies in — she’d not only welcomed Max to the neighborhood but given him a big hug — they continued their tour.
“Next stop, Mr. Jacob’s web site,” said Bethany imitating a train conductor.
“What?” Max laughed.
She waved her arm expansively to Mr. Jacob’s side yard, filled with rusted out barbecues, some leaning at alarming angles. Pretending she was crushed by the failure of her joke, she explained. “Those are all Weber barbecues. Get it? ‘Web’ site? Yuk yuk yuk.”
Max groaned and rolled his eyes as they moved on to the Parkers’ place. Mr. Parker had to be about 187 years old but there he was, straining his frail body to maneuver an old toilet onto a very specific spot on his lawn. It was, in fact, the only spot that didn’t have a toilet already on it. All the rest were planted with the prettiest flowers you could ever want to see.
“Mr. Parker, this is Max. He’s moving in next door to me.” Bethany spoke quite loudly since the old fellow was nearly deaf.
“How do you do, sir?”
“Not bad, not bad. Niceta meetya.” Mr. Parker eyed Max up and down for a moment. “You look plenty strong. Wanna gimme a hand here?”
“Absolutely. Where would you like it?”
“Right over there, next to the lavender.”
Max effortlessly hoisted the toilet and plopped it where Mr. Parker pointed. “Good?”
“Yeah, yeah, but I could use a hand with the dirt, iffya don’t mind.”
Max threw Bethany an amused glance before fetching the bag of potting soil by the garage. “Here you go, sir. What else can I help with?”
Mr. Parker laughed. “Be careful whatchya wish for, young fella. But you could pour some of that into the bowl for me.”
“No problem, sir.”
Max continued helping and fetching for Mr. Parker until the new toilet was filled marigolds and the whole mess was cleaned up. Bethany contented herself with watching Max work while leaning a hip against the Parkers’ old Buick. No doubt about it, the guy was really nice to look at. And he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy, too, but she couldn’t let thoughts like that ping around in her brain for too long.
“Are you sure you want to keep going?” Bethany asked as they continued down the street. “Someone might rope you into helping them raise a barn or something.”
Max laughed. “It’s nice to be part of a community, don’t you think? Help each other out, make friends.”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s just…I’ve known most of these folks for a couple years now and have never had so much interaction with them.”
He glanced over at her and gave her a nudge with his hip. “Maybe you should try it sometime. You never know what kind of friend you’ll make.”
A crinkle formed at her brow as she tried not to read anything into his comment. He’s just making small talk.
The rest of the walk was relatively uneventful. No more needy mothers, no more elders in peril. Just two people indulging in a sunset stroll.
She’d started out assuming he was conceited but it didn’t take long to realize he wasn’t stuck-up at all. In fact, he was downright charming. He got her jokes, or at least pretended to find them funny, and seemed interested in her wacky views on the world. As they headed back to the duplex, she found herself warming to him, enjoying their conversation. Uh oh, she thought. Do NOT fall for this guy!
Max’s hand rested on her lower back as they walked down the sidewalk in front of their place, and she was very aware of its presence. “So you said the raccoons haven’t been bothering the cans much lately, huh?”
“Yeah, I can’t explain it. Maybe Chet killed them or something, but they don’t come around anymore.”
Max was thoughtful for a moment. “Those woods look nice,” he finally said, nodding toward the thick stand of trees that marched up to their backyard.
“They’re beautiful. I try to walk them every day.”
He eyed Bethany carefully. “Alone?”
“Sure, why not?”
“I dunno, just seems like a wild animal might ravage you or something.” He nudged her again, teasing. There was a glint in his eye that made her blush. Heat coursed through her body, pooling in her center.
She looked away and shrugged again. “Guess I’m not the ravagable type.”
Max’s hand pressed a little harder against her back. “I would have to disagree.”
Bethany gave him a sidelong glance to see if he was making fun of her, but his attention was focused on the woods behind the house.
As they reached their communal front porch, he turned to her. “Thanks for giving me a tour, Bethany. It was nice to get to know my neighbors. I’m looking forward to living here.”
He looked out to the street and fidgeted, like he was nervous. “I can’t do it tonight, but maybe we could barbecue or w
hatever sometime soon.”
Confusion swept through her. The little wrinkle between her eyebrows — the one she inherited from her mom and was thinking about getting Botox for — deepened as she tried to figure out what he was saying. Was he asking her out or was this just one neighbor inviting over another to be friendly? She realized that more than anything she wished for the former, but deep down didn’t believe it could be anything but the latter.
“Yeah, sure, sounds good.” She was careful to sound interested but not too eager. She would just die if he knew what was running through her dirty little brain right now — images of them rolling around naked in the backyard while steaks burned on the grill. Drool filled her mouth, and it wasn’t from thinking about steaks.
Max’s face lit up in a dazzling grin. “Great! Does Sunday afternoon work for you?”
Bethany could feel herself blinking in disbelief but was incapable of controlling her surprise. This was really happening. “Um, sure. What should I bring?”
Max grabbed both of her hands in his, smiling from ear to ear and shaking his head. “Just yourself. Come on over when you start to smell meat.”
The heat of his hands burned into Bethany’s palms. Her entire body was buzzing with desire for Max, and his happiness over their impending backyard barbecue made her wonder if he maybe could be interested in more than just a neighborly relationship with her.
Nah, he’s just new to the area and wants to meet people, she tried to tell herself. But the fact that his fingers were lingering on hers contradicted that thought. She had no idea what to think as she melted into his gold-flecked eyes.
He leaned in closer to her. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better, Bethany Mills.” His voice had turned husky and soft, sending a shudder through Bethany’s frame.
And then he was gone.
She hadn’t realized her eyes had closed, but when she opened them, Max’s front door was closing gently. She stood there for a moment, swaying in the dusky twilight wondering what had just happened.
Chapter Three
Bethany woke with a start in the middle of the night. She thought she’d heard some kind of noise but in her sleep-addled state she couldn’t quite remember what it was. For some reason ‘wild animal’ popped into her head. Probably just a dog barking, she thought as she shuffled into the bathroom for a pit stop.
She cursed the monkey who’d taken a dump in her mouth at some point during the night and wandered into the kitchen for a sip of water. “I’m just gonna have to pee again,” she grumbled while she let the tap run cold before filling a glass.
The first cool mouthful of water was slipping down her throat when a movement outside caught her eye. Her heart leapt automatically before she remembered that she was inside and whatever she saw was outside. She was always careful to check the locks on all her windows and doors before going to bed every night, so she knew she was safe.
Still…
She scanned the darkness, searching for another glimpse of whatever she’d seen. It must have come from the woods. They were no more than a few hundred yards from the duplex, and lord only knew what lived in there. She’d seen squirrels, deer, and even a fox once. But it was a big forest so it could possibly be home to much bigger wildlife, though she’d never seen signs of any.
As she raised the glass to her lips for another sip, she froze. Her eyes had adjusted enough to spot the creature. It lumbered slowly toward the duplex, its bulk rippling under a thick dark brown coat of fur. Bethany had never seen a bear in real life — hadn’t even known they inhabited the area.
Adrenaline pumped through her bloodstream, which woke her up in a hurry. Should she call someone? Who would that someone be? The police? Animal Control? The circus? All she knew was that she couldn’t move because she was paralyzed with fear.
Her arm started shaking from being held in a mid-drink position for so long — and possibly from terror — but now she was worried that any movement might catch the bear’s attention. It was no more than twenty feet from the stubby chain-link fence that encircled the tiny backyard, and it looked big enough to practically step over it. She shot a sidelong glance at her sliding glass door, not at all confident that it would keep out a bear of this size.
Her saucer-sized eyes watched as the creature approached the fence with purpose. It was almost as if it knew exactly where it was going. She barely noticed the water sloshing out of the glass and running down the length of her forearm, or her teeth chattering in her head.
She’d just decided to slowly ease the glass down and slink away from the window when the bear started growling and reared back on its hind legs. If she hadn’t just gone to the bathroom, Bethany knew her bladder would have released. Every hair on her body bristled and stood on end at the sounds coming from the beast outside the back gate.
If she’d been frightened by the bear, what she saw next sent her onto another plane of terror she never knew existed.
The fur covering the bear started rippling and shimmering in the moonlight. It threw its head back and rolled its shoulders like a man easing tension from them. It seemed to actually be shrinking in stature and girth, and its fur was fading into nothingness. In a matter of seconds, ‘it’ was no longer standing at the gate — Max was.
Bethany opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out, just like during her childhood nightmares. Little gasps of hot air trickled from her lips as she tried to find her voice. But before she could scream, her water-slickened hand lost its grip on the glass, which crashed into the sink. Max’s head whipped in her direction.
“Eep!” she squeaked as she dropped to the floor, imagining what he would do if he found out what she’d just witnessed. For a long, terrifying moment, she heard nothing. Her breathing stopped entirely at the grinding squeal of the back gate and didn’t start again until she heard Max’s backdoor slide shut.
Gasping for air, her body started shuddering. She was in shock. She managed to crawl to the couch, where she huddled under the gaudy throw her grandmother had crocheted for her. If she’d had a gun, she would have been cuddling it, but all she had was a chef’s knife, which trembled from the shaking her hands transmitted to it. Tears streamed down her face unheeded.
“What the fuck was that?” she whispered. Her brain tried to make sense of it but the circuits weren’t connecting. It was impossible and didn’t make sense. She felt like a robot who’d been given contradictory information: Does.Not.Compute. She started giggling hysterically at the robotic voice in her head, understanding she was quite possibly losing her mind, but more probably in shock.
It didn’t take long for the adrenaline crash to come. One minute she was shivering and muttering “Does not compute” under her blanket, the next she was vaguely aware of the knife slipping from her fingers and clattering to the floor before she passed into oblivion.
* * * *
The slam of Max’s front door jarred Bethany awake the next morning. She was curled up on the couch, stiff as a board and utterly exhausted. She watched Max’s shadow move toward his truck’s shadow, then stop. He moved back toward her side of the duplex and stopped again. She was sure he could hear her heart pounding all the way outside.
“Please go away,” she whispered. Almost as if he’d heard her, he moved back to his truck and drove away.
Bethany let out a sigh of relief. But there was something else…regret. She liked Max. Sure, he was hot as hell, but there was more. He was a nice guy and seemed to genuinely like her.
But what she saw last night…
Did she really see it? The idea of Max being some kind of freaky shapeshifter was ridiculous, but she’d seen the bear with her own eyes. He was huge and brown and hairy. And he’d morphed into her gorgeous neighbor in a matter of an eyeblink.
Maybe that was it! Maybe she’d blinked and Max had chased off the bear and she just thought she saw him shrinking down in size, the bristly fur evaporating and turning into bronzed skin. Recalling Max’s naked form warmed her,
making her squirm a little.
And now that the image was in her head, it was impossible to unsee. Max standing outside the gate, shimmering in the moonlight. Every muscle on his body highlighted by the moon. His long legs were lean and oh-so-lickable. But her mind’s eye kept traveling to that place between his legs, the place where glory lay.
Slapping herself lightly, Bethany told herself to snap out of it. Clearly a cold shower was in order. Maybe it would even clear her head a little so she could think things through.
Twenty minutes later, she padded into the kitchen, cuddled in a fuzzy robe, and started the coffee maker before cleaning up the broken glass in the sink. She was whistling a tune and felt quite content because she’d realized in the shower that she’d obviously sleepwalked during the night and had dreamed the shapeshifting episode. It was the only thing that made the slightest bit of sense.
Satisfied with what her waking brain convinced her was true, she set to work making a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, her favorite. Just as she was sliding the over-easy eggs onto a plate, her phone chirped. Char-Char, the display read.
“Hey, Char! What’s up?” Her energy surprised her, making her wonder if she was overcompensating.
“I just wanted to confirm you’re coming tonight,” her friend said.
Shit, the party. Her good cheer was dampened by the thought of being the only person without a date at this thing, but Char didn’t ask for much from her so it was the least she could do. “Um, sure. Want me to come over early to help?”
“Nah, it’s handled.” Charlotte paused. “B, you sound weird. Everything okay?”
Char always knew when something was going on in Bethany’s life. That’s what best friends were for. “Yeah, just had a weird dream last night that kinda freaked me out. I’m cool now. See you around six, right?”
Bethany could tell Charlotte wanted to press the issue but she restrained herself. “Yup. Be there or be on my shit list forever!”