Mr. Right Next Door
Book Six in the Camp Firefly Falls Series
Farrah Rochon
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Camp Firefly Falls
Also by Farrah Rochon
About the Author
Copyright © 2016 by Farrah Roybiskie
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 978-1-938125-34-8
Chapter One
“I’ll be damned if I’ll sit here all weekend long.”
Leah Cross pushed herself up from the chaise lounge in her bedroom and stomped over to her closet. The clothes she’d packed for this weekend’s aborted trip to Camp Firefly Falls were still folded neatly in the navy blue packing cubes her sister had given her for last year’s tour of Europe—yet another vacation that never came to be because the man in her life decided against it. She would not have a repeat of Europe. No way. Not gonna happen.
She might not make it to Camp Firefly Falls, but she was going somewhere this weekend. She would not spend the next three days staring at these walls, analyzing what had led to the implosion of her relationship with Derrick Jackson Montgomery the Third.
His smug ass was always so proud of the Third. Wore it like a badge of honor. She’d foolishly allowed herself to be taken in by all that polish, not recognizing just how tarnished Derrick the Third was on the inside.
Leah pointed to herself in the mirror that hung on the back door of her closet.
“Honey, you are better off without him. You’re so much better off it’s not even funny.”
No, it definitely was not funny. None of this was funny.
For the second time in her short thirty-three years, a man she’d been engaged to marry had told her he no longer wanted to marry her.
At least with Joshua she’d had some warning. Well, if one could call walking into her ex’s office after-hours to find his bare ass up in the air while he thrust against the nighttime security guard at the finance firm where they both worked a warning. He hadn’t even chosen the cute security guard. He’d picked the one with the bad hair weave who always wore way too much lipstick.
But at least Leah had known things were over after that fiasco. Derrick’s declaration had come out of nowhere. And just when she was finally getting close to picking a date for their wedding.
Okay, she was getting close to settling on a month, not an actual date.
He’d had the nerve to use that as one of his excuses last night. Claiming that she was the one dragging her feet. She hadn’t been entirely sure yet, but at least she’d finally decided that she wanted a spring wedding. Of course, since spring had just passed they would have to wait until next year, but she’d given him a timeframe. What more did he want?
It didn’t matter anymore because Derrick Jackson Montgomery the Third no longer wanted to get married.
“Asshole.”
Leah’s hands fell still, the lightweight sweater she’d picked up remained clutched between her fingers. Seconds stretched into a full minute as reality began to sink in.
She’d been dumped. Again.
How had she let this happen? How had she not seen the signs? And what did this say about her ability to read people? How could she ever trust her instincts when it came to men if, for the second time, she’d been blindsided by a man she’d been prepared to spend her life with?
Leah slouched against the closet wall.
She’d spent more than a year cultivating her relationship with Derrick, only to have it end with a ten minute explanation of all the reasons he no longer thought they “fit.” An entire year wasted.
Well, she wasn’t wasting any more time on him.
She didn’t even know where she was going, she just knew she could not stay in this house all weekend. She would go insane.
Are you really going to do this?
“Yes.” Leah’s strident proclamation echoed around the walk-in closet. The alternative was to spend the weekend reexamining every insignificant thing that had happened over the past thirteen months. Derrick wasn’t worth the time or energy.
She pulled her carry-on bag from the top shelf, brought it over to her bed, and placed the mesh packing cubes neatly inside. She grabbed her toiletry bag and makeup case from the bathroom, but then tossed the makeup case back on the counter.
Why even bother with makeup? It wasn’t as if she had anyone to get dolled up for.
You have yourself, dammit! That’s enough.
She would not allow her ex to turn her into some broken, heartsick woman who didn’t bother to comb her hair or wear lip gloss. She threw in an extra razor and her favorite black currant-scented lotion, the one she couldn’t wear around Derrick because he was allergic.
She gave herself a mental slap to the forehead. Why hadn’t she thought to douse him with the lotion last night? Talk about a lost opportunity. She’d pay good money to see those itchy red bumps pop up on his skin.
Leah paused in the middle of zipping up the carry-on, waiting for her guilty conscience to reprimand her for her sadistic thoughts. The guilt never came. Instead, she thought about how much fun it would be to shove Derrick into a mound of red ants while he was still itching from the lotion. It would be nothing less than he deserved. After all, because of him she was out two thousand dollars.
Dammit, she hadn’t even thought about that until now.
If he’d had the decency to break up with her two weeks ago, at least she would have been able to get fifty percent of the money she’d paid for the retreat. The bastard waited until last night—last night—to tell her he no longer wanted to get married. Now she was stuck paying for a retreat she couldn’t even attend.
Leah picked up the brochure from her dresser and began to thumb through it.
When Derrick first came to her with the idea to attend Camp Firefly Falls, Leah had laughed off the suggestion. The notion of two adults going to summer camp seemed silly. Summer camp was for kids.
When she discovered that it was actually a couple’s retreat, she’d started to warm up to the idea. But when Derrick revealed that it was his mother’s idea—because the daughter of one of the women in her gardening club had attended a similar retreat and claimed it did wonders for her new marriage—Leah had been adamant that they not attend. She didn’t want to set a precedent where her future mother-in-law thought it was okay to meddle in their relationship.
But as she further researched the camp, she decided that maybe a weekend with marriage experts would help her figure out why she suffered light panic attacks whenever she so much as passed a bridal magazine in the grocery store.
Well, she didn’t need those experts now, did she?
She tossed the brochure on the bed and picked up her carry-on. It didn’t matter that she had no clue where to go. She would just get in her car and drive. It had been ages since she’d done anything that wasn’t planned down to the millisecond. A little spontaneity this weekend would do her a world of good.
She rolled the carry-on out to her black Mustang and popped the trunk. The muscle car was her one foray into rebellion. Her mother had gasped at her choice, but the thought of sitting behind the wheel of a sensible, boring sedan nearly caused Leah to break out in hive
s.
As she lowered the trunk, she caught sight of her neighbor, Caleb Scott, standing in the middle of his driveway, his expression none too pleased. Another man sat behind the wheel of a cherry red convertible, his hands outstretched in a pleading gesture. Now that was a nice car.
Leah opened her trunk again and pretended to look for something inside. She peered around the side of it, straining to hear what they were arguing about.
Fine, so she was nosy. Sue her.
Caleb stood with his arms crossed as he listened to whatever the guy in the convertible had to say. She could only catch a few words here and there, but her neighbor’s body language spoke volumes. His shoulders were rigid with annoyance, his jaw stiff. Leah noticed that he hadn’t bothered to shave yesterday’s five-o’clock shadow. The effect was pretty damn devastating.
Caleb was hot. It was a statement of fact, like saying the sky was blue or Jersey PATH trains smelled like corn chips and sweat in the middle of July. Leah felt zero guilt in admiring what God had undoubtedly put on this earth for all to appreciate.
The guy behind the wheel started to open his door, but Caleb put a stop to it, pushing it close.
Oh, yeah. Convertible Guy had definitely made it to the top of Caleb’s shit list.
Not wanting to get caught spying on his conversation, she went back inside to get her room diffuser. She couldn’t go to bed without the scent of lavender in the air. When she emerged from the front door, the convertible was backing out of Caleb’s driveway.
She didn’t want to pry, but it didn’t seem very neighborly not to ask if he was okay. Leah made her way across the small patch of grass that bisected their two driveways. Caleb stood with his head tilted up at the sky.
“Hi there,” Leah said.
He looked over, his expression still agitated. It softened when he noticed it was her.
“Hey, Leah. How’s it going?”
“Looks as if I’m the one who should be asking you that question.” She motioned to where the convertible had taken off. “Is everything okay?”
The faint frown lines bracketing his mouth reappeared. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just may have to murder my friends, that’s all.”
“Oh, well if that’s all,” she said with a nonchalant wave.
He laughed then, the deep chuckle causing an oddly exciting tingle to travel along her skin. Why hadn’t she noticed his laugh before?
“My friends and I were supposed to go on a fishing trip this weekend, but they all bailed on me at the last minute.”
“That…well, that kinda sucks.”
“It sucks big time, but I can’t say I blame them. If I had to choose between sharing a rundown fishing cabin with a bunch of guys and hanging out with my girlfriend, I’d choose the girlfriend too.”
“Except you don’t have a girlfriend do you?” she asked without thinking.
“Thanks for pointing that out,” he said with a grin.
Leah had no doubt her normally light brown cheeks were now flaming red.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean for that to sound the way it did. I mean, it’s not as if you couldn’t get a girlfriend. I’m sure if you tried…”
Okay, stop talking! Goodness, what was wrong with her!
“I’m going to shut up now,” Leah said.
Caleb only laughed harder. “No, really, it’s okay. Like I said, I don’t blame them for choosing to spend the weekend with their girlfriends. It’s just that I requested today and Monday off for this fishing trip. I could have saved those two vacation days for something else later in the year.”
“Is fishing alone out of the question?” she asked. “I’ve never gone fishing before, so I don’t know if there are unwritten rules about it.”
“Actually, I would go by myself, but I happen to be without a truck,” Caleb explained. “It’s getting serviced this weekend. I specifically planned it that way because I figured I’d be at the lake with the guys.” He ran a hand over his closely-cropped hair. “I guess I can finally paint the shutters. Not exactly how I’d planned to spend my weekend, but it’s better than loafing around the house.”
Leah grimaced. “That’s a crappy use of your vacation days.”
He hunched his shoulders in a what are you going to do gesture.
“Sorry again about your friends bailing on you. Believe me, I know how that feels.” She pointed to her house. “I should probably get going. I’ll see you around.”
He responded with a wave. “Enjoy your weekend.”
Leah went back inside and parked herself in front of her computer. She was giving herself exactly ten minutes to figure out where she wanted to spend her weekend, then she would get on the road.
Maybe she could drive up to Niagara Falls or go down to the Poconos? For a moment she considered checking into the Waldorf or the Mandarin Oriental and treating herself to a couple days of pampering. But she wasn’t in the mood for a luxury hotel.
She wanted to go to Camp Firefly Falls, dammit! Once she’d warmed to the idea of spending time in the mountains, she’d actually gotten excited about it.
Leah pushed away from the computer and went back to her bedroom, lifting the brochure from where she’d tossed it on her bed.
This weekend’s retreat was billed as an opportunity to learn and grow in your relationship. From the newly engaged, to the recently married, to the longtimers; all were encouraged to participate, with the rationale that there was something that could be learned at any stage of a marriage.
The one demographic that wasn’t included in any of the advertisements was singles. But did that mean she couldn’t go?
Yes, it did. It was a couples retreat.
She crumpled the brochure and stomped over to the wastebasket next to her dresser, pitching it in there with such force that it popped right out and onto the floor.
Leah stuck her tongue out at it.
It wasn’t her fault she was no longer part of a couple. Why did she have to miss out on what could have been a nice, relaxing vacation, just because her fiancé turned out to be an asshole? Hell, she deserved a vacation after what she’d been through these past twenty-four hours.
Based on the pictures she’d seen of the campgrounds online, Camp Firefly Falls was the ideal spot for her to unwind. So maybe she wouldn’t get to participate in any of the activities. That didn’t mean she couldn’t float around in the lake, nap in a hammock, even do a little hiking if she wanted to.
Okay, she wasn’t really the hiking kind, but that’s only because she’d never tried. There was a possibility that she would actually enjoy it.
Even if she spent the entire weekend lounging around with a good book, at least the money she’d spent wouldn’t go to waste. Well, her portion of the trip wouldn’t go to waste. She would just have to consider the money she’d spent on Derrick a loss.
Unless…
Leah glanced over at where the rumpled brochure still sat next to the curved foot of her Queen Anne dresser. She then looked toward her window. She couldn’t see past the sheer curtains, but she knew what stood just beyond the pane of glass. Her next-door neighbor’s house.
Would he?
“That’s crazy, Leah,” she said.
She’d lived next door to Caleb Scott for little over a year, but if someone were to offer her a million bucks to state ten facts about him, she’d be out a million bucks. It would be crazy to invite him to join her.
But he was so upset about missing out on his fishing trip this weekend.
“There’s fishing at Camp Firefly Falls.”
There was also two nonrefundable slots for this weekend’s retreat that would go to waste.
Her decision made, Leah walked over to the dresser and picked up the crumpled brochure. She marched out of her house and across the lawn before she could talk herself out of it.
Caleb continued his profanity-riddled soliloquy as he put away the fishing gear he’d packed for this weekend’s trip. He’d bought a brand new tackle box, not
because he wanted to impress anyone, but because it had been so long since he’d been fishing that his other one had rusted out. He wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happened to this one.
With this group of friends, it probably would.
“Consider it payback,” he said as he set the container of bass fishing lures on the shelf.
How many times had he bailed on his friends in the past? Times when his job had taken precedence over everything else. Glenn still hadn’t forgiven him for letting that Knicks playoff ticket go to waste years ago.
Besides, as far as Devon, Marcus, and Glenn knew, this weekend was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill fishing trip. A time for the four of them to get away from the city and catch up. But it was more than that. It was so damn much more. His friends had no clue what was at stake for him.
Maybe you should have told them?
Sure. That would happen. And the Washington Nationals would win the NLCS ten years in a row.
Caleb could hardly stomach talking to himself about the decision he had to make in just a few short days. How could he ever summon the courage to talk about it with his friends?
With two tours in Iraq and more than a dozen undercover operations under his belt, coward was the last word anyone would think of to describe him. But more and more lately, that’s how Caleb felt. He damn near lost his lunch just at the thought of going back out into the field again.
He blew out a deep breath and ran a hand down his face.
A decision had to be made. Period. His lieutenant wouldn’t take another excuse.
Caleb had hoped to have a couple of peaceful days at the lake where he could clear his mind and figure out his next move, but he knew better than most that you didn’t always get what you wanted. He would just have to figure things out right here at home. He’d have to break in his brand new Pflueger graphite rod and reel combo some other time.
Caleb looked around the garage.
Shit. He’d left his new fishing rod outside.
His garage door had been making that rattling noise again, so he took the long way through the kitchen to the front door. When he opened it he found Leah Cross standing just on the other side, her finger heading for the doorbell.
Mr. Right Next Door (Camp Firefly Falls Book 6) Page 1