Brand New Sky

by Heidi Hutchinson

  Sway's heart turned over.

  “Sway,” Tawny said gently, and he realized she was now standing very close to him. He looked up into her searching eyes and tried to smile, but couldn't muster it. Tawny pressed her mouth into a tight line. “She's very private. She doesn't like to meet new people. I told her you wouldn't bother her.”

  Sway looked at the blonde woman again. She was oblivious to their presence. Mentally, she was miles away.

  “I won't bother her,” he said softly.

  “Sway,” Tawny said, gentle but firm. She waited until he looked at her again. “I mean it, if you try to flirt with her, she'll shut right down. She's one of my clients and a friend, please don't screw this up for me.”

  Sway did smile then. “I won't. I promise.”

  The cab honked again and Tawny threw a glare at the driver. “Ugh, I have to go.” She raised her eyebrows at Sway. “You promised.”

  Sway chuckled. “Yes, now get out of here.”

  The cab driver slammed the lid on the trunk as Tawny rolled down the window in the backseat.

  “Don't forget,” she yelled as the driver got in and put the car in drive. “Feed my sea monkeys!”

  And then she was gone. Sway smiled and shook his head. What a nut.

  A red pickup pulling into the neighbor's drive caught his attention and he watched as a man with a beard got out and started to approach the blonde. She stood, snapping her fingers at the dog, who had gone rigid and was warning the approaching man with a low growl.

  “Liam, what are you doing here?” she asked, clearly upset. Not wounded bird upset, more pluck the guy's tiny eyeballs out of his head irritated.

  Liam was either too thick to notice or too rude to care. He smiled too big and stopped behind the Camry.

  “Hey, Ry, I think I left my phone in your car last night.”

  Sway felt his brows dip. That statement didn't match the woman's body language. She was tight, guarded.

  “Uh, okay,” she stuttered. “Let me get my keys.” She spun on the step, her eyes caught Sway's and paused. She frowned, confused, shook her head quickly and then stepped up to the front door calling, “Clive, c'mere.”

  Clive, the dog, looked to his master and back to Liam. He clearly didn't like being made to go back inside at this moment. Sway didn't blame him. Liam was shady as hell. Clive relented and trotted back up the steps and into the house.

  When they were both out of sight, Sway saw Liam smile smugly as he rested his backside against the driver's side door of the Camry.

  This entire situation was weird. Sway knew he shouldn't be openly watching his new neighbor, but his instincts told him to be a witness to the moment.

  And so far, Liam hadn't noticed him.

  “Ry” returned to the porch and hit her key fob to unlock the doors. Liam jerked into a standing position when the locks clicked over. He looked mildly disappointed that Ry wasn't going to walk down to the car to let him in. Sway held back an amused smile.

  “Hurry up, you don't want to be late,” she urged, her tone flat and not unfriendly, but not welcoming either.

  Liam hesitated before opening the door and made a show of looking through the car. Soon he reemerged, holding his phone aloft.

  “Found it!” he announced.

  “Great,” Ry responded, hitting the lock button again when Liam closed the door.

  That should have been it. Liam should have left. He had what he came for, now it was time to leave. But he didn't, he walked confidently up the front porch, eyes on the girl.

  “You look tired,” he said, his head tilting the side. “Is everything okay?”

  She nodded quickly and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, I haven't been to sleep yet is all.”

  “Rough night?” Liam asked.

  “No, new story,” she answered.

  Liam nodded like he knew what she was talking about, Sway hadn't a clue.

  The awkwardness was palpable, even from this distance and Sway wondered what kind of relationship these two had. Exes? Friends? They weren't dating, that was for sure. The chick totally hated him.

  “Well, I guess I'll be going,” Liam finally announced. What did this guy expect? That she would magically invite him in for a quick cup of coffee and a shag? Because that what it seemed like he was waiting for.

  Liam went back to his truck, got in, and gave Ry one last wave before driving away. Sway didn't even try to stop the eye roll.

  “He doesn't belong here.”

  Sway's eyes swung to Ry's. She was watching him carefully, not having moved from her spot.

  “Okay,” Sway replied slowly.

  She debated silently in her head, her body making small motions to move from her spot until she finally did, walking towards him and stopping at the railing of her porch that was nearly flush with his own. She didn't speak, only waited silently until Sway had joined her at the railing.

  He rested both hands along the white rail and finally got a good up-close look at her.

  She did look tired.

  But what a stunner.

  Dark brown eyes, healthy complexion, pink cheeks. Her sweater had come open when she'd walked over revealing the white tank and the very appealing fact that she wasn't wearing a bra. Sway's eyes flicked over the detail swiftly even though he knew it was going to be burned into his brain forever.

  “I know you're house-sitting for Tawny,” she said, her eyelids blinking heavily in the sunlight as it streamed between the two houses. “You should know that Liam doesn’t belong here. So if you see him, feel free to ask him to leave.”

  Sway raised a single eyebrow. “Was he ever welcome here?”

  She snorted and rolled her eyes. “He wishes.”

  “Got it. Beardy is not allowed on the premises.”

  She let out a startled, if not delighted, burst of laughter and covered her mouth with her forearm. “That's what I call him, too,” she said, dropping her arm.

  Her serious and tired demeanor meant that he was taken aback by her inexplicable explosion of merriment. That smile that she had quickly covered was glorious.

  Sway grinned and then stuck out his hand. “I'm Sway.”

  She scanned his face and he felt like he was being x-rayed. Finally she grasped it firmly.

  “Ryan.”

  Sway's lips twitched.

  “What?” she asked, yanking her hand back with an embarrassed frown. “It's my name.”

  He chuckled softly. “No, I believe you. It's just—it's my name too, is all.”

  She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You said your name was Sway.”

  “Who names their kid Sway?” he asked. “My given name is Ryan, I've just been going by Sway forever.”

  “Oh,” she said, relaxing her eyes, but not her body.

  She was stiff and closed off again. Open and then shut. Like a shutter blowing chaotically in a storm. Sway wondered what it took to get her to let go of that. He also wondered what she looked like without that sweater on and her hair down.

  Sway noticed women, he couldn't help it. He was drawn to them, their presence, their smell, their softness. This girl was no exception. One of the things that was currently distracting him was the deep weariness that lingered in her eyes. Not the kind that came with being tired because she'd stayed up all night. The kind that came with being used to keeping people out.

  A hurt with a history. He wanted to ask about it.

  But he couldn't do that.

  They had just met.

  “Well,” she said, after he had been looking into her eyes for too long. “I'm going to get in a quick nap and get back to work.”

  “Where do you work?” he asked as she took a slow step backwards.

  She looked around and shrugged. “Here.” Dipping her ear to one shoulder, she gave him the hint of a smile and he could have died, she was suddenly the most adorable person in the world. “I'm a writer.”

  He leaned forward and grinned. “Anything I've read?”

  Her
shy smile grew just a little even as she cocked an eyebrow. “I doubt it.”

  She was flirting with him. Sway wanted to give himself a high-five and call Tawny and tell her to suck it, because the cute neighbor was totally flirting with him. He remained calm, definitely not wanting to ruin the moment.

  “Don't let me keep you from sleep,” he said sincerely. “I'll be here for a while and I'm not shy in the least, so...”

  Ryan's lips twitched and she hesitated. He let her. He was going to let her take all the time she needed, because his gut told him he'd be rewarded.

  It had taken years of honing his perceptions and observations to be able to read a woman this quickly. He'd nearly mastered the art of it. Because that's what it was, an art.

  They were beauty and mystery and complication, and he was their scholar.

  “So what?” she asked, unable to stop herself.

  Sway licked his lips and shrugged. “So, feel free to bother me with anything you might need. Cup of sugar, Beardy extraction, reaching for things from shelves. I'm at your disposal.”

  She blinked slowly again, the fatigue catching up to her. “I'll keep that in mind.”

  “Good.”

  Chapter 3

  Sugar

  Ryan's eyes drifted across a framed picture on the wall of her office and she caught sight of her reflection. She was smiling.

  Not a huge, creepy smile that would frighten children. But a small, dreamy smile. Almost bemused in its nature. She stared at it for a second, retracing the thoughts that could have put it there.

  Sway.

  The man staying in Tawny's house.

  He hadn't left her mind since the moment she had become aware of him.

  Liam's arrival this morning had been so jarring and unwelcome that she was genuinely startled to see a stranger watching the entire event play out. Not just any stranger. A gorgeous one.

  He had these sleepy blue eyes that looked like they spent too much time daydreaming and zero time being cynical. Or guarded.

  His dirty blond hair had been tied back with a leather cord instead of a regular elastic like she used. It was incredibly appealing. She never realized that men with long hair tangled with leather cords were so...

  “Mmm,” she vocalized dreamily.

  And his body.

  His frame was tall, but not too tall. His shoulders were square and straight. She liked all of his physical features. A lot. But there was something extra, something undefinable that had kept him pushing to the front of her thoughts.

  Ryan was pretty good at reading people. Right away she could look at someone and figure them out. This worked well for her profession, she was able to draw from the many different characters she met in real life.

  But on very rare occasions someone would leave her with more questions than answers.

  And Ryan's particular personality type could and would obsess over a mystery that begged for investigation. She would strip it clean, dissect the anomaly, piece it out, render her findings, and then return to normal life.

  Which is where she found herself, completely distracted by a new idea. She should be writing. She'd stayed up all night long writing the first three chapters of her new story. It was going great. She wanted to keep going.

  But she wanted to go next door more and ask her new neighbor for a favor.

  As an experiment.

  She glanced at the clock in the corner of her screen. It was almost five. Almost dinner time. Maybe he was hungry. Maybe she should order a pizza and then ask him to share it with her.

  No.

  No that would be too much.

  That was way too far.

  If she was going to do that, then she might as well throw her panties at him right now and call it a day.

  Panties on Tawny's porch would probably raise some questions among the other neighbors. It's not like they were even cute panties. Generic cotton with no colors or frills or patterns.

  Okay, no pizza, definitely keep the panties on.

  Ryan laughed at herself. “I'm being ridiculous.”

  Clive lifted his head to look at her, thinking maybe she was talking about food.

  “How about I make a cake?” she asked her dog. He gave a single wag of his tail. “Yeah, let's make a cake.”

  Saving the document, she got up and went into the kitchen. Chocolate cake was the cure-all for random brain freezes. Maybe it was recalling the recipe from memory, or the sugar high she got as she tasted the batter, or the smell of the chocolate as it baked in the oven. Maybe because baking made it feel like she was asking her mom for advice when she otherwise couldn't—whatever it was, baking a chocolate cake always always pulled her out of a writing funk.

  After her short, but pleasant, introduction to Sway that morning, Ryan had crashed for hours. She'd pulled her butt out of the bed sometime around noon, ate an orange, showered, dressed in fresh yoga pants and a light blue tank top. Then proceeded to stare at her computer screen for hours.

  Daydreaming.

  That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all.

  But a short burst of baking and Sinatra was sure to do the trick.

  The stereo came to life with the touch of a button and Frankie crooned to her through the speakers that filled every room in the house. Ryan swayed and shimmied through the process of getting the supplies in order to make the “best damn chocolate cake recipe in the world.” At least, that's what her mom called it.

  She got out the bowls, measuring cups and spoons, she preheated her oven, got out the pans—and stopped short.

  Tapping her forefinger on her nose, she scanned the ingredients on the counter.

  She'd forgotten something.

  Her head dropped when she realized what it was.

  “Sugar,” she said, chuckling, then shook her head. “Of course. I literally need to borrow a cup of sugar.”

  Ryan looked around as if she'd find another solution somewhere in the empty house. She could skip the cake. She could go to the store and just buy her own sugar.

  Or... she could ask Sway for some.

  “Am I crazy?” she asked Clive, who sat alert in the corner, eyes scanning the floor for anything they might fall off the counter and enter his “zone.”

  Ryan sighed and nodded. “Yes. I'm asking my dog for advice, I have definitely reached crazy.”

  She slapped her hand against her thigh as she headed to the front door. Impulsiveness was a flaw of hers that she tried to curb, but sometimes it was the only thing that could save her. Clive joined her at the door as she slipped on her gray sweater and opened the door.

  One foot in front of the other was all she really focused on. She'd traveled the path to Tawny's house many times with no shoes, so the rush of the cold stones on her soles was as familiar as it was refreshing. She and Clive bounded up the steps together and she rang the doorbell before she had completely stopped her forward movement.

  The door opened right away, which surprised her, so she smiled reflexively.

  “Ryan,” Sway said, looking not surprised in the least. “What can I do for you?”

  Ryan paused. Actually she lost all track of what she was saying.

  And what she was even doing there.

  Sway was even prettier than she remembered.

  Maybe pretty wasn't the right way to describe him. It seemed too simple of a word, but no one word would really be able to capture the high cheek bones that were balanced by the perfectly square jaw, creating attractive hollow cheeks when he was relaxed. Or gorgeous dimples when he was smiling like he was at the present. And his lips, she'd need an entirely new word for just his lips. They were full, pouty, lush. And his smile stretched them out and exposed straight white teeth. Blue eyes, brighter than most, but not so dominating that it was the first thing someone noticed. They were subtle in their blueness. Sneaking up on the beholder and causing them to do a double-take.

  Or in Ryan's case, stare at them for way too long.

  She was vaguely aware of his mirth as he
took advantage of her silence to look her up and down and tilt his head to the side.

  “Sweet,” she whispered to herself. His eyebrows raised and his smile widened. “Uh,” she said with a frown, closing her eyes briefly. “I mean, sugar. I need the sugar you promised earlier—offered,” she corrected quickly. “The sugar you offered. Earlier.”

  Sway's eyes lingered on hers, actually lingered. Then his smile turned a bit cheeky before he asked, “Did you bring anything to put it in? Or do you just want... all of my sugar?”

  Ryan stared at him. Why was she suddenly stupid? She cleared her throat and tried to curb the blush she felt stain her cheeks. “Um, I forgot to bring utensils.” She started to turn away, feeling ridiculous, when Sway stopped her.

  “What are you making?”

  She smoothed a lock of hair down and tucked it behind her ear, no longer allowing herself to have eye contact. “Chocolate cake. I'll go and...” she rolled her eyes toward her house. “I'll be back.”

  “I'll just bring it over,” he offered.

  Ryan shook her head. “No, that's okay.” This had been a terrible idea. The beautiful man next door had made her dumb as a post, just like her grandmother had always said she was. She should never have left the house. Looking over her shoulder she caught Clive just finishing up a massive bowel expulsion in the middle of Tawny's front yard. Yep, this was not a good idea. “I'll—”

  She had started walking backwards down the porch steps, her head bent, the reclusiveness taking over. She wanted to be home, in her kitchen, with Sinatra. It was way too easy for her to screw up normal social interactions. She couldn't even ask her neighbor for sugar. What a winner, Ryan. You're good at life.

  “Hold up, sassy pants,” Sway said, stopping her. “You're not wearing shoes. Let me bring you the sugar.”