How to Not Fall for the Guy Next Door: A Sweet and Humorous Romance

by Easton, Meg

  But her nerves were too frayed from her worries that things with Ian weren’t right and her fears about work. She ducked out of the room and took a few deep, calming breaths once she got to the lobby, very much missing her teeny apartment that she had all to herself back in Amarillo.

  Then she held her breath and cocked her ear when she heard gurgling and popping sounds, almost like knocking. And then a loud hissing. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the knocking, but never the hissing, never this loud, and never when she could tell where the sounds were coming from. Walking carefully so she could hear the noise better, she went down the hall toward the back door and stopped right in front of the utility closet. Yep, the hissing was definitely coming from there.

  More than a little wary, she reached for the doorknob just as a gush of hot water soaked her shoes. She tore the door open to see water pouring from a valve about two-thirds of the way up the water heater. Gallons of water gushed out of it, filling the little room and spilling out into the hallway.

  She must’ve screamed, because all three of her roommates were suddenly by her, frozen in shock, gasping at what they were seeing.

  “We need something to catch the water!” She raced into the bathroom just down the hallway from it and dumped the hand towels out of a decorative bowl and ran back to the water heater. Bex, Peyton, and Timini came running up the hallway, their footsteps splashing in the water, carrying bowls from the kitchen.

  Bowl after bowl, one of them would catch the water until their container was full, and then the next person would catch the water while they ran it to the bathroom sink.

  Finally, she shook her head. “We aren’t getting to the end of it. More water must be filling it still.” There was a hose connected to the top of it, so she searched for some kind of valve to turn it off, but couldn’t see anything.

  “We need to shut off power to it, too,” Bex said, crowding in the small room, searching for the power while Addison searched for the water valve and Peyton held a bowl, with the water all around them and everything going wrong.

  The power was easier to find than the valve, but they eventually managed to get both shut off and the last of the water dumped into the sink. The long hallway and the lobby were still covered in so much water, though. The adrenaline of stopping the water took all the energy Bex had, so she headed upstairs to bemoan her sickness alone, and Timini, Peyton, and Addison scooped the water off the tile floor with dust pans. Eventually, they got the water amount down enough that they just had to use towels, wringing them into a bucket constantly.

  When they finally finished, Timini and Peyton headed up the stairs to their rooms to put on dry clothes, but Addison just stayed downstairs. Exhausted and dreading how much a new water heater was going to cost—not to mention what a pain it would be to shower and wash dishes until it was replaced—she sat down on the second stair and let her head fall into her hands.

  Her phone, which she’d forgotten she’d had in her pocket, rang. She really hoped it was a miracle worker calling to solve all of her problems. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Addison.”

  It took her a minute to place the voice. “Matthew?” She pulled the phone away from her ear long enough to look at the number to verify. She’d forgotten that deleting him from her contacts would mean that she wouldn’t see his name if he ever called. Sure enough, though, it was the 806 area code. She wondered if whoever wrote that website article thought ahead to the perils of accidentally answering a call from your ex because you deleted his contact information.

  The roommate dinner when Bex, Peyton, and Timini all warned her about the dangers of chatting with him and the damage it could do immediately came to mind, too. And then there was her list of what not to do, as well— and right there on it was Hoping your ex would call and let you know he’s doing okay. She hadn’t been hoping he would call, which she was pretty proud of, but it never occurred to her that he might be the one to fail at that item on the list.

  “It’s good to hear your voice. I just wanted to see how you are doing.”

  Addison sighed. “Today isn’t really the best time to ask that question. How are you?”

  “Good. What’s happening today that’s got you down?”

  She shrugged. “Let’s just say I’m having second thoughts about my job, I’m unsure about too many things, and right now, a teeny apartment with a landlord who would swoop in and fix any problem for me sounds heavenly. Plus, it has rained for twelve hours straight here. You know—the kinds of things that make you question whether moving somewhere new was a mistake.”

  “Well, I did see a now leasing sign in front of your old apartment building.”

  She laughed. It was obvious that he was trying to lift her spirits, and it actually worked. Partly because it made her think—just for a second—about moving back, which made her realize that, awful day or not, she really didn’t want to.

  “Thank you, Matthew. I guess I needed that. What’s new with you? Are you dating anyone?”

  He chuckled. “Actually, yeah. My Tuesdays and Saturdays got a little lonely.”

  “That’s wonderful, Matthew. Everything is going well?”

  “It really is.”

  Thinking back to how stagnant their relationship was made her wonder how she ever thought they should stay together for as long as they did. But it surprised her how happy she was for him that he found someone new. It was a little reminder that there was someone for everyone.

  “So, listen,” he said. “I am flying to Portland tomorrow for business, and I still have a box of your things. I was wondering if I could drop it by.”

  “Oh, sure. Yeah, that’d be great. I’ll text you my address.”

  “And I’ll let you get back to your crisis and re-evaluation of your life choices.”

  Addison chuckled, and Matthew did, too. “You sound good, Matthew. I’m glad.”

  “You do, too. I’ll drop that by tomorrow night.”

  After Addison hung up and texted him her address, she slid her phone back into her pocket. Who said communicating with your ex was a bad idea? Talking to Matthew and finding out that he was doing well and had moved on felt like closure. Like it marked the end of her rebound period. Like that part of her life was done and wrapped up all clean and neat with a bow on top.

  Now she just needed to figure out how to deal with the mess that her current life was.

  20

  Ian

  Ian glanced up at the clock on the wall of his shop. The parents of his junior woodworkers were going to be showing up any minute, and they still hadn’t finished cleaning up. And somehow, as they were working most of the hour on sanding their step stools, the kids managed to get covered from head to toe in sawdust. Probably because instead of being one hundred percent focused on the kids like he needed to be, his mind kept wandering to Addi. The parents of these kids weren’t even going to want them to get in their vehicles being as dusty as they were.

  Luckily, he had turned on the air compressor before they arrived. “Okay, wood workers—get your project in your cubby, then put on your safety goggles and dust mask and come line up just outside the door.”

  Nothing got them cleaned up more quickly than needing to be blown off with the air hose. When the first kid raced out of the shop to get into line, the boy waved at his mom who had already arrived and was waiting at the edge of the grass. Then Ian pressed the button on the nozzle and blew the concentrated air on the kid as he turned around in a circle, the bulk of the sawdust scattering to the wind. Then the kid leaned forward so Ian could blow it in his hair, and then held out one foot at a time to get the air blown on his shoes.

  The eight-year-old took off his dust mask and goggles and wiped away the dust behind them that hadn’t been blown off. Then he held his arms straight out and grinned at his mom. “How do I look?” Leaving with hair that appeared like he’d been in a tornado seemed to be the kid’s favorite part of the day. He said goodbye, thanked the kid’s mom, and then started blow
ing off the next junior woodworker in line.

  By the time he got to the last kid, half had left with parents already and the other half were chasing each other around his backyard. Jella was one of the most talkative of his junior woodworkers, and the one with the longest hair. As he was blowing the sawdust off her and she was turning in a circle, she said, “It took my mom thirty-two minutes to brush all the snarls out of my hair after last time.”

  He immediately turned off the air. “I’m glad you told me before I blew this on your hair then.”

  “No, do it! Make it as crazy as you can. I’m trying to set a new record.”

  Ian glanced toward the driveway, hoping her mom or grandma was there and would tell him if they preferred he skipped that part, but didn’t see either of them. “How about we work on setting a record the other direction? We’ll try to get all the sawdust out and only need five minutes of brushing.”

  Jella shrugged, so he carefully blew the air from the top of the seven-year-old’s head, trying to keep it blowing her hair straight down. But at the last second and too quickly for him to react, Jella shook her head around, making the air blow her hair crazily anyway.

  He turned off the air hose, and the girl, still grinning from the messy hair, said, “You know that girl Zoe who you were going to marry that was sometimes waiting for you after Junior Woodworkers? I saw her.”

  “Yeah?” He started coiling the air hose.

  Jella nodded. “At Cascade Mini Golf. She was with some guy and they were all loving on each other and kissing pretty much the whole time. I just wanted to march right up to her with my hands on my hips like this and say, ‘You shouldn’t be here as a pair like you don’t even care. You should be home crying for a month straight because of how mean you were to Ian!’ And I would have done it, too, but my grandma and my mom told me I couldn’t.”

  Ian couldn’t help glancing across the hedgerow to Addi’s home. “It’s okay that Zoe is dating someone else, Jella. We aren’t together anymore.”

  “That’s what my mom said. But it just doesn’t seem right that she’s so happy.” The girl glanced at the other kids. “Oh—Priya is having trouble catching Ajay. I better go help her.”

  As the kids raced around his backyard, squealing and laughing, the familiar hurt from their breakup settled in on him. He glanced toward Addi’s place. What was he doing? He’d known he wasn’t ready to start dating again. And then Addi came back into his life, and just because she was so fun and interesting and captivating and everything he had ever hoped for, it was like he had suddenly forgotten that.

  More parents showed up to collect their kids, so he herded the remaining handful to the front yard. Jella’s mom was the last to arrive, and he apologized about the state of her hair as best as he could while the girl was demanding that her mom take a picture of the masterpiece.

  As soon as they finally drove away, he pulled out his phone and pulled up Zoe on social media, needing to see who this new guy was that Jella had seen her with. Sure enough, there were several pictures posted with Zoe’s smiling face, a man’s arm—Dylan Brady, the tag said—wrapped around her.

  He felt a rush of an emotion that he couldn’t quite name. “Jealousy” was the only word that came to mind, yet that wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t jealous of Dylan. He didn’t want to be the one with his arm around Zoe. He was actually happy she had found someone.

  So what was it then?

  He glanced at Hidden Inn. He wanted Addi to be happy and fully in love, too. He wanted her to be happy and fully in love with him. He wanted to be the one who brought a smile to her face whenever he saw her, just like she brought a smile to his. He wanted the best of everything for her.

  But what if she wasn’t always happy and things between them ended badly? Maybe if he didn’t see her all the time, he wouldn’t feel like he had already fallen for her so deeply.

  He glanced back down at Zoe’s posts. What he really wanted to do was to post a picture of him with Addi, and hope that Zoe saw it. It was a childish thought, and he felt ashamed for even having it. But then it hit him that the emotion he’d been experiencing felt like jealousy because he was jealous of Zoe. In the few pictures she posted, she looked like she had moved on just fine and was having no second thoughts about her new relationship.

  Yet he was having second thoughts about his.

  He loved every single second he spent with Addi and wanted her in his life more and more. Right now, he wanted to walk over to the inn, wrap his arms around her, kiss her senseless, and then hear about how things went with today’s client and what her future plans were. He wanted to talk with her for hours with her in his arms. Yet he was still having doubts. How did Zoe look so confident? He closed out of the app and shoved his phone back into his pocket. This was making him crazy and not helping at all, so he obviously just needed to stay away. To help distract himself, he walked to the mailbox and got today’s mail.

  Before he even looked down at the mail, movement at Hidden Inn caught his eye and he glanced over. A car had just pulled into the circle drive in the front, and a man got out. He was pretty good looking, and Ian assumed he was there for Bex. She seemed to date a lot, and it usually wasn’t the same person.

  He walked his fingers along the top of envelope, glancing at what had come as he made his way back to his house, when he glanced over again and saw that Addi answered the door, not Bex. He couldn’t see the guy’s face, but he could see Addi’s, and it was all recognition and smiles. The man handed her some kind of gift box and they hugged and he kissed her cheek. And then she invited him inside.

  The only explanation he could think of was that it must be her ex from Amarillo. But here in Quicksand? Why? And why did she look so happy to see him?

  * * *

  As Ian cleaned up from work and ate dinner, his mind went in circles, examining the tension that weighed down his shoulders. Before Addi moved back into the inn, his doubts and fears were probably in the high range. It had been a rough time.

  Then Addi moved in. And then he got to know her. And then he really started to fall for her. And somewhere along the way, the unease and uncertainty had just kind of floated away, almost making him forget about it. And when he did consciously think about it, it wasn’t enough to cause any kind of action on his part. He was too busy falling completely for Addi to pay it any attention.

  Over the past week, though, his fears had kicked into high gear. Especially since he had fallen for Addi so much more deeply than he had ever fallen for Zoe. He had thought he was ready to open up his heart to her, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  He had been wandering around his house hoping for peace or direction, but all he got when he wandered back into the kitchen was the little green and yellow origami frog his grandma had folded and put on the table with a note in its mouth reminding him that she was gone to the Paperworks Folding Fest conference and wouldn’t be home until late.

  And wandering around his house aimlessly wasn’t helping.

  He glanced out the window. There was probably a good thirty minutes before it was dark—it might be enough time to mow the inn’s backyard. The noise and the work might get his mind off things. He put on his work gloves headed out his backyard and to the gate in the hedgerow leading to her yard.

  He had only made it five feet onto her lawn when she walked out the back door, a bag of trash in her hand. Their eyes met and she gave him a small smile, tossed the garbage into the can, and then walked toward him.

  She glanced at his gloves. “A little late for mowing, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “It’s been one of those days.”

  “Yeah, it has.” She leaned against the metal archway that held the fence between their yards, looking exhausted or sad or upset—he wasn’t sure which.

  He immediately left the mower behind, stepping closer to her. “Is everything okay?” He wanted to reach out and comfort her. To wrap her up in his arms. But the worry weighing so heavy on his shoulders stopped him. Instead, he lea
ned against the other side of the archway, facing her.

  Addi rubbed her fingers on her temples before dropping them to her sides. “Today and yesterday have just been the kind of days that have made me question every decision I’ve made in the past couple of months.”

  His heart seemed to suddenly weigh more, sinking down in his chest. Was that why her ex had stopped by? Because she was rethinking her decision to break up with him? He was already dreading the answer, but he still asked, “Like what?”

  She looked up at the darkening sky. “Not getting another corporate job, starting my own business, leaving home, moving across the country, living at the inn instead of selling it—pretty much everything.”

  Her eyes searched his, and he tried to guess what it was she was looking for, but alarm bells were going off too loudly in his head at the words “pretty much everything.” She was unsure about every single thing that brought her here—that brought her into his life. He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “Does that include your decision to date me, too?”

  She studied his eyes, biting her lip. “Sometimes.”

  His mind kept going back to every negative thought about himself he’d had when Zoe first broke things off with him. Is that the direction things were heading with Addi? He didn’t know if he was strong enough for that.

  But if they waited longer and he fell even more in love with her, he definitely wouldn’t be strong enough if things ended.

  “Listen, Addi. I…” He looked at the ground, letting out a long breath before he met her eyes again. “I can’t do this anymore.” He couldn’t believe that the words actually came out of his mouth.

  Addi stood up straight, her eyebrows creasing together. “You want to break up?”

  No. He didn’t want to break up at all. He wanted to hear why she was questioning her job and her move and see if he could help, and to hold her and comfort her if he couldn’t. He wanted to cheer each other on as they reached for their dreams. He wanted to marry her and have a bunch of kids with her that were hopefully less wild than Bex’s nieces and nephews. Or more wild. He would take that, too, if he and Addi could do it together. He wanted to be with her always.