Her hazel eyes widened. “Wow. That’s quite a change in pace.”
“It is, but I was ready to get away for a while.”
“What do you do in the city?”
“I work for my dad,” he said, which wasn’t technically a lie, but wasn’t entirely accurate, either. “A lot of accounting and paperwork and boring stuff like that.”
She was cute when she wrinkled her nose. “I’m not a fan of boring math-related paperwork.”
A yelp from across the yard caught her attention and she turned to see Elinor swipe at the white puffball. Sophie was frowning and picked the dog up, turning her body so the cat couldn’t see him anymore.
“Your cat appears to be bullying my dog.”
“She’s not my cat. And you’re embarrassing your dog by even making that claim right now.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “If you don’t think cats can bully dogs, you don’t spend a lot of time on the internet.”
“She just wants the dog to know who’s boss, I guess.”
“It’s his yard,” she pointed out.
“She’s a cat.”
“Point taken.” A genuine smile lit up her face and made her eyes crinkle. “They’ll get used to each other. And speaking of that, now that I know you’re going to be my neighbor for a while, I should probably introduce myself properly. I’m Meredith Price, and that’s Sophie and Oscar.”
“Calvin Maguire,” he said, extending his hand. “But everybody calls me Cam.”
As she shook his hand, he noted how soft the skin was and had to resist rubbing his thumb over it.
She tilted her head as she smoothly pulled her hand away from his. “How do you get Cam from Calvin?”
“My initials. Calvin Anthony Maguire.” His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “The fourth.”
“Interesting.”
“It was a better alternative than being Little Cal for my entire life.” He didn’t really want to open himself up to more questions about his family, since they were the last thing he wanted to talk about. “Since Oscar’s from California, let me guess. Oscar de la Renta?”
She laughed. “Oscar the Grouch.”
“You’re kidding.” He looked at the dog again, who looked like the kind they put on the packaging of fancy dog food. “I don’t really see the resemblance, but maybe it’s a personality thing.”
“He’s actually named after Sophie’s favorite book at the time, and trust me, we spent days explaining to her why we couldn’t make his hair green.”
“He doesn’t bark a lot, does he?”
“I wouldn’t say he barks a lot.” She glanced at the dog before giving him a sheepish look. “It’s more like a really high-pitched yip.”
“That’ll be fun while I’m reading over spreadsheets,” he said, picturing spending his summer being harassed by a stubborn cat and a high-strung dog. “Maybe I should have packed my noise-canceling headphones.”
She looked startled for a second and then her eyes narrowed. “I have a child and a dog, so I guess you’ll just have to figure out how to make it work.”
“Maybe a muzzle?” he asked, but he wasn’t really serious. Yipping dogs weren’t his favorite, but he wasn’t a total jerk.
She stared at him for a long moment before giving him an arch look. “I don’t know if I can find one in your size, but I can try.”
Cam chuckled, appreciating her comeback, but she didn’t even crack a smile. Maybe she hadn’t been joking. And maybe she’d thought he wasn’t, either.
“If you’ll excuse me, we just arrived and I have a lot to do.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said as she walked, and she held up her hand in what looked more like a dismissive gesture than a wave.
That was fine. If she wanted to play that game, she’d find out he didn’t really care that much. She and her yipping dog could stay in her yard and he’d stay in his.
He had better things to do, anyway. Like learning more about Carolina Archambault, and figuring out how to convince her cat he was the boss.
Chapter Two
“I’m definitely adding building a fence to my to-do list,” Meredith told Oscar as she stood in the yard, waiting patiently for the dog to find just the perfect place to do his business.
Even though it was the middle of June, the morning was damp and chilly, and she regretted letting Oscar’s potty dance push her into going outside with nothing but a light cardigan thrown over her sleep shorts, cami and flip-flops.
But it was a new yard and Oscar wanted to make sure he’d sniffed every blade of grass before deciding on a good spot, so Meredith clutched her cardigan closed with her free hand and shivered.
“We definitely need a fence,” she said. “That way I can open the door and let you out, and you can take all the time you need.”
“Moving in and putting up a fence first thing, huh?” A deep male voice—his voice—spoke, and Meredith whirled to face it, wrapping Oscar’s leash around her legs.
Cam was standing on his back deck, thankfully wearing a shirt this time. The tight gray Henley did little to tone down his sex appeal, though, and she tried to ignore her growing awareness of just how little.
She hadn’t dated since Devin passed away, and at times she wondered if she ever would again. So feeling this buzz of sexual awareness was new, and she wasn’t entirely sure if it was welcome or not. It was a comfort to know she still had those feelings. But having them for Cam Maguire wasn’t ideal.
On the one hand, it was fairly safe to be attracted to a man who’d be leaving at the end of the summer. It was temporary. But on the other hand, one summer could feel like a long time when trying to ignore a very sexy man she was undoubtedly going to see every day since he lived next door. She wanted to savor the hot flush of physical desire, but not act on it because she had enough on her plate already—she’d just moved all the way across the country and had a little girl to get settled. Resisting Cam would be a lot easier if he wasn’t practically within arm’s reach.
He was holding a massive pink ceramic mug with a cat paw etched onto it, and steam drifted away from the rim. “Fences don’t seem very neighborly.”
“Then you can be neighborly and stand over here with my dog while he takes his sweet time,” she said, trying to ignore the fact she wasn’t really dressed for a conversation with her new neighbor.
Actually, she wasn’t really dressed to talk to anybody except her daughter and her dog, but especially not to the handsome guy next door. But when his gaze traveled down her legs before returning to her face, she lifted her chin and refused to feel embarrassed.
Hey, she had great legs.
“There are rules about building fences, you know. Property lines. Setbacks. All kinds of fun stuff.”
“I’m not talking about a stockade fence,” she told him as she stepped free from the tangle of Oscar’s leash. “He’s a tiny dog. It doesn’t take much to keep him inside.”
“Legalities don’t care if it’s six inches or six feet.” He shrugged. “A fence is a fence.”
Her neighbor was as annoying as he was attractive. “Obviously I’d look into the legalities before having one installed. And that’s an interesting mug for a guy who claims he doesn’t own the cat who lives in his house.”
He looked at the cat print as if he hadn’t noticed it before. “It’s not my cat. And it’s not my mug, either.”
She waited, but he didn’t add to the statement. He was a puzzle and the urge to try to figure him out was strong, but she had neither the time nor the patience to wheedle more pieces out of him.
Oscar started walking toward the house and, when he reached the end of his leash, gave her a questioning look. Though she had a pickup baggie in the pocket of her cardigan, she hadn’t been paying attention and she had no desire to go on a poop hunt in her pajamas with Cam watching her. She’d come back later when he was
n’t outside. Since he was staying for the summer and had mentioned spreadsheets, he was probably working remotely and would spend his days inside with his computer.
“I’ll leave you to somebody else’s mug, then,” she said and he lifted it in a brief salute before she followed Oscar up the steps to the deck and into the house.
Sophie was awake, curled up on the sofa in a light throw blanket. “It’s freezing here.”
“My little California baby.” She smiled at her daughter and then gave Oscar a treat because Devin had spoiled him rotten and rewarding him with fake bacon had been the only way to house-train him. “You’ll get used to it.”
They both would, she thought. While she might be from New Hampshire, she’d gone to California for college and stayed there. It had been a long time since she’d experienced a New England winter, and based on one June morning, she had some toughening up to do herself.
“Mommy, when is my stuff coming?”
“In a couple more days, sweetie. I didn’t know exactly how long the drive would take us and I didn’t want the truck to get here first.”
They’d each packed what they couldn’t live without, filling the back of the SUV with clothes, books, a few toys and the small box of Devin’s things she couldn’t part with or risk losing in the move. The rest, the moving company would bring. Thankfully she’d considered the downsizing in space and had done a rather brutal decluttering before the move so she and Sophie wouldn’t be too overwhelmed by boxes.
“What are we going to do today?”
Meredith considered the question as she put the last of the pastries she’d bought on the road on the table. Some orange juice bought at a convenience store before they got to town rounded out breakfast. She’d packed food and treats for Oscar and nonperishable snacks for her and Sophie, but day-old baked goods were getting old.
“We need to buy some food,” she said, setting her notebook on the table in front of her.
She used to have a huge fancy planner with every day broken down to the hour, but the hectic schedule that came with being Devin Price’s wife had died with him. As friends and social commitments had fallen away and Sophie had less and less interest in interaction with her classmates, the mostly empty planner pages had served as a depressing daily reminder of the loss in her life, so she’d tossed it.
Now she had a small hardcover notebook that was always close at hand or in her purse and she noted down things she needed to do and information she might want to reference again.
Using the tattered ribbon bookmark to open it to the current page, she added install a fence and then, after remembering her conversation—such as it was—with Cam, she added ask town hall about fence rules.
“I only have sixteen pages left in my book,” Sophie said in much the same tone as a person would announce an impending apocalypse.
“We’d better go to the library, then.” She added that to the list, along with grocery shopping. Sometimes she added obvious things just for the pleasure of crossing them off. “We’ll get library cards and some books, and maybe some movies, too, if they have any good ones.”
“Do you think they have a summer reading program?”
Meredith smiled at the question. While she knew her daughter just liked having fun charts to fill in with the many books she read, she hoped they had a program as much as Sophie did. It would be a perfect way for her to meet kids with similar interests.
“I don’t know, but they probably do.”
“You could ask Cam!” Sophie seemed delighted by her solution to her mother’s lack of a definitive answer.
“Mr. Maguire,” she corrected gently. “And I doubt he would know, honey. I haven’t seen any children next door and I don’t know if he has any.”
Sophie didn’t ask if she’d seen any other children in the immediate area. There was a large wooded area between their house and the neighbor on the other side, and most of the homes on their side of the bay seemed to be summer cottages—all as or more expensive-looking than hers, except for Cam’s—so she wasn’t sure any of them would be occupied during the week. If they were lucky, though, there might be a few families with young kids who’d spend more than weekends on the lake.
While Sophie had always been happy to amuse herself, she’d taken it to a new level after her dad passed away. Or maybe it was just Meredith’s perception of her daughter. Instead of seeming a little shy, she was withdrawn. Instead of enjoying her books, she seemed to be hiding in them. But when it became obvious Sophie had no interest in friendships anymore and preferred to be alone, Meredith and their family therapist had discussed how she and Sophie might both benefit from a clean break from the life that felt empty without Devin in it.
“When are Grandma and Grandpa coming?” Sophie asked, dragging Meredith away from her thoughts.
“Tomorrow.” Her parents had moved out of Blackberry Bay shortly after Meredith left for college, choosing to move into a condo in Concord for the second phase of their lives. It was only an hour away, and she considered that the perfect distance. Close enough so they could be an active part of Sophie’s life, but far enough away so she and her mother wouldn’t trip over each other and visits would be planned in advance. “Are you excited to see them?”
“Yes, even though it’s hard to remember them a little.”
The last time Meredith had visited her parents, Sophie had been too young to remember it. Her parents had flown to San Diego for Devin’s funeral and then almost a year ago, but even with the occasional FaceTime chat, it wasn’t easy for Sophie to bond with her grandparents. And since Devin’s mother had died before Meredith had met him and his father wasn’t a very warm or personable man, she wanted Sophie to have her maternal grandparents in her life on a more regular basis. It would be good for her.
After they ate breakfast, Sophie headed to her bedroom to get dressed with Oscar in her arms. Meredith had once told her she shouldn’t carry him everywhere or he’d get even more spoiled than he already was, but Sophie had argued that he was tiny and by carrying him, he was close enough she could tell him stories and secrets. She hadn’t had the heart to tell her to put Oscar down after that, and now she carried him everywhere.
Meredith got dressed and then went into the backyard to clean up after Oscar. It took her a few minutes to find the spot, and she’d just tied off the bag when she realized her neighbor hadn’t gone inside to work.
He was stretched out in a hammock by the water, his weight stretching the netting and making it conform to the curve of his body. Those feelings she hadn’t felt in a long time stirred inside her again, and heat climbed into her face.
Turning abruptly, she walked up the steps and hesitated a moment before setting the bag on the edge of the railing to deal with after she’d bought a small garbage can for under the deck.
We definitely need a fence, she thought, resisting the urge to glance back at the hammock. Preferably a very tall one she couldn’t see through.
* * *
Cam did a damn good job of pretending he didn’t notice the sexy mom next door was outside again, if he did say so himself.
He’d been tempted to tease her a little about her task, but she’d already shown him they weren’t on the same page when it came to humor and he didn’t want to make it any worse. Verbally sparring with his neighbor had been amusing to him until he realized she hadn’t caught that he was joking. The last thing he wanted to do was upset a woman who’d obviously been through enough in the last couple of years.
Turning his head, he looked out over the bay, trying to take in the tranquility of the view. He needed tranquility in his life. A lot of it, preferably. In the two weeks he’d been in Blackberry Bay, he’d already noticed the tension headaches that had been plaguing him for several years had abated and he slept better.
It was remarkable considering the circumstances that had brought him here. The letter had been on h
is desk with the rest of his mail and he could remember hesitating before slicing the envelope open, though he couldn’t say why.
A lawyer telling him his biological grandmother had passed away shouldn’t have affected him. He’d never met her. He wasn’t even supposed to know he had a “biological” side of the family. The miserably unhappy Maguire family never openly spoke about the time his mother had left his father and fallen for some random guy. They certainly never talked about how she’d discovered she was pregnant right around the same time she discovered she really missed her husband’s bank account, but Cam had pieced together the story on his own over the years.
Calvin III had needed a son to get his own father off his back and Melissa needed financial security. The random guy was given a check, papers were signed and nobody ever explained why Cam didn’t share the look of all the Maguire men, without looking like his mother, either. But he knew. People whispered. Veiled barbs flung at a spouse during an argument weren’t always very veiled. And his paternal grandmother had never forgiven her daughter-in-law, and Cam had overheard a heated argument about a check before he was really old enough to know what a check even was.
The secrets of his birth had never been a secret, but he’d never summoned the courage to ask the identity of his biological father. It had never seemed worth the fallout within the family, since apparently the man had walked away in exchange for money.
And so every time he looked in the mirror, Cam was reminded his presence in the Maguire family was tolerated because a fourth generation on the letterhead brought the illusion of stability to a business.
Then he got the letter. He hadn’t known about Carolina Archambault, but she’d known about him. And she’d left him her cottage at the lake because, according to the handwritten letter delivered with the legal notice, he was the only family she had left. Her son—Cam’s biological father—had died before her. The lawyer asked Cam to visit Blackberry Bay as soon as possible to assume management of the estate, which consisted of the cottage and his grandmother’s cat, which was waiting for him at the local shelter.
More than Neighbors Page 2