Off Limits Neighbor

by Penny Wylder

  My friend’s eyebrows fly into his hairline. “You’ve seen her?”

  “You could say that. Reject’s Corner is her project. I’m helping her with it. I actually put together the crew.”

  “Wow.” He clinks his bottle against mine. “Well, is Jack right?”

  I shrug before I smile. “Yeah, he’s right.”

  “Good to know,” he chuckles.

  “She’s actually the reason I have to ask your advice tonight.”

  He stares at me for long moments. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” I shift on the bar stool. “’Cause I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”

  Manuel turns towards me. “All right, let’s do this. Give me the rundown.”

  This is what we’ve done since high school. A completely honest friendship where we can tell each if we’re being a fucking idiot. So, I tell him a condensed version of the story. Of seeing her again and falling into bed—without details that I’m sure Klara would rather I did not share. “But it feels different.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s hard to describe,” I tell him. “It feels like we’ve literally known each other forever, and in a way, I guess we have. But this is natural. Like falling in together wasn’t an accident but was meant to be. And that feels crazy. Shit like that doesn’t just happen, and I’m not sure if it’s hormones or the excitement of something new or if what I’m feeling is actually real.”

  Manuel shakes his head. “Damn.”

  “Yeah.”

  One long sip of his beer later, he looks at me again. “What are you looking for me to say? You want me to validate what you’re feeling? Or tell you that it’s nothing?”

  “I want you to tell me what you really think.”

  He shrugs. “I’m not sure. I obviously haven’t seen you together. But I will say that I’ve never heard you talk like this about anyone. Never. Not once.”

  He’s right. I’ve never felt like this, and until I walked in the door of the bar, I was really trying to push away everything that’s been bubbling up. But I can’t ignore it. Especially when I’m going to go home and find that gorgeous fucking woman in my bed.

  “Why wouldn’t I have seen her?” I ask him. “I mean in high school. She was right there. And if this was a thing that’s meant to be, wouldn’t I have noticed her back then?”

  Manuel rolls his eyes. “Not necessarily. Just because something could be meant to be now, doesn’t mean that either of you were ready for it back then.”

  Klara was, but I don’t tell him that. She wanted me back then, and I was fucking blind. And I don’t know how to not feel guilty about that. Is that because we’ve lost time? Or was I pushing something away that I knew and never acknowledged?

  Either way, a slithering feeling of loss pools in my stomach at the idea that I threw away something special without even knowing it.

  “I guess,” I finally say, realizing that I’ve gotten lost in my thoughts.

  “What are you really thinking about here?”

  “I don’t know.” I knock back what remains of my beer until it’s entirely gone. “I really don’t. I just know that it’s been days, and she’s folded into my life in a way that feels effortless. That I can’t get enough of her. I had to come straight here from working on those houses because if I’d gone home with her, believe me, I would have had to cancel. And you would have been lucky to get a text.”

  Manuel bursts out with a laugh that draws heads from all around the bar. “I can’t say I would have blamed you there, brother.”

  John sets another beer down in front of me. “I don’t know, Manuel. What the fuck am I doing? She’s here for two weeks and that’s it. Is it worth trying to dig deeper when she’s leaving in what feels like the blink of an eye, or do I ride the high and see where it goes?”

  He sighs. “What’s the downside? At the worst, you have two amazing weeks with a smoking hot woman and some amazing sex. And at best, you realize that you have something special. Plans can always change.”

  “But isn’t that fast?” I ask. “It feels like a whirlwind. That’s why it’s terrifying. It can’t happen this fast. Even if it took the full two weeks, that’s still way too fast.”

  “Bullshit.”

  I stare at him.

  “There’s no such thing as too fast. What’s too fast for someone else might be exactly right for you. I don’t buy into the idea of too fast. If you know, you know. Some of that stuff is chemical. I say ride it out. There isn’t any downside to this.”

  He could be right. Though I can’t help but worry about getting in too deep and then realizing at the end of these two weeks that she doesn’t feel the same. Is the risk worth that kind of pain?

  Yes.

  The answer comes from deep within and with no hesitation. I guess that’s that then.

  “Fuck.”

  Manuel smirks at me. “I don’t envy you, honestly. Figuring this shit out isn’t easy.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  We both finish our beers and we talk about Manuel’s job as a contractor for the city’s construction. He doesn’t know anything about the city trying to take over Klara’s parents’ properties, but it doesn’t exactly surprise him.

  But more than that, I feel like I’m a bad friend. Even as we talk, I know that I’m not completely present. My mind is away, back with Klara and these crazy feelings I have.

  Earlier when we talked about fantasies—when we kissed—I could see things spinning away from me. That situation in the desert, I hadn’t thought of it before, but I could see it. I didn’t lie to her when I said I would go look for the perfect place. I will. Because my instinct is to give her everything.

  And that’s exhilarating. And terrifying.

  “Rey,” Manuel says, and I look over at him.

  “Yeah?”

  He grins. “What did I say?”

  I try to recall what he said, but it’s all just a blank space. I was a million miles away. “Fuck. I have no idea. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he claps me on the shoulder. “Just go where your mind is, okay?”

  “You sure?”

  He nods. “Yes. You think I’m going to keep you away from a beautiful woman in your bed? Get the hell out of here.”

  I smirk at him as I throw bills on the bar. “Thanks.”

  He shakes his head and signals John for another beer. On a normal night I’d stay late and get far drunker than I am now. As it is, I barely have a buzz in my veins, and that’s fine with me. I want to have a clear head right now.

  The short drive back to my house goes quickly, and I see Klara’s car in front of the house, already back from whatever errands she had to run. It’s not early, but it’s not late either. So, when I find her in bed with the light still on, I’m surprised.

  Her eyes are closed in sleep, and I take the chance to just look at her. Dark hair curls in waves over her shoulders. She’s relaxed, and I look at her as if this is just my daily life. Like we’re a normal couple, and I came home late and found her asleep in our bed. It makes my heart race and heat rise under my skin.

  I have guest rooms in my house. She could have stayed in any of them, but I didn’t even think about asking her to stay somewhere else. I want her in my bed, even if the impossibility of these too-big feelings won’t let me say why.

  Slowly, I peel off my shirt and toss my jeans in the laundry basket. A quick shower to wash off the sweat, and then I’m climbing into bed beside her. Klara doesn’t wake up, but she stirs when I pull her against my chest.

  She doesn’t pull away.

  Instead, as I wrap my arm around her stomach and line her body up with mine, she sighs and eases back against me like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

  Maybe I’m more buzzed than I think that I am, but I press a kiss to the back of her head, on top of her hair, and I catch the scent of lemons and strawberries.

  It doesn’t matter that I was blind to what was in front of me years ago, and it
doesn’t matter that time with her could be short. This is too good, and there’s too much possibility for me to turn away.

  I’m all in for whatever this is. And when our time is up, we’ll have to figure this out together. But whatever it is, I doubt that it’s going to be simple.

  11

  Klara

  When I wake up it’s slowly, with the awareness of warmth all around me.

  I vaguely remember Rey coming to bed last night. There was the sensation of movement and closeness, but I was already too far gone to truly surface.

  There was a moment last night when I was getting ready for bed in Rey’s bathroom that I wondered if I shouldn’t be. I didn’t ask if I was supposed to be in his room, I just assumed. But I couldn’t bring myself to go to another room. My chest tightened with anxiety when I thought about it, and I quickly threw the idea aside.

  And since Rey is currently wrapped around my body, our legs tangled together like vines, I’m guessing that he doesn’t mind that I’m here.

  I don’t want to wake him up, but I also want to see him. Moving so slowly that I feel a little like a snail, I turn over and manage to do it without waking him up. Rey is…beautiful. The sharp lines of his jaw are highlighted by the morning light, and I’m tempted to reach out and trace his brows with my fingers.

  Is this real?

  If I’d told younger Klara that I’d one day be wrapped up in Reynard Mast’s arms—sharing a bed and unimaginably good sex with him—I would have laughed in my own face. It would have been unthinkable.

  Rey takes a deeper breath, waking, and the smile on his face when he sees me steals my breath away.

  “Good morning,” he says.

  “Morning.”

  He leans forward and captures my lips with his before I can say anything else. And when he pulls away his eyes are gleaming with amusement. “I’m sorry if I woke you last night.”

  “Barely. I was pretty gone.”

  “Seemed like it.”

  We stay silent for a few minutes, staring at each other. And I’m still tired enough that I could fall back asleep right here, trapped by his warmth. “How was your thing?”

  “Good. You remember Manuel? He was my year.”

  I nod. “Yeah. We never really talked, but I remember. He’s still here?”

  “Still here, and still my best friend.”

  “Not Amanda?” I smirk at him.

  We’re already close, but he yanks my body closer. “No, not Amanda. But yeah, we cut it off a little early, but still good.”

  “Why?”

  Rey searches my face for a moment before leaning his forehead against mine. “You.”

  Shock rolls through me. “You didn’t have to do that, I was fine. And asleep. If you thought—”

  “It wasn’t that,” he says with a smile. “Manuel sent me home because I was distracted.”

  My breath catches in my chest, and I’m not daring to hope, but at the same time my stomach is filled with butterflies. “By what?”

  “By you.”

  A shiver runs through me. “You find me distracting?”

  Rey shifts so that his arms are completely around me, and I’m pressed flat against his chest. Our lips are nearly touching until he moves so that whispered words meet my ear, almost like they’re too fragile to voice.

  “Yes, I find you distracting. I don’t know what to do about you, Klara.”

  His voice makes me shudder. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that this feels too real and too natural and the thoughts that I’m having about you are amazing and terrifying. I’m not sure what I want to happen when these houses are finished and you have to leave. Because having you in my bed…”

  He trails off, and I can barely breathe. It’s like what I felt yesterday, when that kiss felt like we’d been together for years. I know exactly what he’s saying. And he’s right. It is terrifying. But also…peaceful.

  “Maybe we don’t have to think about it yet,” I say. “Maybe we just enjoy this, and when the time comes, then we figure it out. Because I get it.”

  “Thank fuck,” Rey says softly, exhaling a breath.

  I laugh quietly. This moment where we’re both quiet and nothing feels real is glorious. I don’t want to break this spell. “I wish we didn’t have to get out of bed.”

  “We could play hooky,” he says with a grin.

  I sigh. “We could. But that’s not exactly fair to the crew you brought in.”

  “They would survive, I’m sure.”

  “Yeah, but I’m hopeful that I can start painting some of those rooms today. Think that would be possible?”

  “Definitely.” He pulls me on top of him so that I’m sprawled over his chest, and I can’t say that I really mind. It would only be better if I was naked. But that would make us late.

  Very late.

  “Tonight,” I say. “No plans?”

  “Only the ones that I make with you.”

  I bite my lip. “Good. That will help me get through my day.”

  Rey groans. “Hearing you say that is going to make it impossible for me to get through mine.”

  Leaning down, I brush my mouth across his. Barely there, a complete tease. “Maybe that’s what I want, so that when we come back here, you’re barely holding it in.”

  “Klara, I’m barely holding it in right now.”

  I feel powerful as I slide my legs over his hips and stretch. “Good.”

  Rey’s hands land on my hips and yank me down, and for a breathless second, I don’t think we’re actually going to leave this room. But he sits up and moves me aside. “I hope you’re ready,” he says, a nearly feral smirk on his face. “Because as soon as the day is over, we’re back here.”

  Grabbing some clothes out of my suitcase, I start to change, trying to ignore the very attractive, very naked man right behind me. “We doing what we talked about yesterday?”

  “Maybe. Or maybe I won’t be able to keep my hands off you and we won’t make it that far tonight. We have time.”

  We do. Not much time, but enough to make plans. I can’t keep the smile off my face. I have plans. With Reynard Mast. Is this actually my fucking life?

  I put my clothes on before my actual desires got the better of me. It’s a short walk over to the cul-de-sac, but given the amount of paint and other things I have in my trunk, I have to take the car.

  We’re not late. The rest of the crew is just pulling up, but there’s another car already there. One that’s all too familiar.

  I blink as I pull alongside the curb and get out. Rey pulls in behind me, and I’m sure that he knows, too. As we walk up to the house, I can hear them talking.

  Walking in the front door, I see the surprised faces of my parents.

  12

  Klara

  “Hi,” I say, kind of shocked.

  My mother smiles, looking around the entryway and beyond into the rest of the house.

  “Hey, honey.” She sweeps me into a hug. “We hadn’t heard from you at all since you got here, so we thought we’d come over and see how things were going.”

  I blink over her shoulder at my father. I hadn’t called them, she’s right, but I kind of figured they were better off resting and leaving the hard work to me. “I’m sorry, I figured that you guys would be taking it easy. Is it okay for you guys to be here?” I ask, pulling away.

  Mom is far too thin and pale, and my dad has a crutch under one arm, using it as support as he recovers from his surgery. But Dad laughs. “We’ll be fine. It’s not like the doctors have us under house arrest.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Oh, he knows,” Mom says, waving a hand. “This seems like it’s going okay?”

  “Yeah,” I say, turning and suddenly realizing that Rey didn’t follow me in the door. “The crew is just arriving for today. I’m hoping this place will be done today, and I’m going to start on the painting.”

  Dad frowns. “A crew? You know a crew isn’t in the budge
t, Klara.”

  “No, it’s okay. They’re doing it at a reduced cost. The budget will be fine.”

  His face doesn’t soften. “How did you get people to agree to that?”

  I take a step back at his tone. It’s angry, which isn’t what I expected. “I didn’t—”

  “I did.” Rey steps inside, pushing open the front door which was ajar.

  My parents go still, and I can see that it takes a moment to recognize who he is. Mom’s eyes size him up, and it’s like walls are forming right in front of me. “Reynard Mast. I had no idea you were still in town.”

  Rey smiles. “Never left.”

  “Thought you were in jail,” Dad mutters.

  I stare at him. “Dad, that’s rude.”

  “What’s rude is thinking that he can interfere in this neighborhood after what he did to it.”

  My spine straightens. “Excuse me?”

  A lot of things are coming back to me right now, including my parents’ dislike of Rey. When I was younger, the fact that they didn’t like him made him more exotic to me and it sparked my interest. But it didn’t take me long to like him for exactly who he is and not anything else.

  In all this time, I’d forgotten that my parents ever had a problem with him. After he graduated, he wasn’t around as much, and he was just…my own personal fantasy.

  But now I’m remembering the shaking heads and the angry glances out of windows. Rey hadn’t been the best kid, but no one on this block had been. We were Reject’s Corner. And we acted like it. The cops were in the cul-de-sac at least once a week, and Rey was the subject of those visits as much as anyone else.

  I was the only kid in Reject’s Corner who never had a run-in with the cops. But that’s because I was so obsessed with making it out of this town that I would never do anything to jeopardize that.

  My dad rolls his eyes. “It all started with him, Klara. You know that. Police here all the time, people thinking that this neighborhood was plagued with criminals and making it a place that no one wanted to live. It’s his fault.”

  Rey comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. I know it’s so that I can feel his support, but it’s also a silent declaration to my parents that they should be careful what they say about him to me. And they should. Because I’m about this close to saying some things that might not be advisable.