“I’m sleeping on your couch tonight,” he announces. “End of story.”
Will is sleeping on my living room couch, a fact I’m hyper-aware of because I can’t get to sleep. The man I’ve been lusting after for the past nineteen years (well, technically, it’s only been the last ten that lust was involved) is lying less than twenty feet away from me and the only thing separating us is a paper-thin wall and the sad fact that he only thinks of me as a friend.
Sometime in the night, I fall asleep. I know this because I semi-wake up in the middle of a horrible dream. At least, I think it’s a dream. And for sure it was horrible because someone was trying to break into my kitchen. Paco was doing his psycho barking and—
Paco’s wet nose nudges me completely awake.
He barks, runs around my bed in a circle, then jumps down, urging me with his eyes to follow him.
I dash out of bed and into the living room.
“Will, wake up!”
Paco reinforces this with more of his urgent barking.
Will shoots off my couch like it’s on fire. He’s barefoot but other than that he’s still wearing all his clothes, which is unfortunate. Living in a beach town, I’ve had the privilege of seeing Will without a shirt on lots of times. But it never gets old. Let’s just say it’s up there with coffee, chocolate, and Netflix.
Focus, Lucy.
“What time is it?” he asks wild-eyed. Before I can answer, he looks down at his watch. “Lucy, it’s two in the morning!”
“There’s…someone in the parking lot.”
He freezes. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Something woke me up. Paco hears it too.”
Paco is still barking only now he’s doing this little dance where he’s basically chasing his tail. Not sure what that means but I’ve never seen him do this before. The one thing I am sure of is that he’s trying to tell me something and that something isn’t good.
“I’ll go take a look,” Will says. “You stay up here. Call the cops.”
Of course I’m going to call the cops, but there’s no way I’m going to stay up here cowering in my apartment while Will plays caveman and checks this out on his own.
I ’m about to dial 911 when it occurs to me. This could be El Tigre. Which means I have to keep this on the low down. Or the down low. Whichever.
I follow Agent Billings instructions and dial Travis.
He answers on the first ring.
“I’m on my way,” he says before I can even say anything which I have to admit is pretty reassuring. I hang up and follow Will down the stairs. It’s dark and eerily quiet. He turns on the dining room light but hesitates in front of the door that leads into the kitchen.
“What exactly did you hear?” he whispers.
“Footsteps in the parking lot, maybe? I’m not sure.”
Will blinks the sleep from his eyes. “You heard footsteps in the parking lot while you were upstairs? What do you have? Bionic ears?”
I roll my eyes. “I know I heard something.” Paco nudges me with his nose again. Now that we’ve come downstairs to investigate, he isn’t barking anymore. He’s glued to my side but whether he’s trying to protect me, or he wants me to protect him, I’m not sure. Either way, I’m glad he’s here.
Will slowly opens the door. He flips on the light. Everything is exactly the way I left it.
We look at each other in relief.
The door that leads to the back parking lot is firmly closed with no signs of a break in.
Then I hear the noise again.
Will turns to look at me. Oh God. This isn’t the result of eating too much popcorn last night. I read an article that said carb overload could make you hallucinate. If that’s the case, then I’m in deep doo-doo because the only thing I love more than muffins is bread, but this isn’t my imagination because Will hears it too.