Princess Next Door

She rounded a corner and came to a stop when she saw the deputy Slade and his very pregnant wife, Cassie.

“Hey, Wynter,” Slade said.

“Hey, guys. Not long to go, is there?” she asked, looking at Slade’s hand on Cassie’s stomach.

“Not much longer.” Cassie patted her stomach. “I’m becoming really impatient.” Cassie looked at Slade, and they shared a look before turning toward her.

“How’s the house?” they both said in unison.

“Erm, my house is great.”

“What about mine?” Cassie asked. “I mean Zane’s?”

“It’s going good.”

“And you and Zane?” Slade asked. “How are you two getting on?”

She stared from one to the other. “We’re doing good.”

“And?” Cassie asked. “Has anything happened between the two of you?” She spoke really slowly, and Wynter frowned.

“Are you okay?”

“Are you and Zane a couple?” Slade asked.

She stared at the happy pair and wondered what the hell was going on. They were staring at her intently. “We’re seeing each other.”

Slade groaned, and Cassie fist-pumped.

“You didn’t win,” Slade said. “It hasn’t even been six months.”

“But I was totally the closest, which means I win.”

Wynter continued to stare at the couple, and she was struck by how much in love they were. She thought about Zane, and how she felt when she was around him.

“Does this have to do with that crazy notion that the houses in some magical way bring couples together?” Wynter asked. She was getting tired of hearing about this.

“You know about it?” Slade asked.

“My friend told me about it.” She looked between the two of them. “You don’t think it’s real, do you?”

“How can you think it’s not real?” Cassie asked.

“Houses are not magical. They don’t bring people together.”

“I think you’re denying a little too much. We came together,” Slade said.

“And I hated him to start off. Believe me, I’m married to him, and we’ve got a kid on the way. There’s something about those houses, and we’ve seen the other couples as well.” Cassie rested her head against Slade’s shoulder.

Glancing down into her cart, Wynter really didn’t know what to say, so she made her excuses, grabbing the last few items from her list and making her way out of the store.

By the time she got home, Zane was waiting for her. He opened the door and helped her with the groceries. She followed him into his home, where she stood at the counter watching as he put stuff away.

Pushing some hair off her face, she was struck by how much she loved being with him. The moment she saw him, she couldn’t help but smile, and watching him put food away, there was a warmth with him.

“You got everything,” he said.

“Of course. I also bumped into the people that lived in our houses before us.”

“Cassie and Slade?”

“Yep. They kept asking questions of how we were getting on, and if we were together.”

Zane burst out laughing. “Is this going back to the houses bringing people together?”

“I don’t believe it, do you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really think about it. There’s an easy explanation. We’re two houses set back from the rest, we’re close, and that close proximity brings about feelings.”

She had feelings, a whole lot of feelings. In fact, in the past few days she’d begun to unravel, and little things were starting to really catch up with her. She recognized tiny things like him opening the door for her, helping with the shopping. He also put the seat down on the toilet. He always asked about her day, and actually seemed interested in knowing what was going on with her life. She loved listening to him play, strumming his fingers across the guitar, filling the room with his music.

Every single thing he did, from wearing slippers as he didn’t like to get footprints on the floor, or his weird fetish with hats. He’d even posed in several for her, making her laugh as he did so.

In such a short time she’d shared so much of herself with him, and she didn’t, not once, want to ever let that go, or let him go.

“Do you believe in a mystical house?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nah, I don’t. Anyway, moving on, I better go and get dressed.”

“Yes, you’d better. I left something sexy out for you to wear.” He gave her ass a little slap.

Shaking her head, she made her way upstairs, and found a pair of jeans, some boots, and a shirt. All of them she’d worn before, and it wasn’t the first time that she was aware that he found her particularly sexy in and out of them.

****

The crowd at the bar roared to life as he began to sing the song he’d dedicated to Princess. It was titled that, and he saw her laughing as she danced along. He’d made up with his friends, apologizing to Silas, who’d shaken his hand. They’d been friends a long time, and tensions like that never ruined their friendship.