Her Big Neighbor

We’ve got about six trash bags full of paper ready to go outside, but on the upside I think the office is now the room closest to completion. There’s only a couple more cabinets left to go through, and I’m going to make sure that she actually goes through them tomorrow. I’m hoping that being able to cross something off and see that a room is finished will help give her a sense of accomplishment and motivation in the task.

But for right now, I’m taking out the trash and then I’m eating dinner and doing something that doesn’t involve sorting paper. Maybe I’ll watch a movie.

Fuck, these bags of paper are heavy. I can barely get one off the ground, but I’ll manage. Our trash cans are around the side of the house so it’s far easier for me to go out the front door for these bags. But as soon as I step onto the porch, I nearly drop it.

Edward is outside. Not only is he outside but he’s washing his car, and he’s shirtless. In the light of the late afternoon, he’s lit up like he’s in a goddamn music video, all wet and sudsy. Holy shit. The image that I’d conjured up in my mind of what he might look like naked from the waist up was not even fucking close. You don’t get a body like that without putting in the work and damn, he has put in the work.

Perfectly sculpted chest and abs, that vee that disappears beneath his basketball shots that makes me want to see what’s underneath them. I realize that I’m staring and possibly drooling. Down girl. Down. But that’s hard to tell myself when he throws a bucket of water across that gorgeous silver car and the backsplash hits his abs and tempts me to run my fingers down them.

He looks up at me, smiles and waves. “Hi, Julia.”

I swallow. That voice is richer than I remembered and it feels like fingers being drawn down my spine. “Hey, Edward.”

Hoisting the bag, I make my way down the steps and over to the trash cans. Why is this so heavy? It’s just paper for God’s sake. I try very hard not to stare at the way Edward is scrubbing the hood of the car as I struggle to toss it in the can, and then leave it on the ground cause they’re already basically full anyway. As heavy as these are, I’m glad that we have six. That means I get to come out here five more times and see that gorgeous body in action.

I glance up at him, and he’s looking at me, and I almost trip over the trash cans. My skin is on fire with a blush as I go to get the second bag. What the hell is wrong with me? He’s hot, and yes, you want to fuck his brains out until you’re screaming, but he shouldn’t turn you into a clumsy idiot.

But a clumsy idiot I am, and when I step out the front door and see him standing at the bottom of my porch steps I skid to a stop. “Can I help you with that?” he asks. “They look heavy.”

He doesn’t wait before climbing up the few steps and lifting it out of my hands. The heat from his body is so close that I have to ball my hands into fists in order to not reach out and touch him. “Sure,” I say. “I’ll grab more.”

“I can come in and grab them,” he offers.

I hold out a hand. “That’s okay. The house is kind of a mess right now; I’ll bring them out.”

He nods, the motion a mirror of the one he gave me this morning, and I run to grab the third bag and the forth. He takes them when I deposit them on the porch and lifts the bags like they’re weightless. I admit to watching him longer than I should before getting the next bag so I can watch the way his biceps and back flex and move as he walks. God, a girl could pass out looking at him.

I grab the last two bags and haul them out. “I can take one,” I say to him, but he grabs both.

“I don’t mind.”

He carries a bag in each hand, away from his body. God, he could probably lift me like a feather, and suddenly my mind is filled with images of him lifting me up and slamming me against the wall of my house and kissing me. Yes, please.

He drops the final bags and turns to me. The sun sparkles in the water still on his skin and he’s sparkling like one of those vampires from the romance novels. I think I’m finally starting to understand the appeal. “I’ve noticed you guys doing this a lot. Are you renovating?” he asks.