Bully Next Door

Her heart raced. She felt a little sick.

“Am I so unlovable?” she asked.

Cutie didn’t say a word. She came up toward her, sniffing the ground before settling in her lap and wanting a stroke.

Running her hands down her dog’s back, she felt the tears once again. This time, they were not from the loneliness or because of her mom. They were for Hector.

She feared the cursed-houses thing was exactly right.

Sniffling, she stared ahead of her. The tears made it blur.

She had fallen in love with Hector, and she didn’t know if it had anything to do with the cursed-house thing or just because he wasn’t the same guy she once knew. He was different. Considerate. Loving. Charming. He was everything and she knew deep down, her mother would have told her to give him a second chance. Even if he didn’t deserve it.

She hugged Cutie to her chest and waited for the pain to leave her body, but that wasn’t going to happen.

The only cure for that was Hector, and she had pushed him away.

Chapter Ten

One month later

Hector sent Sean home.

He didn’t want his best friend around while he … wallowed. He also didn’t need his friend to see this. His stalking. How he waited for a single moment to see Verity. Wanting to be near her.

Stupid house thing.

After a month of not being in Verity’s company and only being able to see her from time to time in odd glances outside in her yard, or walking Cutie, he had to get out of the house.

He went for his usual runs early in the morning, but right now, he needed to just get away from all of his problems.

The doctors had advised him to not do any strenuous exercise until they knew for certain what was going on. Hector didn’t like to think of his heart condition because to him, it wasn’t really one. The doctors at the time had told him it was known as broken heart syndrome. They didn’t know the exact reason why, but they tended to pinpoint it to stress.

He had a highly stressful job.

It wasn’t a heart attack, and they hadn’t prescribed him any medication other than rest at this time. Mainly because he refused to take any medicine until he solved it without going the medicinal route.

He was a stubborn asshole and felt he knew his body better. Removing elements of stress from his life could help. At least that was what the doctor had said. Sean had been there with him, and that was why they had come here, to this fucking house, right next door to the love of his life.

Hector stopped the moment he felt the tightness in his chest. Putting his hand flat against his chest, he bent forward and took several deep breaths.

The last time this had happened, he’d just finished up a meeting. Sean had been there, talking to him, and then, this tightness had happened, which caused him to have difficulty breathing.

“Are you okay?”

He looked up to see a woman he recognized. It was the younger of the two women.

The pain, as quickly as it appeared, seemed to go.

“Anna-Beth, right?”

“That’s me. We met a little time ago. I’m looking for Elizabeth. My friend, she, er, from time to time, she likes to check on the people who live in the house.” Anna-Beth’s face went bright red. “I’m sorry. She sounds crazy, I know.”

“She said you lived in that house, right? Before.”

“I lived in one of the houses,” she said.

“And your … current husband, he lived next door to you.”

“Yep.”

“Don’t you…” Hector stopped and held his chest. “Do you think your love is real?”

Anna-Beth chuckled. “You have feelings for your neighbor?”

“Yeah, no, I don’t know. How can it be true feelings if it is nothing more than a manipulation?” he asked.

“Do you feel like they’re manipulated? Before you found out about the whole cursed-houses thing, weren’t you starting to fall for her?” Anna-Beth asked.

He opened his mouth, closed it, and then with his lips firmly pressed together, he nodded. “Yeah, I was.”

From the moment he saw her on the day they moved in, he was smitten.

“I get that to some they might feel their emotions have been played with. Neighbors move in together all the time, and nothing happens, but for those of us who have lived in those houses. Or at least for me, I know how I feel about my husband. He is everything to me. When I’m with him, I finally feel complete, loved, accepted. He is my everything, and there is not a single second that I don’t feel truly blessed because I got the opportunity to fall for my soulmate.” Anna-Beth smiled. “You can hate the houses and think that maybe your life was part of some ultimate divine intervention, or you could see that over time, you looked at your neighbor, you spent time with them, and those feelings developed.”