Lovely Neighbor (Lovely 1)

“I’m going to go eat greasy eggs and hash browns then drink some stale coffee until my Grams gets here.” I look down at my phone. “She’s twenty minutes away. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. But text me the second she gets here or I’m turning back in thirty minutes.”

“Deal,” I agree.

“And you keep her safe.” She points down at Moose, who’s been glued to me since everything went down. At one point he wouldn’t even let the cops near me. I guess under all that fluff there’s a fierce protector.

I hug Jenna before grabbing my bags out of the back of her car. “Later.” I wave with a forced smile as I watch her pull out of the parking lot.

“No dogs,” an older man behind the counter barks when I walk in the diner. There’s a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and I could almost laugh at the irony. Instead I heave a sigh and walk right back out.

“No greasy eggs for us,” I say to Moose as I plop down on the curb.

Moose presses into my side, alert as ever and scanning the parking lot. My stomach growls, but thankfully it’s not too long before I see Grams pulling in with some fancy town car. I send Jenna a quick text so she doesn’t worry.

I stand up as she pulls in and the car is barely in park before she’s rushing over toward me. “Sugar! Are you okay?” She checks me over, putting her hands everywhere.

“I’m okay. I wasn’t there when they broke in.”

She closes her eyes and sighs with relief. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I’m sure you’re tired.” I nod in agreement because it’s almost one in the morning now. “What the hell is that?”

“Moose.”

“I like it.” She opens the door for him. “Come on, Moose.” He follows her order and jumps in.

“He never does what I tell him to do,” I grumble.

“It’s all in the tone, sugar.” She grabs my bags and puts them next to Moose. “You wanna talk about it?” she asks when we hit the highway. “Or do you want to try and sleep?”

“There’s nothing really to talk about. Someone ransacked my place. I don’t think they took anything, so what is the point of doing it?”

“There are a lot of crazies in the world. You’ll go crazy yourself if you try to understand why people do anything.”

I nod in agreement. “The cops said whoever came in must have had a key or I didn’t lock the door.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

“No, I never forget to lock the door. My Grams would kill me if I did,” I tease. Before I’d gone to college, she gave me a whole rundown on safety. We even did a few of those self-defense classes. “It’s creepy someone got into my place so easily. I don’t know if I can sleep there again.”

“You don’t have to.” She pats my leg, giving it a squeeze. “I think it’s time you move out here with me. Unless you’ve got someone you’re holding on to back there.”

“Fishing for dirt on my dating life?” She never misses a moment for that.

“I’ll be a kickass grandma.”

“You already are a kickass grandma,” I remind her, but the truth is she’s always been like a mom to me, so I get what she means. “And I’ve been thinking about moving out here, but I didn’t want to cramp your style.”

“Sugar, you could never cramp my style. I’ve wanted you to move out here since you graduated, but I didn’t say anything because it’s your life. I want you to live it however you want, but the truth is, I always want you close for my own selfish reasons.”

“I’ll look into it.” The words fill me with some relief.

“Good. For now you can crash next door since Devin is out of town again. I’m going to see if I can whip those contractors into shape to get that spare room done.”

I have no idea what Devin looks like, but I’ve come up with so many fantasies. My favorite one so far is him slipping into bed with me in the middle of the night and then making love to me until the sun comes up. Which is crazy because who wants a man they don’t know slipping into their bed in the middle of the night? I guess that’s why they call them fantasies.

“He really doesn’t mind?”

“Nope. Someone should get some use out of the fancy place. Maybe now I’ll get to finally introduce you two.”

“Here we go.” I smile, knowing some things never change. And that’s not always a bad thing.

Chapter Eight

Devin

“So she’s at your place right now and you’ve never met her?” Danielle smiles over her coffee mug as she leans across the kitchen counter. “Please tell me you’re going over there to surprise her and tell her you love the way she smells.”