She walked away, dragging her feet. “Don’t be embarrassing.”
“I’m never embarrassing.”
I opened the back door and walked over to the neighbor’s fence. My knuckles pounded the fence when they hadn’t realized I was standing there.
“Would you mind turning down the music?” I asked when they both turned toward me. “It woke my daughter up.”
“Does she have earplugs?” the woman I’d helped only hours ago said.
“No,” I said, holding my anger in so tightly I thought my ears were going to pop. “She’s nine.”
The woman stood. “Wait! I know you! You’re the guy that helped me.” She turned to Hope. “He doesn’t seem that bad.”
Hope’s eyes closed slowly.
“Sorry,” the woman said in a loud whisper-like voice. She walked closer to me and stuck out her hand. “I wasn’t supposed to say that. I’m Olivia. Thank you so much for your help.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said, shaking her hand. “I take it, you’re fine?”
“It was a panic attack,” she said. “I’m fairly certain I shouldn’t have done two shots after whatever it was they gave me to calm down in the ER.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you really shouldn’t have.”
“I told her not to,” Hope said over the music.
“Doesn’t look like you tried very hard to stop her,” I said.
“Jesus,” Hope said. “I’m not her parent. I know, it’s like your thing to be the neighborhood dad, but she’s a grown woman. There is only so much I can do. I got home after a long flight and lost my job today. You really think I want to be up, making sure my friend doesn’t like die or something?”
Olivia covered her mouth, but her laugh almost instantly leaked out. “I’m not going to die.” Her mood did a one-eighty. “You know, I didn’t have a good day either. I left him. I don’t have a dime to my name.” Olivia started sobbing. “I don’t even know where I’m going to live.”
I took a step away from the fence. “I’m really sorry to both of you.” I looked back at my house. “But please, if you could just turn the music down a little, I’d really appreciate it.”
“And I’d appreciate it if you’d stop telling me what to do,” Hope said.
Olivia placed her hand on her stomach. “I don’t feel good.”
She grabbed the top of the fence. Her knees looked as if they were made out of red licorice.
Olivia dropped to the ground and vomited. Hope covered her mouth and looked away.
“My grandma’s roses,” she said with a frown.
“I’m… sorry,” Olivia said between her bursts of puking and gagging.
It seemed more like she was apologizing for me seeing her throw-up than she was about the roses. She held her hand up over her head. Several minutes later, she stood with her back to me.
“I need to go inside,” she said before dashing past Hope.
Hope turned off the music and glared at me. She grabbed a hose and walked over to the fence.
“There,” she said, barely glancing at me. “The music is off. You can leave now.”
Hope squeezed the nozzle and aimed it toward the roses. She gagged and turned away from me.
“I can do that for you,” I said. What the hell was I doing?
“What? Why?” she asked, daring a quick glance.
I shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me, and clearly, it is getting to you.”
“No one wants to clean up vomit,” Hope said.
I laughed. “I don’t want to, but I clean it up nearly on a daily basis at work.”
She stared at me for a long moment. “Are you sure?”
“Sure,” I said.
“I’ll owe you one,” Hope said.
“I’ll hold you to that,” I said, unable to stop the smile that grew on my face.
She smiled back. It was a smile that tensed my muscles.
Holy shit. Hope was so fucking hot.
I wasn’t entirely sure how she could irritate me so much while at the same time, I wanted to do nothing more than drop the hose and push her up against the fence.
“I’m going to go check on her,” Hope said lightly touching my arm. “Thanks so much for doing this for me.”
I swallowed and turned slightly so she wouldn’t see my dick pressing against my pajama pants. “Yeah, no problem.”
5
Hope
Olivia was passed out on the kitchen floor. I knew she was fine because she was snoring like an overweight, fifty-year-old man lying on his back.
There was no way I was going to be able to get her upstairs to her bedroom myself. A clunky-thunk shook the pipes when Max turned off the water, and a thought popped into my head.
I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. My house was a mess since I hadn’t been around to clean. Everything about my life was currently a mess.
And worst of all, the neighbor had been nothing but a jerk. Then again, it had been nice when he helped Olivia after she’d fallen, and he was outside hosing off my flowers.