Alone (16 page)

When Cara learns more about the trio, will they be able to ever have a chance at being together or will they all remain broken?

1

When my next door neighbors told me they were moving, I had a hard time even faking a sad response. Sure, they weren’t bad… But they weren’t that great either. The guy was okay, but he didn’t say much and we didn’t really interact besides a wave here and there when we were both grilling. And the gal just blurted whatever came into her mind apparently—most of it really insulting and as if it was the funniest thing ever.

Normally it was just completely ignorant, and I wanted to ask if she had a low IQ or if she thought pissing people off was the best way to make friends.

And their kids were
demons
. Seriously, I called them Lucifer and Beelzebub. At first I’d thought Lucifer was special needs, having a cute little lisp, and gave him a break,
super
sweet to him, even patient when he kept yelling at my dog. Until I saw the little shit shoot crap at my pup when he didn’t think I was around, giggling that no one was there to save him.

I didn’t feel bad for a second when I made Lucifer cry from the verbal lashing I gave him. After that I saw the evil
pretend
angel
he was. He didn’t play, he
screamed
, loving that I worked from home, and taunted me with it when his parent’s weren’t around to hear his words. He threw sticks on my side of the yard when they mowed, brought their dogs to pee and poo on my grass
after
my dog died saying I must miss having it around. I just blinked at the kid and told him to stop, that it was cruel when I was grieving.

“You can’t make me. Adults can’t beat kids. You shouldn’t have let your dog die.” And the little shit walked away. I know it was stupid. I know I was the adult. But I still went inside and cried my eyes out. I was
grieving
and an eleven-year-old just rubbed salt in the wound.

The other demon wasn’t so outright. He was the instigator, that kid we all hated in school. He never bullied or pulled crap. He was just
that
kid who whispered in everyone’s ear and got
them
to do the stupid mean shit. So yeah, after the first several months, I didn’t even call them Lucifer and Beelzebub behind their backs and flat out said the names in front of their parents.

They asked me to stop, and I explained I would as soon as their kids quit acting like the demons I had read about in the Bible when I’d attended Catholic school.

Oddly enough they hadn’t brought it up again, but I did find it funny that when they announced they were moving in the spring that they were expecting some tearful reaction from me. I didn’t think I could get worse neighbors. And if I did, calling the police on them was always an option. Plus, things could get
better
. I probably jinxed the outcome with that line of thought, but I was an author, the storyteller and eternal dreamer.

Some single hottie could move in next door or someone who would
introduce
me to a single hottie and all my dreams would come true. Yeah, that was likely to happen. And I would win the lottery when I never bought a ticket.

The house sold quickly which surprised me since I’d been inside. It wasn’t a bad house, just this crazy split level that had a few stairs to get to any different room and I didn’t think they had completed any of their half-finished “projects” they’d been working on. Then again, it might have made the house sell for next to nothing. There was real potential there, and it could have been some remodeler’s dream fixer-upper.

I winced at the idea. That meant loud construction. Hello earplugs! And people always said it was so great for me that I worked from home. I guess they forgot about things like that. Granted, I did like it, but in reality there were just as many drawbacks as working in an office.

Monday I was dragging bags of my trash to my cans in the driveway, and I knew my old neighbors were gone, but I didn’t know the new ones were moving in until I saw the truck.

“Hey, she’s here! Our neighbor’s outside,” a loud, deep voice called out. I flipped the lid to my can as my head snapped in the direction of the shout. I saw a mid-twenties guy staring at me, waving. I tossed my bags into the garbage and gave a little wave back, mentally groaning because I was of
course
about to meet whoever had moved in while wearing flip flops, yoga capris, and tank with shelf bra… And only that.

Great. Yeah, nothing says,
Hi, nice to meet you. I’m a complete slob
, like that.

Two guys jumped out from the back of the truck next to the first, and I had a moment of wondering if I was seeing triple… But not. Though they were far away and I hadn’t had any coffee yet, so yeah, that was the moment.

What I mean was they were all wearing cargo shorts and white sneakers, no shirts, perfectly toned, tanned, lean chests. And had really jet black hair. That was all I could see considering they were over a hundred feet away. It was simply something I didn’t expect to see first thing in the morning and made me blink a moment and wonder if I’d been mistaken.

They jogged over, and I swallowed loudly, wondering if this was my own little frat fantasy come to life, but as they got closer, I saw they were all probably twenty-seven or twenty-eight, so too old for college.

Brothers though maybe? No,
not
brothers, I realized as they stepped up to me.

“Hi, Cara, Cara Quinn, right?” the first greeted as I stepped out around the can. “Sorry to just rush over here but we wanted to say hi and ask a favor.”

“Yes, hi,” I chuckled, taking his hand. He shook firmly and then used his other one to gently grasp my forearm in an extra-friendly greeting. “And you are?”

“Right, I’m Aspen.” Aspen with deep hunter green eyes, long hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, pointed nose but not ugly, eyebrows that almost made me want to hold him down and manscape him like Chris Pine’s but still sexy.

“I’m Cypress,” the next one said as Aspen let go of my hand. I shook with him next, and he greeted me the same but this time, touching my upper arm as well. He had jet black hair, same build, and green eyes as well. But the reason I knew they couldn’t be related was obvious. Cypress had shamrock green eyes, longer hair as well, but just past his ears, a straight nose, thinner lips than Aspen, and high arching eyebrows. High cheek bones too.

“You’re moving in too?” I hedged, glancing between him and Aspen as I pulled back my hand.

“We all are,” the third one explained, smiling widely. Yeah,
definitely
not related. He had light, sea foam green eyes that sparkled like gems, longer hair with curls, a button nose, perfectly manicured eyebrows that were more on the thin side, and really plush lips.

He was gorgeous on the side of pretty actually. They were all hot, but I could stare at him all day and just blush. He and Aspen were about six-three, Cypress only an inch shorter. I’d never seen three men who really were exactly alike in height, build, hair color, and green eyes, but
completely
different otherwise.

So weird.

He
spread his arms wide and stepped up, giving me a bear hug. “So excited to meet you, Cara! I’m Teak.” I flinched and tried to take a step back. “What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, um—not much of a hugger,” I chuckled awkwardly.

“Oh. Could you become one?” he muttered, hurt in his expression as he let me go.

“Teak, back off,” Cypress chastised gently.

“No, it’s fine,” I quickly cut in, slapping on a smile as my cheeks heated up. “I’m just not with strangers. We should get to know each other better first.” I wanted to melt into the grass when I realized how that sounded. “So what did you guys need?”

“We saw the number on your garbage cans and wanted to ask you how their service was,” Aspen answered, picking up on my discomfort and moving the conversation along. “We didn’t realize until today when we got here and didn’t find garbage cans that there wasn’t set city garbage pickup.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “
That
sucks. They should have warned you of that. Shit. Yeah, I love my service. They’re really great, best price I found around here before I moved last year. You guys can get in on mine this week. Pick up is first thing in the morning. Green container is recycling, just add whatever you need to and anything extra you have to cut up and stack—I get a few before they charge me.”

“That is
so
nice of you,” Teak praised, smiling at me as if I’d just offered to clean the whole house instead of let him use the extra room in my recycling can. I chuckled and pointed over my shoulder.

“Black is garbage. It’s five dollars a month for the second can,” I explained as I gestured to the other one. “They bill quarterly and each can includes three extra bags, anything over that, again they charge you for. But you get a one time “move in” Friday pick up where like anything goes, so don’t make the mistake I did and get everything all handled and
then
schedule that. I did it too early and then had all this extra crap I had to throw out a little at a time.”

“See, I told you we should wait and ask her once we met her.” Teak beamed at me.

“Yes, yes, you were right,” Cypress chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m going to apologize in advance for our friend. When they told us you were an author and your name, we looked you up. Teak’s been devouring your books and pretty much thinks you walk on water now.”

“Oh, yeah—umm, okay,” I muttered, taking a step back before I realized it.

Aspen was the one to catch on to the change in my mood. “Hey, we’re not stalkers. It’s okay, Cara. He just thinks it’s cool what you do. We moved here because we wanted some peace and privacy too. We won’t gossip like your last neighbors did. Teak might just ask you to sign a bunch of stuff and what you’re working on from time to time, that’s all.”

“Really?” I whispered, valuing my privacy above most everything else, and it would be
great
to have neighbors who didn’t run their mouths for once.

“Yeah, I was mad they were telling us who you were like it was a selling point and then picking on you for being a recluse,” Teak bitched, his eyes filling with anger.

I nodded, rubbing my arms and glancing away. “We didn’t get along all that well most times. I didn’t fit their mold.”

“We understand what that’s like,” Cypress said gently. “If there’s anything you need, any help, we’re more than willing. They said you were in this big house all by yourself, and while you were really sweet, you were always asking them for favors.”

“I didn’t
always
ask them for
shit
and what they asked
me
for—” I growled, catching myself and shaking my head. “Whatever. They’re gone now. I hope you guys understand that what they said isn’t necessarily how things were and don’t hold it against me. I don’t pretend to be normal, but I’m not a bad neighbor.”

“No, you’re not,” Teak agreed as he patted my shoulder and then caught himself. “You’re awesome already. Screw them and we’re starting from today.”

“Yeah, screw them,” I chuckled, loving his attitude. I could get used to being around someone as positive as him, soaking it up.

“Okay, so we’ll leave you to your day. You work from home and it’s a Monday,” Cypress said, clearing his throat when the conversation died. “Thanks for the insight and letting us add to your garbage. That’s really great of you.”

“And we need to run out and get garbage bags now,” Teak groaned, letting his head drop back on his shoulders. “I forgot them.”

“I’ve got you covered,” I snickered and jogged into the garage. I pulled the roll of massive, sixty gallon ones I kept on the shelf and turned back around, stumbling when they were right there. I hadn’t heard them follow me.

“Wow, you tricked out your garage.” Teak whistled, glancing around but being respectful and not coming in.

I shrugged and followed his gaze. “Yeah, it’s my author cave. I like to pace and think out here while I smoke. It helps me.” I handed him the roll of bags. “You can keep those. I used to use them when I mowed but I have a service now.”

“Yeah, we’re going to need to get a mower right away,” Cypress sighed, looking to their yard. “Nice of them to cut it before they moved. I swear it’s past our shins. That was
not
on the agenda right now, and if we wait much longer, it might eat us alive.”

“Well, I won’t offer to cut it for you,” I drawled as I pointed over my shoulder to my big lawn mower. “But I have one you can use until you get one. I feel bad that I bought a nice one last season and now it just sits there.”

“Can I ask why you don’t use it?” Cypress hedged, glancing from it to me.

“I lost my dog this winter,” I whispered, staring down at my feet. “One of the things I loved about this house was the yard, knowing he’d have all the room to run he could ever want. I spent tons of time rebuilding the grass, seeding the bare spots last summer, making it great, and then I lost him. This year the idea of even cutting the grass made me want to cry, so when I got the flyer for a lawn service and it was a great price, it was worth it to me time-wise and emotionally just to pay to have it done. Silly I know but—”