Boy Next Door (Parkside Avenue Book #2) (17 page)

With so much to do, life became a
series of daily tasks to be carried out, but when I managed them, I could fool
myself into thinking everything was going to be okay. And with each one I
completed, my head became a little clearer.

I thought about Cora every day.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Every time I heard the clattering of a
dustbin lid, I ran to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. I wondered
what she was doing, how she was feeling, and whether she was thinking about me,
too. Did she even know about Pappa? Would she want to know? Should I call round
to tell her? It would give me an excuse to see her. I wanted to give her the
space she’d asked for, even though the wait was agonising. But it wasn’t the
time to fight for Cora’s affections; I already had more than I could deal with.

***

The funeral passed by without a
hitch. Pappa was laid to rest, in the plot he’d reserved, under the sycamore
tree at St Mark’s, cradling Gran’s ashes to his chest. Afterwards, everyone
congregated in the local community centre, where Pappa’s gardening club had
organised a wake.

Standing amongst a group of
strangers swapping stories of Pappa’s plant propagating prowess was low on my
entertainment list, and I didn’t have a speck of inclination to push it any
higher. I couldn’t wait to get it over with.

“Johnny, isn’t it?” An elderly
gentleman appeared at my side.

Why can’t everyone just leave me
the fuck alone? I sighed. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“My condolences to you and your
brother. Your grandfather was a good man. We’ll miss him at the Rotary.”

“Thank you. We’ll miss him too,”
I said, forcing a smile. I’d lost count of the number of times I’d said those words
in one day, and it was beginning to grate on my nerves.

“Ron taught my grandaughter
everything she knows about geraniums, didn’t he, Paige?” The old man stepped to
the side, revealing a pretty, but petite, girl, wearing a high-necked dress and
flat shoes. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen.

The girl nodded her head. The
long, auburn fringe, of her otherwise closely cropped hair, fell across her
sharp cheekbones, and cloaked one hazel eye. “He was a sweet man,” she said,
sweeping the hair back with her hand. “Do you know much about geraniums?”

“A little,” I answered, not
wishing to appear a know-it-all. She was kinda cute, if you liked the waif
look. Before I met Cora, I probably would have asked for her number, but as
much as Paige was batting her eyelashes at me, it was having no effect. All I
could think about was Cora. I’d fallen hard. She had me, body and soul, and I
couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

“You don’t share your
grandfather’s passion for flowers then?” she asked.

“I prefer bushes.”

Her eyes twinkled. “You do?”

“Yeah. Give me a lush privet hedge
to clip into shape and I’m in my element.”

“I’m down with that.” She smiled.

Paige’s flirting felt alien to me.
I hadn’t meant for her to read anything into my words, so I stared at my feet,
hoping she’d get the message that I wasn’t interested. “I’ll bear that in
mind.”

“Paige? Are you Ready to go?”

My gaze rose at the sound of her
grandfather’s gravelly voice.

A wrinkled hand wrapped around Paige’s
elbow. “Well actually …” she started.

“Nice to meet you, Paige,” I
interrupted. “Keep watering the geraniums.” I felt bad dismissing her, but
better that than leading her on.

I turned from the pair and
stopped dead in my tracks, unsure if I were hallucinating.

“Hello Johnny.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

My mood lifted immediately and my mouth
opened, but everything I wanted to say got tangled in my throat.

“I’m so sorry about Ronald,” she
said. Somehow, I didn’t mind hearing the sentiment from her lips. “I would have
come to see you sooner, but I only heard this morning.”

I watched her lips move as she
spoke, and all I could think about was tasting them again. My hands twitched at
my sides, eager to reach out and touch places I knew so well. “You would?”

“Naturally. He was my friend.
I’ve known him for years. I feel awful that he died and I didn’t even know
about it. What kind of neighbour does that make me?”

The elation I felt at her
appearance suddenly evaporated. “Don’t worry about it.” I sighed. As usual,
Cora was thinking of formalities.

“How are you?”

And yet? “Pretty shit.”

She nodded. “And Kendrick.”

“He’s okay, I guess.”

“It must have been terrible for
you.”

Now she cared? “It was. I found
him right after you threw me out of your house,” I said with a note of
bitterness.

“Oh Johnny, that’s awful. I’m so
sorry.”

“You’ve said that.”

“It’s true.”

“Is it?” How could she leave me
hanging for a couple of weeks and then turn up out of the blue, acting as if
nothing more than propriety had led her back to me?

“Of course, it is. What do you
take me for?”

I leaned in, a little too close,
and simmering anger threw me in her face. “What exactly are you sorry for?
Pappa dying? Throwing me out? Or believing your daughter’s lies about me?” As
soon as I said the words, I regretted them.

Cora glanced over my shoulder,
and her eyes surveyed the room. “Please don’t shout at me, Johnny. You’re
causing a scene.”

I placed my hand loosely around
her waist and steered her into a corner, away from the majority of mourners.
“I’m sorry, but this isn’t exactly how I’d pictured us meeting up again.”

“No. Me neither.”

“So, you have pictured it?”

“I’ve had a lot to think about,
in the past couple of weeks.”

“Us?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I miss you.” She paused. “But …”

“Why does there always have to be
a ‘but’ with you? Can’t you just say you miss me, and leave it at that? I miss
you is great. I miss you, I can do something about. Christ, Cora, you’ve no
idea what I’ve been going through. You have to come back to me.”

“I thought we agreed.”

“Agreed what? I didn’t agree to
anything. You told me to leave. I didn’t want to go, but you needed space.
That’s all I’ve done, given you space. I wasn’t finished with our relationship.
I’m still not.”

“But …”

“Another but?”

“You don’t have children. You
wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me anyway.”

“I want to be a good mother. And Vanessa—”

“Isn’t a kid anymore. Like you
said, she’ll be away to university soon, and then who knows where. You’ve been
a good mother, but that part of your life is gone. You have to move on.” I
pulled her close. My hand pressed against her back, sealing the contact, and
her breasts squeezed tightly against my chest. Her scent wrapped around me, and
her arms felt like home. It was impossible to stay mad with her. “It’s time for
you. And me.” I dipped my head into her shoulder, and couldn’t resist laying a
soft kiss on her collarbone.

She let out a small gasp. “Johnny.
Stop. Please. People are watching.”

“Let them.” The feel of her
brought everything back, and I didn’t care who saw.

She tried to part from my arms.
“I have to go.”

I increased my hold. No way was I
letting her get away from me again. “Good idea. I’ll come with you. We need to
continue this conversation.”

“The host can’t leave.”

“Good job it’s not my gig, then,”
I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

As I turned to go through it,
Kendrick blocked my path. “Where are you two sneaking off to?” he asked, his
eyes flicking between Cora and me.

“Home.”

“Not without me, you don’t,” he
said. I needed some alone time with Cora and opened my mouth to say so, but
before I could utter a word, he continued, “Don’t worry. I won’t cramp your
style. Just get me out of here. I can’t stand spending another minute with
these old fogies.” He grinned at Cora. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

Cora smiled back. “Kendrick,
isn’t it?”

“Call me Rick.”

“Hello Rick.”

I pushed through the door. “Introductions
can wait. Let’s go.”

***

I followed Cora back to Parkside
Avenue and dropped Kendrick off at the house. But before returning to Cora, I
needed to get something.

“What the fuck are you doing?”
Kendrick asked, holding on to the banister as I strode up the stairs. He was
still waiting for an answer when I ran back down with the tiny box in my hand.
“What’s that you’ve got there?” he asked suspiciously.

I flipped the lid as I passed.

Rick’s mouth gaped at the sight
of the glistening rock. “Shit, dude. That’s Mum’s ring. You serious?”

“Never more so,” I said,
breathless.

“Damn it, Bro, that’s some heavy
shit.”

“Sure is.”

“Aren’t you rushing things?” he
shouted, as I dashed out the door.

Maybe I was, but I needed Cora to
understand I wasn’t some kid, that this was it for me. She was it.

By the time I’d sprinted over the
garden, to next-door, Cora was inside, and her door was locked. I banged my
fist against it.

“Cora! Cora!” Why wasn’t she
answering? “Cora!”

Her voice filtered through the
woodwork. “Do you have to make so much noise?”

“Open the damn door and I won’t
have to.”

“I think it better if I don’t.”

“Better for who? Not better for
me. I’m a mess without you. Do you know how many times I’ve walked around the
garden, hoping to catch a glimpse of you through the window? Or how many nights
I’ve lain in my bed, imagining you lying next to me? Kendrick even talked about
getting me committed. If you want to see me in the crazy house, you’re off to a
good start. If not, let me in so we can talk about this.”

“I’m afraid if I let you in, I
won’t be able to let you go.”

“Great! I’m good with that. Come
on, Cora. Take the risk. I am not having this conversation through a slab of
wood, with the neighbour’s curtains twitching.” I paused, listening for any
sign of movement. As each second passed, anxiety turned to anger. “Open the
door, Cora. Open the fucking door, or I’ll break it down.”

A whisper filtered through the
cracks. “I believe you would too.”

“Damn right, I would.”

The lock clicked, and the door
slowly opened. I was in. It was all I needed, time alone with Cora, with no one
sticking their face in our business.

She turned her back on me, and
walked into the living room. “I had coffee with Sheila this morning.”

Small talk? Really? “Oh?”

“Yes. It was Sheila who told me
about Ronald.”

“I’m not here to talk about
Pappa.”

Cora curled onto the sofa and
hooked her hands under her legs. “She told me something else too.”

I sat down beside her, laying my
arm along the cushion next to her head. My lips were inches from hers, and
burned with the desire to taste them. “I’m not interested in gossip. I want to
talk about us.”

Her eyes lowered. “You might find
what she had to say interesting.”

“Unless she told you what a fool
you were to let me go, and to hightail your ass back to me, I doubt it.”

“Actually, she was talking about visiting
her son at the hospital.”

“Matt? Is he all right?”

“He was shot in a raid.”

“Fuck. But he’s alive?”

“Yes. The bullet missed his major
organs. He was very lucky. Another officer died.”

“That sucks. Glad Matt’s okay,
though. Can we get back to the subject of us now?” My hand unconsciously
drifted to her shoulder, and I smoothed the back of my fingers over her skin.

She froze but didn’t shrug me
away. “Matthew had a message for you.”

“What message?”

“He wanted you to know that it
turns out the Schofield brothers were out of town on the day you mentioned.”

“Out of town?”

“Securing a shipment of drugs, it
seems.” Slowly her eyes met mine. “So you see they couldn’t have hurt your
brother.”

“I guess not.”
So who the fuck
had?

“You weren’t to blame, Johnny.”

Although secretly relieved to
learn that Kendrick’s beating wasn’t my fault, after all, I wasn’t about to
admit my long held fears that it probably was, and I was still pissed at Cora’s
readiness to lay the blame at my door. “And saying that makes everything okay,
does it?”

“I didn’t want to believe the
worst.”

My fingers stilled and the tips pressed
into her flesh. “Didn’t stop you, though.”

“I’m sorry I misjudged you. I
told you I needed time to think.”

“You’ve had time.”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“It was hard. I thought I’d
decided, but I’ve been thinking about what you said at the wake.”

“Which bit?”

“Vanessa.”

“And?”

“You’re right. It doesn’t seem to
matter how much I try with her. I’m losing my grip. She doesn’t need me
anymore. It’s time I accepted that fact.”

“You’ll always be her mother, and
a girl always needs her mum. But you’re a woman too. One with needs of her
own.”

She nodded. “I am. But I need to
know you’re committed to us. I don’t want to be hurt again.”

Hearing the word hurt made me
realise how firmly I was gripping her shoulder. I relaxed and let my hand fall
to hers. “I’m committed. I’m so committed. Just let me prove it to you.”

“You’re really ready for this?”

“I’m ready.” How many times did I
have to say it? “From the moment I met you, there has been no one else in my
bed or on my mind. You got into my head and refused to leave. Your beauty and
poise captured my heart. Sure, sometimes you frustrate the hell out of me, but
I enjoy a challenge.”

“You enjoy a challenge?”

“Yeah.”

Cora inhaled deeply through her
nose. “What if I said I was pregnant?” It came so out of the blue, it took me a
second to answer.