Neighborly Complications (Stories of Serendipity #1) (23 page)

Max’s heart was pounding in his ears, and Les’s guitar music faded into the distance. “My life was shades of gray, sepia toned at best, until you fell into that well. As soon as I wrapped my arms around you, the color splashed back into my life and I had a reason to see the world around me again.” He took a deep breath, trying to calm his tremors. Claire covered their hands with her other one, clutching him as tightly as he clutched hers.

“I can’t imagine ever going back into that gray world, Claire. We make a great team together. We’ve done so much together with this house, our first evening so far has been an outstanding success, the home is beautiful, and we have a wonderful future together.” She was crying, and Max hoped to hell they were tears of happiness, but he was too afraid to ask her.

“Please let me love you for the rest of our lives. As my wife.” He extricated his hand from her clutch and fumbled in his pocket with trembling fingers for the ring box. He opened it and held it out to her. “You are an amazing woman, Claire Dunlap. You’re independent, smart, beautiful, and you don’t take shit from anyone, especially me. Would you please do me the massive honor of becoming Mrs. Maxwell Houston? I love you, Claire.” He ended his dialogue on a pleading note, honestly not having a clue what he would do if she didn’t say yes.

He watched, helpless, as she sank to her knees in front of him. It was as if her bones had melted, and doubt overwhelmed him. He dropped his eyes to look at the ring sparkling in the moonlight. He had picked it out for her, two interlocked circles with diamonds all around them. He’d thought it was perfect at the time, but in retrospect, maybe it was too much, too flashy.

Max looked up at her again, and her tears were falling freely down her cheeks. He raised his hand and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb, thinking it was possible this was the last time he’d get to touch her cheeks again. She wasn’t answering him.

Stunned with rejection, tears choked his voice. “It’s too soon, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” He almost didn’t hear her, but he’d seen her mouth confirm his thoughts.

“I’m sorry.” He dropped his gaze from hers and lifted himself from the knee, pain shooting through his heart.

“I said yes, Max.”

“I know.” He ran his hand through his hair in embarrassment. “Can we go inside now so I can make this up to you somehow?” He turned to Les and sounded entirely too gruff. “You can stop.”

“Max.” Claire touched his shoulder, he turned and saw her beaming brightly at him. “Yes, I would be honored to become Mrs. Maxwell Houston.”

Dazed, Max could only gape at her, until she wrapped her arms around his neck and raised herself to cover his face with kisses. “I will marry you. Now put that ring on my finger and let Les go make some money under other windows.”

Max enfolded her in his embrace, picking her up and swinging her around on the balcony overlooking the modern day troubadour, who had continued his soft music despite Max’s cease and desist order.

“You took so long to answer. I thought…”

“That’s what you get for thinking.” She held her hand out expectantly, and waited while he slipped it on, kissing it tenderly. He was so happy right now, he barely heard her next words. “Thinking about stuff makes everything way too complicated.” Her hand snaked around his neck, pulling him down to her, and back into the house, amid soft sounds of Les’ chuckles below.

Thank you so much for reading my free novel, Neighborly Complications. Please keep reading for an excerpt from my favorite Jill Sanders novel from the Pride series, Discovering Pride. After that, is an excerpt from the next Story of Serendipity, although they can all be read in whatever order you choose. Again, thank you for reading my work.

Anne

A
cool breeze drifted over the tall trees, floating down towards the still waters of a large pond, which caused the lily pads to stir. Dragonflies buzzed from flower to flower and frogs hopped along the grassy shore.

Every now and than, a lone leaf would break free from a branch and float slowly down to the moss covered forest floor. Soon it will be winter and this little piece of heaven will be covered in snow. All the insects and animals will be tucked away for the cold days and nights. But, for today the pond waters were buzzing with life.

Lacey Jordan was a free spirited woman who enjoyed the fresh air, blue skies, and nature sounds that surrounded her home in Pride, Oregon. Even though summer was ending, the fall temperatures had reached a record high. A true Indian summer was in full swing.

Lacey was happily floating alone in the large pond that bordered her property. Well, she wasn’t quite alone; Bernard had been running in and out of the water, digging in the mud near the shore. Bernard was Lacey’s first love, and to date, her only. He was everything she wanted in a man; loyal, loving, brave, and a great listener. Not to mention he was blonde, brown eyed, and loved to snuggle. His only faults were; he hogged the bed, slobbered a lot, and was extremely hairy, but no one was perfect.

Bernard was Lacey’s three and a half year old Labrador Retriever.

As she floated her short black hair bobbed around her face, a face often described as pixy like. Her straight nose was, in her opinion, her best asset. However, most people claimed it was her crystal slate eyes that stood out the most. An artist, who had once painted her, had compared her to an exotic creature from beyond this world.

A small crease formed between her eyebrows at the thought of being compared to an exotic or even mythical creature. It happened often enough; however, she was getting tired of it. To her, she was just Lacey, a down-to-earth woman in her mid-twenties whom, at this point, had yet to fall in love.

Most people in her town knew she had an uncanny way of predicting what was going to happen and often even able to control the outcome. However, she felt she shouldn’t be faulted for just paying attention.

But, today she didn’t want to think of the town or its inhabitants. She forced herself to relax again as she studied the bright clear sky. Today, she was going to enjoy her favorite place, the pond, which was in the woods laying between her house and her brother Todd’s house.

Every once in a while Bernard would swim out to check on her or bark to make sure his presence was still known. She could spend hours out here, lost in thought, which would sometimes make her late for work. She was grateful she wasn’t expected any where today so she could continue floating and relaxing as she pleased.

Lacey had been born and raised in Pride, and this was home. There had been a time when she’d craved to travel, to expand her horizons, and become a woman of the world. However, after spending over a year traveling around Europe, she had needed to be home again. She missed taking walks along the beach or sitting in front of a fire with her father and brothers. She had made it home only to lose her father. She struggled through her loss; her family needed her close, and she needed them in return.

She started treading water as she remembered the weeks after she had come home. It had been some of the hardest times for the Jordan family, learning to adjust to the changes after the accident that had claimed their father’s life and left her brother, Iian battered and without his hearing.

However, the family had conquered a lot together; learning sign language and running the family businesses. They had learned to take care of each other.

Looking up, she saw Bernard happily running around the shore chasing the ducks that kept trying to land.

Aaron Stevens was restless, hot, sweaty, and he was horny. His
need
reminded him it had been over seven months since his break up with Jennifer. He’d spent the last few days hammering away on his house, spending all his pent up anger and hurt on demolition. Now, however, he was still hot, angry, sweaty, and horny.

When he purchased the old house he knew it needed a lot of work. But, he thought the project would help him keep his mind off the fact that he’d almost made the biggest mistake of his life. He had learned a valuable lesson in love, and it had only cost him his heart.

When he hit his thumb for the tenth time in the last half hour, he threw the hammer across the room. But, because there were no walls in the place, it flew across the room and hit the floor with a dull thud, giving him no satisfaction.

The first thing he’d done was rip up the bright orange carpet, which now made the entire house echo. He had plans for hard-wood or tile in the place, but he had yet to decide on which. All he knew was that carpet had to go.

He stalked from the room fuming and frustrated. And now his thumb was throbbing like a bitch. When he reached the back door he kept on going.

Soon he found himself on a path in a part of the woods he hadn’t explored yet. There was a fork in the path, one that lead to his closest neighbors, Megan and Todd Jordan. They had been his first patients after taking over his grandfather’s medical practice.

He paused by the head of the path and remembered walking into the hospital room after Megan had been rescued from her crazy ex-husband.

Megan had seemed so small and pale, she’d been bruised by the whole ordeal, but her and Todd’s unborn child had survived. Her ex-husband, Derek, was now on trial for the murder of a federal guard. Todd had hovered over her, protecting her, which gained instant respect in Aaron’s book.

Aaron had done an ultrasound at the hospital, printing as many pictures as Todd had wanted. He felt compassion towards the new family. He could tell they had a rough start, but knew they would turn out okay. The baby and mother had been fine, and he had seen them again just yesterday for another checkup.

Aaron was almost to a clearing before he heard the dog barking. So deep in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized how far and which direction his wandering had taken him. Was he still on his property?

Just then, a wet yellow lab came running down the path towards him. Aaron held out his hand for it to smell as it ran up sniffing then licking it. The entire time its’ tail was wagging at full speed. Then it quickly turned and ran off in the opposite direction.

Smiling after the animal, Aaron continued down the path. He came to a large clearing with a good size pond in the middle of tall grass. The water looked calm and cool so he decided to cool off before heading back to the house and hammers.

Tossing off his clothing quickly, he dove from a large flat rock that hung over the water’s edge. Cutting deep through the cool crisp water, he was half way across the small pond when his body hit something solid—solid but definitely soft. He reached up and getting a hand full of soft skin, pushed up from the muddy bottom.

Lacey heard Bernard run off down the path, barking. Thinking he was probably chasing a bird, she dove under the water one last time. She wanted to stop by Megan’s later to see how she and the baby were doing; maybe she would even make them dinner.

When she was in the middle of the pond, she bumped into something solid. Then she was grabbed and pulled upwards by large warm hands.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she sputtered after surfacing, shaking her head to clear it.