The Neighbor's Son (The Forbidden Love Series: Book 1) (2 page)

“
So...Do you?” Cade asked
while pulling something out of the back pocket of his khaki
shorts.

“
I’m sorry. Do I what?” I
replied, embarrassed that I had not been listening.

“
Do you have anything
around your house that needs fixing?" He handed me a white business
card. Cade Fisher, Landscaping/Repair Services, the card read.
There was a telephone number and an email address printed on it.
Unfortunately, my lawn had just been mowed and I couldn't think of
anything in the house that needed fixing. “Sorry. I don’t,” I
said.

“
Well, I’ll be around all
summer. If you need someone to mow your lawn or repair your air
conditioner, I’m your guy. I have references if you need them and
I’m affordable.” His crooked smirk transformed into a white toothed
smile. "Anything you need...I'm at your service, Sidney MacDougal."
He was definitely flirting with me. I wanted to flirt back but I
refrained. I was a respected educator in a very small, close-knit
community. It would've been inappropriate for me to be flirting
with someone like Cade.

“
I’ll keep that in mind,”
I said, shoving the business card in my bag.

“
I hope you do,” Cade
replied, smirking again. “I’m very good with my hands.” He was
being shameless now. I was loving every second of it, but hid my
amusement behind an unreadable expression.

“
Well, Cade. I have to get
to my class. It was very nice meeting you,” I said before turning
my back to him so I could lock my front door.

“
It was very nice to meet
you too, Sidney,” he replied. I turned back around and he was still
standing there, blocking my way. I shot him a nervous smile as he
hovered over me, tall, imposing, impossibly sexy. When I realized
he wasn't going to move, I stepped around him so I could get to my
Audi A7 parked at the end of the driveway. I could feel his gaze
boring a hole in my ass as I walked away from him. I felt flustered
and my hands were shaking, but I managed to keep it together until
I was safely inside my car. Once I was seated behind the wheel, I
let out the breath I had been holding. After starting the car, I
glanced back at my front door through the glass window. Cade was
still standing in front of it, watching me intently with a
shameless, lustful grin on his face.

I drove away and let out another sharp
breath once I knew his hot gaze was no longer scorching my flesh.
What the heck was that, Sidney? I mentally scolded myself. Get it
together. You’re a grown woman. Start acting like one. I turned the
radio on and set it on the most boring station I could find. I was
trying to get my mind to focus on anything other than Cade Fisher
but I was failing miserably. The more I tried to not think about my
hot new neighbor, the dirtier my daydreams about him
got.

After pulling into the parking lot of
my gym a few minutes later, I grabbed Cade’s business card out of
my bag and held it between my fingers. For a second, I felt tempted
to break something in the house just to have an excuse to dial the
number listed on that card. But I quickly reminded myself that
doing something like that would've been not only inappropriate but
also dangerous. So I wouldn't be tempted later on, I got out of the
car, tore the card up and dumped the pieces in a garbage can at the
entrance of the gym.

In class, I tried to get my mind to
relax and focus on the yoga. The whole 'Let's not think about Cade
for a minute' brain exercise was still failing miserably. I was so
angry at myself. How could I be that obsessed with someone I just
met? I felt like I was back in high school and it was embarrassing.
That yoga session was a complete waste of time. It did not relax me
at all. It actually made me more stressed.

Sigh.

CHAPTER
II

“
Did you hear what I just
said, Sidney?” Gloria, my friend and colleague, asked while
snapping her fingers in front of my face. “You’ve been spacing out
a lot lately. What is going on with you, woman?” Gloria stared at
me with a furrowed brow while stabbing a piece of lettuce with her
fork and shoving it in her mouth. Gloria knew me well. We’ve been
friends and yoga buddies since I moved into the neighborhood. She
had been a teacher at St. Francis High School for years and the
reason I had a job there.

“
I’m sorry. It’s nothing,”
I said, taking a sip from my iced tea. That was a lie. I kept
spacing out because I couldn’t get Cade Fisher out of my head.
Almost a whole week had passed since I met my sinfully hot
neighbor. I hadn’t seen him again since that day outside my house,
yet I still couldn’t stop thinking about him. My dreams about him
had gotten so filthy, I'd turn beet red while replaying them in my
head which I was doing non-stop. I just started telling people I
developed a skin allergy. It was easier than explaining that I, a
grown woman, was having inappropriate, dirty thoughts about the
neighbor's son. Gloria was my best friend. She knew all my most
intimate secrets. I trusted her with my life, but I couldn’t tell
her about Cade. It was too embarrassing.

“
So what do you say? Will
you go out with Kevin?” For weeks, Gloria had been trying to set me
up with her brother’s best friend. According to Gloria, Kevin Reese
was the perfect guy for me on paper, whatever that means. I’d never
seen or met Kevin. All I knew about the guy was that he was
recently divorced, had a son, and worked as an insurance adjuster.
Honestly, to me Kevin sounded like the most boring guy on earth.
After some awful experiences, I was weary of blind dates. But it
meant a great deal to Gloria that I go on a date with Kevin. I knew
she wasn’t going to stop bugging me about it until I agreed to go
out with Mr. Boring McBore, so I caved.

“
Fine,” I groaned, rolling
my eyes and sticking a French fry in my mouth. “But he better not
be crazy,” I added, pointing the half eaten fry at
Gloria.

Gloria began to wiggle in her chair and
clap her hands like a deranged seal. “I promise you he is very
sane. I’m telling you Sidney, Kevin is the perfect guy for you. I
wouldn’t have bugged you about it for this long if I didn’t think
he was your perfect match. You will love him.”

I scoffed while Gloria picked her phone
up off the table and began dialing. I assumed she was calling Kevin
to give him the good news. I wasn’t sure I’d like Kevin, but I
figured a night out with him might help me get my mind off pretty
Cade at least for a couple of hours. Gloria set the date up right
there in front of me. She decided on the where and the when without
any input from Kevin or me. After hanging up, Gloria informed me
that Kevin was to take me to dinner and then to a movie. That
sounded as exciting as a root canal, but I plastered a fake smile
on my face and feigned as much enthusiasm as I could.

CHAPTER
III

Two days later, I made my way to my
neighbor Dana’s house to return an electric mixer I had borrowed
from her. Dana lived directly across the street from me. She was
the first person to welcome me to the neighborhood when Peter and I
moved in. She was what you would call a typical housewife, stay at
home mom. She had three young children she was madly in love with,
but on more than one occasion, she had confessed to me how bored
she was with her life. Her husband, whom she had married at a very
young age, was very good to her but worked constantly. She felt
lonely and neglected, just like I did when I was married to Peter.
Dana and I bonded over that and became good friends.

That afternoon, I knocked on Dana’s
front door and her adorable five-year-old son let me inside the
house. “Hi, Dylan. Where’s your mommy?” I asked him.

“
She’s in the kitchen,” he
shouted before running up the stairs and disappearing from view.
With the electric mixer in my hands, I made my way to the kitchen.
From the hallway, I could see Dana sitting at the breakfast counter
with her fist tucked under her chin and a dreamy look plastered on
her face. She was staring intently at something or someone on the
opposite side of the kitchen. As I got closer, I could hear metal
clanking sounds that appeared to be coming from under the kitchen
sink. When I stepped into the room, Dana snapped her head towards
me. “Oh, hey, Sidney. What are you doing here?” she breathed,
looking like a kid who had been caught with her hand in the cookie
jar. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and the sink. That's
when I realized there was someone else in the room.

“
I came to return the
mixer I borrowed. What are you up to?” I asked, standing on my
tippy toes to try and see who it was crouching under Dana’s sink.
But I couldn't see anything because the breakfast counter was
blocking my view. That’s when Cade, wearing a damp tank top and
shorts, sprung to his feet and turned toward Dana and me. My
stomach did a flip when his stunning blue gaze met mine. I didn’t
think it was possible but that day, he looked a million times
hotter than he did a week earlier when we met outside my
house.

“
Hi,” Cade breathed,
looking flustered and wiping his hands on a rag. His face broke
into that charming, confident smile that made my toes curl.
Hello dimples. Oh how I’ve missed seeing
you.
His eyes were so hypnotizing, I
forgot to breathe for a second. I even forgot where I was...until
Dana spoke and broke the spell.

“
Sidney, this is Cade, our
new neighbor. Cade, this is my friend Sidney. She lives across the
street.”

“
I know,” Cade breathed
without taking his eyes off me. “We met a few days back. Nice
seeing you again, Sidney.”

“
It’s good to see you too,
Cade. I see you found work.”

“
Yeah. Actually, I’ve been
pretty busy ever since I started handing out my business cards.
It’s funny but almost every house in this neighborhood seems to
have a plumbing problem.” Cade shot Dana a knowing smirk before
returning his gaze to me. It was obvious he knew what was going on.
He knew he wasn’t getting all that work because of his handyman
skills. But he didn’t seem to mind having all these housewives
ogling him. If anything, he seemed to be getting a kick out of
it.

“
Good for you, Cade. I’m
glad you’re putting your skills to good use,” I shot back with a
knowing smirk of my own which elicited a bashful chuckle from Cade
and made him do that thing where he drags his lower lip between his
teeth. Sigh. I wish he’d stop doing that. I was beginning to think
he was doing it on purpose just to torture me.

“
Dana? Could I speak to
you in private please?” I said to my shameless friend without
taking my eyes off Cade. After placing the mixer on the kitchen
counter, I walked out to the living room and Dana reluctantly
followed me there.

“
Oh My God Sidney! Is he
gorgeous or what?” Dana squealed like a school girl after making
sure Case was out of earshot.

“
What are you doing Dana?”
I asked, my tone disapproving. With my hands on my hips, I narrowed
my eyes at her.

“
What?” She whispered
sheepishly with a shrug. “My sink was clogged so I hired our new
neighbor to fix it. That’s all.”

I cocked my head to the side. “You just
had someone unclog your sink less than a week ago. How could it
possibly be clogged again?”

Dana pursed her lips before letting out
an exasperated breath. “Fine. You got me. I clogged it on purpose
so I could have an excuse to get Hottie McHot in my house. So what?
Is that so terrible?”

“
It’s wrong, Dana, and you
know it. You’re a married thirty-five-year-old woman and Cade is
practically a child. It’s wrong for you to be ogling him like
that.”

“
I’m not hurting anyone,
Sidney. I won’t try to seduce him or anything. I’m not crazy. I
love my hubby even though I rarely get to see him anymore. I'd
never cheat on him with anyone. Cade is just eye candy, a treat.
Besides, I’m paying him well. It’s a win-win for everyone if you
ask me.”

I let out a heavy sigh. I guess Dana
had a point. There was no harm in what she was doing as long as she
kept her fantasies in her head. No one was getting hurt there. Dana
was a very level-headed woman. I knew she wouldn’t try to do
anything stupid like cross the line with Cade, especially with her
kids in the house. I decided to get out of her way and let her
enjoy her eye candy. She deserved it. She was a good wife and an
even better mother.

Dana and I made our way back to the
kitchen and found Cade standing on the other side of the breakfast
counter facing us. He had his head down while digging for something
inside his toolbox. When Dana and I entered the room, he looked up.
His eyes immediately found me and his face lit up. “I’m almost done
here, Mrs. Griffin,” he said, briefly flickering his gaze to
Dana.

“
Please. Call me Dana,” my
shameless friend purred, smiling wide and twirling a lock of hair
between her fingers. I shook my head while trying to stifle a
laugh. Cade looked as amused as I was with her behavior. He and I
shared another knowing smirk.

“
Well, I have to get
going. Good to see you, Cade,” I said to the handsome handyman who
seemed disappointed to see me go. “I’ll talk to you later,” I said
to Dana, out loud, before leaning in to whisper in her ear. “And
behave yourself.”