Their Virgin Neighbor (3 page)

It was bound to be a husband. Lee
frowned. He had quite a bit of experience in dealing with grief and
it was not an area he wanted to visit again any time soon. He
imagined a middle-aged lady, teary eyed and in pain, maybe offering
them cookies or a homemade meal. The very idea made him
wince.

“
Maybe you should head
down,” he said. “Take care of it yourself.”

Jack pushed his plate away and took a
long swig of his coffee. “Maybe getting away from your paints and
clay will do you some good. We can head to the store first, pick up
some supplies.”

“
Jalapeños, you
mean.”

“
Yeah that too.” Jack
grinned. “We’ll go visit her on the way back. Maybe she’ll give you
enough of a diversion that you’ll be glad I dragged you
along.”

Lee snorted. “An elderly widow? I
doubt that.”

“
Did Sally say she was
elderly?” Jack asked.

“
No, I just
assumed.”

“
Not many elderly women
would live here for a winter,” Jack said slowly. “You know how
brutal they are.” He paused. “I think she might just surprise
us.”

“
I never liked
surprises.”

Jack laughed. “Me and you both, my
friend, me and you both.”

.

Chapter
Three

The woods next to her little cottage
were something special. Anna had spent the past fortnight exploring
them, and every time she had found something different to captivate
her. Trees that had lost all their leaves, wrapped in an early
frost. Old nests, once full of eggs and flapping things, now
nothing more than a bundle of lifeless sticks.

She’d walked from one end to the
other, maybe fifteen miles or so in all, and each time Anna had
found a peace in herself that had been absent ever since Grand’s
death. Alone in the woods, no one to be seen for miles, just the
odd shuffle and rustle from an animal, she could be comfortable
with her grief in a way that she hadn’t been before now.

She sighed as she rounded the corner
of one huge tree she had named Mary. It had been her way of keeping
a track on where she was. One after the other the trees had been
given the names of the women she had grown up with in her life.
Grand’s tree was at the very far end of the forest. That made sense
to Anna. Grand should be the hardest to reach. The one sitting
above it all.

She smiled slightly and started the
walk that would lead her all the way to the Sally tree. It was the
one closest to the house and had a lovely russet-red trunk. It kind
of reminded Anna of the realtor, so why not name it after
her?

Anna’s smile widened as she imagined
telling her city friends about her jaunts through the forest.
They’d been shocked enough when she’d told them she was moving to
the cottage for the winter, but she doubted they’d realized just
how remote it was or how little there was to do. In the past week
Anna had explored the local area, including the small grouping of
stores in the town. There was a general store that sold groceries,
a gas station with a small coffee bar, and that was about it. If
Anna wanted anything that those two places did not sell then she
would have to drive for a good few hours to make it to the nearest
town. Luckily, she didn’t, and in truth, she couldn’t see herself
needing to for the entire winter. She had brought enough stuff with
her for entertainment. The general store sold enough food to keep
her happy, and the small outbuilding next to the cottage was
overflowing with logs to make fires. Anna planned to call Sally
before using any of them, but she was sure they must be there for
her use.

Yes. All in all Anna wasn’t worried
that she would run out of things to do or eat. Just as she’d first
thought, the cottage was perfect.

She passed the Sally tree and walked
out of the forest. The weak winter sun shone down on her as she
made her way across the dirt road and over to her cottage. She’d
left a lamp on in the sitting room, and it gave a welcoming glow
that cheered Anna in a way that even now, two weeks since she’d
moved into the cottage, still shocked her a little. When she’d left
the city she’d been so confused, hurting so bad, but the main thing
that had surprised her was the lack of direction in her life.
Throughout Grand’s long illness Anna had something to focus on.
Before that she’d sort of just strolled through life. High school
was followed by college, followed by a job in a comfortable office,
and then another. Anna hadn’t really ever had anything that
demanded her undivided attention, and she’d never really made any
long-term plans.

Grand’s illness changed all of that.
There was never any question in Anna’s mind that Grand would go
into a hospice. She’d cared for Anna for years, and Anna never felt
a moment’s hesitation in doing the same. And though it had been
hard, Anna had gotten through it. For the first time in her life
she had to think about someone more than she thought about her own
wants and needs. Day after day spent with Grand, nursing her and
entertaining her, had given Anna a new perspective on life. She’d
discovered a love of knitting and crocheting, turning that love
into a small business that gave her a great deal of satisfaction.
She’d discovered new books, old favorites, and she’d appreciated
every single moment she got to spend with the woman she had loved
so very dearly.

Now though? Well, now that lack of
focus was back. It came hand in hand with the grief and left her
feeling confused. Anna wasn’t even sure what she was going to do
with herself now. In some way she hoped that the winter would help
her to figure it out. Time to heal. Time to find herself
again.

With that thought in mind, Anna
started to think about what she might do this evening. She had
three DVD box sets ready and waiting. She might surf the net for a
few hours, maybe look over some of her favorite news sites. Maybe
she would even do some baking. She nodded, the possibilities
buzzing away, and hummed to herself as she turned the corner of the
cottage to get to the back door.

She halted a second later, because
Anna was no longer alone.

Two men were sat on the
hood of their parked truck, laughing and talking. Two extremely
young,
attractive
men…

Anna frowned and took an automatic
step back. Not because she was alarmed in any way, just because she
had not expected to see anyone like them here. Who were they? What
were they doing parked up outside her home?

She looked around, trying
to understand where they’d come from. The cottage was situated in
such a way that only someone who knew it was there would think to
come look for it. And yet these men seemed comfortable enough,
suggesting they knew the area well. That, along with the boxes she
could see in the back of the truck, boxes that bore the name of the
general store, had Anna’s mind putting two and two together at
quick speed. Could these men be her neighbors? She thought they
must be. Who else
could
they possibly be? And yet…

“
Anna?”

Pulled from her racing thoughts Anna
nodded quickly. “Yes?”

The man who had spoken
jumped down from the truck. His friend quickly followed. Anna
looked from one to the other, taking in their features, gathering
an impression. Her first coherent thought was that if these
really
were
her
neighbors Sally had not described them well at all. They were
nothing like she had expected. Both dark haired, both tanned, both
lean and rangy. They were maybe in their early thirties, not much
older than her. Anna had expected men in their fifties, older
even.

She swallowed unsteadily, surprised
when a hot sweep of color warmed her face.

“
I’m Jack Sheldon,” the
first man said. He waved a hand to his right. “This is Lee
Carson.”

“
You
are
my neighbors,” Anna said
slowly.

Jack grinned. “Yep.”

She took a step forward, confusion
thrumming through her. Anna hadn’t expected to see them so soon, if
at all. Worse, when she had considered them dropping by she’d
imagined two taciturn, grumpy old men, who would stay for a few
minutes then be on their way. These men, however…

“
I didn’t expect to see
you both so soon,” Anna blurted. “If at all.”

“
And why’s
that?”

It was Lee who spoke. Anna turned
towards him and felt her face warm further. He was slightly taller
than his friend, his eyes an odd shade of green. Anna opened her
mouth but closed it a moment later. She was not entirely sure that
admitting that Sally had told her they were reclusive was either
polite, or the right thing to say. “Erm…”

“
Where have you
been?”

Jack’s words saved Anna from a
response, and she jumped on them. “Walking.” She waved a hand
behind her. “I love the woods. I’ve spent a lot of time in them
over the past few days.”

Jack frowned. “They’re easy to get
lost in.”

Anna thought of the trees, the ones
she had named. “I have a really good sense of
direction.”

“
There’s a cabin about a
half way in,” Lee said. “Before getting over towards the other side
of town. Sometimes we have people come up to hunt and they use it.
It’s been there for years, long before we bought this
place.”

“
Hunt?”

He smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s not
hunting season. But the cabin acts as a good marker in terms of
direction.”

Anna nodded even as she felt her
stomach clench. Lee’s smile was…devastating…that was the only word
she could think of. It turned a merely handsome face into a
stunning one. And Jack? She turned her head to look at him and had
to concede that he was equally as attractive as his friend. Fact of
the matter was, both men were the sort that any woman in the city
would stop to take a closer look at.

“
I didn’t know there was a
town close by,” she said quickly, more in an effort to shake of her
totally inappropriate thoughts than anything else.

Jack snorted. “It’s the general store
and the gas station. That’s pretty much our entire
town.”

“
Oh, yes, I’ve been there.
I thought you meant a
real
town.”

“
You’ll need to drive a
couple of hours to find one of them,” Lee said.

“
I know. It’s where
Sally’s office is.”

“
How do you know Sally?”
he asked. “I’m assuming you know her personally.”

“
Yes,” Anna said slowly.
“She was a friend of my grandmother’s.”

She paused. Mentioning Grand made Anna
realize that her manners seemed to have deserted her. It was not
warm outside and whilst she was wrapped in a thick fleece and a
raincoat, Jack and Lee wore only thin jackets. The polite thing to
do would be to ask them inside. Not only were they her neighbors
but they were her landlords too. It was more than polite, it was
almost necessary…and yet…

Anna felt her face heat up
again. She was suddenly confused by the thought of these men in her
home, and that meant that she really
didn’t
have a choice. Confusion in
her current state of mind was almost to be expected, it was not an
excuse to be rude.

“
Can I get either of you a
drink?” she asked. “Something hot? The temperature really seems to
have dropped.”

Both men nodded.

Anna opened up the door and gestured
them inside. A wall of warmth hit, making her heat up immediately
under her many layers. She unzipped her raincoat as she filled the
coffee pot.

“
Is coffee okay?” she
asked. “I have tea too.”

“
Coffee is fine,” Jack
said.

Lee nodded. “For me too.”

In no time at all Anna had the machine
going. The smell of coffee beans filled the air mingling with the
warmth and making the cottage seem more homely than ever. Despite
her racing thoughts and the confusion thrumming through her, Anna
appreciated it as much as she ever did.

“
Go through,” she said
once the machine started to gurgle. “I’ll bring this
in.”

She felt rather than saw the two men
make their way into the sitting room. Their absence gave Anna a
moment of much needed space. She shucked off her layers, raincoat
first followed by the thick fleece, and took a deep
breath.

Jack and Lee…

She swallowed around the lump again.
They were nothing at all like she had expected, and she wasn’t sure
how to handle her reaction to them. Grand would have called them
hunks.

And what will you call
them, Anna?

She frowned as she poured milk into
three sizeable, spotty mugs, both because she felt uncomfortable
even thinking in that way right now, and because she was sure that
Jack and Lee would not appreciate it. Hadn’t Sally said they were
reclusive? That they liked their own company? Probably they had
just come to make sure she was okay. Doing their duty as good
landlords. And Anna was so raw right now, so prone to wild swings
of emotion, that it would be easy to start mooning over them. Darn,
it would have been easy to do that even before Grand.