Mr Right Next Door

“Oh, well try the patio. The backyard is glorious this time of year.”

“Okay.”

Out he went, finding himself on a flagstone patio complete with a wrought iron table and chairs, plus a chaise lounge. He considered collapsing upon the lounge chair, but after doing such a great sell job on being exhausted and hurt, his landlady would probably call EMS for him. So he stayed on his feet, trying not to pace too obviously and maybe muttering to himself. He couldn’t quite be sure, just hoped it wasn’t classified information coming out of his mouth.

He got to one end of the stone patio, lined with all sorts of blooming things in big stone planters, then pivoted to head in the other direction. Back and forth he went, until he pivoted for the last time and…

Nearly found himself with an armful of woman.

“Ahhh.” She caught her breath.

He did, too.

Was he dreaming? Hallucinating? Sleeping right now?

Nick shook his head to clear it, but the image before him remained stubbornly the same.

Her.

His pretty, distracting blonde, right here in front of him.

She tried to back up but couldn’t because he held her by her arms. Because he’d been afraid of knocking her over. And then she smiled up at him.

“Hi,” she said. “Sorry. I was going to say hi, and then you turned around and…well… Hi.”

“Hi,” he said, nearly incoherently.

“Oh, yeah. Forgot to tell you,” Harry said into his ear. “She’s on her way over there.”

Harry was such an ass and Nick could not for the life of him figure out where the man was, what possible spot could give him the vantage point he needed to see everything that he’d seen.

The jerk.

In front of him, the pretty blonde’s smile faltered, no doubt because of the scowl on Nick’s own face.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said.

“No. No. It’s not that,” he said, making himself let go of her. If she wanted to run away from him, he wasn’t going to stop her. Hell, he’d probably thank her, despite the job he had to do. “I was just distracted. That’s all. Sorry I almost plowed into you.”

“I’m fine. Just surprised. I thought you were Sam.”

“Sam?”

“Mrs. Baker’s nephew. I saw you from the back and you’re about the same height and he has brown hair like yours. Although I would have been surprised to see Sam in a suit. Still… Sam’s been working in the backyard for weeks, helping to get the B&B ready. I was just going to say hi to him before I went inside to see Mrs. Baker.”

She smiled again, stood there with the full light of the sun glinting off her blond curls, her legs bare, her arms, all that golden sun-kissed skin. Not as much as she’d shown off in the yellow bikini, but more than enough to give a man all sorts of ideas.

He’d kept thinking on the ship, as she’d sunned herself, of how warm her skin must be after she laid in the sunshine for so long. How hot she’d be to the touch.

Nick made a face, then tried not to. He’d already nearly scared her away. He just had to stop thinking about her and her skin and touching her. He just needed to spy on her without thinking of her.

How the hell was he supposed to do that?

Into his head came that old Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones song.

You make a grown man cryyyyy-eeyyyyyyee. Do-do-do-do.You make a grown man cryyyy-eeyyyyyee.

She could definitely make a man cry.

“So…” she said, still looking way too friendly despite his Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde act. “Did Mrs. Baker open up the B&B while I was gone?”

“She didn’t plan on it, but I convinced her to take me in early.” He tried to gather up enough scattered brain cells to put together another sentence. Come on, Nick. She’s just awoman, one who’s likely in love with a crook at that. “I’m Nick. Nick Cavanaugh.”

He had no choice but to offer his hand and, despite his every wish or maybe because of things he wouldn’t even let himself admit he wanted, she took it. He didn’t think he was standing there with his mouth hanging open, thinking way too much about having her hand in his, but he couldn’t be sure. And yes, even her hand was hot to the touch. Had she been sunning herself and he’d missed it?

“Down, boy,” Harry said.

Sweet hell.

This assignment was going to kill him.

“I’m Kim Cassidy. I have an apartment next door. Welcome to Magnolia Falls.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you staying long?”

“I’m not sure yet. Depends on how long my business takes, and then… Well, they owe me some time off. Seems like a nice, quiet place.” He shrugged. Damn, his shoulder hurt. He was falling apart. Whereas she seemed perfectly put together.

“It is a nice place. And friendly,” she said.

Friendly? Was she going to be friendly? And just what did she think being friendly entailed?

“I might stay awhile,” he said.

Please, please don’t let this take a while. Please don’t let her get all that friendly. He couldn’t take it.

Let her crook of a boyfriend show up tomorrow. Let him get this over with and get out of here and forget all about her and the way he feared she’d look once he was done here.

“Well, I hope you like it. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will,” he said, then couldn’t let it go at that. He did have a job to do. He couldn’t stand to fumble around gawking over her, not if he was going to get the job done. “Actually, I need lunch. A place to have lunch. What’s good here in town?”

“That’s easy. The Corner Diner on Main. Just go that way.” She pointed off to the left. “It’s about eight blocks down. You can’t miss it. I’m meeting my sisters there in a few minutes, trying to beat the lunch crowd.”

“There’s a crowd?”

She nodded. “Just about the only one you’ll ever see in town. If you want lunch without having to wait, you should go now. I’m going inside to say hello to Mrs. Baker before I head that way myself.”