Page 37 of Sexy Bad Neighbor

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PAYNTER

When I get back and start unloading the poles for the pen, Chloe’s standing in my yard with Spot in her arms, talking to another woman. It takes me half a second to recognize my ex, to freeze while the poles thud to the ground around my feet.

It’s the oddest thing, seeing Bernadette again in my backyard of all places. She’s supposed to be on the other side of the country, wheeling deals and employing some ponce to be her perfect candidate for future husband. Not right in front of me, talking to Chloe. I’ve thought about running into her more times than I want to admit, thought I’d be angry or perhaps relieved to put the past to bed. I’m neither. I don’t feel anything toward the woman I once planned to marry. A growl vibrates in my throat at her talking to Chloe though.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Bernadette?”

The two women look at me for a startled moment. Then Bernadette smiles and picks her way across the lawn on her ridiculous heels. Her smile is stiff, fake. Did she have Botox? Or plastic surgery? She went on and on about it when we were together, but I always thought she was beautiful as she was.

But now there’s something off about her face. We’ve known each other for a long time, we were friends even before we started dating, but the woman who reaches up to clasp my shoulders and air-kiss each cheek isn’t who I remember. “Get some work done, B?”

“You noticed?” She flicks her blonde hair back from her shoulder. “You always had a good eye for detail.”

Shame it wasn’t better, since I can’t see a damn thing about her now that attracted me in the first place.

Chloe’s eyes widen, and she sweeps her gaze between me and plastic fantastic Barbie before reaching to tug at her hair. She did that the morning she flipped out about James. It must be a nervous habit or stress related, but I’m not in the mood to watch her bolt now.

“I was just talking to your neighbor about that barnyard animal. She said she was watching it for a friend, but I’m assuming she meant you.” Bernadette slips beside me, her hand going to my arm. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re behind this goat tomfoolery.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I ignore her attempts at whatever it is she’s trying to accomplish by fluttering her fingers over my bicep. It’s annoying in the way a fly is, and I want to swat her away, especially when she addresses Chloe with disdain. “Paynter here always did have a thing for strays.”

Chloe stops playing with her hair and rears back as though she’s been physically slapped. A quick glance at her attire, and she draws her pretty eyebrows together. She’d probably find it easier to keep her bearings if she were still dressed in her suit, but I know from firsthand experience that Bernadette can tear down anyone if she gets it in her mind to do so.

“Bernadette,” I caution. I couldn’t give two fucks what she thinks of me now, but I won’t hear a bad word said about this woman who is managing to be gracious and genuine to my ex at the moment.

Stalking to Chloe, I stop right in front of her. I want to clasp her face in my hands and kiss her or wrap my arms around her waist and pull her against me so that she knows the woman behind me means less than nothing. And so that same woman knows I’ve moved on to something so much better. But I’m uncertain how Chloe would react, and whether Bernadette would make this already uncomfortable meeting worse. “Don’t take it personally, okay?”

“Of course not,” Chloe says and pushes Spot into my arms. “Here, hold my goat.”

Hot damn, this woman must be formidable when selling real estate to be able to pull off the haughty look of contempt she aims at Bernadette while dressed in a worn sweatshirt and yoga pants. She steps around me, moving across the yard.

“I’m sure you weren’t categorizing me alongside the goat. Paynter took it the wrong way, didn’t he? You wouldn’t come to his house to insult his friends. People like you and I are too professional to sink to that level.”

“Friends?” Bernadette folds one arm delicately over her chest, clasping her elbow with her hand. “Is that what you are?”

“Friends,” Chloe raises her voice a notch. “Very good friends.”

Bernadette toys with one of her long diamond earrings while she smiles. It’s like watching Animal Planet, When Sharks Attack. “Look, sweetie, I’m sure you think you’re on my level and that you’re very good friends, but Paynt has taste. He’s used to quality. Whatever this is,” she gestures between the two of us while peering down the long ridge of her nose at Chloe, “is just Paynt’s way of distracting himself.”

“That’s enough, Bernadette,” I snap as I get between them, putting the kid down on the grass. Hopefully, she won’t wander too far. “I won’t let you talk to Chloe like that. Say what you have to say and get the hell off my property.”

I swear she ignores me. “You do realize that the chandelier in Paynt’s foyer is mine?”

“That phallic monstrosity is yours?” Chloe snickers. “And you’re talking about taste?”

“It’s still there, isn’t it?” Bernadette preens, touching her hair. “Even after I left, he didn’t get rid of it. I bet it’s not the only part of me he’s held onto all this time.”

I catch myself holding my breath and let it out in a whoosh. I should have gotten rid of that chandelier, and the box of letters, and the velvet ring box that was never opened. Because not one part of me understands how the hell I ever thought I loved this woman enough to want to marry her. She’s ice and bite, nothing but show and a whole lot of bitterness.

Chloe hesitates, flicking a glance at me for confirmation.

Bernadette goes in for the kill. “I’m back now, and Paynt and I have a lot to sort out, so you can scurry off home. Perhaps take the goat with you. The two of you look like you belong together.”

The nerve in my jaw ticks like a bomb waiting to go off and the muscles in my neck are hard as cement thanks to her insinuation there’s something left unsaid between us. My chest burns with my escalating temper and the idea of Chloe running because of Bernadette.

Gripping Chloe’s wrist, I pull her close and wind my other arm around her waist. Her heart is beating fast, so fast. She’s rigid; I can barely bring her back to my chest, but she hides it well.

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