Page 19 of Safe With Me

“I guess I’ll be right back, then,” Mike said as he backed away. “And if you ladies happened to have a beer in the fridge, I could be convinced to take that as payment.”

“That can be arranged, Mike,” Terry called as he headed to his apartment.

If I couldn’t get away from Mike, learning how to be in a tiny space with him as he flexed and hammered and threw his effortless charm all over the place might help.

Or he’d watch me freak out again after something simple set me off without warning.

Being alone for so long sucked, but no matter where I was, I didn’t know how to be anything else.

4

MIKE

“Someone call for a handyman?”I said, tapping my knuckles along the wooden edge of Terry and Kathy’s closed-in front porch.

“Hey, Mike.” Kathy lifted her head as she wiped off the small side table and shot me a grateful smile. She glanced toward the side entrance, where their downstairs tenants came in and out, before padding over to me. “I know we sort of put you on the spot, but thank you for doing this.”

“I’m happy to help you out if I can. You know that.”

Terry and Kathy did their own house repairs for the most part, only asking for my help for a new piece of furniture or fixing something that had been damaged.

“She seems like such a nice girl, but so quiet. And your father has her putting in long hours since she arrived, so she’s barely unpacked. I thought maybe you could help her fix things up a little bit, so she feels more at home.”

Helping her was all I could think about lately, and after my casual offer to hang up pictures for her, I’d fought the urge to sprint home and rush through my shower to come back.

“And why should she hang with two old ladies when there’s someone…more her age so close by?” Terry arched a brow at me from behind their screen door.

I nodded, smart enough to know when I had been set up.

Ever since I’d moved on to their street, they’d always pass a comment or two about what a shame it was that I was single and howthey’d love for me to find a nice girl.

They didn’t know my relationship issues. No one other than Aaron did, and maybe my stepmother had picked up on it a time or two. I dated and wasn’t a jerk to the women I’d see. But growing up in the middle of a toxic marriage had killed any interest I might have had in long-term relationships.

Some women understood. Some didn’t. I didn’t want to hurt anyone—or love someone so much that my life shattered if they ever walked out of it.

My father and stepmother had a fairy-tale marriage. It had taken Dad a long time to trust himself to love someone new, almost as long as it had taken me to trust him again after my mother had taught me over and over again not to.

Love killed as much as it cured, at least from what I’d seen. It was enough to want nothing more than the superficial.

I’d had an idea what Terry and Kathy would try to pull me into, but I gravitated over to them—and to Lila—anyway.

It had been hard to tear my eyes away from her, and for a split second, I could’ve sworn she was staring right back. Her hazel gaze had snagged on mine, and it was impossible to look anywhere else.

Even in a tank top and cutoffs, Lila was breathtaking. After I’d caught her watching me, her eyes darted all over the porch, as if she was afraid to look in my direction. But I didn’t know if that was because she was drawn to me too or if my presence had made her uneasy.

My burning curiosity over Lila was more than just how soft her full lips would feel against mine or what it would be like to run my hands along the same lush curves she’d pressed into me the day we met.

Real fear had drained the color out of her face when she’d realized her tire was flat, and I couldn’t stop wondering what had happened to her to make her react like that.

Who had hurt her?

My father wouldn’t let just anyone work for him, especially someone who’d have her hands in all his financial records. He’d said he’d had her checked out and, in so many words, had told me to mind my own business.

But I worried about her, being frightened like that while all alone in a new town. I had to fight the urge to check on her, my gaze often drifting down the street, which I couldn’t do without making her think I was spying on her.

I always wished that Terry and Kathy would lay off the matchmaking, but this time, I was grateful they’d given me an excuse to talk to her for more than a few tense minutes.

I headed to the side door and knocked, surprised at the click of so many locks before the door opened.

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