Page 2 of Dreamer

“I’m fine.” She might have said it a little too harshly.

He peered beyond her shoulder into the dark room behind her, dark eyes untrusting. “Are you sure? I thought I heard a scream.”

She sighed and felt her eyes drop closed. She’d screamed in the dream. She must have let it out in real life. She breathed out the word, “Nightmare.”

Then she looked around. She didn’t recognize this man. Had he been walking on her little cul-de-sac at two in the morning? For what reason?

The look on her face must have conveyed her suspicions because he answered her question immediately. “I’m your new neighbor.”

He pointed to the house separated from hers by a mere strip of grass. The gap was just big enough to hold the two trees she’d strung her hammock from when she’d first moved in. She must have still been looking at him oddly because he added, “I just painted the bedrooms, so I was sleeping in the front room.”

Yeah, he would have heard her. Her bedroom window faced the street. She’d figured that was okay because the street itself was so quiet. Who knew she’d be the one making the noise?

Carlisle must not have responded fast enough because he said, “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.”

And then he smiled.

Holy crap, how had she been paying so little attention? Who the hell had moved in next door? And how had she not noticed that his legs were bare under that long coat?

He must have grabbed the jacket and rushed out the door as soon as he heard the scream.

She’d survived, having been pulled from the water by a virtual stranger who was now her friend. Tonight, another stranger had come to check on her. Though too many people had stood on the shore while she’d nearly drowned, she reminded herself there was clearly still good in the world. Working in the ER had given her too many views of the evil that people could do and the randomness of death. She smiled at him and tried to offer her best middle-of-the-night sincerity. “I am okay. Thank you for checking on me.”

He nodded once as the wind kicked at his hair. Clearly having decided he’d done his duty and they were finished, he turned and jogged down her front steps before making his way across the lawn.

Only then did she look down to see she was wearing a Halloween “Rhymes with Witch” nightshirt and neon fuzzy socks that didn’t match. Then she looked up at the man, strolling across her lawn in the dark.

“I’m Carlisle, by the way!” she called out, then immediately felt like a fool.

Lifting a hand, he didn’t turn around, but she heard, “Simon.”

Then the wind caught his coat, and it billowed up behind him. She had to wonder if any of the neighbors down the street were getting the front view. Had they just learned if he wore boxers or briefs or . . . what?

2

As Simon pulled the steaks out of the fridge he could feel the workday falling away. Hopefully, he'd eventually be able to leave it all behind at work and come home and enjoy his house.

He wasn’t really sure what he was doing but told himself it was just the new job. The new house. Moving. It was all a lot.

Though it was the best salary he'd ever had, and that made the whole move possible, he thought about what that meant for everyone. He was now a handful of states away.

Turning the steaks over, he seasoned them with salt, garlic and some seasoning that had looked good at the oddly named grocery store. He set the meat back on the paper.

It was the first time he'd been able to buy a house of his own. He really liked the little place, and he was fine with the work it needed. But the distance he was unsure of even now after he’d committed.

Opening the back door, Simon headed onto the deck, wondering what impression he’d made on the new neighbor. The screams definitely triggered old instincts and he’d run to find out. To help. To calm someone down.

He’d thought the new house would come without screaming at all hours of the day and night. Yet on only his second night in the place, there he was, traipsing across the lawn like a half-dressed and half-mad Darcy.

He felt the flush on his face and decided to attribute it to the grill. Surely it was the fire and not embarrassment. Had she noticed the boxers and the long coat? The bare feet shoved into slip-on sneakers, his hair not even combed?

Normally the screams came from inside his own home. But apparently he launched into action for noises next door, too. Not that anyone around here had asked him.

With a deep breath, he put the meat onto the spanking new grate and looked around, surveying the property that was his. Finally, he was allowed to wonder if the backyard needed a fence and make the decision on his own. The only up-to-date thing on the house was the large wooden deck right off the back door.

It was raised, providing a nice view into the remainder of his one-acre lot defined by a line of small trees separating it from the house that butted up against the back. But on either side, there was no line other than where he stopped mowing the grass. Simon could simply walk onto either property beside him. They hadn’t put up fences.Should he?

Using his trusty grill tool kit—which his mother had insisted he take with him as it was one he’d bought for himself—he wondered if his mother was using the grill he’d left behind.

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