Page 14 of Heartfelt Goals

“Um, hi…” Laurel began nervously, immediately reaching up to see if her hair was down or in a ponytail. She couldn’t remember if she’d bothered to fix it after yanking a ballcap on her head to take Kendall shopping.

“Hey,” Dustin hesitated. “Can I come in? Am I interrupting dinner or…”

“Oh, no,” she replied, immediately opening the door a little more. “I was just tossing something together to try and get some veggies in Kendall…and you don’t care.I’m sorry. I’m blabbing and…”

“If I’m bothering you, I can go.”

“No, you’re here.”

“I’ll be honest, it took a lot to get me here,” he retorted under his breath, looking just as surprised at his own appearance as she was.

“I bet,” she whispered, looking away and caught his double take. “Can I help you?”

“Well, I thought I’d say hello to my neighbor… and my sister’s friend.”

“You… are coming here… to say hello… to me?” Laurel dragged out slowly as her brain chugged along through mental mud, trying to figure out what was going on. “One more time for the cheering crowd, please? Cause…huh?”

And Dustin chuckled, giving her a nervous smile that shot straight up her spine like electricity.My stars, a man thatbeautiful should be a sin against nature,she mused silently and sighed.

“I came to say ‘hello,’ and I had a few questions.”

“Oh?”

“What year is your car?”

“Eh?” Laurel blinked in confusion. “My car? You came here to ask how old my car is?”

“Yeah,” he began and then hesitated. “No.”

They stood there looking at each other, the door wide open, yet she hadn’t moved out of the way – nor had he stepped inside yet. It was like they both had no clue what to do next regarding the unexpected appearance.

“Do you want to come in?” she finally asked and saw him shake his head ‘no’ before he stepped inside.

Weird.

“You’ve got a nice place,” he said simply, looking around her condo. She had picked this place for the privacy and security. There was a fob to use to make the elevator work, one of the walls had windows that were treated with a film to keep people from looking inside but gave her a spectacular view of the city, and it was fairly close to shopping – which used to be amazing fun when she had a ton of money to spend and wasn’t watching every dime with Kendall.

“All the floors are the same – except yours.”

“I guess so.”

“You have a balcony.”

“Oh yeah, I guess I do.”

“You don’t use it?”

“Not really.”

“What a shame,” she whispered and saw his sharp look once more as he stared at her, frowning slightly, like he was trying to figure out what she meant by that comment. “I meant ‘what ashame because it’s a pretty view’ – not that you did something wrong or…”

“What’s your deal?”

“Excuse me?”

“You live in a nice high-rise but drive a jalopy. I never see you here until recently, but the office manager tells me you’ve been here for years, and…”

“You asked the office manager about me?!” she squawked, stunned.

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