Page 57 of Falling for the Guy Next Door

I pulled her into my arms. “You are something else, Layla Lovely. Princess Layla Lovely.”

“Besides, you’ll just have to write me another song.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

“I hate to say it—” she said.

“Then don’t.” I tightened my arms around her. “I don’t want to let you go tonight. I saw you standing in the kitchen. I ached to have you next to me, and you were only ten feet away.”

“Then I guess it’s lucky I live right next door.” She laughed. “I just realized I’ve fallen for the boy next door.”

“Trust me, Layla, he’s fallen hard for you, too.”

ChapterThirty-Three

Layla

Frantic knocking woke me from a deep sleep. It took me a second to get my bearings. The room was still dark because the curtains were drawn, but daylight seeped around the edges. I’d gotten to bed late. Nash and I had a hard time parting. We’d talked until nearly dawn, until a hazy gray light had started to creep into the eastern sky, then Nash walked me home and kissed me goodnight … or good morning, I supposed.

Ella wasn’t in her bed, which didn’t surprise me. She was with Rhett, and Isla and Ava had stayed out all night, too. There was another knock, which reminded me why I woke from the deep sleep in the first place. I pulled on my shorts, a sweatshirt and flip-flops and walked to the door. A moment of terror struck me. What if it was Dustin on the other side? Nash and I’d had such a wonderful day together, I’d all but forgotten about Dustin’s unwanted visit.

I stopped at the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s me, of course,” Emily said in exasperation. “Didn’t you get my message?” My phone was on the charger in the kitchen, and I hadn’t looked at it yet.

I opened the door, and Emily burst in. She looked me up and down and rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Armageddon hits the town, and you’re still sleeping? It’s nearly nine.”

“And my day off and one of the few days I get to sleep longer than the sun.” There was enough chill in the cottage for me to zip up my sweatshirt. If anyone else had used the wordarmageddon,I would have been alarmed, but to Emily, the end of the world was always just around the corner, and it was usually something far below the catastrophe level—like she broke the strap on her favorite purse or dropped her phone in the gutter.

“You didn’t get my message? Where are your sisters? Surely, they’ve heard since Isla’s bakery and Aria’s café were hit.”

“I’m the only one home. What are you talking about?”

Emily grunted in frustration, but I sensed she was thrilled that she had some major news to break. “Someone walked through town last night and broke a bunch of shop windows. The bakery and the café got hit.”

“That’s crazy. Are you sure?”

“Saw the damage with my own eyes.”

I hurried into the kitchen and yanked my phone from the charger. There were five messages from Isla, Aria and Ella combined.

I flicked my finger across the screen to listen to the voicemails, but the front door opened and Ella walked in. “Have you heard?” she asked.

“Emily was just telling me.”

“I had to wake her up,” Emily said.

“Tattletale. I didn’t get much sleep.” It wasn’t a lie. I just didn’t fill in the details of why I lacked sleep. “How bad is the damage?” I asked. “Do they know who did it?”

“The damage was to front windows, and I know both Aria and Isla have insurance to cover it, but there’s glass everywhere, and everything in Isla’s front window will have to be thrown away. I talked to Officer Tuttle.”

Emily giggled. “I’ll bet he was more than happy to give his favorite Lovely sister a few details,” Emily teased. Owen Tuttle or Officer Tuttle, as we all called him even though it felt weird, had had a long running crush on Ella.

Ella ignored Emily’s comment. “A few cameras picked up someone dressed in black pants and a black hoodie. They’ve concluded it was a male by the way he walked and carried himself. He kept his face well-hidden, and it was dark. He was carrying a baseball bat. When I was talking to Owen, outside of the café, he got a call from the precinct that they’d had an anonymous tip come in about the suspect’s identity, so he rushed off to learn more about it.”

“You were at the café?”

“I was helping Aria and Dex sweep the front sidewalk. Isla is over at the bakery with Luke and Rhett. I was chosen to go home and find out why our little sister wasn’t answering her phone.”

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