Page 13 of The Problem with Dating
My couch was comfortable, but not that comfortable. And who was I kidding? I had no idea how long it would take to fix the damage to the floors, and I didn’t want to live out of boxes and inconvenience. I had two extra bedrooms, why not set up in one of them and be done with it? I could save the decorating and all that for when I could finally move into the master suite, but until then, a spare bedroom would do.
“Actually, I’m going to take one of the spare bedrooms,” I told him. “Can you guys set up the bed in the room closest to the guest bathroom?”
Donald winked at me. “Sure thing, Echo.”
I smiled. “Thank you,” I replied. “You guys are the biggest help.”
“No problem,” he chuckled. “It’s what we do.” Then he hollered over at Cecil as he was coming out of the house. “We’re setting up the bed in the east bedroom.”
“No problem,” Cecil echoed as he made his way towards us.
I dutifully turned around and stepped out of their way. However, it was only to come face-to-face with Gideon Hayes again.
Goddamn it.
“What are you still doing here?” I demanded. “Why haven’t you gone into your house to schedule clubbing baby seals into your week or whatever it is that miserable people do on their weekends?”
“You’re having them set up your bed?” he asked, completely ignoring my frustrations.
“So?”
Gideon crossed his big arms over his chest, and I hated how the sinewy muscle danced with the movement. It really was a shame that he was so good-looking. And it was a goddamn tragedy that he was my neighbor. Doing my yard and setting up holiday decorations didn’t sound like much fun any longer. Not if this jackass was living next to me.
“So?” he bit out. “How can you blindly trust some stranger to be in your home?”
I mimicked his stance and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re right,” I scoffed. “After all, I trusted your mother when she offered her help.”
Gideon growled. “Leave my mother out of this,” he snapped.“Shedidn’t do anything wrong.”
“Other than raise an asshole? Yeah, you’re right,” I snapped back but immediately regretted it. It sounded like I was talking crap about Louise and I wasn’t. Gideon was right. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
His arms dropped to his sides. “You know wha-”
“I’m sorry,” I rushed out. “That was unfair, and I like Louise.”
Gideon regarded me for a long moment before saying, “He was checking out your ass.”
I shook my head. “What? What are you talking about?”
He jerked his head towards the truck. “The one in the green shirt,” he said. “He was checking out your ass when you walked back over here.”
“So?” I mean, really. Cecil was nice to look at and those arms boasted of some awesome wall sex. Plus, it’s been over a year since I’ve had sex. After the divorce, I’d been too busy getting my life back together to worry about dating. But now…
Gideon took a closer step towards me. “So, I don’t like it,” he growled.
Chapter 8
Gideon~
Icouldn’t believe it.
I mean, I knew it was true, but it still seemed a little unreal.
Echo Woodward was my newest neighbor and that was further proof of what an idiot I’d been last night.
About eight months ago, my former neighbor, Stanley Herbert, had come over to tell me about how his tub pipes had been leaking for a while, but he hadn’t though it a big deal. That was, until he’d stepped into his bathroom one day and the tile had sunk.
I had gone over to assess the damage, and it hadn’t exceeded beyond the master bedroom. The water had seeped a bit into the bedroom and a bit into the outer hallway. The problem with the hallway was that the wall was a bearing wall and that’s where he was probably going to get charged out the ass for.
