Page 27 of Noble Neighbor
The hound managed a croakyarf, sealing his future with the Jones girls.
Sunny raised her eyes to the vet. “You make sure this guy gets better.”
The vet had promised to do her best but warned her it was a fifty-fifty situation.
Fifty-fifty wasn’t good enough,she thought now and sniffled, rubbing the back of her hand across her nose.
Bella moved her chair and placed her arm around Sunny’s shoulders. “He’ll pull through, Sunny. He’s a strong dog. And if he loses his leg, well, he’s got you and your girls to love him.”
Sunny rested her head on Bella’s shoulder and thought how wonderful it was to talk to someone like this. For too long it had just been her and the girls, and she had shouldered the day-to-day stuff for the three of them without the benefit of a sympathetic ear.
“Thanks for listening, Bella.”
“Hey, that’s what friends are for.”
Sunny closed her eyes for a long moment.
Yes, this felt good. Really good.
“So, wanna give me the quick and dirty on you and your neighbor.”
Sunny stiffened, straightened.And there was the con to friendship.“We’re just friends.”
Her maybe-not-a-friend-anymore chuckled.
“I’m serious, Bella. We’ve discussed it. Just friends,” Sunny insisted.
*
Just friends. Just friends. Just. Friends.Fuck. Oliver paced, driving himself insane. Therewassomething between them. He knew it. The visceral reaction he’d felt wasn’t one-sided.
It’s not like he’d asked her tomarryhim. But she’d put up walls, stopping their whatever-the-hell-it-was before it even had a chance to develop.
And did her fucking white house have to be in his face all the fucking time?
He kicked at the railing. He’d been writing, or rather, trying to write, all morning. Dirk was in a particularly irksome situation with his nemesis, Roxy—
“From your surliness, I guess visiting Sunny didn’t go the way you’d planned?”
Oliver swung around to face his father. “She wants to be friends, Dad,” he muttered, placing his hands on his hips. “For the first time in years, I’m attracted to a woman, and she wants to be friends. Just friends. How on earth am I going to do that? Every time I see her, I want … more.” Oliver ran a hand through his hair.
“Hmmm.”
He snorted. “Thanks, Dad. Very helpful.”
He turned and fisted the handrail.
“Well, how much … more do you want?”
“I …” How much? Did he want to bed her, feel her body move in time to his, explore every tempting inch of her smooth skin until she screamed his name? Yes, absolutely.
Did he want something more, like more,more?
No. Yes. Maybe. He slapped a hand against the wood. He wasn’t sure. But he sure would like the opportunity to figure it out.
“I seem to recall you having the devil of a time convincingChristie to give you a chance. That didn’t deter you.”
He’d been a rookie when he’d met Christie. Pulled her over for speeding. The blonde beauty in her sporty red Beemer had tried to talk her way out of the ticket. Smitten, he’d let her off with a warning, but being a cocky bastard, he’d wrangled a coffee date out of her first.
