Page 48 of Noble Neighbor
Urgh.Clothes. Her weakness. Sunny’d often stopped to admire the outfits in Merle’s window. The designs in the shop were phenomenal, things she could see herself wearing. Especially to a wedding with Oliver.
“Sunny?” Bella prodded her shoulder and Sunny dragged her head up off the counter, her mind ripped from Lorena’s meddling into the present.
Gripping the wooden edge with both hands, she focusedon her friend. “Sorry.”
“What’s scaring you?” There was no condemnation in Bella’s gaze or tone. Only genuine concern and the desire to understand.
But Sunny wasn’t ready to let go of more layers.
And some she would never peel back. “Nothing. Everything.” She wasn’t making sense. Most likely because she was so utterly confused herself.
“Oliver is a good man,” Bella remarked, measuring coffee into the filter.
“I know he is, Bella.” Oliver wastoogood a man to be caught up in her mess.
But the past is dead and buried, Sunny.
There was no reason for it to affect her future. No reason for Oliver to knowallthe skeletons lurking in her closet.
Bella leaned in and made eye contact. “He’ll treat you right,” she said.
Blowing out a breath, feeling guilty for perpetuating Bella’s misassumption of her past, Sunny looked away. In the street, people were bustling about their lives. Young moms running errands while kids were at school. Seniors meeting friends, whiling away an afternoon together. Farmers coming into town for supplies. Despite its low population rate of around two thousand souls, it was an active community.
It was a good place to start over.
The past was … well, in the past.
“I suppose” — she looked at Bella from underneath her newly cut bangs — “attending a local wedding on the arm of my sexy neighbor wouldn’t hurt.”
Bella’s grin stretched wide as she placed a cappuccino before Sunny. “Atta girl.”
Sunny took a moment to view the heart Bella had drawn within the foam. “Seriously?”
*
Oliver thought it prudent to watch for Sunny and get the confrontation over with. She was upset with him. Ire had dripped from her voice when she’d called to inform him she was fetching the girls from school, andwould he like her to bring Clement, too?Okay yeah, he had been a bit sneaky with this latest move, but when Lorena had called, suggesting Sunny be his plus-one at the wedding?
He wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. No siree.
Hearing her SUV, he parked himself in the kitchen doorway and waited. Oh yeah, Sunny was on fire all right, because she shot out of the SUV before the kids had even undone their seat belts and marched over to him. Eyes mere slits, Oliver could almost hear the rebuke forming in her mind. She was going to rip him a new one, but perversely, he preferred her steaming temper over the deliberate indifference of the last days.
Blonde-streaked hair glinted in the sun as her head moved from side to side, the tips a rich honey and flipped up in a cheeky manner. He was dying to run his hands through her newly shorn locks, grip tight, turn her head just so, and devour those lips of hers.
Until his gaze dropped. A slouchy sweater in the palest of blue bared one side of her neck and part of a shoulder, revealing the darker blue bra strap. Her breasts, delightful but as yet untouched-by-him breasts, bounced behind the soft material as she stomped up the steps. His lips would also love to explore a path down that creamy neck and spend time on the concealed bounty.
Oliver averted his eyes before he ended up doing something really bad, say drool. Or worse, reach out and grip her hips, pull her close, and feel every inch of her delectable body against his.
“I’ve a bone to pick with you,” she hiss-yelled, placed a flat hand on his chest and shoved hard.
Wrong choice of words, sweetheart.
Oliver groaned, stepping back to regain his balance. His dick, already on alert as it always was around Sunny, was developing a boner he was powerless to prevent.
Grabbing the hand still pressed to his chest, Oliver whirled about and dashed through the kitchen, tugging her with.
“What are you doing?”
He ignored her and heaved a sigh of relief when he finally pulled her into his office and slammed the door shut. He locked it, pocketing the key with a feral smile.
