Page 29 of Hero Next Door
Ididn’t make it to Parker’s house the next morning, though that had nothing to do with her—or the fact that we’d had far too much to drink last night and I’d ended up walking home because I didn’t think it was a good idea to drive.
No, I didn’t make it to her house as early as I wanted to because Connor and his mother showed up in my kitchen at 7 in the morning.
I startled when I walked in and found them sitting at my kitchen table having coffee. “You two forget that you don’t live here anymore?”
Connor gave me a grin that said he had zero regrets about crashing my house, and his mom gave me one that matched her son’s very closely. I groaned and made my way to the coffee maker, trying to remember whether there was something I was supposed to do for them.
“Well, we figured we’d better show up for the meeting we scheduled with you,” Connor said. When I only looked at him blankly, he shook his head. “The meeting to talk about the horses and the foals you’ll be expecting soon?”
I slapped a hand to my forehead. Oh my God, we’d set this meeting up weeks ago, and I’d forgotten to write it down. And though I should have remembered it this week, my brain had been taken up with slightly more human—and tall and willowy and brunette—matters.
Connor was now laughing outright. “I can see you didn’t remember, and I’m just guessing that other things had your attention. Things like... Parker Pelton?”
The glare I sent him didn’t put him off—not that I was surprised, as Connor had never met a person he wasn’t willing to tease—and he kept going without missing a beat.
“How are things at Butterfly Glen? The house renovation going well?”
I poured half a cup of coffee, hesitated, and then filled it a bit more, wishing I could inject the caffeine right into my veins, and then made for the table, where Mrs. Wheating already had milk and sugar waiting. “Going fine,” I mumbled.
I wished I’d never told him I was doing the damn renovation. At the time, though, it had seemed innocent enough. I’d even had a goal in mind. These days, it had become a whole lot more complicated. And I didn’t want to talk to Connor about it.
But see what I said above about him not being put off by anyone. Ever.
“It’s going fine?”
My scowl got stronger. “Let’s just say I’m not hating it as much as I thought I would.”
Connor pretended to be shocked. “What’s this? The man who doesn’t let anyone in is actually have fun doing a group project with a girl?”
His mom turned expectant eyes on me, her mouth turning up in a smile, and said, “From the blush on his face, Connor, I’m guessing it’s not a group project at all. How many people are actually helping out with it, Dev? Or is it just you two?”
I ground my teeth, hating that they were right. Hating that they knew me so well. “The plumbers were out yesterday to do the piping, actually, and the construction crews start tomorrow with the stuff that we couldn’t handle ourselves.”
Connors eyebrows rose to his hairline. “‘We’? Who’s ‘we,’ exactly?”
If I could have set fire to him with my eyes, I would have. Unfortunately, that was a weapon the Marines had never given me. So no matter how hard I stared at him, he keptnotbursting into flames.
“Parker and I. And I know what you’re going to say next. You’re going to say I’ve gone soft or I have feelings for the girl or we’re friends, or something like that, and you’re wrong. In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t let people like her in. I don’t let anyone in. I’ve lost too many people I cared about to risk it.”
“And yet you’ve let us in,” Mrs. Wheating said softly.
“Didn’t have much of a choice,” I grumbled. “Connor basically forced himself on me, and you came as a package deal.”
They laughed at that, and I got up to start cooking breakfast, just to get away from the rest of the conversation. I hadn’t been lying when I said that the people I cared about always ended up leaving. I also hadn’t been lying when I said I had no intention of letting Parker Pelton in. She’d been very up-front with me right from the start about her intentions. She wanted to fix the house up and sell it so she could get back to Nashville and her real life.
This wasn’t her life. These weren’t her people. And from what I’d seen of her within the town’s limits, she had no wish to ever mend that particular bridge.
And that was just fine. I’d never set out to make friends with the girl. I’d volunteered for the job to make sure she sold that land to the right people, and that was it. Was I suddenly feeling more protective of her than I should have been? Yes. Did I have more feelings for her than I liked—and more than I’d had for anyone since my mom?
Also yes.
But I was smart enough to know I couldn’t let that go to my head. The girl was here for a moment and then she’d be gone. I wasn’t going to let her take my heart with her when she left. I wasn’t even going to loan her my heart in the first place. I’d learned a long time ago that letting people into your heart ended up breaking you, and I just wasn’t in the mood to be broken this week.
This month.
This year.
And I hated that a voice in the back of my head had started whispering in my ear about how nice it would be to have her living next door. How I could wake up and have her over for coffee. Make her some of my famous blueberry pancakes. Maybe even combine the properties and make one big dude ranch.
