Page 11 of Fragile Touch (Fragile 1)
I don’t think so. She didn’t have the guts to say it, so she stayed quiet. Cayden handed her the cat, who was clawing at him fanatically. She caught a whiff of his smell again; it was different this time, since he had obviously showered. His clothes were clean, but he still carried a musky aroma in a cloud around him. It wasn’t cologne, she could tell. It was his natural smell. Maybe intensified by some good body wash or something.
Cayden walked away, but just as she was shutting the door he turned and yelled comedically, “You don’t know what you’re missing out on, Lillian Warren!”
“I can imagine!” she called back.
“It won’t be as fun without you!”
A little piece of her heart broke. “Are you always this insistent?”
He struck a pose, stretching the sleeves of his shirt tight. “I believe you mean attractive and alluring.”
“Something like that.” She didn’t realize what she was saying until it was too late. At the positivity, Cayden beamed and disappeared back into his terrain.
Lillian dropped the cat, who ran back into the other room like a maniac. She barely noticed. Lowering herself into her reading chair, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to re-center.
She was a hard one to get. Usually guys had to work to get her to even talk to them. Obviously, it was hard to not talk to someone who knocked on her door, but still. The way she melted in the presence of this guy...that hadn’t happened for a long time. She was sure she had blocked off every vulnerable emotion inside her.
Obviously not.
This situation was so confusing—every aspect of it. How she was so aware of his smell and the way he held himself. Tiny facial movements she had never realized she found irresistible. The fact that his teeth were straight. She had never cared about teeth. Why did she notice his right off the bat?
You want him, said that stupid voice inside her head, and she slammed her fist on the cushiony chair.
“I do not want him,” she said firmly. “He disrupts my routine and my work. And he likes noise. I don’t like noise.”
The instant she heard her voice, her eyes flickered to the door to make sure he wasn’t within earshot. She couldn’t even see him from here. Over toward his house, a door slammed shut.
That would’ve sucked if he’d heard me. She felt air fill her lungs with each inhale. After the incident this morning, her energy level was quite low compared to normal. She knew she had to take it easy or her health would suffer.
“Calm your heart down, Lillian,” she murmured to herself. “He’s just the neighbor. It’s been a while since you’ve been near a guy, but it’s for the best. Your life is just how you planned it, and that’s not going to change.”
Chapter 3
It all changed.
Cayden suddenly became a regular part of her thoughts. She found herself looking out the window when she heard him talking to another neighbor or working in his yard. She started to hate his yard. It was too perfect. So was his body.
He was just so stupidly charming, and he knew it. She hated the fact that he knew it.
She didn’t see him the day after his “small get-together.” There was almost no noise from the little party, so she knew he was telling the truth about not many people coming over. A group of fewer people was more appealing to her, and she wondered why she didn’t go over and at least try something new. Maybe it would have been fun.
Her rational side kept convincing her it was a bad idea to hang out with him and his crowd. Besides, she had better things to do with her time. There was work to do and books to read. She had to work on framing her dried flowers, but she hadn’t felt inspired to do it in over a week.
Every day, multiple times a day, she found herself lost in her mind, trying to figure out why she was so adamant that this guy not have any part in her life at all. And every night she would fall asleep wondering if he was sleeping, too, and if he would ever come back over.
Thursday morning, she woke up ten minutes before her alarm went off. Enjoying the last chunk of time to relax before the day started, she sprawled out on the bed to stretch.
A familiar sharp, cutting noise perked her ears up. It’s too early, she thought. He can’t be outside already. It’s barely 7:00.
There it was again: the sound of hedge clippers. Before Cayden randomly appeared in her life, she cared nothing about what the clippers sounded like. Normally she just wanted everyone to shut off their lawn mowers. How could it take a whole hour to cut a little patch of grass? Then again, she had never cut grass before, so maybe it was harder than she suspected.
But now she knew all the sounds, and almost didn’t mind them as much because it meant he was outside. So close to her house. So close to her.
You really are going crazy, Lillian. She pushed herself up and faced the window. The air was chilly today. An old plaid shirt was draped on a coat hook; she pulled it over her shoulders, shivering just a little.
As she walked down the hall the snip, snip was still audible, albeit barely. It was oddly comforting. Maybe it was the rhythm. Two snips, silence, one snip, silence, two snips. She scooped coffee into the filter, poured the water, and pressed the button.
Snip. Snip.
