Page 15 of Temptress

I sat back on my haunches and twisted in her direction, the wide brim of my gardening hat blocking out the worst of the sun. If I thought the girl was pretty from a distance, she was downright stunning up close. I smiled brightly, dusting the soil from my gloves before pulling them off and dropping them to the grass beside me. “Hi back.”

She took a hesitant step closer. “I’m Darcy.”

“That’s a pretty name, sweetheart. Very fitting. I’m Sloane.”

Her cheeks turned a lovely pink as she blinked and cast her eyes downward as a smile creeped across her lips. “Thanks. I like your name too.”

I held up a hand as she came a little closer. “Now, before you come any closer, is there anything in here that can make you sick?”

Her grin got even bigger, her smile lighting up her whole face. “No, it’s all fine. It’s just the roses, and you got rid of those.”

After her father’s chainsaw attack on the rose bushes, the idea of her getting sick or hurt or anything bothered me so much, I’d gone out the following evening and dug everything up by the roots so there would be no more risk. As much as I loved those roses, and as beautiful as they were, it wasn’t worth keeping them if they were going to make someone sick.

“Well then come on over,” I invited, smiling brightly as she closed the rest of the distance between us. I patted the ground beside me, and she lowered herself onto her knees just like me. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

“You too. And I’m sorry about that, by the way.” She pointed over her shoulder. “The roses, I mean. They were really pretty. My dad’s super overprotective.” She rolled her eyes in that dramatic way teenage girls excelled at. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“Oh, honey. You don’t have to apologize for that. And don’t be embarrassed either. It’s great that he’s so protective. You should consider yourself lucky.”

She lowered her head, staring down at the flowers in front of us. Her hand tentatively came out to brush against the velvety petals. “Yeah, I guess,” she said quietly.

My smile fell into a frown of concern. “Everything all right?” As soon as the question left my mouth, I realized I really had no right to ask such a personal question of a girl I didn’t even know. “You don’t have to answer that. It’s not my business—”

“I’m mad at my dad for moving us here.” Her words spilled out at a rapid-fire pace, catching me off guard.

I blinked, struggling to think of something to say, but apparently she wasn’t finished.

“I mean, it’s soboringhere,” she huffed, that earlier hesitance completely gone. “I hate it here. I miss my friends and my mom.” Her whole frame slumped with sadness. “I just want to go home.”

“Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry.” I reached out and placed my hand on top of hers. I just couldn’t help myself. She looked so sad, it broke my heart, and my instinct was to make it better. “Moving somewhere new is never easy, but this place isn’t all that bad.” I smiled and leaned over, bumping my shoulder into hers. “Trust me. I’m far too cool to live somewhere lame.”

Her smile returned, along with a giggle, and I considered it a win.

“So, tell me about you. What’s Darcy like?”

She shrugged shyly, drawing random patterns in the soil with her index finger. “Not much to know.”

“Oh, I doubt that. I look at you and I see a very interesting girl.” Her face flushed, the prettiest pale pink glowing on the apples of her cheeks. “You’re starting school soon, right? Are you excited?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down. “I’m... I’m nervous. I don’t know anyone there.” She picked up a bit of dirt and let it sprinkle from her fingers. “I won’t have any friends. It sucks.”

“That just means you get to make all new friends. I know that might seem like an impossible task, but you just have to think of it as a fresh start.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she murmured. “My mom said the same thing. She basically had to do the same thing too.”

My curiosity was officially piqued. I felt my eyebrows rising high on my forehead as I asked, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. She just got promoted at her job, and she had to move to London, for like a year. That’s why I had to move here with my dad,” she finished somewhat sourly.

“True, but look at it this way, that’s really exciting for your mom, right? I mean, London? How cool! And a promotion too? I bet she deserved that, huh?”

I wasn’t totally ignorant to the plight of fourteen-year-old girls. Hell, I’d been one myself. I knew that every little thing could easily be blown way out of proportion in an effort to make life so much more dramatic than it actually was. After all, when we’re that age, we basically want our lives to play out like soap operas, and we go out of our way to make that happen. And I knew we could also be a tad selfish and short-sighted. It wasn’t done on purpose, but it was easy to get lost in our own pain at that age.

I knew she most likely hadn’t given any thought to how great this opportunity was for her mother, not because she was cruel or uncaring, but simply because she’d forgotten. I figured a small reminder might have been enough to pull her out of the funk she was in from having to move away from her friends.

I watched her profile, seeing the instant realization hit. “Yeah. Totally. I mean, she’s like, thebestmom ever. And she was really excited.”

The curiosity was killing me. From what Silas had said the first time we met about not having a wife, I could only assume he and Darcy’s mother were divorced. I wanted so badly to ask questions, but I bit my tongue, refusing to let the words spill out. As much as the man next door fascinated me, his private life wasn’t any of my business. Not to mention how messed up it would have been to grill a teenager for information on her dad. I swallowed down my interest and focused on Darcy instead.

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