Page 19 of Sheltered By Love

He watches me so closely, that my cheeks start to heat at his scrutiny. I can’t imagine what he’s thinking right now.

It must seem the weirdest thing to befriend an elderly neighbor the way I have.

He probably thinks I’m pathetic.

But he doesn’t mention it again, just slowly nods. “I guess if you trust your neighbor, it’s probably a good idea to have a place to run to,” he says.

“Was it a good idea for me to run to you?”

His eyes drift over my face and for a moment I think he’s going to reassure me I did the right thing, but instead of answering he just grabs his phone and gets to his feet.

“I’ll find you something warm to put on,” he says.

Zane

It’s now five o’clock in the morning and I should be with Garrett.

Instead, I’m cradling a purring rodent in my arms, and my arm is wrapped around a terrified woman wearing my shirt, sweatpants, and socks.

I don’t even remember falling asleep and I sure as hell wasn’t aware of her snuggling up to me.

That I’d have noticed.

What little sleep I managed to find hasn’t stopped me from wondering how I’ve ended up in this situation.

Felicity must have snuck through the gate in the fence and when she had seconds to choose where to go, she ran to me.

Me. The guy who’s been nothing but frosty to her.

It would have been laughable if she’d not risked her neck coming over here. What was she thinking, using the back door? If I hadn’t been awake, I could have shot her.

I push that ugly thought away just as a text message comes in from Garrett.

I need to talk to him before Felicity wakes up and I have to deal with that too, so I ease off the couch, wincing as I try not to disturb her.

I’m not about to let the rabbit loose again, so when I’m sure she’s still sleeping, I take him with me as I pad out of the room.

Garrett is sitting at the table, drinking a cheap coffee, looking like hell, and ready to give me a chewing out.

He eyes Felicity’s pet and rubs at his eyes. “I’m hallucinating. I must be because I know you aren’t holding a rabbit.”

I shake my head and pull out a chair so I can sit opposite. “It’s hers. I let it go it’ll destroy half the house.”

He’s too tired to argue, his mind is on more important things than my neighbor’s pet.

“You must have made quite the impression if she ran over here in the middle of the night.”

I’m not sure I agree. “She wasn’t thinking straight, they could have been watching the front,” I say.

He gets up and wanders over to my refrigerator and comes back to the table with a limp stalk of celery I forgot I bought.

When I give him a look, he puts the celery on the table. “I can’t take you seriously with a bunny in your arms.”

I let him go, and the rabbit hops over to the celery and starts crunching his way through it.

“I’m not saying I’d advise it; I’m saying that because she did, I now have a witness to interview. It’s the first solid lead I’ve had in weeks.”

I stifle a yawn and stretch out the crick in my neck. “You’re forgetting that they might know she’s a witness now.”

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