AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You really shouldn’t.”
“Believe me, I know.” She bent over and picked up her dog’s waste, then tied a knot in the bag. Her animal stared me down, scratching the grass behind him. I stared him down right back and made a growling noise in the back of my throat, baring my teeth while I did. Rosa laughed outright when her dog pricked up his ears, like he was readying to charge me. “Oh, calm down, Peanut. He’s harmless.”
“Am I?” I drawled.
Her eyes were shrewd. “No, I suppose you’re not. But that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
Bloody know-it-all neighbors.
She started down the sidewalk. “I’ll make sure to tell Zoe I saw you, if you’re about to leave.”
I set my hands on my hips, but she’d already given me her back.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
The screaming had intensified, but I turned back toward the door, pressed the doorbell, and tucked my hands behind my back. Inside the house, I heard Zoe’s attempt to soothe Mira.
Unsuccessfully.
And the screaming came closer.
I rubbed at the bridge of my nose, dropping my hand just as she opened the door.
Zoe had not been awake as long as I had, given she was still in her pajamas, her hair wild and untamed around her face.
Her legs were bare and tan, covered only by small black sleep shorts.
And her face was slack with shock at the sight of me.
Behind her in the family room, Mira continued to scream. I couldn’t see her, but I’d bet the entire neighborhood could hear the sounds coming from that child’s mouth.
“I’ll be right here on the porch, Mirabelle,” she said. There was a slight pause in the crying, even though Mira didn’t fully stop. “And I promise you we’ll find Froggy today, okay?”
The wailing intensified, and Zoe stepped out onto the front porch so she could close the door behind her. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, which I didnotstare at, because it didn’t matter if she was wearing a bra behind the black sleep shirt, and I wasn’t a fucking pervert.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
It wasn’t said harshly. She wasn’t glaring. And somehow that made it all so much worse.
No, Zoe was exhausted. That much was obvious.
“You look tired.”
The words tumbled out before I could stop them, and when her eyes narrowed in annoyance, I knew I’d fucking stepped in it.
“Do I? Maybe it’s because we were up half the night, and I don’t sleep much anyway these days, because I suddenly found myself a single mom to a child who didn’t come with an instruction manual, you pompous prick.” She tilted her head, and that gaze she aimed in my direction was like a fucking weapon. She could level cities with those eyes, and I fought the instinct to cover my balls. “Is that whyyoulook so well rested, Liam?”
I held up my hands. “I’m sorry.”
She tightened her arms and gazed down at the ground. I could breathe a bit easier when she did. I’d never liked the way my chest felt when Zoe Valentine looked at me.
“For what I said just now,” I continued. “And for not stepping up to help you.”
Her face snapped up, her gaze snagging on mine. But she didn’t speak.
The words were hard to force out, but I kept Chris’s face in the forefront of my mind while I did. “I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to make this worse than it is, and it’s already fucking awful.”
She licked her lips, and I also tried not to stare when she did that.
