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He chuckled, reaching out to take hold of the door. “Why, being with another man, of course.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I thought about it, considered it, but never found a good reason to indulge. Isn’t that peculiar?”
“Uh, is it?” I asked vaguely, unable to hide my surprise.
“For some,” he said, stepping into the house and out of sight.
I stared at the now-closed door in confusion, wondering just what I was supposed to think about that seemingly random information drop. Not that it seemed all that random, considering he had practically baited me into asking. Which meant he clearly had a reason for me to know that little tidbit.
“No,” I finally said, shaking my head.
There was no way I would allow myself to go down that mental pathway. I was not going to read into his words or his intentions. Because either he was screwing with me and wanted to see me squirm, or he was seriously trying to drop some hint while still screwing with me. Either way, he would be successfully messing with me, and I would not let that happen.
I glanced back at the cottage and scowled. “I should have asked about that instead, dammit.”
CHAPTER FOUR
By the end of that first month, I was sure he was keeping an eye on me. Ironically in the last week, he wasn’t around quite as much as he had been in the first three, but when he was around, I could always sense he was. Not that there was any proof, if he was keeping a close eye on me, Shane was proving quite skilled at keeping it subtle. Yet his interest in me and just how crafty he seemed made me suspect he was lurking.
Either that or I needed to get checked out for paranoid tendencies.
At the very least, I could take pleasure in the arrival of Halloween. October was drawing to a close, and my drive to the Perkins’ home was filled with decorations. Cresson Point was only decorated with a few banners, and the occasional store had decided to throw a few things up. It was in the outer limits of the city, such as their neighborhood, where people really showed some holiday spirit.
Including the giant blowup scarecrow, skeleton, and cartoon vampire sitting in the yard directly across from the house. The trees were covered in strings of orange and black lights, though they were off while the afternoon sun was still out. It looked like someone had set up a few fake coffins in the bushes and a fake graveyard equipped with a rubber zombie hand “bursting” from the ground.
“Oh, I’m sure Sophia is enjoying the sight every time she looks out her front windows,” I chuckled as I shifted the car into park.
She had already voiced her opinion about some of the tamer decorations that had cropped up earlier in the week at houses around them. Sophia was a woman who preferred to do her out-of-home business in the morning and was not shy about complaining about the ‘tastelessness’ of the neighborhood.
“Heya, Jeff,” I called to the security guard who was doing his once-an-hour walk around the perimeter of the yard.
He was older than me and a lot harder looking. Jeff was a former marine if the tattoo I’d spotted on his inner arm was any indication, but that was all I knew. I supposed for Sophia, all that mattered was he was big, mean looking and capable of playing security guard.
“Afternoon, Kev,” he said, raising a hand. “Do you ever get a break?”
I laughed, tucking my bag over my shoulder. “I get ’em once or twice a week if I’m lucky.”
He raised a brow. “You work almost fourteen-hour shifts.”
“Overtime is a beautiful, gorgeous thing,” I told him with a grin, opening the front gate. “Especially when it comes time for that paycheck to drop in my account.”
He gave a small smile. “Yeah, I’m not doubtin’ that. Miss Perkins is in a decent mood today, so she might go easy on you.”
“When she decides to take it easy on anyone is the day the moon will fall, and locusts fill the horizon,” I said with a snort.
He shrugged. “She’s not too bad, had squad leaders who were harder on people than she’s ever been on me.”
“You’ve totally called her ‘sir’ before, haven’t you?”
“She don’t talk to me very much.”
“You did.”
He snorted. “Once. Kinda thought she’d have my guts for garters, but she uh, well, it’s hard to say, but I think she took it like a compliment.”
“She absolutely would,” I said with a snort, then pointed to the car I’d parked behind and didn’t recognize. “Who’s here?”
