The cashier’s eyes darted to my arms as I leaned against the small counter next to the credit card reader. I hadn’t done it to intimidate the guy purposely, but I wasn’t going to feel bad about it since the sight of my flexing muscles prompted him to say, “Yeah, I work this shift Tuesday through Saturday, and I usually see her two or three times a week. Most of the time, it’s about half an hour later than today. And she’s almost always dressed in scrubs. I figured she likes to come in and grab stuff on her way home from work.”
I didn’t like how close of an eye he’d been keeping on my grouchy brunette. He’d come up with too many details about her on the fly to only be paying her casual attention. This time when I quirked a brow at him and flexed my arms while I stared him down, it was on purpose. He flinched and the color leached from his face, turning it pale white while he gulped again. His reaction wasn’t enough for me, and I offered him a verbal warning, “What I said about keeping your eyes off her is doubly true when I’m not around. Same with keeping your lips zipped.”
He gave me a jerky nod. “You got it, man.”
With the way he kept quiet as he rung up the rest of my groceries, it was clear that he got where I was coming from and would back off the brunette. Since I was appreciative of the information he’d given me, I took pity on him and flashed him a brief smile after I paid. It grew wider when his shoulders slumped in relief and I turned to push my cart out to the parking lot.
I spotted a flash of long, dark hair from the driver side of the car making a right turn out of the lot and made a mental note of the make and model. The electric blue Mini Cooper would be hard to miss in the future, which boded well for me since I wanted to track down my grouchy brunette again.
Grinning widely, I loaded my groceries into the back seat of the extended cab of my truck and headed to the apartment complex. When I parked next to a now familiar small blue car, I grinned again. “Damn, talk about a lucky break.”
Hefting the groceries in my arms, my grin turned into a deep chuckle when I spotted my brunette in front of the wall of mailboxes in the lobby. My penchant for driving fast must’ve paid off because she’d barely beat me there. She had just shut the door to a box when I walked into the building, and then she headed towards the bank of elevators. Since she was rifling through her mail, she didn’t notice me until she turned around to press the button for her floor and our fingers brushed because we both went for the same one.
I flashed her a pleased grin. “Lucky number seven.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she groaned. “Let me guess. You’re the new neighbor who moved in today? The one who started at the ass crack of dawn, without any regard for the people you might wake up?”
Ah, that explained the grouchiness. “Yeah, that’d be me. I’m sorry. I haven’t adjusted to the time change yet, so for me it felt like nine in the morning instead of seven. Since it’s a weekday, I didn’t stop to think about the possibility of waking up any of my new neighbors.”
“Of course you’re being all nice and polite about it now,” she sighed, using her free hand to squeeze the bridge of her perky, little nose. “While I’m being a total bitch.”
“That’s not how I would word it.” She quirked an eyebrow at me. “I was thinking more along the lines of grouchy, which is understandable if I interrupted your sleep.”
The elevator doors slid open, and I followed her out and down the hallway. She stopped at the door right before mine and turned, offering me an apologetic smile. “My lack of sleep really wasn’t all your fault. I was up late, worried about my best friend because she was in the middle of a situation and I couldn’t get a hold of her.”
“Do you need help with her problem? I can be a handy guy to have around,” I offered.
“Um, no,” she snorted, her blue eyes twinkling with humor. “It’s an unusual situation that’s pretty difficult to explain, but my boss seems to have it well under control. He’s”—she squinted her eyes and her nose wrinkled—“uniquely qualified to help out with her problem. In more ways than one.”
There went my opportunity to step in and impress my new neighbor. Her boss—another guy who probably wanted to show off for his gorgeous employee—already had it handled. “Your boss?”
“Yeah, I’m a nurse. My boss is a doctor who specializes in reproductive endocrinology, which is part of what makes him perfect to help my best friend.”
“And the other part?”
“That would be the reason for me frantically trying to reach her last night, before she made a huge mistake. Or at least I thought it would be one. Now I’m not so sure.” She jiggled her bags. “But that’s a conversation for another day. I’d better get inside since I don’t want my ice cream to melt.”
“I guess I’ll let you get going. It was nice meeting you…” I looked at her expectantly as I let my sentence trail off.
She quickly got the hint and introduced herself, “I’m Melody Carson.”
“I’m Trace Chapman.”
“Of course you are,” she mumbled before opening her door.
I headed down the hallway to my apartment after she went into hers, and I was filled with determination that “another day” would happen sooner rather than later. Much, much sooner.
Chapter Three
Melody
For the rest of the week, it felt like I ran into my new neighbor everywhere I went. When I left my apartment, he seemed always to be leaving his too. He was in the lobby getting his mail twice when I came home from work. I even ran into him at the grocery store the other two nights. It was almost like he had a copy of my schedule or something.
It didn’t matter the time of day or what he was wearing—like the custom-tailored, three-piece suit from yesterday morning or the athletic shorts and t-shirt he had on today—he was impossible to ignore. With the way his green eyes lit up whenever he saw me, I would’ve had to have been heartless even to try it. His persistent friendliness only made me feel guiltier about how cranky I’d been with him the night we’d met.
And then there was how he treated me whenever we bumped into each other. He walked me to my car in the morning since his big truck always seemed to be parked next to it, even if it hadn’t been there when I pulled in. At the grocery store, he insisted on helping me load my bags into the car and carrying them up to our floor when we got back to the apartment building. He always waved me into the elevator first, keeping his arm in the open doorway to make sure it didn’t close on me.
But being a gentleman didn’t stop him from flirting with me. Relentlessly. He told me how beautiful I looked, even at the end of a particularly hard shift when I felt like I’d been run over by a bus. He asked me out for coffee. Breakfast. Dinner.
At first, I’d said no out of habit more than anything else. I was totally out of practice when it came to dating because it had been a while since I’d gone out with anyone. Not that I didn’t get asked out by guys. I just hadn’t been tempted into agreeing lately. But Trace was more tempt
ation than any woman could handle and it was becoming hard to not take him up on his offers.
The last two times he’d asked, I’d been regretful when I declined. Work had been more exhausting than usual since my boss was full of an almost frenetic energy and it was exhausting just being around him all day at work. When I called Madison to blame her for it, she’d burst into a fit of giggles. After she’d calmed down, she started to tell me how it was a good thing Ethan was using up some of his spare energy at work because she wasn’t sure if she’d survive their nights together if he didn’t. At that point, I’d hung up. I didn’t want to know too many details about their sex life—especially when I didn’t have one of my own.
I didn’t have energy after work for much more than changing into my pajamas and passing out while binge-watching shows on my favorite streaming service. But now it was Saturday afternoon, I’d slept for almost ten hours last night, and Trace was standing in my doorway...trying to tempt me with my favorite ice cream and wine. They were the same brands I’d bought the night we met. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
“You remembered?”
His lips kicked up in a grin. “Of course I did. Everything about you is memorable, angel face.”
“Wow.” I realized I’d said it out loud when Trace’s smile grew wider. Feeling a little embarrassed, I hurriedly added, “Except you must’ve missed the pizza since you only brought wine and ice cream.”
“I was hoping to use the wine and ice cream as a bribe to get you to come out and grab a pizza with me.”
That was such a smooth comeback. He was definitely going to keep me on my toes. “A bribe, huh?”
His head tilted to the side as he held the items out for me to take. “Is it working?”