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“That’s rough,” she said with feigned sympathy. “Maybe you should save yourself the aggravation and just move out?”

“And give the coward who set this all in motion the satisfaction? Not in a million years. I prefer to appeal the decision and ask for a hearing with the board so I can confront this coward face-to-face.”

“Coward? Or perhaps they’re smart enough to know that if some ignoramus is too stupid to know they should turn their blaring music off by one in the morning, or not take someone else’s parking spot, or not park so close to another tenant’s car they have to climb in from the passenger side, then confronting said ignoramus becomes pointless. A waste of their valuable time.”

That’s it. He’d tried to be nice. Tried to talk to her in a calm, level, and somewhat respectful tone. “Is that right? You think that playing games like siccing the HOA on me or leaking this crap to online gossip rags is going to win you any friends, lady?”

“I don’t want to be friends, I want to be able to come home and not wonder what my inconsiderate, egotistical neighbor has in store for me,” she said, her voice rising. “And as for leaking ‘this crap’ to any gossip rags, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right. It’s just a coincidence stories about my late-night partying hit the web the very next morning after you crashed the party.”

“I can’t be the only one who finds your selfish antics immature and frustrating.”

He studied her, trying to decide whether to believe her or not. Before he could push it farther, a soft, less certain voice broke in.

“Uncle Henry?”

Both of them turned to see the small girl in her bunny pajamas standing in the hall, staring at them with uncertainty and a little fear on her face. Holy hell. Now she was causing him to traumatize his young niece.

“Happy?” he hissed under his breath.

She gave him a scowl, then turned back to the little girl. “Ella? Your uncle and I are just having a little discussion. Nothing for you to worry about,” she said in the familiar soft voice she’d used in her office. “How’s your nose feeling?”

“It’s fine. Are you and Uncle Henry going to yell at each other much longer? Because I need him to pour me more cereal.”

“I’ll be right there, honey,” Henry said, not taking his eyes from Benny Sorensen. For a woman who couldn’t put two words together the other night in the presence of Dr. Suck Face, she could be surprisingly verbal with him.

What the woman needed was a distraction. She needed something or someone to take her attention off every little thing he did. Someone who could fill her time with human companionship, dinners, and dates…

He stepped back and studied her.

She wasn’t a bad-looking woman, not at all. If you could get past th

e lips pursed in disapproval, and the eyes that had their laser-beam quality burrowing a hole in his head. If she stopped pulling her hair back in that unflattering ponytail that left frizzy pieces flying all over her head, maybe tweezed those brows back a bit, and smiled once in a while, she could be actually pretty.

Okay, maybe he’d gone too far. She could be…less terrorizing.

In fact, her eyes were such a bright, iridescent blue that if she could stop glaring at everyone or, in the converse, dropping her gaze down whenever Dr. Suck Face looked her way, they could be almost…captivating.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She peered uncertainly at him.

“No reason.” He smiled. “I think I’ve just come up with a solution to our little problem, however. Would you like to hear it?”

She glanced at her watch and back. “If you can tell me in four minutes or less. I have early-morning hours at the clinic.”

“You work on Saturdays?”

She shrugged. “We hold after-hour care on the weekends. We rotate so it comes to be about once a month. Today’s my turn. You now have three and a half minutes.”

“Okay. I have a little proposition for you. I couldn’t help but notice the other night that you have a certain…affinity to that other doctor. The guy with the blonde attached to his mouth?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I knew you were spying on me. Well, for your information, Dr. Seeley is merely a colleague, and I have no interest in him other than profession—”

He raised his hand. “Save it. If it’s one thing I know, it’s how to read a person. To see what they want sometimes before they know it themselves. That’s why I’m so good at my work. In advertising,” he added when she didn’t bite or look particularly impressed. “And I know that you have the hots for the good Dr. Seeley.”

“Two minutes left,” she said, her eyes narrowed to near slits now. But he also could see a faint blush on her face, making her forehead glow almost red. “I hope you have a point.”

“I do. In exchange for you dropping this”—he waved the notice in front of her— “vendetta you have against me, and telling the HOA that you are withdrawing your complaint and any legal threats you made to them—since they sure as hell have never been this proactive in enforcing the rules in the three years I’ve lived here—I’ll get you a date with the esteemed Dr. Seeley.”


Tags: Ashlee Mallory The Sorensen Family Romance