God, I’m such a ditz.
“If you’re up for it, of course,” he says when I’m too busy drooling to answer.
“Iwouldn’t mind,” I say, reality punching back into me like a familiar fist. “It’s just, my dad—my stepdad… He’s not, like, super friendly. In fact, you should probably go. He wouldn’t want me talking to strangers, even if you are the neighbor.”
That’s putting it so nicely I almost laugh. If the neighborhood kids started frequenting our pool, Lee would sit on the back porch with his Glock and use them for target practice. My family keeps things behind closed doors. We don’t go meet the neighbors—hence it being two weeks since we moved in before any of us met him. We sure as hell don’t invite the neighbors over for a pool party. The only reason Lee wants this back in working order is so he can have something no one else has, something worth coveting, and maybe invite a few officers over to show it off.
Our job is to make sure everyone knows he’s the best. To shine a light on his goodness and hide the badness in shadow. Telling the neighbor, a virtual stranger, the truth would lead to dire consequences. I may only be seventeen, but that lesson comes from experience, not age. We don’t tell strangers our problems. We tell them they’re unwelcome when they ask to use our pool, and we pretend we don’t see their face fall, and we stop ourselves from backtracking and offering a compromise.
This is family business. We don’t air our dirty laundry in public. No one else needs to know what goes on behind those doors. Letting someone in, letting them come over on the regular, lounge beside pool and draw me in with dirty jokes and criminal smiles, would be too risky.
I’m afraid to look at Lennox, afraid he’ll see something I don’t want seen. So I stare into the mess at the bottom of the pool while he says goodbye, and I tell myself it’s better this way. Tempting as it is to flirt with the hot neighbor, it’s the last kind of trouble I need to bring into my life. I’ll be gone in a year anyway. I just have to make it to graduation—no distractions, no connections that will tie me here.
So, with my stupid heart screaming at me that I’m the one being stupid, I let him walk across the lawn and disappear back onto his own side of the fence.
He’ll probably never talk to me again.
two
Lennox North
“I met the neighbor,” I say, kicking the door closed behind me and tossing my work gloves on the side table. I tromp over and drop my sweaty ass onto the couch beside my twin.
“Yeah?” he asks, not looking up from Mortal Kombat.
“She’s fine as hell,” I say, watching him like he might ejaculate at the mention of hot pussy. With my brother, it’s a very real possibility.
“I didn’t think you were into old women, but okay,” he says, manhandling the controller until I’m sure it’ll break. “Maybe you and Billy can double date before the cop splatters your brains. If you have any.”
“Not the mom,” I say, grabbing the other controller. “The daughter.”
“Didn’t think you were into little kids, either,” he says. “Guess it explains why you never get any action outside the crew. I’ll let Mom know to keep the kids away from Uncle Lennox next Christmas.”
“Fuck off,cabrón,” I say. “I didn’t even know they had a kid. They moved in two weeks ago, haven’t seen her once.”
“Yeah? Maybe her mommy doesn’t let her play with strangers.”
Remembering she said something similar about her dad, I throw my leg over his, slumping down next to him. “You seen her?”
“Si,I seen her,” he says. “What about it?”
“You think she’s fine?”
“I think it doesn’t matter. You don’t fuck with a cop’s daughter, parce.”
“Maybe he lets her date.”
Maddox laughs. “Since when do wedatebitches?”
I shrug. “I could date a bitch.”
“Stay away from that one unless you want to spend eight to ten years in prison.”
I just laugh. “She’s not that young.”
“Bullshit.”
“Well, she’s fine as hell anyway.”