The Boy Next Door: A Standalone Small Town Romance (Soulmates Series Book 3) (2 page)

Chapter 3: Laney

It only took me a few hours on
the interstate to get to Glastonbury, and as soon as I turned onto the off
ramp, I felt like I could breathe again.

At the light, I tried to ignore
my left ring finger, which seemed to almost be taunting me with the fact that
it wanted something different. But its silent jeers weren’t enough to make the
rest of my body feel guilty.

However, I did feel a little bad about
blowing off work, and my boss hadn’t exactly been gracious about it. But I
always took the shittiest shifts and that was- fingers crossed- my job security
taken care of.

As I cruised through the city
center, I couldn’t help but feel uplifted by all the friendly faces and the
quaint vibe of the colorful town. If New York was an over the top triple fudge
Sunday, Glastonbury was an unassuming Nilla Wafer.

Sure, some people are all about
the big and decadent, and I’d been trying to become one of those people for
years. Unfortunately, I was always in the mood for a Nilla Wafer, and that was
the point of difference on which the Big Apple just couldn’t compete.

The cities were like night and
day, and the evidence was everywhere.

While waiting at a crosswalk, the
family crossing the street smiled at me. All of them. It was evident that the
mom had made clear the lesson that you always make eye contact with the driver
so you can get safely across.

In New York, the rule was to
always keep at least one person between you and the closest bumper.

A few minutes later, I saw I
woman drop a piece of paper, and two people took off after it to help her steal
it back from the wind.

In the city, you had to hold onto
your possessions so tightly the wind would never get ahold of anything in the
first place. And if it did, you better hope it wasn’t important because your
shit was as good as gone.

Five minutes later, feeling no
less panicked than when I found the ring but breathing much better, I pulled my
little two door Chevy into my Grandma Helly’s driveway.

Her house hadn’t changed much
since I’d first come to live with her when I was thirteen. Except for the flag
by the front door, which she changed every month into whatever the brightest
seasonal eyesore she could find was.

At the minute, a jumbo duckling
waved in the breeze, providing such a bright flash of yellow it was surprising
the sun even bothered showing up.

On my way to the door, I felt a
pang of guilt that I hadn’t been up in a year, but hopefully my negligence would
be forgiven in light of my surprise visit.

I knocked and rang the bell, but
there was no answer so I walked around to the back door.

The scene I found made my heart
grow two sizes.

Grandma Helly was in her
gardening knee pads in front of an upturned Frisbee full of fresh milk. In
front of her, three cats were lapping away while she blabbed to them like they
were there not for the milk, but for an audience with her.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” I
said, stepping onto one of the irregularly shaped stones that formed a giant Celtic
pattern on the ground in the back garden.

Her face lit up when she saw me.
“Laney!” She rose to her feet like a woman half her age. “What a nice
surprise.”

We met halfway across the slate
stones, and she gave me a smothery grandma hug that was strangely grounding.
Then she leaned back and admired my face like it was the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel and she’d waited her whole life to behold it.

“Glad to see you, too, Grandma,”
I said. “I hope you’re not too busy for another thirsty visitor.”

“Not at all, and don’t mind
them,” she said, waving a hand towards her furry guests. “You know me. I don’t
even like cats. Let’s get a cool drink, and you can tell me everything.”

I smiled. She was always
insisting people tell her
everything
even if there was nothing going on.
I’d forgotten how much pressure it could be to keep her entertained. Not that
she wasn’t always ready to jump in with a story of her own, many of which were
complete fabrications.

“There’s not much to tell,” I lied,
unsure of whether I was ready to discuss that morning’s incident out loud.

“Don’t give me that bull,” she
said, holding the screen door open for me. “You didn’t come all this way because
you’ve got nothing to talk about.”

I walked through the mudroom into
the kitchen. “I see you’re still into crystals.”

“Crystals are into me,” she said,
opening the fridge door. “Now for what we’re going to get into you.”

“Water’s fine.”

“Nonsense,” she said. “I just
made lemonade this morning.”

“Perfect.”

“Are you hungry?” she asked,
setting a frosty looking pitcher on the counter.

My eyes bounced around the flat crystals
that hung in front of the kitchen window like stained glass. “Is that pink one
new? It’s pretty.”

She furrowed her thin brows.
“You’re attracted to the pink one?”

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

She took a deep breath and pulled
two tall glasses down from the cupboard. “You want to tell me what’s on your
mind?”

“Not food,” I said. “To answer
your question.”

“Are you sure?” she asked,
pouring two glasses. “I won’t even make you clear your own dirty plate. As a
special treat.”

I laughed. “That’s very
thoughtful of you, but I’m fine for the minute.”

“Suit yourself,” she said,
shaking her head and setting the glasses down on the stone coasters I’d unstacked.

“I’ll let you know if I need something.”

“Please do,” she said. “You deserve a bit of pampering. I know
how hard you work in that diner.”

“If only I had more to show for it.”

“Is that what this is about?” she asked. “Are things bad at
work?”

“Not any more than usual.”

“Is it your boyfriend? Have you guys had a disagreement?”

“No.” I scrunched my face. “But I kind of drove here to prevent
one.”

She clasped her hands in her lap. “Tell me everything.”

“I’d rather talk about how great the garden is coming along
first.”

“The garden isn’t going anywhere,” she said, leaning back in her
chair.

“Or get filled in on the Glastonbury gossip I’ve missed out on
since my last visit.”

“You’ll enjoy that more after dinner when I’ve got a drink in my
hand. Besides, you know I think gossiping during daylight hours is tacky.”

I took a deep breath and looked in her kind eyes. “The truth is,
Grandma, I don’t want to burden you.”

She threw her eyes to the sky and then leaned forward, placing
one of her soft hands on mine. “Honey, I’ve lived thirty five lives in the last
four hundred years. I promise I can handle it.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I’m sure,” she said, resting her chin on her hands. “Tell me
everything.”

Chapter 4: Connor

I whistled up the stairs. “Sarge!
You coming or staying?”

A moment later, the young golden
retriever appeared on the landing.

“Staying?” I asked.

He laid down at the top of the
steps.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I
mumbled, closing the door behind me and picking up the basket of fresh tomatoes
I’d left on my front step.

It had been almost a year, and it
still felt weird closing the front door of my house without calling good bye to
my parents. Fortunately, Sarge had made the place feel a little less empty.

I made my way down the sidewalk
and over to the house next door, wondering what compelled Helly to put up those
godawful flags.

I liked a bit of color as much as
the next guy and animals were my thing, but a giant cartoon duckling waving in
the wind was a bit more fun than I needed to have on the average walk to my
mailbox. Or her front door.

I knocked and rang the bell,
deciding if she wasn’t home I’d just leave the basket on her back porch.

But just as I was about to step down
from the stoop, the door opened.

My heart stopped when I saw her.

It was all I could do not to drop
the tomatoes.

At first, we just stared at each
other, me and the girl next door, the girl I’d once wanted everything with, the
girl who broke my heart like it was nothing.

We stared at each other like we
were kids again and had only just discovered that the opposite sex was
interesting.

But neither of us said anything.

It felt like an eternity, even
though it was probably only a few seconds.

Then again, that’s all it takes for
everything to come flooding back, all it takes to irritate the scars of a
broken heart.

A few seconds was all it took for
her to change my life the first time I saw her, too, and I could almost feel it
happening again: the earth shifting below my feet, the clouds parting, the
hormonal adolescent confusion setting in.

“Laney,” I said. She hadn’t
changed a bit. Her hair was still the same dirty blonde, her eyes the same pool
blue. Even the way her short black t-shirt hung off her breasts was familiar. So
much for spending all those years trying to forget what she looked like.

“Connor.”

“What are you doing here?” I
asked, wondering why I couldn’t have come in my uniform or, at the very least,
a clean goddamn shirt. What had I done to deserve her catching me in my college
sweats with a basket of fucking tomatoes?

I considered backing all the way
down the driveway, disappearing around the corner, and letting her think she’d
imagined the whole thing. Of course, then I would be far away from her again.
And I’d tried that. It was even harder than being near her.

“I was going to ask you the same
question.”

I raised the basket. “I was just
going to drop off some tomatoes for Helly.” It sounded even less cool when I
said it out loud.

“Tomatoes?” She stared at the
basket but didn’t reach for it.

I nodded. “They’ve sort of taken
over.”

“Taken over what?”

“My backyard.”

She squinted at me.

“Or rather, what was formerly my
parent’s backyard.”

She furrowed her brow. “You moved
back home?”

“My folks moved to Florida.” I
couldn’t tell if she wasn’t happy to see me or if she was just similarly
shocked. Not that that made any sense. The odds were good we’d run into each
other eventually. But I never thought-

“You look good,” she said, her
eyes softening.

I did my best not to blatantly
check her out. “So do you.”

“Do you want to come in?” she
asked, stepping back to open the door wider.

“Inside?”

She laughed. “Yeah. For a drink
or something?”

Inside? What kind of moron was I?
As if she meant back into her heart. Cop on, man. “Sure.”

She closed the door behind me,
and I set the tomatoes on the bench in the entryway. Then I followed her into
the kitchen, the air seeming full of static everywhere we went. Should I have
hugged her? She didn’t try to hug me. God this was awful.

I couldn’t believe Sarge
abandoned me at a time like this. It was like that little jerk knew I was
walking into something awkward.

“So,” she said, pulling two
glasses down from the cupboard.

I pulled a chair out from the
small round table and sat down. “So?”

“What have you been up to?” She
pulled a pitcher out of the fridge and turned her eyes back on me.

I still couldn’t tell if I was
happy to see her. “Since when?”

“Since I last saw-” She stopped
herself. “Since college.”

“I went to vet school,” I said.

“In Cali?”

I nodded.

She pursed her lips. “Why didn’t
you stay out there?”

“I like the blondes on the East
Coast better.”

She cast her eyes down and
brought the drinks over.

“Thanks.”

“Thank Helly when you see her,”
she said. “She made it fresh this morning.”

“Seriously, though, I missed this
side of the country. It’s homier here, and I’m not exactly surfer dude
material.”

“You look the part.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I learned to
surf and everything. I’d just rather snowboard.”

“And your folks’ house?” she
asked.

“I bought it from them when they
told me they were moving.”

“I thought they liked it here?”

“They did,” I said, laying a hand
on the table. “But my mom’s got Alzheimer’s.”

“Oh my god, Connor.” The color
drained from her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you-”

“No, I’m glad you told me.”

Frankly, I wasn’t sure why I did,
but it’s hard to keep secrets from someone you used to tell everything to,
someone whose own secrets you used to keep. Still kept.

I leaned back in my chair. “My
dad wanted to stay here where things were familiar. He thought that might help
her hold on a bit longer.”

Laney nodded.

“But my mom didn’t want to lose
it in front of her friends. She said she’d rather lose it in front of people
whose opinions didn’t matter to her. That and she said if her days were
numbered they might as well be sunny.”

Laney’s glassy eyes smiled. “It
was sweet of your dad to do what she wanted.”

“I know, especially when he
would’ve had so much more support here. But he could tell she’d made her mind
up.”

Laney took a sip of lemonade and
licked her lips.

My body fired in all the ways it shouldn’t
have. “On the plus side, she forgot she was a smoker.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I
didn’t even realize that could happen.”

“Me neither. But two weeks ago
she came across a pack and accused my dad of smoking Slim Cuts behind her
back.”

“What did he do?” she asked.

“He said he was really sorry and that
he didn’t know what got into him, and then he threw them away.”

“And that was that?”

I nodded.

“Every cloud, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking of the
pain in my chest I felt as a result of seeing her again. “Every cloud.”

“Cheers,” she said, lifting her
glass.

“To what,” I asked, following
suit.

“To your parents,” she said. “May
the Florida sunshine find them in good health and fine spirits.”

“Thanks,” I said, clinking my
glass against hers. “I’ll drink to that.”