Becoming what we said never would be

An endless search for the reflection, beyond that

The hidden truth we may never see

Hang a towel over that mirror

Hide the truth of what waits

Play peek-a-boo with your soul

It’ll only send you in a circle

I growled and dropped the pencil. It was crap. It was simply crap. Trying to be fancy one second and laid back the next. That didn’t make for good writing at all. It was sloppy and lazy. It was my mind trying to process too much at once.

I looked out of my kitchen window and smiled. I loved the window. Right above the sink there was a small curtain, a small light. A perfect view of the backyard. My little slice of heaven.

I closed the notebook with the pencil inside.

Behind me two guys were finishing, bringing the last few boxes into the house. I had a large stack of boxes against the wall in the living room. The couches were placed in the middle. It was an attempt at making a home for the moment, which was fine. I preferred everything moved away from the walls because I needed to figure out what paint color I wanted for the rooms. My mind saw something fun. A different color for each room. Nothing neon or too much in your face, but I wanted each room to have its own personality.

Outside I heard a yell.

“Those are the last two boxes.”

I stood in the dining room, looking right to left.

I hurried to sign the papers for the moving guys, signing away I had received everything I was supposed to receive and that they didn’t damage my house.

Grabbing my bag, I hurried to dig out some cash and gave them a tip. They thanked me and left. The door clicked shut and I was alone. In my new house. The house I bought.

“Wow,” I whispered.

I heard another scream.

I rushed to the back door and slid the glass door open. I stepped out to the deck and saw where the scream was coming from.

It was the neighbor.

The little girl.

Sadie.

She was on a swing with someone pushing her from behind.

Every time she flew up into the air she would let out a scream.

I couldn’t really see the person behind her, but it was the guy that had been holding her hand. Her father. I saw sunglasses. I saw his height. I saw his build. I saw his tattoos.

“Go higher, Daddy!” Sadie yelled. “I’m flying!”

It made me laugh.

That was the reason why I took the job at the daycare center. I needed that injection of life into me.

I went back inside and shut only the screen door.

I didn’t mind the noise at all.

I grabbed the notebook from the kitchen and cleared off the dining room table. The boxes could wait a little longer to get unpacked. I opened the notebook and flipped to a new page.

I could still hear Sadie yelling.

Smiling, I decided to write a little.

Remember when we used to scream? For fun? When the wind was our friend, but our scary enemy at night. Tree branches to climb, but in the shadows they were crooked fingers, wanting to scratch our windows. Clutching the chains of a swing set, pumping our legs, needing to fly higher and higher. We believed we could jump on a cloud. Or bite into one like cotton candy at a carnival.

I stopped writing.

The sounds outside were gone.

I walked to the deck again and I saw the swing set in the next yard. The swing was still slowly moving back and forth. Sadie and her father were back inside.

Probably because her mother, his wife, was home. They’d probably cook dinner together, talk, laugh, do the entire family thing. Get Sadie ready for bed and have alone time.

My heart squeezed a little more than I wanted it to. In some ways I felt like I had missed out on a big part of my life. The chance to maybe meet the right guy. The hard part now was that at my age it seemed any single guys either had troubled pasts or came with enough baggage that it would fill my living room like the boxes were.

I gripped the railing of the deck. I looked around. I wanted speakers outside. Small speakers in the corner. How refreshing would it be to sit outside and listen to some music while sipping a cold drink on a hot day while reading or writing?

It made me smile.

The doorbell rang and I jumped and screamed.

I had never heard the doorbell at the new house. Ever. Not even when I came to look at the house. I didn’t press it. How strange was that?

The doorbell rang again. Almost right away.

“Hold on,” I whispered.

I hurried through the house, darting around boxes like an obstacle course.

The doorbell rang a third time.

“Really?” I asked.

I grabbed the door handle and opened it.

I was half considering saying something snarky like what’s the emergency? but I froze.

I was staring at a bouquet of flowers, with the sexiest set of brown eyes almost looking through them at me.

* * *

“These are for you,” his voice said.

So rough. So deep. So sexy.

My tongue felt like it was swollen, my lips like I had just come from the dentist and couldn’t talk.

“Wrong house,” another voice said.

A tiny voice.

I looked down.

It was Sadie standing there.

Sadie?

“You going to take these or what?”

I looked forward again and the flowers were moved down enough so I could see his face. A man that had a jaw beat up from stone, not that smooth look, but something grittier and edgier. Black scruff on his face, the left side of his lip curled like I was annoying him. His eyes were so dark, like his hair. His arms were covered in tattoos. Along with a lot of muscle.

“They’re for me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Some guy delivered them to me. By accident. You’re Emily?”

“That’s me,” I said.

“Well, here. Take them.”

I took the large bouquet of flowers. I grabbed for the tag. It was from the nurses who had helped with my grandmother. They put down the wrong address on the card.

I blinked fast, trying not to choke up in front of the wildly handsome stranger and his daughter.

“She’s pretty,” Sadie said.

Her father looked down at her. “That’s enough.”

I hurried to put the flowers on the table near the door.

“Thank you,” I said. “Sorry about that. And anything else with the moving truck and delivery truck. I just moved in.”

“I didn’t realize that,” he said.

Sort of cocky. Like a damn jerk.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay then.”

“His name is Jake,” Sadie said.

“Sadie,” Jake said.

I smiled.

“And I’m Sadie,” she said. “I live next door.”

“I know that. I saw you on your swing set.”

Sadie’s cheeks turned red and she hugged Jake’s leg. She put her hand to her mouth. She was nervous. She was adorable. Heart melting adorable.

And Jake… he was something else melting adorable.

“Tell your boyfriend to get your address right next time,” Jake said.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I blurted out.

“Well, whatever.”

“Your house is messy,” Sadie said. “Can I play on the boxes?”

Sadie took a step forward and Jake put his hand out. “Not our house, Sadie. Don’t be like that.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I mean, if you want a tour…”

Now I felt my cheeks burning red.

A tour? Did I just invite this guy into my house?

He probably had been in the house many times. He probably was friends with the old neighbors. His wife too. I was the new person.

“I think we’re good,” Jake said. “We have to get going.”

“Daddy is getting pizza,” Sadie said. “You should have some with us.”

Jake turned and scooped Sadie up into his arms. She looked so small in his arms. She gripped his arms. Her little hands touching all that ink. There was something about that…

Jake looked at me, that annoyed look again. “Take care.”

“Yeah. You too…”

He turned and walked away.

Sadie peered over his shoulder and smiled. She gave another small wave to me. I waved back.

I leaned against the open doorway, watching with eyes that weren’t with good intentions at all. Leave it to me to be the woman that moves into the neighborhood and has the hots for the neighbor.

I shut the door and let out a long sigh.

Hot or not, the guy was a total jerk.

A neighbor war may be better than a neighbor affair, right?

Then again… what about having both?