“Sugar? Here kitty, kitty.”

As soon as she heard me calling, the white cat came flying out of nowhere to rub against my legs. I closed the door behind me and bent down to pet her a few times, the familiarity of home starting to lift my sour mood.

I had to get through a day of errands and work while running on four hours of sleep. Shortly after moving out, I discovered I needed at least seven if I wanted to feel like a functioning human being. It was awfully hard to drag myself out of bed to fulfill my end of the bargain this morning.

It wasn’t until I was in the shower the night before that the thought of Aaron telling my parents about my job crossed my mind. I was already ramped up from the embarrassment that he knew—thinking about it spreading to them before I was ready made it worse.

I had no intention of hiding it forever—there was no way I could with the rumor mill at work—but I wanted them to hear it from me. After I had mentally prepared myself for their possible reactions.

Mandy couldn’t understand why I was so worried about it. She thought my parents were fantastic—and they definitely were. But while they weren’t super religious, they both leaned to the conservative side and my upbringing displayed that. As a teenager, the birds and the bees talk had been handled almost entirely by my aunt and heavily moderated by my father.

I learned more in health class than I did from that censored discussion.

My parents were always a little weird about sex—or at least sex in relation to me. I knew they would question why I took a job in a store devoted to something I was taught to avoid. It was a delicate matter I wanted to handle by myself.

Sugar meowed pitifully from her food bowl and I snapped back to the present. I placed the mail in the labeled box Mom left sitting on the counter and went into the cupboard for her food. After serving a small plate of wet food, refilling the dry food, and getting her fresh water—I was done with my duty for the day.

The urge to linger in the house and stay lost in memory lane was strong. I knew it was only happening because there was one final thing I needed to do while I was here, and it was something I would give my left ear to avoid.

But I had to do it.

“See you tomorrow, Sugar.”

Seeing as I was completely ignored in favor of her lunch, I took my leave. I locked the house back up and marched next door before I lost my resolve. The moment I stepped on the porch, I rang the doorbell and grimaced.

For some reason, this felt even more embarrassing than the night before.

It was made worse when Aaron swung open the door in a pair of loose shorts and no shirt. It was clear that I woke him up from the lack of clothes, his bleary eyes, and the way his wavy brown hair stuck up in all different directions.

Yet I didn’t feel guilty. I couldn’t feel guilty while my face was staring directly at his bare chest.

Holy crap. When did I start sweating?

“Jess? What’s wrong?”

I had no idea it was possible, but his voice was even sexier when it was rough with sleep. It was all I could do not to look down at his shorts to see if what Mandy told me about morning wood was true.

Oh God, do not think about that. Do not look down. Do not pass go.

“Jessa?”

“Nothing’s wrong! I, uh... I was feeding Sugar and wanted to come by to... talk.”

Wow. Could I sound any more awkward? I blamed the bare chest. It was a serious distraction. In my mind, I reasoned that anyone with working eyesight would be in the same boat as me.

The door opened further and he waved me inside before disappearing into a room just down the hall. When he came out a moment later wearing a shirt, I was torn between thanking him and mourning the loss of the sight that would surely haunt my dreams.

“Come in, come in. You don’t need to stand at the door.”

Didn’t I, though? I had the feeling that if I let myself feel too comfortable here, I’d never want to leave. Besides, I did have a valid excuse not to venture further inside.

“I really can’t stay. I’ve got to head home and get ready for work soon. I’m really sorry for waking you up, by the way. I had no idea you’d still be asleep.”

“No problem. My alarm would’ve woken me up in ten minutes regardless.”

His lazy smile made my knees weak. Did he have any idea of the effect he had on women?

“So what’d you want to talk about?”

Right. Back to the matter at hand. For a brief moment, I completely forgot that I came over for a reason besides ogling him.

“It’s stupid. I should have mentioned it last night, but I didn’t even think about it. You see... I haven’t exactly told my parents about my new job and I’d really prefer them not to find out just yet.”

“So you want me to keep my mouth shut?” he asked with a deep chuckle. “I had no intention of mentioning it even if they weren’t in another country.”

That was true. Their spontaneous vacation bought me a few weeks of figuring out how to tell them, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility for Dad to call Aaron at some point just to check in on the house. I needed to do this either way.

“Okay. Thank you. Again, I’m sorry to bother you.”

“You could never bother me, sweetheart.”

My heart raced as I sucked in a breath. If Aaron was aware of the effect he had on women, he was a cruel man to say things like that. Offering a tiny scrap of food to a starving woman.

Not that I could really complain. I’d take any scrap he gave me—even if it was hazardous to my mental health. It couldn’t be normal to crave someone so much.

I opened his front door and took a hesitant step out on the porch, turning back with as much of a smile as I could muster.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”

“You sure will.”

He smiled again before closing the door. My heart thudded hard during the walk back to my car and I once again found myself with that weird sense of foreboding as I drove home to get ready for work.