Movement caught his eye and he turned to face his neighbor’s house.
Hailey was perfectly framed in her big bay window and, with the sun behind clouds and the lights on in her living room, he had no trouble seeing her. She had one of those telescoping dusters and was cleaning her ceiling fan blades. Or that’s what she was supposed to be doing, anyway.
Her hips were swaying and, as he watched, the slight moving with the music became a full-on dance. He could see the small mp3 player clipped to the neck of her shirt and the white wires leading up to her ears, and her eyes were closed.
Her mouth moved as she sang along with whatever song had her moving like that, and his body hardened in response. It was a sexy song. He could tell by the way she moved and, even though he couldn’t dance worth a damn, he wanted nothing more at that moment than to be in that room, his body moving in time with hers.
Then the cell phone in his pocket vibrated and he jerked his gaze away. It was probably creepy, watching Hailey dance when she didn’t know he was there, and it was definitely something he couldn’t make a habit of.
His mother’s number showed on his screen, just to hammer home the vague sense of guilt and wrong-doing.
“Hi, Mom,” he said, carrying the yard tools back to the deck. He leaned them against the side of the house and sat in one of the patio chairs that had also gone with the house.
“Are you busy?”
“Nope. Just finished up.”
“Good. I miss you. You live so far away now.”
Matt smiled. “I’m not that far away. Last Sunday I was there for Mother’s Day and you saw me just yesterday.”
“For fifteen minutes. And I hate not being able to picture where you’re living.”
“I showed you the pictures the owners sent me.”
“It’s not the same.”
He sighed, giving in to the inevitable. “I’ve barely started unpacking. This weekend the trails here open and it’s Memorial Day weekend, which you know is crazy for me. But how about the following Saturday you and dad come over and visit?”
“That sounds wonderful. I bet your niece and nephews would like to see you, too.”
“Bring everybody, Mom.” She would anyway. “We’ll have a cook-out.”
“That sounds wonderful. I’m putting it on my calendar right now. How do you like your neighbors?”
An image of Hailey flashed through his mind, her hips swaying to a sensual rhythm he could feel even if he couldn’t hear it. “The neighbors are fine.”
“Really?”
Jeff must have run his mouth, and Matt made a mental note to make his brother-in-law pay somehow. “She’s nice.”
“I heard she called you a stalker.”
“It was a joke, Mom.” Bear brought him his rope, hoping to play, so Matt tossed it out into the yard. “It’s a long story, but I’m not having problems with my neighbor.”
“I’ll probably get to meet her when we’re there. You should invite her.”
“Maybe. I have to run, Mom. It looks like it might rain and I’ve got tools outside.” It was a lie, but a little one.
“Okay. I love you, honey, and we’ll see you Saturday after next. I’ll make my pasta salad.”
“It wouldn’t be a cookout without it. Love you, too, Mom.”
Even after the call ended, Matt didn’t get up. After pulling his T-shirt back on, he relaxed in the wrought iron chair. He was tired, and maybe a little afraid he’d succumb to the temptation of walking to the back of the yard again, where he could see Hailey. Bear wasn’t the only one who needed to learn boundaries.
The dog brought him the rope and, after a game of tug, he tossed it into the yard again. Bear raced after it, almost tripping over his own feet in his rush to grab it and bring it back so he could refuse to drop it again.
He was hungry, the microwave pizza long since burned off, but he couldn’t work up the ambition to go inside. It was a nice night and he didn’t have anything in the fridge worth making. The diner was a possibility, but that also required a level of ambition he didn’t feel.
“Five more minutes,” he told Bear. Then he’d probably nuke another pizza, just because they were there. And easy.
HAILEY TUCKED HER phone between her cheek and her shoulder and pulled the baking dish of shepherd’s pie out of the oven. The left oven mitt must have been damp, though, because her fingers started burning almost immediately, and she dropped it onto the stove surface with a hiss.
“What’s happening?” Tori asked, interrupted in the middle of a sentence about a show they both watched.
Shifting the phone back to her hand, Hailey shoved the rack back in and closed the oven door. “I made shepherd’s pie and burnt my fingers getting it out.”
“Shepherd’s pie, huh?
Distracted by getting to the sink so she could run cold water over her fingertips, Hailey spoke without thinking. “For my new neighbor.”
“Your new neighbor the hot game warden?”
“How long was it between the time I left the diner and the time Liz called you?”
“About thirty seconds, probably. I was working, though, so she left a voice mail. I was waiting for you to bring it up and then you distracted me with television talk. So tell me everything.”
“Matt moved in next door. That’s everything.” She had no intention of telling anybody except Paige about him carrying her inside and the way her body had reacted to him touching her neck.
“Everything except the part where you called him a stalker.”
Hailey winced. “That was a little crazy, which is why I’m bringing him shepherd’s pie.”
She glanced toward the oven, feeling a rush of pride at the way the top of the mashed potato layer had formed a perfect buttery brown crust. It would have to cool a bit before she could carry it next door, even with dry oven mitts.
“You should invite him out to dinner,” Tori said.
“Why would I do that? I want to welcome him to the neighborhood, not date him.”
“Because this is the only place to eat, so you’ll have to come here and I’ll get to watch the two of you together because I bet you should date him.”
“That’s a little weird.” She wasn’t going to date Matt. She also wasn’t going to let him near her neck again, because that made her think about a lot more than dating him. Unless dating was a euphemism for sex.
“I have a feeling about him.”
“Then you date him.”
Tori laughed. “Not that kind of feeling. I think you and Matt the hot game warden would be a good match.”
“When you give up designing book covers and waiting tables to become a successful matchmaker, I’ll believe you.” Hailey paused. “No, I still won’t believe you.”
“I have a sticky note on my computer reminding me to tell you I told you so when the time comes. So, anyway, we need to plan our next adventure.”
“Our next adventure? You don’t think we had enough adventure last time?”
“Are you ever going to let that go?”
“Not until the blisters heal, at least.”
Tori’s sigh came through her phone’s speaker loud and clear. “If we were Thelma and Louise, the movie would have been ten minutes long. Adventures, Hailey. We’re supposed to be celebrating being single.”
“I can leave my cookies right out on the counter instead of hiding them behind the lightbulbs in the cabinet over the fridge. Isn’t that celebration enough?”
“No. You’ve probably eaten them already, since you’re hanging around your house instead of going out and having fun with me.”
Tori paused, but there was no way Hailey was admitting she’d thrown away the empty package not ten minutes before her phone rang.
“I have to go change so I can bring this next door and be done with it.”
“You’re getting dressed up to bring him shepherd’s pie?”
She was incorrigible. “No, I spilled coffee on my light peach shirt two hours ago and it looks like I have an abstract brown Ohio on my chest. Then, after I put the dish in the oven, I was dusting my ceiling fans so I’m going to change. Big deal.”
“Sure. It has nothing to do with him.”
“I have to go. Bye.” Hailey hung up on Tori and went upstairs to change her shirt.
She deliberately avoided her makeup basket while she was in the bathroom, but she did take her hair out of the clip and brush it into a sleek ponytail. Not because of Matt, of course. Just because the oven had heated her kitchen and all the escaped wisps were driving her crazy.
Then she swore under her breath and pulled the elastic out. As a shield went, it wouldn’t keep a determined man from touching that sweet spot, but at least her neck didn’t feel so exposed. And since his determination had been about first aid and not turning her on, she was probably safe.
When she couldn’t put it off anymore without risking him already having eaten, she used dry oven mitts to pick up the glass baking dish and went out her back door. She could hear him talking to Bear, and she followed the sound to his backyard.
He was sitting at a small, wrought iron patio set that had gone with the house, while Bear ran around the yard with a knotted length of rope. When the dog saw her coming, he dropped the rope and loped toward her.