“I am, but I was in the mood for a change.” Joe gave answers like a prisoner trying not to incriminate herself any more than necessary. “Thankfully, I can still watch the Yankees on television.”

  “You don’t like talking about yourself, do you?” Hayley smiled to keep Joe relaxed and in her kitchen.

  “I’m not that interesting, so I’m trying to keep from boring you. That’s the neighborly thing to do.” Joe placed her mug in the sink and excused herself and waited outside for her. “Thanks for the coffee and conversation.”

  “This isn’t what I wanted after waiting so long. And why we waited all this time is just dumb.” She noticed the way Joe’s biceps pulled at the material of her shirt. “Why did we wait so long?”

  “Hayley.” Joe slowly raised her hand and pressed it to the side of her neck. “You can think of today as a tester.”

  “What’s that mean?” She leaned into Joe’s touch.

  “You’ve probably been thinking plenty of things. What does she sound like? Is she what she seems? Is there something to what I see in the window?” Joe moved her hand until it was in her hair, and she honest-to-goodness wanted to swoon. “Go be a good friend, and I’ll be waiting.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to memorize the feel of Joe’s hand before Joe moved away. What was it about this woman that broke through all her defenses? “What if I don’t want to wait?”

  “You don’t think—”

  “Hayley,” George said loudly.

  Hayley slammed into the door when she jumped back in fright, carrying Joe with her. Not exactly what she had in mind the first time they got this close.

  “Are you all right?” he called.

  “George,” she said just as loud, hoping he heard the frustration in the voice. “I’ve asked you nicely not to do that. Why do you insist on sneaking up like that?”

  “Sorry, but I saw you being manhandled and felt like I had to step in.”

  George appeared earnest in his concern, but she wanted to knee him in the groin. If she owned a cattle prod, he’d be on the ground right now.

  “George, sorry we haven’t met before now.” Joe stepped away from Hayley and held her hand out. George stared at it as if it was smeared with crap and didn’t take it. “Okay,” Joe put it back in her pocket and chuckled. “Talk to you soon, Hayley…very soon.”

  Before Hayley could say anything, Joe descended the stairs and didn’t look back. Why the hell were all these people at her house? It was like a conspiracy to keep her from having sex. “What can I do for you, George?”

  “Why was she touching you? You have no idea what’s happening, and you need to be careful.”

  George was the kind of guy who screamed he’d seen Bigfoot but always left his camera at home. He also sometimes put out weird vibes when it came to her. She wasn’t sure, but George sounded a little jealous.

  “I don’t know who that woman is, but she’s up to no good.”

  “Has she killed anyone?” She stared him down until he shook his head. “Broken into any house in the neighborhood?” Another shake of his head. “Then I don’t want to hear it. What you just did was rude, if you aren’t aware of that.”

  “You don’t understand. Let me explain.” George appeared ready to stomp his foot.

  “Go home, George. I have company, and I’m not in the mood. Joe’s from New York, not Mars. She’s not here to suck your brains out of your skull when you go to sleep. I suggest you take her up on her offer to get to know her instead of listening to neighborhood gossip.” She went back in and laughed at Lucy standing at the kitchen window, peering at Butch’s house.

  “How can an ass look that good in jeans?” Lucy asked, but Hayley couldn’t be sure she was asking her or talking to herself.

  “It’s a mystery I can’t wait to solve.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Wyatt made herself a sandwich and tried to forget how gorgeous Hayley was up close. Not that seeing her through the window was a hardship, but she wanted to sit and talk to her about anything Hayley chose to tell her. All the people at Hayley’s house had to go home eventually.

  She took her meal and a fresh cup of coffee into the office and lost herself in her work, figuring best friends needed at least an hour to catch up. The manuscript she was working on reminded her of the first book she wrote. That one had come fast too and had made her fall in love with writing. The first one hadn’t sold until her third book had broken through to the top of the best seller list, and then people went back to her first two books. After that, her career had taken off.

  The mystery genre was a hard market to make it in, but she loved the secrets of the formula it took to write a good story. Well, some people said there was a formula, but she liked to think she had her own style, and every reviewer always mentioned they never knew who did it until the last chapter. Had she not lost her parents, she would’ve written them forever, but that wasn’t the kind of story that was coming to her now. The consequences of forcing herself to go back to the tried and true might be writer’s block again.

  She stretched a few hours later and fixed a fresh cup of coffee before she cleared her mind and sat at her laptop and wrote something else. This was starting to get fun again. The words came easily, but they always had when she was having fun. She stopped forty minutes later and sent Hayley a text. They decided on dinner since Lucy was still there for whatever reason, and that was fine. DJ and the crew had called and asked if she wanted them to come and work. Bad weather was in the forecast for tomorrow, and DJ didn’t want her insulation to get messed up.

  She went up, changed, and put her work boots on. The guys were waiting outside when she unlocked the door and started joking around when she joined them, ready to work. She waved to Hayley and Lucy after noticing them in the kitchen window, and she laughed when they waved back.

  She held a board in place at the top of the house, waiting for her helper to nail his side before she did the same. A couple of other guys were waiting on some scaffolding they’d set up to hand up the boards they’d need. DJ’s nephews really were great carpenters and kept her laughing while they worked.

  “Hey, Joe,” one of DJ’s nephews said, “think later on when we take a break we can go in and see your snake?”

  She came close to smashing her thumb with the hammer. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” She finished with the nails and bent to grab her end of the next board. “What snake?” It was hard concentrating on the snake question when she noticed the shower next door going. Thankfully Hayley had placed a towel over the window because she’d realized in the last week that she wasn’t fond of sharing. It hadn’t mattered before now.

  “You know, your snake. We heard about it at Maybelle’s.” The guys around her were all nodding and appeared eager to see a monster snake. “She told us to be careful cause it was, like, fifty feet long. We kept looking for it when we were doing the pipes, but we figured you’d hid it, so it wouldn’t freak out on you. The guys and me really want to check it out if that’s okay. We promise, we ain’t scared.”

  “Someone at the diner told you I own a fifty-foot snake?” All of a sudden, the conversation in the grocery about things that were alive, and the cable guy’s weird dancing around the house, made perfect sense. She’d been messing with Maybelle, and now it was biting her in the ass, even if it was pretty funny. This was actually worse than the time the National Enquirer put her together with Cher. Granted, she loved Cher, but having people hang out around her block chanting to see Cher had made her lose sleep.

  “Like I said, bro, it was Maybelle who told us. You think if we run by JD’s later and buy something, we can watch it squeeze the shit out of it and swallow it whole?”

  The only thing the guy below her didn’t do was press his hands together in a sign of pleading. They all seemed to have put a lot of thought into this, and she had to calm them down before they headed to George’s place and started stealing rabbits.

  She hated curbing their enthusiasm since they all appeared so sincere. It made her wish she really did own a snake even though snakes freaked her the hell out. She didn’t hate them any more than she did ravenous hyenas, but they were better observed in an enclosure or in nature from the safety of your vehicle. They still made her skin crawl, but as her mother liked to say, they were all God’s creatures. What God was thinking with the creation of pythons and hyenas was a question for another day.

  “Gosh, I wish you guys had told me sooner. I didn’t realize until we got to New Orleans that it’d be murder on Jedidiah’s allergies. That’s his name. I had to ship him to a sanctuary in Texas, so he could stop with the Benadryl. Taking so much was wrecking his sleep cycle.”

  “Snakes get allergies? No shit?” the guy on the same level as her asked. “I never knew that. Huh, you learn something every day.”

  “Burmese pythons are known for their extreme dust sensitivity, so this house was murder on his sinuses. The poor guy was miserable.” They all nodded as she spoke earnestly, somehow managing to keep a straight face. “That, and I heard my neighbor George was nervous about the pet rabbits he keeps caged in the yard.” All the guys made disgusted faces at that. She joined them because she didn’t understand the attraction of owning animals that never got to hop around hiding Easter eggs. “I didn’t want to take a chance that Jedidiah would be blamed, even though he’s a vegan.”

  “He’s religious?” one of the younger guys asked. “I didn’t think animals would care about stuff like that.”

  “I’m not sure about his faith, but if he is interested in religion, he’s more of a Buddhist because he’s pretty chilled and he chants beautifully. What I meant was, he’s an extremely disciplined vegetarian. He doesn’t eat animals.” She shook her head and tried not to laugh. These guys couldn’t be that gullible, but there were still mysteries in the world. Not one of them looked like they were doubting her story.

  “Man, you should’ve told George that, but he probably wouldn’t give a shit. We did some work over there, and he was the biggest pain in the ass when it came to every little thing.” The older guy handed up another board and cursed some more when it came to the subject of George and his seemingly awesome personality. “Bro, that sucks for you if you liked having Jedidiah around. I bet he was a good and quiet companion.”

  “I’m trying to be a good neighbor, and Jed’s not everyone’s glass of beer. You get me? George and I will get along if he stays on his side of the fence. He likes to stand there and stare, and I have to admit it freaks me out a little.” She brought up her side of the next board, glad to see the other guys working on the first floor. With one guy cutting and everyone putting siding up, they should be done in about five hours. That would give her plenty of time to take Hayley somewhere nice.

  She sensed someone’s eyes on her and turned and smiled at Hayley upstairs, back in her pajamas after her shower. Hopefully she wasn’t getting naked for Lucy.

  “Yeah, he does that. The only one he’s interested in talking to is Hayley, and that’s the true definition of barking up the wrong skirt. Talk about a butthead. The best advice about that asshole is to never accept a pie from his wife. That lady must’ve burned her taste buds dropping acid or something because she bakes for shit. When we worked over there, we had to cause some accidental leaks,” the guy said, making air quotes, “so the rest of us could bury whatever the hell she offered us in the yard. George had the worst time trying to figure out where all the dead spots in his grass were coming from.”

  “Yeah,” the young guy said. “Can you imagine eating that shit if it actually killed grass?”

  “DJ gave me the heads-up on that.” They continued to joke as they worked, and they made it from the peak to the bottom of the first floor.

  On the ground the guys were moving quickly once they no longer needed the ladders. She was pleased with the finished product that would look even better painted. A call to Pippa would be the best way to find out exactly what color the house was painted when it was built because she wanted the house to look like it did when the Fullers had moved in. With the repairs she’d done, the house would last a lot longer than it had been standing.

  “Thanks, guys. The place will really pop when JD comes by and starts painting.” She gave them each a bonus, so they could enjoy what was left of their weekend. There were about three hours of sunlight left, and they ended up staying to start ripping the shake off the back and other side.

  She followed Hayley’s lead and placed a towel over her shower window and rushed through what was one of her favorite parts of the day. Hot showers had a way of making her mind wander through different topics and story ideas. She loved them even if water conservationists probably hated her. Her limited wardrobe made it easy to decide on jeans and one of the three white shirts she’d packed. Now all she had to do was decide on where to go since her culinary skills extended only to reheating takeout in the microwave. That would in no way be impressive.

  When she was done, she still had an hour to kill before she picked Hayley up. She didn’t want to be the date that showed up this early.

  While she waited, she worked some more as a way to forget she was hungry. She was thinking about their short exchange that morning and smiled. Hungry might not be all she was feeling.

  She stopped to check her email, not surprised to see another bunch from Blanche. Her agent seemed to be chronicling her breakdown with each message. They went from begging to demanding then devolved into insulting. The insulting ones made her wonder what exactly went through Blanche’s mind at times. Was calling her a selfish bastard going to make her want to hurry back to New York and propose?

  It was easy to delete all of them so she could spend some more time on emails from fans on her public email account. Writing might be a solitary thing, but reading was universal once you shared your work with the world. The thing about devoted readers was they paid attention to the details. Why she wrote the stuff she did was something they tried to glean through numerous intelligent questions. There was the odd person, almost always men, who didn’t think women had any business writing mystery novels, and who loved to go to online forums to spew their displeasure.

  Those all went into the trash because she didn’t have time to argue with anyone who cut her work to shreds on the basis of her sex. The others who simply didn’t care for the books for whatever reason she engaged with, truly interested in their opinions. There would never come a moment she’d think herself so important that she’d ignore the people who wrote to her because they loved what she did.

  “Well, guys,” she said to the screen, “I think it’s time to go impress the girl.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Hayley, I swear if you don’t get dressed and wear something to make that woman chew through her leash, I’m going to do it and rub it in when I tell you all about it.” Lucy was still at the window as if waiting for another Joe sighting. It seemed watching Joe walk back to her house had left Lucy wanting more.

  “Maybe I’m trying to build anticipation.” As excuses went that was beyond weak, but all Hayley could do was sit at her island and stare at the beautifully arranged flowers. It was such a strange tradition, the giving of flowers—at least she thought so. To her flowers always seemed such a waste of a thing to spend money on. Take this bouquet, for example. She could’ve bought boots for what Joe had probably spent on it. The strange thing, though, was these made her feel feminine, cherished, wanted—it was a heady combination.

  “What you’re doing is hiding in here with me, and it’s pissing me off. She baked you cookies, wrote you a phenomenal story, and sent these.” Lucy pointed to the flowers as if she might have forgotten them. “From what I can tell, she’s interested, and you’re acting like you’re waiting to pass her a note after English class with the I like you box checked off.” Lucy finally pried herself away from the window and stood across from her and crossed her arms. “She, from what I can tell physically anyway, is everything you’ve said you were waiting for. The flowers and everything else mean she’s not all looks and ego. Get going and call me in a few days once you come up for air only because one more orgasm will kill you.”

  “You don’t think it’s a mistake?” She didn’t often need reassurance, but for some reason this time, even after everything she and Joe had watched each other do, she did. This time she wanted a little more than she’d previously had, and she was afraid that she had no idea of how to go about that. What if all she’d ever have was the two dates, then months spent with her cats?

  “I don’t,” Lucy said, moving to pick up her bag. “It’s not me who has to be convinced, though.” She kissed her cheek and hugged her before leaving. Lucy could become a life coach with her in-your-face I’ll beat you if you don’t comply with what I’m telling you approach.

  She and Lucy hadn’t gone out for lunch, but the three hours they’d spent together were going to be hard to explain to Joe especially since she hadn’t answered her text. She’d heard nailing outside and had seen Joe on the side of her house putting up siding, which explained why Lucy had been glued to the view next door, and at some point they gave up on the movie altogether and just sat beside the window, commenting on Joe’s physique and spinning random questions about her, like whether or not she liked pineapple, or if she ever considered being on the bottom. Joe appeared carefree and not obsessing about her in return as she joked with the guys working with her. Had she lost her chance?

  She watched some more, cursing herself for her indecisiveness—a blip on the radar of the side of her personality that derailed her at times because it concentrated on only the things that could go wrong. Dark-cloud Hayley never did her any favors. She took her phone out and sent a short text.