I jumped and turned when a knock came at my door.
I had a shit door that, even wearing my daintiest high-heeled sandal, I could kick through. It was two layers of thin, cheap wood with a small diamond window at eye level so you could look out.
And in that diamond window, I saw Merry.
Fucking motherfucker.
He’d texted tomorrow.
And it was tomorrow.
I stared at him through the window, but he did not stare at me.
He opened the door and walked right through.
Mental note: lock the damned door, no matter if you’re inside just to pour a cup of coffee.
“Well, come on in, Officer,” I greeted sarcastically, throwing out my hand with the phone in it. “Something I can get you? Cup of coffee? Late breakfast? Quick blowjob?”
He did not look amused. He did not look annoyed.
He looked ticked.
“You puttin’ in your own storms?” he asked.
With the crap coming from my neighbors, Walter Jones getting my cell phone number and having no problem calling me, thinking he could ever in a million fucking years make it “worth my while” to talk about Dennis Lowe, and Merry waltzing into my living room, all in the expanse of ten minutes, I wasn’t following.
“What?”
“Windows, Cher.” He jerked his head toward the side of the house where the storm windows were stacked. “You puttin’ in your own storm windows?”
I had no idea why he would care, but there was only one answer to that question, so I gave it to him.
“Well, yeah.”
“Why doesn’t your landlord do it?” Merry asked.
“Because he’s seven hundred and twelve years old and my CPR skills are a little rusty, so I don’t want him giving himself a heart attack switching screens out for storms when I can do it myself.”
“It’s his responsibility,” Merry returned.
“I’d have to study my rental agreement, but I think routine maintenance is my responsibility, Merry.”
“You study that agreement, you’d find you’re wrong.”
It had been a while since I read it, but I had a feeling Merry was correct.
I didn’t share this feeling.
I said, “Then, considering the screens pop out, the storms pop in, and the doors only require little ole me to be able to turn a screwdriver, I’d rather just do it instead of calling him, waiting for him to come over, suffer a stroke while winterizing my house, thus scarring me mentally for life.”
His eyes narrowed. “You this much of a smartass before I made you come for me five times?”
I waited for my head to swivel around on my shoulders while fire shot out of my eye sockets.
When that didn’t happen, I snapped, “Uh…yeah.”
“Leave ’em,” he ordered. “I’m done with my shift, I’ll come over and put ’em in.”
I didn’t know how to react to that except allow my mouth to drop open, which I did.
Before I recovered, he asked, “You know Riverside Baptist Church?”
“Oh God. First you give me five orgasms, now you’re gonna save my soul?” I asked back.
He crossed his arms on his chest. “Rein in the smartass, Cher. Don’t got time to get you sweet, which means get you hot, so you’ll give me what I want instead of bein’ a pain in my ass. Answer the question: Do you know Riverside Baptist Church?”
That was when my eyes narrowed. “Get me sweet, which means get me hot?”
Merry became visibly impatient. “Babe, focus.”
“You want me focused, tell me why you’re here, injecting cheer into my day,” I demanded.
“Peggy Schott belongs to Riverside Baptist Church.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
Merry didn’t.
“She talk about that? Trent talk about it? Ethan come from them to you and talk about it?”
I felt my heart beating hard in my chest. “What I wanna know is why you’re talking about it, and how do you even know that? How’d you even find out Peg’s last name?”
“I told you I was gonna take your back and that’s what I’m doin’,” he returned.
That was what he was doing?
Hold On
Kristen Ashley's books
- Holding the Dream
- Dance Upon the Air
- High Noon
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- Illusion(The Vampire Destiny Book 2)
- Upon A Midnight Clear
- Son Of The Morning
- MacKenzie's mission(MacKenzie Family Saga #2)
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Billionaire's Redemption
- A Convenient Proposal
- A Dishonorable Knight
- A Headstrong Woman
- A Passion for Pleasure
- Atonement
- Beyond a Doubt
- Beyond Control
- Cavanaugh on Duty
- Colton's Dilemma (Shadow Breeds)
- Conceal, Protect
- Conflict of Interest
- Confessing to the Cowboy
- Dreams Don't Wait
- Explosive Attraction
- Find Wonder in All Things
- Forbidden Fires (Bondage & Breakfast)
- Galveston Between Wind and Water
- Game On
- Gone with the Wolf
- Honor's Players
- Illusions of Love
- Intaglio Dragons All The Way Down
- Just One Song
- Living London
- Lone Wolf (Shifters Unbound)
- Love Resolution
- Lyon's Crew
- Mountain Moonlight
- Need A Want Companion Novel
- Of One Heart
- Once a Bad Girl
- Once a Thief
- Once Again a Bride
- Once and Again
- Once Touched, Never Forgotten
- Once Upon a Kiss
- Once Upon a Prince
- One Desert Night
- One More Kiss
- One More Sleepless Night
- One Night of Misbehavior
- One Night Standoff
- One Texas Night
- Only Love (The Atonement Series)
- Operation Endurance
- Primal Bonds
- Questions of Trust A Medical Romance
- Reflection Point
- Retribution
- Savage Redemption
- Second Chance
- Secure Location
- Someone I Used to Know
- Son of a Preacher Man
- Soul Bonded
- Sunset Seduction
- Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters)
- Sweet On You
- Tempting Cameron
- That Carrington Magic
- The Bridgertons Happily Ever After
- The Demon's Song
- The Dragon and the Pearl
- The Lone Rancher
- The Millionaire Cowboy's Secret
- Translation of Love
- Twisted Perfection
- Vision In White
- When Love's Gone Country
- The Lost Tycoon
- Down on Her Knees
- Love, Your Concierge
- A Demon Made Me Do It
- Campbell_Book One
- The Lady of Bolton Hill
- Born to Ride_A Clubhouse Collection
- A Question of Honor
- Blood on Copperhead Trail
- Passion and the Prince
- Top Secret Twenty-One
- Dungeon Royale
- Make Me Bad(Private Lessons)
- My Fair Billionaire
- Writing Our Song:A Billionaire Romance
- Kissed by Moonlight
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- The Masterful Mr. Montague
- Diamonds are Forever
- Every Second with You
- If You Only Knew