I was too outraged to see clearly the day she ran into my car, but today I saw her features unmistakably. She was absolutely gorgeous.
She starred at me with her dark green eyes. Her auburn hair was piled on top of her head, and her cheeks were flushed with a healthy glow. I could hear her little girl giggling behind her, calling out breathlessly for her mother to come back and play.
I didn’t know where her husband was, but I buried the thought before it could permeate any further.
“Mailman left that on my doorstep,” I said.
“Thanks,” she said as she stooped down.
She grunted trying to pick up the package, and I thought about helping her. But I swallowed the sentiment and kept my hard demeanor.
No one liked an asshole.
That’s how it had to be.
“Sorry for the mix-up. I’ll talk to the mailman tomorrow when he comes by,” she said.
“No need. I’ll leave a sign on my door pointing to your home. I don’t get packages.”
She bit down on the inside of her cheek. She certainly wasn’t thrilled to see me, and I was ready to end this awkward interaction. I turned to walk off her porch when my eyes hit her car, and that desire to ask her to fix it was still there.
I walked off her porch and strode back across the lawn. I resisted the urge to look back as I made my way back to my garage. I heard her door shut, muffling the laughter of her daughter as I got back to work on my truck.
God, I hope she’s married.
CHAPTER 5
CINDY
“Mommy! Watch!”
I looked after my daughter as she rode her bike up and down the street in front of the house. Her hair was blowing in the wind, and there was a bright smile on her face. Every day that passed by, she looked more and more like her father with his broad smile, his twinkling eyes and his strong jawline. She even had his build, strong shoulders and long legs. She was going to be a tall one, beautiful and strong.
Two of the many things that drew me to her father when we’d first met.
The day was beautiful. The sun was out, and the birds were chirping. I was trying to enjoy it as Lily giggled on her bike but pushing thoughts of my late husband away was hard sometimes. Every day brought a new experience with Lily that I wished he was there to see. Her first day of kindergarten, riding her bike, learning how to read, and writing her name for the first time by herself.
“Mommy! Are you watching?”
“I’m watching, booger. You look awesome,” I said.
I heard a door open, and I whipped my head around. Lily stopped on her bike as the two of us watched my neighbor come out of his home. His hard demeanor kept his shoulders taut and his stance rigid. His entire body emanated tension. His hands were in fists at his sides, and his face was sunken with displeasure.
He was picking up his mail, and Lily couldn’t stop staring at him.
He was the one everyone was talking about, and the more I heard him mentioned, the more skewed the rumors became. New ones seemed to pop up every single day about him, and his silent and cold attitude wasn’t helping things. But I had seen something in his eyes that told a different story than the one the set of his jaw did.
It made me hold my breath when he’d dropped that package off on my porch the other day. There was so much more behind those eyes than a cold, hard man. He definitely had a wall up, but it wasn’t because he was angry.
It was because he had been utterly devastated. I knew that look firsthand.
I waved at him, trying to be as friendly as possible. He stopped in the middle of his driveway, his hand clenching his mail in his fist. His eyes connected with mine, and for a moment, I felt let in again. I caught the slightest glimpse of pain before his eyes hardened again, and he continued up his driveway.
He didn’t bother to wave back, and I didn’t hold that against him.
I watched him all the way back to his house. Lily was back to riding her bike up and down the road, but my attention wasn’t on her. I studied my neighbor’s rigid stance as he made his way back into his house, slamming the door behind him on the way in.
He did put up a good act, but he wasn’t fooling me.
“Cindy!”
I whipped my head around at the sound of my name as a car made its way into my driveway.
“Uncle Paul!”
Lily dropped her bike into the grass and went running for the man stepping out of the car.
“Oh, how’s my little Lilypad?” Paul asked. “Have you grown? You look four inches taller.”
“No,” Lily said with a giggle. “I’m only half an inch taller.”
“Half an inch! If you don’t stop growing, you’ll be as big as a beanstalk!” Paul said.
I stood on the porch and watched as Paul tickled my daughter’s stomach. I’d known he would be by eventually. Paul and Bradley had gone through basic together. Paul became a military police officer, and Bradley found his niche with cyber security and coding. They were the best of friends when I’d met Bradley. Paul had been his wingman at the bar we’d met at that night. When we had Lily, it was a no-brainer as to who we wanted to be her godfather, and through every struggle we battled with her, Paul was there to help.
Paul even came back from a deployment early to help me arrange Bradley’s funeral. Now he was back for good, having run out his time in the military and taken a job with the Bend Police Department.
“Glad to see you back,” Paul said.
He wrapped me up in his arms, and I hugged him close.
“It’s good to be back, however bittersweet it might be,” I said.
“How are you doing? How’s Lily getting along with things?”
“I’m getting along. Got a part-time job that’s keeping me busy for now. Lily’s… Lily. She asks passing questions after her dad from time to time, but she’s loving school.”
I released Paul, but his hand stayed around my body. He was rubbing my back, which was probably an innocent gesture, but ever since Bradley’s passing, I’d shied away from physical contact with any man. Even one who had been our closest friend. I took a step away from him and smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Did you just get off work?” I asked.
“I took today off. I usually have Sundays and Mondays off, but a long weekend seemed like a good idea after three full weeks of working nonstop,” Paul said.
“The police department keeping you busy enough?” I asked.
“Not as busy as the military, but the change of pace is nice.”
“You’ve been out how long now?” I asked.
“A little over a year.”
“I’m sorry. A lot of things blurred together over the past couple of years.”
“Don’t be sorry. You were grieving. We all were. I’m just glad both sides of the family were still there for you, even in Brad’s absence,” he said.
“Me too. Living with my mother after everything that happened was hard. I felt like I was sort of floundering. She was the one who helped me get my finances in order. And Brad’s mother took Lily whenever I needed her to. She was a godsend, that one. I had my worst days away from Lily thanks to her. I didn't want Lily to see all that.”
“Because you’re a good mother, Cindy. And you were a good wife to Bradley. He was a lucky man. I want to make sure you girls are still being looked after without him.”
“Lily likes that you’re here,” I said.
“How’s the house treating you?” Paul asked.
“It’s good. My mother helped me pick it out. She found someone to take Brad’s military gear as well as his truck, and it paid off most of the house.”
“Brad’s life insurance through the military should’ve paid off all of it,” he said.
“I had some student loan debt from my business degree, and I put the rest into a college savings fund for Lily. I wanted it to feel like Brad was still providing for her. When she gets older, she can use that to bypass all the debt I dug myself into, and when she asks where it came from, I can say her father gave it to her.”
“That’s actually a really good idea. I never would’ve thought of that.”
“You’ve always been an immediate gratification kind of man. Bradley was the long-term planner out of the two of you,” I said with a grin.