So I found him a little attractive—he had a great body, anyone with eyes could see that—but I found a lot of men attractive, and I hadn’t flirted with him to begin with.
It wasn’t like I had a way of knowing he would be inside of his house when I helped his brother. After that, I had left cookies with most of the neighbors who lived close to me, not just him. But the second time we’d met, he had come over. I hadn’t gone to him.
Everything after that… I could see why he might think I’d been flirting. Maybe if he was an idiot. Coming up to him at a bar, calling him and walking up to his house, even though it had all been baseball-related and only baseball-related…. I could cut him a little bit of slack. Just a little.
But I still wanted to kick this white elephant out of the neighborhood.
So as I hung around the parking lot as the Larsens and the boys took off in their minivan, I kept an eye out on the adults still hanging around the perimeter of the facility, trying to find the specific person I was looking for so that I didn’t have to show up unexpectedly at his house and make him more uncomfortable. I had just decided that he might have left without me noticing when I spotted him standing by the bed of a black truck with Trip right next to him.
“Diana,” Trip called out to me over his cousin’s shoulder when he noticed me walking toward them.
“Long time no see.” I slid my gaze over to Dallas, pasting a funky, tight smile on my face. “Hi, Dallas.”
Before my neighbor said a greeting in return, Trip threw his hands in the air. “I’m gonna get goin’. Dean’s waitin’ in the truck. Dallas Texas, I’ll see you tomorrow. Honey, I hope I’ll see you tomorrow.” Trip winked as he walked away. He was something else, and that something else had my not-so-smile turning into a real one.
It was just as awkward as I figured it would be as Trip got into his truck, making us back away from the bed as he pulled out of the lot. I spotted a head in the back cab. There weren’t a lot of parents left hanging around, but there were enough, and I couldn’t help but feel the weight of their stares on us. I wasn’t a fan of being gawked at, but it was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Just as Dallas opened his mouth to say whatever was on his mind, I beat him to it. “Hey, I just want to clear the air between us. If I’ve done something to make you feel uncomfortable”—coming up to you at a bar or being really aggressive about getting the schedule changed were both options I accepted freely—“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. Sometimes I try to be helpful, but maybe I should mind my own business instead, but really, I don’t mean anything by it that isn’t professional or friendly.”
The stare he gave me wasn’t discouraging at all. Not.
“Just so you know, yes, I think you’re a good-looking guy, but you’re not my type. I swear I’m not trying to get in your pants or anything. I can see your wedding ring, and I don’t do that kind of thing.”
He still hadn’t said a word, and just to make sure he understood, I kept going. “You and Trip scouted Josh out. It wasn’t like I was trying to get him on the team to seduce you or something.” I’d gone with “seduced.” All right. I’d never used that word out loud, but there was a first for everything. There was another awkward, brief pause before my big mouth kept rambling. “I’d like us to be friends since we live across the street from each other, but if that’s not something you’re willing to do, it’s okay. I’m not going to cry about it.”
There was a huge chance that last part was unnecessary, but I didn’t know what else to say. What were you supposed to do when someone didn’t want to be your friend or at least be friendly, and you’d tried your best? I thought I’d been a pretty good person. A pretty good neighbor. I hadn’t done anything to make him feel uncomfortable. At least, I genuinely didn’t think I had.
I rubbed my hand against my upper thigh and let out a deep breath at the weight that seemed to have lifted off my shoulders. I met his gaze head-on, wanting to make sure he could see there weren’t hearts and stars in my eyes. My mom had always told me I was about as subtle as an elephant. “So? Should I fuck off or not?”
My neighbor’s eyelids swung low over the brown-green-gold color of his irises. “Anyone ever told you you have a staring problem?”
I made sure not to close my eyes for a second, even though the urge was strong. “Has anyone ever told you that you have an active imagination?”
Neither one of us blinked. I wasn’t going to lose this shit. He was obviously trying not to lose either. I could respect that.
The small smile that crawled over his mouth was not the first, second, third, or fourth thing I would have expected coming from him. I would swear on my life for years to come that his eyes sparkled—but it was probably just the streetlight giving them that impression. Then he blinked.
Thank God, I blinked too.
Dallas I-Wasn’t-Sure-If-That-Was-His-Real-Name-Or-Not made a noise straight from his nostrils. His eyelids went back to their normal position as his arching eyebrows took center stage. “I don’t get ‘uncomfortable,’” he started. His mouth stayed in that same partial-smiling position it had been in a moment ago. It was a sad cousin to the smile he’d given the boys and his friend at the bar, but I’d take it. I didn’t need more. “You haven’t made me ‘uncomfortable.’”
Uh-huh. Sure. That was why he was complaining about eye contact and trying to win our staring competition.
And using his fingers as quotation marks. Sure.
What had to be his tongue poked at the inside of his cheek as he watched me carefully. “You were coming on to me—”
I exploded. “What?” The chances that my face was scrunched up was high. Very high. “When?” From the sound of the words coming out of my mouth, I hadn’t realized that me assuming he’d thought I’d been flirting with him was completely different from him admitting he thought I had. I hadn’t.
“You brought cookies over—”
“That my mom made for the eight houses closest to me. Go ask the neighbors.” Hadn’t I told him this already? He was good-looking, but he wasn’t that good-looking. I had better things to do with my precious time than bake him cookies. The fuck was he thinking? Was he one of these idiots in the world who thought every female was interested in him? Sure, he had an amazing body, but all you needed to do was go on social media and search for a fitness model to find one just as nice.
Trying to tell myself that I didn’t need to get all riled up for no reason, I let out a breath through my nose and tried to let out the most controlled exhale I was capable of. Basically, I still sounded like a dragon. “No offense, pal. I’m nice and I have manners, and I pretty much saved your brother’s life. I was not trying to get in your pants after only seeing you one time.” Maybe that was harsher than it needed to be, but I was insulted.