“No, it’s fine.” She sat on the top step watching him work, silently wishing it was Lisa climbing the ladder with her lean legs and toned stomach on display.
She still had the boyish figure she’d had in school, but she was very much a woman, more so than back then. To be expected, really. They were no longer teenagers; they were grown women with ten years of unknown between them.
She had no clue if Lisa had ever been in a long-term relationship, but from what she could gather, Lisa was very much single, and that gave her a tiny bit of hope that maybe, one day, they could rekindle what had been snatched away from them, partly due to her own actions, but mostly due to circumstances out of her control.
She didn’t have a mobile back in 1995, and she’d had no way of keeping in touch. She could’ve tried Lisa’s home phone, but she’d been too much of a coward, unsure what Lisa’s mother might say if she answered. Did her mum know what had happened? As far as Bella knew, her own parents were blissfully unaware. At least one good thing came from moving out of town—she didn’t have to come out until she was ready.
Facebook had been around for a year, but the few times Bella had looked for Lisa, she’d come up blank. She wouldn’t be surprised if Lisa didn’t have Facebook—or a computer for that matter. She’d always been somewhat a loner, even before everything turned to shit.
“There you go.” Marty climbed off the stepladder. “Try the switch.”
Bella reached her hand inside the door and turned on the porch light. It flicked to life, leaving an orange spot in her eye. “Thank you. How much do I owe you?”
He told her the price and she tried not to let her mouth fall open. “Good money for fifteen minutes’ work,” she grumbled.
“You forget, it took me fifteen minutes to get here, and it will take me just as long to get home. Minimum charge is an hour. I’ve waived the Sunday call-out fee.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.” Working such erratic hours made it easy to forget what day of the week it was. “I won’t be a minute.”
She ducked inside and grabbed some of the cash she’d been paid for the clean-up job she’d done that morning. She shuddered at the memory. It had been messy. The worst yet.
After Marty left, Bella let Max out of the living room. “Are you ready to go and explore yet, big guy?”
He weaved between her legs, purring loudly.
“Come on.” She picked him up and ventured outside. Music filtered over from next door, but she didn’t spot Lisa. Not that that was unusual. She had to be on tippy-toes to see over the fence or staring out her kitchen window, which was opposite Lisa’s living room.
She’d caught her looking at her the day she’d had her nephew, but Lisa had quickly looked away—a dead giveaway she didn’t want Bella to know she’d been watching her. Maybe she should waltz around the house naked. That would get her attention. Or would it? Perhaps Lisa didn’t believe in second chances.
“Max,” Bella called when he started down the driveway. She still worried he would wander away, but she also knew she couldn’t keep him inside forever.
At the last place she lived, he spent more time outside rolling around in the garden than he spent inside. He slunk back over to her and rolled over on the concrete, giving himself a backrub. Bella patted his belly, then stood. “Come on, it’s food time. I’ll let you explore more tomorrow.”
***
The following day, an hour after letting Max out, Bella spotted him next door high in a tree. Not thinking much of it, she let him explore. Two hours later, worry set in when she spotted him still up the tree.
Bella stepped outside and called to him. He meowed back, sounding distressed. He took a tentative step, putting a paw on a branch, then sat again. Anxiety warred within her. She had to do something, but she’d also vowed to heed Lisa’s words and stay on her side of the fence.
If she went over, would Lisa sense she’d been there? Max let out a long meow, and Bella threw caution to the wind. With any luck, Lisa wouldn’t make it home from work before four. That gave her plenty of time to coax Max down and be back on her side of the fence, unseen.
Ten minutes later, Bella stood at the bottom of the tree questioning her wisdom. What had she expected? Max to jump into her arms? Relief surged through her when she spotted a ladder leaning against Lisa’s garage. She dragged it over to the tree, feeling all kinds of wrong for touching Lisa’s stuff without her knowledge or permission.
Once she extended the ladder, she climbed the rungs, her knees trembling along with the wobbly ladder. An image of her lying flat on her back with the wind knocked out of her flickered through her mind. She pushed it away and continued her climb.
“Come on.” She extended one hand, but Max didn’t budge. She spent the next several minutes trying to coax him down.
***
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Shit. Not only had Bella been caught up her neighbours tree, but no doubt Lisa had a perfect view of her butt cheeks hanging out of her cut-off shorts.
She glanced down and met Lisa’s angry glare. “My cat’s stuck.”
“She’s a cat. She’ll come down in her own time.” Lisa folded her arms over her chest.
“He.”
“Whatever. You’re trespassing.”
Deciding now wasn’t the time to go to battle, Bella bit back an angry retort. “He’s been up there all morning. I think he’s really stuck.”
She climbed a rung higher. The ladder wobbled, and she held her breath, exhaling when it didn’t topple over.
“As much as I like the view,” Lisa called up at her, “you need to get your arse down here before you land on it.”
“I can’t just leave him there,” Bella snapped. She wasn’t an angry person, but she was loyal to her cat, and she refused to abandon him. She relaxed when Lisa walked away. She hadn’t offered to help rescue her cat, and Bella didn’t need her help.
Instead of going inside like Bella had expected, Lisa plucked up the garden hose and marched back toward them.
Oh, no. Oh, shit!
Bella clung to the ladder for dear life. “What the hell are you doing?”
With what could only be described as a positively wicked grin, Lisa turned the spray nozzle and let rip. Water arched high into the tree, hitting its goal. Max shot past Bella, bounded down the tree and vanished in a blur of grey fluff.
“That was mean.” Bella glared, backing down the ladder one angry step at a time. The second her feet hit the ground, she received the same treatment. Water rained down on her as surely as if she was at home standing under a shower. Except, the water was cold and her very annoying neighbour was grinning widely.
“No, that’s mean,” Lisa said, her expression smug.
“You’re not a very nice person, Lisa Barnett.”
“And you’re trespassing. If I catch your cat over here again, I’ll send him home with his tail between his teeth.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Surely, Lisa wouldn’t cut off Max’s tail and feed it to him.
“Try me.”
“He’s a cat. They have free will. I can’t make him stay at home.”
Lisa’s gaze locked on Bella’s nipples pebbling beneath her wet T-shirt. “Maybe we can come to some kind of agreement.”