“Luna what are you doing?!” I asked breathlessly as my brain slowly processed that she was safe. “You know the rule about opening the doors and going outside.”
There was a strict no-opening-the-door policy in our house. One that she’d never broken before.
“I didn’t. The door was open.”
Shit. The screen that was flapping in the wind when I woke up. It must have a broken latch and opened when I fell asleep.
We’d never lived in the country before. Luna knew not to leave our condo in the city. But on the long drive, I’d told her in the country she’d be able to play outside. It had been a pathetic attempt to soften the blow of the abrupt upheaval to her life. I had completely forgotten to add that she could only play outside if I was with her.
I needed to have a serious talk with her and explain to her the rules of living in the country. One of which was not to show up on stranger’s doorsteps.
The past seventy-two hours had been a whirlwind and I had emotional whiplash from it. My life had been flipped, turned upside down, and not in the fun Fresh Prince of Bel-Air way. I’d been holding it together, up until now, but just barely. And this episode had pushed me to my limit.
When I started to feel myself begin to tear up, I sniffed away the emotion. This was not the time or place to have the nervous breakdown I deserved but I feared that I wouldn’t be able to hold it at bay much longer. I needed to thank the Bear-Man, get back to the house, put a movie on for Luna, instruct her not to leave the couch, and then go to the bathroom and have a good cry.
Looking up at the blurry figure, I squinted still not able to clearly see any of the features of the mammoth male specimen before me. All I could make out was an outline. And his outline was ginormous.
I stood up, still holding Luna in my arms and cleared my throat. “I’m so sorry that she bothered you.”
“She was no bother.”
Hearing the deep voice in such close proximity was a much different experience than hearing it from a hundred yards away. It gave me an entirely new appreciation for the phrase up close and personal. This felt personal and potent. So much so that a shiver ran down my spine.
“Are you cold Momma?” Luna asked sweetly as she reached up and patted my cheek.
“What?” It took me a second to realize she must have felt the shiver that ran through me.
“You’re shaking.” Luna demonstrated my shiver and I could feel my cheeks flush with embarrassment.
What must this person, whose face I couldn’t make out, with a voice deep enough to rival Barry White think of me?
I didn’t know much about this town, but I did know that it was small. And if Gilmore Girls had taught me anything about small towns, it was that people talked. Everyone knew everyone’s business. And this was not the impression I wanted to make on my new neighbor.
First a kid shows up on his porch like a lost puppy followed by a hysterical mother who is having a spaz attack in front of him.
Hoping to salvage the embarrassing encounter, I pasted a smile on my face and stuck my hand out toward him. “Hi, I’m Skylar…”
I’d wanted to say more, like my last name and where we were from, but the moment Bear-Man’s large, warm paw enveloped mine my legs turned to wet noodles and every thought in my head evaporated like dry ice in a sauna. It wasn’t just the size of his hand that was impressive. It was the texture. Roughened fingers and a calloused palm brushed against my skin wreaking all sorts of havoc on my nervous system. I tingled from head to toe. Each cell in my body was alive with awareness. My ovaries flipped the sign in my uterus window from Closed to Open.
Could someone get pregnant from a handshake? Because if they could, I was definitely carrying this man’s baby.
“Hank, nice to meet you.”
His gravelly introduction only served to exacerbate my Level Ten Swoon. His raspy words caused my breath to catch in my throat. How could I be this attracted to a man that I hadn’t even seen?
I narrowed my eyes, squinting again, as I tried desperately to make out any features I could of this enormous man named Hank who had a voice that made my ovaries tingle and a touch that had me weak in the knees. Unfortunately, willing myself to have better vision didn’t make it so.
I exhaled slowly before speaking, hoping not to sound like a breathless schoolgirl. “I’m so sorry about this. We just moved in and I fell asleep and…”
“It’s no bother. Really.”
The gritty roughness in his tone held a commanding quality that captivated me in a way I’d never experienced before. His voice simultaneously soothed and aroused me. Normally, those weren’t two reactions I experienced in tandem. I wasn’t sure what voodoo magic this man possessed, but I knew that it was much too strong to resist in my exhausted state.
Back away slowly, my voice of reason instructed.
Nothing to see here, my voice of self-preservation cosigned.
The last thing I needed was to add infatuation to the pile of complications in my life.
“Okay, well, thanks.” I took two steps backwards, still holding onto Luna for dear life before turning and rushing down the steps. “Luna, tell Mr. Hank bye.”
Luna waved wildly over my shoulder as I carried her across the grass. “Bye, Mister Hank!”
“Bye, Luna Luna.”
Luna giggled as she shouted, “It’s just Luna!”
As I made my way back across the field, I could feel the heated stare of my blurry new neighbor on my back like the sun breaking out from clouds on a chilly day. It warmed me and caused the tiny hairs on the base of my neck to stand up. The sensation sent another chill rushing through me.
“Are you still cold?” Luna sweetly voiced her concern.
“Yep.” I didn’t see the point in trying to explain that my body was reacting to hot not cold.
She hugged me tighter and like I found myself doing several times a day, I thanked my lucky stars that I got to be her mom.
“Guess what?” She released her hold and leaned back with excitement sparkling in her big brown eyes. “I was a Girl Scout!”
Luna had a very active imagination and she loved playing make-believe, so it didn’t surprise me at all that she’d decided to pretend to be a Girl Scout. It actually made sense now as to why she’d gone to the neighbor’s house. Thinking about how differently things could have ended up brought all the fear that I’d felt bubbling to the surface.
I stopped just shy of the porch and looked right in her eyes. “Luna, you can never, ever, leave the house without me knowing. Do you understand me? Ever.”
“Okay, Momma.” The sparkle that had been in her eyes was extinguished and I felt her spirit and her tiny body deflate as she held onto my neck.
As much as I hated raining on her Girl Scout parade, she had to know that she could never do what she’d done again. Even though, it was my fault. I should have known that after running on energy drinks and coffee for two days, I’d inevitably hit a wall.
Actually, it had been closer to seventy-two hours. I hadn’t slept since I’d come home from work and discovered my house had been broken into. From what I could tell nothing had been stolen, but they destroyed a lot of property and they left a message. A note was hanging on the fridge with a magnet saying that they would be back.
I wasn’t sure exactly who “they” were, but I knew that whoever they were, it was connected to my ex Richie, who was Luna’s father.