Home > Neanderthal Next Door

Neanderthal Next Door
Author: K.C. Crowne

 


Description

 

 

"This mountain isn't big enough for the two of us, Princess."

 

 

Hunter is a Neanderthal ✓

Mr. Crabby pants neighbor ✓✓

Totally NOT even close to my type. ✓✓✓

Okay, fine. That last one isn't entirely true.

The mountain man thinks he can scare me away.

But I don't scare easily.

I've got to protect my little boy from danger...And the demons of my past can't find us here.

So, if Hunter thinks he can intimate me with a grimace that would make a Halloween jack-o-lantern jealous - he has another thing coming.

 

 

Mandy

 

 

“Earth to Mamma!”

That pulled me out of my daydream.

I turned and glanced down, seeing my six-year-old son Parker standing next to me, an expression of concern on his face, like he knew something was wrong. And like the sweet little man he was, he’d often check in on me when I seemed to be having one of my episodes - staring off into the abyss

“Are you okay, Mom?” he asked.

Truthfully, I was nowhere near okay. We were hundreds of miles away from the place we’d called home since Parker’s birth, and all I could think about were the memories from the past. Maybe my mind was torturing me for my decision to pack us up and move to a strange new place. Or maybe it was my mind’s weird way of detoxing all the horrible memories and nightmares.

I wasn’t sure I wanted that, though. I wanted to hold on to every memory of Michael – even the soul crushing ones that tore me to shreds. I had loved that man with all my heart. Holding on to his memories was all I had now.

Without fail, however, the sight of Parker always managed to make me feel better. He was a reminder of why I was doing all this, why I’d moved us out to the middle of rural Washington to start over. All for him.

Parker was the spitting image of his father. Deep green eyes and auburn hair that defied the laws of gravity in the way it stood up in the morning.

I smiled, kneeling in front of him. Parker was dressed in an Iron Man costume, the mask hiding his adorable face. “I’m fine – just thinking about all the stuff we have to do today. You don’t need to worry.”

“Um, I think the waffles are burning.”

I sniffed the air, catching the scent of charred bread. “Shoot!”

My coffee mug in hand, I hurried into the kitchen and to the waffle-maker. Smoke was seeping out of the closed compartment.

“Holy mother trucker.” It wasn’t the word I wanted to say, of course. But it was as close as I could get without giving Parker any ideas on language that would be permissible under our new roof. I set down the mug and pried open the waffle-maker. The waffles were spattered with black singe marks, the scent of burnt food even more intense.

“That smells kinda gross,” Parker said, stepping up on the tippy toes of his sneakers to see with his little nose wrinkled in disgust.

“It’s, um, worse than it looks.” I picked up the waffle by the edge so Parker could get a good look.

“That one can be yours,” he decided.

I laughed. Even at a young age, Parker already had his father’s wry sense of humor.

“How about it’s no one’s,” I said with a smile, tossing it aside and preparing to ladle another heaping serving of batter.

“I like that idea,” he said, nodding.

I closed the lid, the batter popping and simmering in the maker.

“What are we going to do today, Mom?” Parker asked, taking a seat at the round, wooden kitchen table. “Can we go see the woods?”

“Trust me, kiddo,” I said. “We’re going to be seeing plenty of the woods. We live in them now. You’ll see so much you may start talking to the trees before too long.”

He laughed. “That’d be funny.”

“Seriously though, we’re going into town today to get you some stuff for school. And speaking of school, you’re going to need to get used to wearing something a little more appropriate than an Iron Man costume.”

He groaned as I took the mask off his face and set it on the counter. “I don’t want to go to school here,” he said, a sour expression on his face. “I miss San Diego. I miss my friends. And I have to wear my costume so I can get ready for Halloween.”

I turned, placing my palms on the edge of the counter. “I know this is different,” I said. “But we always have fun, you and me, right? I know it’s a major change, but also it’s an adventure, and adventures are always scary at first.”

“I don’t want an adventure,” he grumbled. “I want things back as they were.”

So do I kiddo.

We’d had this conversation many times before, and one I could sense we would have plenty more times in the future. But I couldn’t blame him one bit. After all, I had decided to totally uproot our lives in San Diego and move all the way up to Washington, hundreds of miles from anything we’d known. We’d gone from sun and beaches to slate-gray skies and Douglas Firs.

I took my mug and sat down across from him. “We need to start over, to be someplace new. Especially when the old place has sad memories.”

“It’s cold here,” he complained.

“Cold’s good for you,” I told him. “It toughens you up – makes you strong.”

“Strong like Dad was?”

It’d been two years since we’d lost Michael, and one of the hardest parts was that it’d happened when Parker was so young that he barely had a chance to know his own father. But that didn’t stop him from viewing him as a legendary, larger-than-life figure, a brave military man who was a million feet tall and not scared of anything.

“That’s right,” I said with a smile. “That’s what your dad always said – you have to push yourself if you want to get strong.”

And he had. But I found myself wondering if moving wasn’t about pushing myself, if it was really about running away. Didn’t matter. I’d made the call, moved into my family’s old cabin in the woods. Silver Pines, the nearest dot of civilization on the map – not to mention my hometown – was thirty minutes away and with a population of twenty thousand. If I wanted to run, I’d picked the best damn place to run off to.

“I want to be tough like Dad,” he said, a flash of determination on his face. “And join the military.”

I smiled, happy he was happy. The waffle maker chimed, letting me know it was ready. I opened it, pried the non-burned waffles out, and dropped them onto a plate.

“Then eat up, champ,” I said, putting the plate in front of Parker. “You want to be tough like Dad, then you’re going to need a heck of a lot of waffles.”

He grinned as he reached for the syrup, dumping it all over his waffles and going to town. I mussed his hair, taking the mask and setting it in front of him before turning back to the window above the sink just in time to watch the branches of the trees on the edge of the property rustle. The grumble of an engine sounded, and my stomach tensed until I spotted the familiar shape of a mid-nineties Ford Explorer emerge from the trees, the two tones a deep orange and off-white.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)