Page 110 of The Woman By the Lake

I got out, noting I needed to water the plants, and the front door was open. From there I could see through the screen all the way to the back and beyond, where Riggs was working on the back door that was resting on two sawhorses.

I went in, dropped my purse on the kitchen island, and walked along the back porch under Riggs’s watchful eye.

I came to a stop at the top of the steps.

“The storm doors will be delivered tomorrow, delivery window ten to noon. And I think Hutch is mad at me because Gia was more interested in playing with me, I was more interested in playing with Gia, so we got distracted a lot.”

I got another smile from Riggs.

He wasn’t a man to dole them out frugally. Still, I hadn’t seen much of him that day, but that was all he seemed capable of doing.

I felt that.

After last night, and this morning, I was in the same place.

I just loved seeing that he was too.

But I had to be careful in hoping too much.

I’d done a lot of driving that day, and since I trained my thoughts while doing it, it occurred to me that maybe Riggs did want to put us in the Friend Zone because we were neighbors, but things blossomed from there. Or maybe he wanted to take it slow, due to what had happened to me, then, to what was happening to me in MP.

He’d certainly made it clear last night, us being in the Non-Friend Zone was what he wanted, and it was my choice if we were going to take it there.

But the truth was, since his peace offering, he’d shared thoroughly and often he was into me. I’d just thought he was an affectionate guy.

I sensed he was.

Though, he was also very obviously into me.

That said, I hadn’t known him long, but what I did know was that I had to keep in mind this was probably firmly casual…and ride it out.

I knew that because that was what he told me.

And I was in to ride it out.

But I sure was going to enjoy him seeming so happy while we did it.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “Hutch told me she’ll be a great pet, and if the need arises, her training will kick in. Your training will be being able to call her down before she tears a man’s leg off.”

Yikes!

“I should probably focus,” I allowed.

He was still smiling. “Probably.”

“You want a drink?”

“Could use some water.”

“Perrier?”

He stared at me.

That had me smiling.

“I’ll do filtered,” I said, and moved back into the cabin.

I was starting to handle that when he came in, and then I was scrambling back into the counter when he was on me.

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