Page 5 of Make Me

“How are you liking the house?” he asks. I turn back to him, and he’s closer now. He must have taken a step forward while I was looking away. I take a big step back, putting more space between us, but the distance doesn’t keep the smell of marijuana away.

“It’s fine. Thank you. Um, can you please get your dog so we can go inside? And please don’t smoke around my daughter.” He doesn’t move, so I clear my throat again. I expect him to tell me he can smoke wherever and whenever he damn well pleases, but he surprises me.

“Okay. I didn’t know you two would be out here this late. I didn’t mean for her to see me smoking. It won’t happen again.”

Shocked by his quick acquiescence, I take another small step back and nod my head.

“Thank you,” I find myself saying. He stares at me for so long, I’m forced to break the stare and take another step back, putting me against the house.

“Does Ivy like dogs?”

“It looks like it, but she’s never been around any.” Of course, he couldn’t have a poodle or a beagle. He has to have the biggest and ugliest dog on earth.

“Well, she can come over and play with Sam any time.” I widen my eyes in shock at the invitation. I turn and call for Ivy, but she ignores me. “I mean with you. Of course, you’re not going to send her over to my house by herself. So, you both can come over whenever you want. To see Sam. Or to hang out or whatever.” He runs a giant hand over his face and mutters something under his breath. “I cook,” I think I hear him say, followed by, “Jesus, just shut up, Coop.”

While his face is covered, I grab my child and walk away, but the damn mutt follows us and starts to rub her nose on my leg.

“That will not be necessary. We don’t hang out with people we don’t know,” I say to Cooper.

“Well, get to know me then,” he counters.

Thankfully, I get the key through the lock the first time. By the time I turn to close the door, Cooper’s already grabbed the leash and has stopped the mutt from following us inside. I quickly push the door behind me, but Cooper’s eyes lock with mine until the door closes shut. Ivy only complains for a few seconds once we step inside. I distract her by asking her to go get her pajamas.

When I peek through the blinds, it’s to find both the dog and its owner staring at my house. The dog howls until Cooper finally pulls her leash, and they walk away.

I don’t know why, but I take a big, relieved breath when they finally walk inside their house and close the door.

He’s even more beautiful now than he was when we were in high school. His body is just about perfect. His shoulders and arms are more defined, and his eyes can still make me forget my own name. I’d give anything to have him not live next door to me. The last thing I need is to see my sexy neighbor running shirtless through the neighborhood. But then, I remind myself that the very last thing on earth I’m planning on doing is getting involved with another man. In any capacity.

I’m here to work with Aunt Mae in her flower shop. I’ve worked there in the summers before, but she’s making me a manager. When she made me the offer, I didn’t think twice about quitting my job as a supervisor in the floral department at a local grocery store chain. Leaving Chicago behind, as well as my mother and former in-laws, was the change I knew I needed but didn’t think I could have.

Therapy opened my eyes to my mother’s controlling and manipulating nature. And after years of giving in, I had enough and decided to do something for me and my child. Things are already looking up. We live in a beautiful house, not a cramped city apartment. Ivy and I won’t miss the smell of our neighbors’ cooking or the weird cat that roamed the halls at all hours.

I stand Ivy up in the tub and wash the dog smell off her. After a full day exploring Oak Bend and hours at Aunt Mae’s house, she’s exhausted. Aunt Mae’s husband, Hank, kept Ivy busy working in their yard.

Once Ivy is sound asleep in her little bed, I give in to my guilty pleasure, cookie dough ice cream, even though I shouldn’t. And because I can, I step out on my deck and take a seat at the small round table, which I assume either belongs to the landlord or was left here by the prior tenant. I turn my face to the dark sky and smell the spring air. The temperature has dropped, but it’s still not cool enough to chase me back inside.

I take a spoonful of ice cream and lean back in the uncomfortable chair. Just as I take my second bite, the same mutt from next door comes strolling on my deck and starts to rub herself on my leg.

“Mutt, you’ve got to go home,” I say, but I can’t help myself. I rub the back of her head, and she leans back. As soon as I move my hand, she starts to whine. I sigh and rub behind one of her ears.

“She’s not a mutt.” Sam’s owner comes strolling on my deck as if he owns the place. “She’s a German Shepherd.” I don’t respond. I’m too mesmerized by his face and his voice. I mentally shake my head and look away. Except he doesn’t take his dog and go home like I expect. He sits across from me, and his large frame fills the small space. “She snuck out while I was watering my plants.” I nod, unsure of what to say. Sam continues to rub herself on me, and she licks my ankle. “I remember you,” he says.

Chapter 4

Cooper

She dropsher gaze as soon as those words leave my mouth. She absentmindedly strokes Sam, who only rubs herself on Laci’s leg more. I’ve never been jealous of a dog before Laci moved in next door.

Laci continues to look everywhere but at me. Her hand trembles while she lifts a spoonful of ice cream to her mouth. Her lips are as full as I remember from ten years ago. She looks different now, but her eyes are still the same. Big and dark, and no longer hidden behind thick glasses. Her hair’s the same too. Still curly, but now with color.

“We went to the same high school. I think you were a freshman when I was a senior,” I say to her. She finally looks at me. This time, she squares her shoulders and looks me right in the eye. She puts her bowl down with a resounding thud.

“Yeah, I remember you too. Cooper Stevens,” she says. “You weren’t exactly in my circle. You ran with a different crowd,” she says. I think back, and I can only remember one friend of hers. It was another freshman, another one of the handful of black kids at the school. They were always together, except for that one time. But like she said, we ran in different circles, and we didn’t have classes together. But I remember that she was quiet and would never look at me.

“Well, you should have said hi,” I tell her. I smile, but she doesn’t smile back. She clears her throat and gets up. She almost trips over Sam, but I stand quickly and grab both her hands to keep her from falling. I hear a gasp, but I don’t know if it’s from her or me. Without breaking our gaze, I drop one of her hands and brush a strand of her hair off her forehead. She tries to move my hand away, but I end up grabbing onto her hand again. We stand there on the deck I refinished just last week and stare at each other.

Even Sam has calmed down for the time being as she lays on the floor and hits her tail against the wood. A cool wind blows, and she shivers. I look down to see her full breasts straining through her shirt, and I wonder what they would feel like in my hands. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that my large hands won’t be able to cup her breasts completely. My mouth waters at the thought, and I lick my lips. She grabs her hands from mine and wraps them around her body, shielding those perfect breasts from my sight.

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