Page 18 of Kiss Me, Darling

When I couldn’t quiet my mind I sketched out some ideas I had for the series Lucy asked me to work on. My heart was still fully in my paranormal project, but once it was done I wanted to know, one way or the other, if I was even interested in pursuing the prequel series.

Based on the pages and pages of notes and sketches I made...I’d say yeah. I was probably interested.

But now we couldn’t talk about any of it because we had a threat painted on our window. For fucks sake!

“They remained on the deck the entire time. The only damage done was the paint,” Esther said entirely too calmly.

But as I watched our uninvited guest move through the yard they paused. “What are they doing?”

Esther leaned closer. “We think they saw an animal along the fence.”

And while that was possible, it didn’t feel right. Call it my actor instincts kicking in, but I spent a lot of time studying human behavior, mannerisms, trying to get inside of someone else’s head and be them.

If I were this person, I was stopping in this spot for a specific reason. “We should go out there and see.”

“You stay here. I’ll check it out. But it was probably an animal. There’s a damn possum that likes to stare at me,” Esther grumbled as she walked to the door.

“It could have been anything. Isn’t the wildlife here...diverse?” Lucy asked in the measured, polite way she usually employed when others were around. If it were just the two of us she’d have said something much more casual.

“So far I’ve seen about a dozen different kinds of birds, three different types of snakes, that crazy possum, an armadillo, turtles, an iguana, and only one real gator.” Ben liked to prop his fake gator up to scare us from time to time.

“What kind of snakes?” Lucy visibly cringed.

“Only one deadly kind. The other two are harmless.”

“A water moccasin? I read about those. They sound terrifying.”

I probably shouldn’t tell her that the last one was so big I thought it was a baby alligator. “I would definitely avoid them. But you should be aware of the iguana. He likes to roam up and down the street. The first sighting is the most shocking. He’s pretty chill. Trent calls him Charlie.”

Lucy laughed. “Charlie the iguana. Got it.”

“We should probably name the possum. I usually just call him Asshole.”

“It sounds like we’re in a miniature Jurassic Park.”

Esther appeared at the door. “I’ve checked the perimeter. If you want to come out and see the spot for yourself.” We followed her out the door and over to the small expanse of land between the house and Olivia’s fence. “They stopped about here. I don’t see anything.”

All I saw was gravel and the still-new landscaping of palmettos, palms, and hibiscus.

“Was this always the property line?” Lucy asked.

“I believe so. Why?”

She shrugged. “Just trying to think of reasons to stop here. Seeing a vicious possum or attack snake would certainly be a valid reason. Animals like lines and fences.”

I knew this was true, but it still felt wrong, even though I could see with my own eyes that nothing was here. “How safe are we, Esther?”

“We have no reason to believe this person will act violently. However if you want to move to the resort, I wouldn’t be upset.”

My neck itched. Hell, all of me itched. I knew what it was like to be watched. People watched me all the time. This was different and I didn’t like it. All I really wanted was to spend the day with Lucy working our shit out. I didn’t think we could do it here over a can of paint like we planned. But I wasn’t so sure moving to the resort was the best idea either. What would we do? Check into separate rooms, act awkward, attempt to go to the beach and dinner together before an even more awkward good night?

No thank you.

That’s when my gaze snagged on another option. A potentially terrible option. “Let’s take the boat.”

Esther’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“Hear me out. We’d be alone. It’s got to be safe out on the open water. It’ll give you and Joe time to recheck everything and focus on things here instead of constantly watching us.” I turned to Lucy, the woman I wanted to kiss again. Soon. “What do you say? A couple hours on the boat?”

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