Page 59 of Crave Thy Neighbor

His thick, dark brows slam together, and his lips that I know are softer than they look twist up. “Why would you need to take him to work with you?”

“Because otherwise he’d be at the apartment with you pretty much all day.”

“And you don’t trust him with me?”

“No. I just know you hate kids.”

He sighs, his grip tightening on the wheel as he grits his teeth. “If I didn’t want your son at my apartment, I wouldn’t have offered up my rooms to you, okay?”

I’ve never heard him so frustrated before.

But I guess I don’t understand him, don’t understand why he’s offered up his place to a single mom when he doesn’t like kids and clearly doesn’t want me there.

When I don’t answer him, he glances over at me.

“Okay?” he presses again, his voice and eyes softer this time.

“Okay.”

“Good.”

He flips on the radio, and the sounds of seventies and eighties rock fill the silence.

Even though we’re not spending much time together, the sexual tension between us is still palpable.

He looks at me, and I look away.

I glance at him, and he does the same.

Back and forth and back and forth.

It’s exhausting, and I want things to not be awkward again. I don’t want this silence stretching between us now to last the whole time I’m in his apartment. I can’t stomach it much longer.

When we trek closer to my old neighborhood, I steer him through the streets until he’s parking in front of Patrick’s two-story house.

“I’ll leave the engine running.”

With a nod, I hop out of the car, walk the short path to the front door, and knock.

Patrick swings the door open, his face pulled tight.

“Oh, thank god it’s you. I have to leave ASAP if I want to make my lunch meeting.”

“Should have thought about that more than an hour ago, Patrick,” I remind him not-so-gently.

He huffs. “It was a calendar mistake, okay? It’s not my fault.”

He means it’s his secretary’s.

A part of me wondered if he was sleeping with her when we were together, but honestly, by the time we got divorced, I didn’t care anymore. We might have been married on paper, but we hadn’t beenmarriedfor a long time when we ended things.

“Your son ready?”

“Oh, so now he’s my son, huh?” He grins at me, and for a moment I see the boy I fell for at sixteen. But as quickly as he appears, he’s gone again. “Sammy!” he hollers up the stairs. “Mom’s here!”

“Coming!” he calls back.

Patrick turns to me and sighs. “Look, sorry. I didn’t want to cut our weekend short, but this meeting is important. I can’t miss it or my dad will have my ass.”

---