Page 29 of When You Least Expect It
“Ask the girl out, Myer,” he said.“The sex cult across the street can wait.”
Well, he wasn’t necessarily wrong.
Chapter 13
Calista~
A week later, and I was starting to believe that I might be able to live again.I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Louise, and I was taking that as a good sign.I didn’t need any additional fruit baskets, and I definitely didn’t need another prayer meeting in my future.
As for Myer, we had officially become neighbors, a hand wave here and there, but nothing more.He hadn’t come over to check on me, ask me for my phone number, or offer to mow my yard, which I could do myself, but still.He was minding his own business, leaving me to mind mine, and it really did fucking suck.In fact, by the time that Thursday had rolled around, I’d begun giving Abrielle’s pie and shirt idea some real consideration.
Luckily for my ego, I had managed to convince myself that the man just worked long hours, and when you factored in how many hours I worked in a week, waving at each other as we came and went seemed rather reasonable.
I’d also never gotten around to asking him if he had a girlfriend or not, so it was quite possible that he was busy with some other woman, and she was probably some gorgeous supermodel that got around on a unicorn and had her very own rainbow following her around.I mean, the man was hot as lava, so what other kind of girlfriend would he have?
At any rate, when I’d driven into my driveway last night, I’d had the misfortune of noticing a small hornets’ nest forming just under the eave of my garage, and not wanting to deal with that mess at a later date, I decided to spend my Saturday morning removing it, which was no small feat.No matter what, I had no desire to get stung by anything, and that’s why I was dressed like I was homeless in the middle of winter.
So, having done my research, I was out in my driveway, dressed for a blizzard, armed with some insecticide, ready to spray the nest, then wait a few hours like the internet told me to.It also told me to keep spraying the shit out of the nest until all the hornets were dead before removal attempt, and I believed the internet on this one.
After dragging the stepladder from the garage, I studied the distance to gauge if I was even tall enough to make this happen.I mean, not only was I trying not to get stung by hornets, but I was also not trying to fall off the ladder and crack my skull open.
“Looks like you can use some help there.”
I turned to see Jury Patton standing in my driveway, looking at me as if I had no idea what was happening across the street.Maybe all that blind worship was really making him believe that he was more charming than he really was.Yeah, he was easy on the eyes, but hadn’t they said the same thing about Ted Bundy?
“Thank you, but I’m good,” I told him as I stepped next to the ladder.“I’ve got it all under control.”
“Which is surprising,” he remarked casually.“I mean, with as protective as your boyfriend seemed at the meeting last week, I’d think that he’d be here to take care of such things for you.”
“You know, I am a grown adult,” I told him.“While I appreciate Myer’s help in all things, I can still manage to get stuff done without him.”
“Ah, you’re one of those,” he said, making my back straighten.“I should have suspected as much from the little that I learned of you at the meeting.”
“One of what?”I asked, even though I knew exactly what he was going to say.
“Well, people like to use the term ‘progressive’, but it’s just another word for independent,” he answered.“Or are you one of those women that view strong men as a threat?You know, always having to make sure that he knows that you don’t need him?”
