Page 5 of When Fences Fall
“You will not,” I hiss back, making a move to get in her face to maybe scare her a little with my presence, but she squares her shoulders back, simultaneously dropping her knees and taking some kind of yoga position.
I stumble over my own feet, realizing she’s a real redhead. I can see it from the tiny triangle of bright hair between her legs. The rest of the skin is bare. Smooth. So smooth.
“What are you doing?” I cry out, covering my eyes and looking away.
“Soaking up the moon. Be gone.” She graciously waves her hand in the air, dismissing me.
The muscle on my jaw ticks. “You need to get out of here!”
“Make me,” she challenges, squinting her eyes.
Both my eyes are twitching now. “I’m warning you,” I say in a low voice.
After giving me a long, disregarding look, she closes her eyes, placing her hands on her spread wide knees. My gaze drops again, and it takes quite an effort to look away.
Instead of listening to my vague threat as any sane person would, she sits up straighter and starts humming a tune.
“Lady,” I growl.
The humming intensifies.
“Lady!” Louder this time.
The humming matches my voice.
“Fuck!” I throw my head back, glaring up at the moon who’s put me in this position.
The first thing I want to do is grab this woman and throw her over my shoulders just so I can dump her over the fenceinto her own backyard. But I’ve just moved here. It’s literally my first day in this town, and maybe this is the local looney everyone adores. It’s not a good way to start my life here. So I decide to go with the right way.
“I’m calling the cops,” I say, striding back toward the house. I wish I’d grabbed my phone before charging out here.
By the time I’m back in maybe two minutes, I pray she’s not there. But she is. Still humming at the moon.
“Fucking shit.” I wipe my face with my hand and dial nine-one-one.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency, hun?”
Ignoring the ‘hun’part, I focus on the problem in my backyard. “I have an intruder on my property.” Then I mumble the address. The silence on the other end of the line should have tipped me off, but I’m too riled up to notice it.
“Hello?”
“Cheryl will be there shortly.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Whoever this Cheryl is, she’d better hurry up.
I’m glaring down at the naked intruder when the cop car lights come from the front of the house. Moments later, a female officer leisurely walks our way. She’s in no hurry to help me out here.
When she reaches us, her face is twisted with aknowingsmile.
“Nora, what are you doing?”
One of Nora’s eyes pops open. “Soaking up the moon.”
“Soaki—” Then the cop shakes her head. “You know what, whatever. Let the man be. Go to your house.”
“Can’t do,officer.” She closes her eyes, clearly mocking said officer. “The moon is not the same in my backyard.”
