Ignite (Cloverleigh Farms #6)(10)

Damn, he was handsome. My heart was still fluttering.

“It’s fine,” I told myself. “It’s fine that my new next door neighbor is a hot firefighter and single dad with muscles for days and dark, broody eyes. It’s fine, because I am the boss of my feelings.”

Slowly, I started walking up the stairs, skimming my palm along the banister and wondering if his abs were as hard and sculpted as his jaw. Then I snatched my fingers off the wood as if it was hot.

“I am also the boss of my hands.” I started up the steps again, imagining what it would be like to feel his scruff against my cheek, maybe bite his lower lip.

“And my teeth,” I said defiantly. “I’m definitely the boss of my teeth. I will not bite my nice new neighbor.”

But I paused when I reached the top. “Unless he asks me to.”





Four





Dex





“You two cannot just wander off that way,” I scolded as we walked back to our place. I’d only been gone for twenty minutes, tops—after parking the truck out of the way, I’d run out to the hardware store to get a metal bracket for the broken couch leg. When I got back, the girls were nowhere to be found. “You know you have to ask permission to leave the house.”

“We couldn’t find you,” Hallie said defensively as we crossed our driveway. “And Uncle Justin said it was okay to go outside as long as we didn’t go in the parking lot, which we didn’t.”

“Where’s Aunt Bree?”

“She had to take the boys home for a nap.”

“You were supposed to go with her.”

“We didn’t want to.”

“Next time, wait for me.” I opened the front door for them, and they slipped into the house. “Got it?”

“Yes, Daddy,” they said together, but I could have sworn I saw Hallie roll her eyes. For good measure, I gave one of her pigtails a tug. “You know these are crooked, right?”

“Hey! You did them!” Giggling, she scooted away from me and darted up the steps.

“I like ’em that way,” I teased, following her and tugging the second one. “Makes it easy to recognize you from behind.”

Up in the girls’ room, Justin and I put together the girls’ twin beds while they put their clothes in the dresser.

“Dad, do we have a jar?” Hallie asked, carrying her clothes in neat piles over to the drawers she’d designated as hers.

“A jar?” I tightened a bolt holding the headboard to the frame on Luna’s bed. “What for?”

“To collect money every time you say a bad word.”

Justin laughed. “A swear jar?”

“Yes,” Hallie answered. “That’s what she called it.”

“That’s what who called it?” I asked, irritated.

“Winnie.”

“Who’s Winnie?” Justin asked.

“She’s our new friend that lives next door.” Hallie refolded a few things before placing them in a drawer.

“She gave me a Band-Aid,” said Luna, who clearly didn’t give a shit about keeping anything folded and was shoving things in drawers willy-nilly. “See?”

Justin dutifully examined the knee she displayed. “Very nice.”

“She said her dad was always saying bad words too, so she and her sisters made a swear jar.”

“Fuck that,” I said.

“The F-word is a dollar, Daddy. You might not want to say it anymore.” Hallie’s tone was solemn as she lined up her shoes in the closet exactly the way she liked them.

My brother-in-law laughed again. “That’s nice there are kids next door for you guys to play with. How old is Winnie?”

Luna giggled. “She’s not a kid.”

“She looks like one,” I muttered.

“I don’t know how old she is,” Hallie said thoughtfully. “Maybe a teenager?”

“That could be good,” Justin said, testing the stability of the frame and headboard. “You’d have a babysitter right next door.”

“I think she’s older than that, but not by much.” My knees cracked as I rose to my feet. “Okay, let’s put the mattresses on.”

“I think she’s pretty,” Luna said.

“Oh yeah?” Justin gave me a teasing glance as we hauled one twin mattress over to Hallie’s bed and tossed it on. “Is this true?”

I shrugged and turned around to grab the second one. “I only saw her for a minute.” During which I’d tried not to notice how short her shorts were or glance at the bare skin showing beneath her crop top.

“It’s true,” said Hallie with confidence. “She’s very pretty.”

“And she likes animals,” Luna said, watching us place the mattress on her bed. “Can we get a pet here, Daddy?”

“No.” I looked around for the garbage bags full of their sheets and blankets. Were they still downstairs?

“But why not?” Hallie followed me out of the bedroom and down the steps. “You said the old apartment didn’t allow pets but this one does.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Winnie has a cat. Her name is Piglet. And cats are very clean, I’ve read about it.”