Love Thy Neighbor (Friend-Zoned)(4)

I lean back, look into his eyes and croak, “I think we should avoid each other.”

He shakes his head slowly and smirks. “I think we should f*ck again. Tonight.”

My stomach dips and my core moistens just thinking about the possibility of having Ghost again.

Get the hell out of his clutches, stupid!

I lower my head and shake it. I whisper, “No. It was a mistake. Never to be repeated. I got to go. Please leave me alone, Ghost.”

Ghost stiffens and replies quietly, “If that’s what you want, pretty girl.”

I look up into his eyes and still. He doesn’t look angry. He looks hurt and resigned.

I don’t understand it.

My heart squeezes and I beg, “Please, Ghost. We’re not good for each other. We need to start avoiding each other.”

His brow furrows as he nods. His arms loosen and he walks away from me.

Ghost walking away from me leaves me feeling alone and bitter.

Why did I do that?

Because you’d fall for the broken man which would leave you lonely, regardless.

Oh, yeah.

Thanks, brain.




Chapter One

My neighbors suck





Seven months later…

Tatiana pulls my hair hard.

Yowza!

I squint in pain, remove her grabby hands, and softly reprimand her, “Hey peaches, that’s Teta Nat’s. You’re just going to have to grow some of your own if you want some hair.” Teta means Aunt in Croatian. Tina insists we use Teta instead of Aunt.

She smiles a gummy smile and jumps around in my arms. I can’t help but smile right back at her.

She is too damn cute.

Tatiana is three months old. All eight of us were present at her birth. You really can’t separate us…if one of us gets called, we start a phone tree to alert the others.

Tatiana looks just like Tina when she was a baby; chubby and cute as hell with dark hair. The only difference is my sweet little girlie has Nik’s amber eyes rather than Tina’s green ones. Tina was overjoyed at this. She loves Nik’s eye color.

I walk over to the storeroom and knock before I enter. Tina sits behind the desk going through paperwork. She smiles as we enter. She coos to her daughter. “Hi, my beautiful girl. Are you giving Teta Nat a hard time? You eating her hair again? My cheeky little thing.” She takes Tatiana out of my hands and pops her onto her hip. Tina’s smiling face falls when she looks over to me. She asks, “Everything okay?”

No.

My heart aches whenever I’m around Tatiana. I’ll never have children. Watching Tina with Tats brings me as much sorrow as it does happiness.

A random doctor’s appointment last year led me to being diagnosed with PCOS. I have cysts on my ovaries and uterus. I have around eighty cysts on each ovary.

That’s a lot.

The doctor advised me to be prepared for the fact that I’ll never have children. My ovaries and uterus are too scarred and damaged for me to conceive.

I force a large smile and reply, “Of course. Just a little edgy with the move, that’s all.”

Tina smiles. “Don’t you even worry about the move. I asked the girls to help out. The guys offered to help, but I told them this was girl-bonding time.”

Smiling back at her, I sigh. “What would I do without you?”

She scrunches her nose and tilts her head up. “You’d have to buy cupcakes.” She blinks and goes on “That’s about it.” We both laugh.

Tina’s cupcakes are the bomb. Actually, anything Tina bakes is out of this world.

Tina owns Safira Boutique. Safira’s is a clothing store, but we also sell accessories and lingerie. Mimi, Lola and I work with Tina. Right across the street is The White Rabbit, which is where all the guys work. We’re pretty close knit which makes avoiding Ghost not so easy.

For seven months, I’ve managed to stay away from him. We haven’t so much as said hello to each other in this time. What’s crazy is I miss his stupid little aggravating comments and how he called me pretty girl. What’s not crazy is that, of course, I want the bad boy.

But isn’t that always the way it goes?

Every girl wants a bad boy who is only good to her.

We all want to tame a wild beast. And Ghost is as wild as a man comes. He’s unpredictable, broody and emotionless. He may as well be a wild animal. I’ve never even heard him laugh before.

The Ghost of my fantasies is loving, dominant and funny. That Ghost doesn’t exist. He’s in my head.

My memories of the night Ghost and I had crazy monkey sex are as clear as daylight.

They haunt me.

Every. Freaking. Night.

My belly tightens and I flush whenever I think about it.

Tina pulls me back to reality with an amused, “Hellllloooooo? Anyone in there?” She flaps her hand in front of my face.

My face forms a scowl and I poke her lightly in the ribs. She giggles and I smile. My friend is a goofball, but she’s so adorable that it just makes her even cuter. We make each other laugh all the time. It’s the real basis of our friendship.

I sigh and say, “Please tell me you baked.”

Her face falls immediately and I know she didn’t. Tina wears her heart on her sleeve. I love that.

“Oh, honey, I promise I will soon. It’s just with Tatiana and the housework, and Ceecee, I’ve been all over the place!” She sounds panicked.