The Bad Boy Next Door: A Red Hot Bad Boy Romance (3 page)

Chapter4

Ruby was washing out her breakfast dishes when she heard a knock on the front door. Walking into the living room, she saw the silhouette of a man on the other side of her screen door. It appeared that he was leaning on the door jam resting his head on his hand.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hey, neighbor,” came the confident voice of her new next door neighbor.

Ruby’s step faltered slightly, but she recovered. Opening the screen door, she motioned for him to come in.

“The muffins were A-Game,” he said as he breezed into the house past her. Ruby watched, mouth agape as he made himself at home at her dining table. “You got anything for a hangover, R. Schmidt?”

As he walked past his neighbor, Isaac checked her petite frame out from head to toe. She had shoulder-length hair the color of a raven’s wing and beneath her jogging clothes he could see that her body was tight and trim.

“Um, I think so. Wait here.” Ruby went into the powder room and came back with a bottle of pain killers and a glass of water from the kitchen.

“So, I’m Isaac Ross,” he said as he unscrewed the cap and down five or six of the white pills. “I just moved in five days ago, as you probably noticed.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said slowly. “Sounds like you throw some pretty wild parties over there.”

Isaac grinned at her, still wearing his shades. “Yeah. Play hard, party hard. That’s my motto.”

Ruby smiled. “Even on the weeknights when folks are trying to sleep.”

“That’s why earplugs were invented Little Mama.” Isaac downed the water. “Thanks for the basket. Those strawberries were delicious. So you live here alone?” Isaac looked around for signs that anybody else lived in the house.

“Nope, just me,” Ruby said. She realized she was still standing in next to the table and she sat down. “I’m Ruby Schmidt, by the way.”

“Ah,” Isaac said smoothly, “A gem of a name for a gem of a woman. Want to come party tonight?”

Ruby stifled a sigh. It was like he didn’t listen. “No. I work, so I can’t party all night like a teen anymore.”

Isaac’s smile only broadened in the face of her commentary. “You get ruffled easily?”

“Not generally.”

“You’re the one’s been calling the five-oh on me I bet.”

Ruby felt anxiety in her chest. Should she admit to it? It was pretty obvious, so lying wouldn’t get her anywhere. She finally nodded.

“I thought so. Maybe you should come to a party and see what we’re about before you get all uptight about my music,” Isaac said. His face had retained the same grin throughout the conversation.

“No, thank you.” Ruby looked at the clock. “Some of us need to get to work though, so thank you for coming over to introduce yourself, but I really need to get going.”

Isaac stood and gave a slight bow. “Next time you have a complaint, try coming over yourself instead of hiding behind five-oh.” He let himself out.

Ruby stared after him. What had just happened?

***

Isaac walked down the steps, his headache abating slightly.
What just happened? I just went over there to introduce myself and it all went to hell.
Isaac remembered the way her blue eyes had looked at him, annoyed with him.
She doesn’t know me,
he silently railed. He stomped up the front steps to his house and slammed the front door as he walked inside. Isaac went upstairs, stripping as he went and dropping the clothing on the floor. The maid service he hired would be at his house in an hour or so to clean up the mess.

Letting the hot water cascade over himself, Isaac replayed the interaction with Ruby over and over again, wondering where it had started going off the rails and how he could have avoided it.
Maybe I was too cocky,
he decided. Isaac decided to go over to Ruby’s house again before the party and see if he could smooth things over.

***

Ruby was still sitting at the kitchen table when her cell phone rang somewhere from the depths of her hand bag. She rummaged for it, finally putting her hands on it.

“Hi, Julia,” she said when she answered.

“Good morning. What’s on your schedule for today?”

“I had a run-in with the next door neighbor, Isaac Ross.”

“Oh my gosh,” Julia said after hearing Ruby relay the incident to her. “Cocky little thing isn’t he?”

“Yeah. I don’t even know what happened. He was hungover for one thing, then he had the gall to ask me for ibuprofen before accusing me of being too uptight to have fun.”

“What are you going to do?” Julia asked her.

“Do? What do you mean? I’m going to go about my day and try to pretend he never came over. On the bright side however, he did like the muffins and strawberries. So that’s something.”

“I suppose. You should consider going over there and smoothing things over though.”

“Why should I? He started it,” Ruby protested.

Julia laughed. “You sound like a teenager, Dear. Do what you think is best, but what it boils down to is that he’s your neighbor and you might as well assume he will be for the foreseeable future.”

“Ugh,” was all Ruby could say.

“I’ll come pick you up for a movie and we’ll get you out of the house for a bit,” Julia said decisively.

Ruby went upstairs to take a quick shower and get dressed.

***

Three hours later, the maid service had come and gone, and Isaac looked around his immaculately clean house. He took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of the natural cleaning agents the maids used. The house had a crisp, citrus aroma to it mixing with the breeze wafting through the open windows. It felt cleansing to Isaac’s soul so he stood and enjoyed it for a bit. He was waffling on whether he should go next door and ask for a do-over, or if he should just move on with his life. He ran a hand through his spiked blond hair and grabbed his sunglasses.

He knocked several times, but there was no answer at the house next door. There was no car in the driveway, but there was a garage set apart from the main house, so he had no way of knowing if she was there or not. He looked around, and then went back to his own house for a piece of paper and some tape.

Hello, neighbor,
it began.
I want to apologize for my behavior this morning. I was hung over, and while that is no excuse for name-calling, I hope that you will understand that’s not who I am. I don’t normally go around calling people uptight and I have no idea what possessed me to be so rude to you in your own home. I hope you will accept my apology.   I. Ross

Isaac taped the note to her door after folding it into thirds and went back home to get ready for his party.

***

Ruby stood on her porch listening to the third party in as many nights.
Don’t these people have jobs? Or lives?
She sighed and ticked off the options open to her: call the police, ignore it like she did last night, or go over and ask him to turn it down. She thought back to the apology note left on her door. Maybe she should just go over there. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

Ruby stepped off her porch. The bonfire wasn’t lit this time. The windows upstairs were shut and no lights were on, Ruby noticed.
Maybe it’s a smaller party this time.
The music was no quieter than before however. Ruby walked across the small expanse between the two houses and up the steps to Isaac’s front door. Music poured out into the night air and Ruby didn’t even bother trying to ring the bell or knock on the screen door. She simply opened it and walked into the press of bodies.

As Ruby made her way through the crowd, she stopped occasionally to ask one of the dancing strangers if they had seen Isaac around. She was met with vague pointing and gesturing in random directions, so finally she gave up and looked for a chair to stand on to get her above the crowd. As she scanned the multitude of heads, she kept an eye out for the spiked platinum hair. Not seeing it, her eyes came to rest on the ultimate source of her frustration:
the stereo
. With a new mission in mind, Ruby hopped off the chair, nearly squashing some barefoot soul’s toes in the process. She mumbled an apology which fell on deaf ears. The owner of the bare feet had been too busy taking a hit from a passing joint to notice much of anything.

Eventually, after some persistence, Ruby made her way through the tight press of people and over to where the stereo was pumping songs out at high volumes. It was a good set up, she thought, very top-of-the-line equipment. Ruby reached a hand out and flicked the OFF switch. The dancing came to a grinding halt, as if their movements had been directly tied to, and dictated by the beats coming from the speakers.

“Hey! What the hell?!” several people shouted to nobody in particular.

“Tunes! Tunes!” the crowd began chanting.

Ruby felt all eyes on her as the entity turned toward her.

“What happened to the music?” came a familiar voice from the bottom step of the staircase.

Ruby looked over, feeling very self-conscious now that all eyes were on her. She gave a half wave to Isaac. “Um. Hi, neighbor,” she said.

Rather than the angry backlash Ruby had expected, Isaac’s face split into a huge grin. “Everyone! This is my neighbor Ruby! She finally came out of her shell to party with us!”

“No, no,” Ruby protested. Her words fell on deaf ears once more. Someone reached behind her and clicked the power switch, bringing the stereo back from the dead. Ruby put her hands over her ears and cast an annoyed look about the room. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the dancing crowd.

She struggled, but to no avail. Eventually she gave up and let herself pretend to dance a little bit.
Whatever it takes to make it out alive,
was her mantra. Suddenly, Ruby was sorry she’d come over here.
Should have just called the cops I guess.

Then suddenly out of nowhere, Isaac’s perfect face loomed above Ruby’s. “Oh, hi,” she said, taken aback.  He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her into a slow dance to match the tempo of the song.

“Hi there,” he whispered in her ear.

“I just came over to say the music is too loud again,” Ruby said in his ear by way of reply.

She was rewarded with a laugh. His laugh was clear and genuine. “I know. This time I did it in the hopes that you’d come out of your shell and have fun for a change.”

Ruby pulled back slightly. “What do you mean ‘for a change’? I have fun.” She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at Isaac, who only laughed again.

“And just what do you do for fun then. Ruby?” Isaac put his arm around her shoulder, this time guiding her through the crowd, the kitchen, and finally through the back door and onto his patio.

Ruby felt flustered as she tried to scramble for an answer. “I read a lot. I crochet. I listen to music. The usual stuff. Why? What do you do for fun besides throw loud parties?”

“Anything I want to, Little Mama.”

“Don’t you have a job or something?”

“Nope. I am an independently wealthy man,” Isaac said removing his arm, and leading her to the wooden benches that lined the patio.

“How did you accomplish that?” Ruby sat next to him.

Isaac’s eyes darkened a little, but not with anger she thought. It was more like sadness or regret. “I don’t want to talk about it. Suffice to say my parents left me comfortable.”

And this is how you repay them?
Ruby thought. She kept it to herself however, sensing that Isaac wouldn’t appreciate her voicing that particular opinion.

“I’m sorry it came at such a high price.”

“What do you do for a living? You don’t ever seem to leave your house.”

Ruby laughed. “I do, too. I write novels and I work part time in a human resources office downtown.”

“What kinds of books?”

Ruby felt herself blush. “Nothing you’ve probably heard of.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him her secret identity.
I should have just stuck with the HR job and left out the writing altogether.

“Oh? Sappy romance then?” Isaac said playfully.

Ruby felt her hackles rise a little even though it was only a slight jest. She nodded, forcing herself not to get up in arms about it. “It pays the bills and I don’t have to work full time. Plus it’s an outlet for my imagination.”

“Tell me the title of one of your books,” Isaac said.

“Um. You sure?”

“Yeah.” Isaac slid over next to her and hugged her against his side.

Ruby was reminded of the dream she’d had about him only recently. His naked body hovering over hers, his hands on her… She coughed and looked away. “
The Affair in Red,”
she finally answered.

“I’m going to the library tomorrow to look for it,” Isaac told her, and she believed him. “I’m curious about this imagination of yours.”

“I should go,” Ruby said finally, standing up. “And you should consider finding something productive to do with your time now that you’re independently wealthy.”

“Such as?” Isaac leaned back and looked up at her.