ThisTimeNextDoor (33 page)

“Mark?” Her voice was almost inaudible.

“So nice to do business with a friend,” he said. “Don’t you think? Especially one who pays in cash.”

* * *

“Easy, little guys,” Mark said to the dogs in the backseat of his VW. “We’re just stopping for a minute. Calm down.”

Good advice for himself. He hadn’t slept well, fearing this was his last chance with Rose. Nothing solid was keeping her in California; even WellyNelly was just a job, and everything there would be changing very soon. For her benefit, and hopefully his own, but it was too early to say.
 

And she’d had the scare about the house. Hopefully he—Sylly—could explain the new owner was in no hurry to move in and liked having somebody there.

That had been Phase One.

If only he’d had more time for Phase Two. But he couldn’t risk another day, especially when that day was a holiday famous for making people homesick and the object of his affections had her own form of impulsive transportation.

And so, ready or not, Phase Two was underway.

At precisely 11:59 a.m., he parked his car in Rose’s driveway, waiting for the dash clock to hit noon before he got out and rang the doorbell.

His driveway, his door, his bell.

Trapped inside the car, the three dogs yapped and danced on the seats, pawed at the windows. Zeus was especially animated, probably because he sensed Rose was near.

I know how you feel.
When Rose opened the door, Mark felt his heart expand under his ribs like a balloon in an undersized box.

Beautiful, yes. Wavy, golden hair, shining in the daylight. The lush, rosebud mouth. Her dramatically shapely figure, all curves, breasts, hips, so feminine, alluringly displayed under a snug, royal-blue sweater, long black leggings tucked into knee-high black boots.

But it was how her brilliant blue eyes studied him as if maybe, just maybe, she was glad to see him again, that made his pulse leap like the dogs in the car.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking past him into the driveway. “I thought Bev and Liam were going to pick me up in their truck.”

He cleared his throat. That was a lucky development. The storm had hit the Sierra and was dumping the first big snow of the year, multiple powdery feet of it, making her old sedan with the bald tires an unsuitable mode of transportation. “Change of plans,” he said. “My mom doesn’t like to drive in snow so we rearranged everyone a little bit.”

“But your car—it’s no bigger than mine.”

“I’ve got chains,” he said. “And I’ve driven up there dozens of times, in all kinds of weather.”

Her expression shuttered, she took a step back into the house, pushed the door shut.

Mark’s nervous system went into high alert. He tapped on the door, raised his voice. “And I need help with the dogs. Please, Rose, don’t make me drive up there alone with them.”

She reappeared, backpack slung over her shoulder. “I was just getting my stuff.”

He stepped back, commanded his heart to shift into a lower gear. “Sorry. I thought you were still too angry to be with me.”

She gave him the funniest look—curious, worried, something else. Then she dropped her gaze to the ground and strode past him to the car.

“Don’t you want to lock up?” he asked.

“Can’t you do that?” she asked, then busied herself greeting the dogs. “Hello, little ones. Especially you, Zeus. Oh, I missed you.”

Couldn’t
he
do it? Surely she didn’t know—

He looked at the door, back at her. “I’ll need the key.”

Holding Zeus in one hand while the dog licked her face, she leaned back against the door, eyes on Mark. “Oh, right.” She lifted her hand, wiggled a set of keys, lobbed them at him. “You haven’t closed yet.”

He caught the keys, barely, and squeezed them between his fingers.

She knew
.

Chapter 25

HE HADN’T PLANNED ON TELLING her, not for a while. He’d had a plan, a cover story. One that he couldn’t use now.

While his mind raced, she turned and got into the passenger seat.

She knew, but she was putting on her seat belt.

She was going to come anyway.

After a deep breath, he used her keys to lock the front door—his door—and made his way back to the car somewhat unsteady on his feet.

Not helpfully, he asked himself what his father would do. Lie? Bluster and evade? Charm and distract her sexually?

He opened the car door, as disappointed as always in his father’s example. Nudging Europa out of the driver’s seat, he got in, handed Rose the house keys, and backed out into the road without a word.

“Don’t you want to close the gate?” she asked as he started to drive away. “All that lovely furniture in there, the ceramic elephant, all those beautiful, beautiful pillows. We wouldn’t want anything to
disappear
while I’m gone.”

He looked at her. So, she wanted him to say it; she wanted him to confess.

“I don’t have the remote control,” he said.

She slapped her forehead, nodded. “Silly me. Or should I say, Sylly Minguez.
He
has one.”

She was so damned adorable. He almost laughed. “Would you like to get it out of your car?” he asked. “So you don’t have to worry?”

“Nah. Not my problem.” She nuzzled Zeus, let him lick her forehead. “Everything I need is right here.”

His foot pressed down on the gas pedal but he told himself to calm down, she was just playing around, laughing with the dog.

Everything I need…

“How long is the drive?” she asked.

“Depends. Traffic, weather. It might take us the rest of the day, unfortunately.”

Hopefully. He didn’t know how much time alone he’d get to spend with her at the cabin. This way she was all his, whether she liked it or not, at least for the next four to ten hours. It all depended on forces outside of his control.

He hated outside forces.

Maybe they’d get stuck in a snow bank. He’d seduce her, convince her he was wildly in love with her and wanted everything big and small she was willing to throw his way, and then they could skip the whole Christmas gathering thing with family and spend the next two weeks in a remote mountain chalet. Naked.

Just as he was imagining stripping off all her clothes so they could survive the night in the snowed-in car with skin-to-skin contact, Rose asked, “So, why’d you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Come on.”

He’d done a few things. He’d bought Sylly’s house; fomented an online rebellion, ruining a multi-million-dollar deal; recruited a new CEO for WellyNelly; started a new company with this new little thing he’d coded up in his spare time…

“I’m not staying, you know,” she added.

His stomach clenched. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll get my own place. With an actual lease. I can’t afford to buy any property of my own, of course, not yet, but I need a place to live that isn’t under the control of other people.” She poked him in the leg. “Get it?”

She was staying in California. He looked over his shoulder, checking his blind spot as he merged, slowly, into the lanes to Sacramento. The traffic was bad, over a dozen lanes across of stop-and-go traffic in all directions, everyone trying to get out of town or into it. The rain made everything worse, slick and dangerous, and he’d already seen three cars pulled over, hazards on, fenders smashed.

There were some things you just couldn’t hurry.
 

“I’m sorry,” he said finally. “I was just trying to help.”

“Who? You or me?” She set Zeus down in the back. “You own WellyNelly and now my house. Maybe you think I’m part of the package. Because I’ll be so grateful.”

God, she knew more, or thought she knew. But her voice was so soft, so controlled, not angry at all. What was she thinking? Feeling?

“I don’t own WellyNelly,” he said carefully. “Only a part of it.”

“But it was all your idea. You created it when you were, like, in diapers.”

“Don’t mock. It’s not easy going to high school in Depends, believe me.”

She didn’t laugh. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He signaled, moved into the far left lane. Maybe he didn’t want this ride to last as long as he’d thought. He hadn’t trapped her; she’d trapped
him
. “I don’t know,” he said quietly.

“I was starting to feel like maybe I’d been too quick to, you know, give up on what we’d started—”

He swerved to avoid rear-ending the pickup in front of him. Heart in his mouth, he glanced at her.

“—but then I find out you didn’t trust me with huge parts of your life. And mine, actually. You left me out to dry, Mark. At work. I should’ve known what I was walking into.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“But why not tell me?” She addressed her hands, the side of the road, Zeus, who’d climbed back into her lap—she talked to everything but him. “Early on, okay, we were practically strangers. But later…”

“I should’ve. It was one of those things that changed over time. My reasons changed.”

“Hmm,” she said, still not looking at him. “You know why I’m here today? What my reasons are?”

He gripped the wheel. “What?”

“I’m trying to help Blair.” Rubbing Zeus behind the ears, cuddling him to her chest, she added, “We’ll see if any of my reasons change over time.”

If the minivan in front of him hadn’t changed lanes suddenly, he would’ve plowed right into it.

* * *

Rose awoke just as the sun was setting. The snow was falling so thick and fast she could hardly see five feet in front of the car, even in the remaining daylight.

“How long was I out?” Disoriented, she rubbed her eyes. Last thing she remembered, they were driving through Sacramento. If she hadn’t been so sleep deprived, she never would’ve lost consciousness for hours so close to Mark—only inches from those eyes, that profile, those arms and chest and long, muscular thighs.

She hoped she hadn’t drooled in her sleep.

“A few hours,” he said, offering her a gentle smile. “You must’ve been exhausted. You barely stirred when I got out to put on the chains.”

Vaguely she remembered a stop, cold wind blowing in, dogs yapping. “You put me in chains?”

His smile turned wolfish.

What am I saying?
She reminded herself the dream she’d been having about him wasn’t real; they weren’t on those terms anymore. Kissing and licking terms. He was tempting as always, but not enough had changed; when they were alone, he’d always been charming, sexy, talkative, engaged, lovable—

When they were alone.

“Sorry I didn’t help out with the dogs,” she said. Zeus was huddled under the heating vent at her feet, gazing up at her adoringly. “Did they get a bathroom break?”

“Yeah. I thought for a minute I’d lost Europa in a snowdrift, but she’d already jumped back in the car.” They’d left the freeway and were now passing through the business district of a small lakeside town. King’s Beach, the sign said.

She pulled out her phone, looked at the map. They were on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, heading southwest. The lake was just to their left, though too whited out by snowfall to see much of it.

“I really didn’t expect so much snow,” she said. Hardly the beaches and sunshine she’d imagined when Blair told her she was moving to California.
 

“Forecast is for ten feet overnight,” he said.

She broke her gaze away from his profile and focused on the white road, white trees, white sky. “Are we going to get stuck up here?”

The car turned right into a development rising up above the lake. He was busy negotiating a snowdrift as high as the car, but she saw him bite back a grin. “Like the Donner Party, you mean? We passed the highway marker for them when you were asleep. I was tempted to wake you up.”

“When your brother offered me a ride, I told him I’d like to make it back by Monday.”

“Why?”

Mouth open, she hesitated. Being with John and Blair in the same house could be uncomfortable, and being with Mark, even more so.

“The office
is
closed for the week,” he added, giving her an intense look that made her insides flutter.

Was she really in such a hurry? Last night she’d been sure she had to leave her job, but Sylly’s words had changed everything. New management, a chance to pursue an advanced degree…

Oh, and this little idea that Mark was in love with her.
 

She shook her head. Mark throwing around his money and influence—which he had in excess—didn’t mean that much. He probably needed an investment opportunity anyway, and why not buy a friend’s property—beautiful, luxurious, close to home?

“Your brother can drive me if you don’t want to,” she said.

“I’ll drive you wherever and whenever you’d like.”

The car crept through the snow.

“So, you bought Sylly’s house,” she said, giving him an opening. He hadn’t taken any of her hints so far.

He shifted the car into low gear. The chains on the tires made the car rattle and crunch with each inch they traveled. “You weren’t supposed to know.”

“Oh, really?” She laughed. “How was that going to work? You didn’t think I’d notice?”

He stopped the car, squinting out at the A-framed houses lining the winding road. “Why, look—here we are. Can you see any numbers? We want 405.”

Zeus's ears were silky under her fingers. “Were you going to set up fake showings with a fake real estate agent?” She leaned back, tilting her head towards him, and let herself get into the spirit of the game. “Or was he going to say it was purchased by an investor who was deeply involved in business out-of-town—no, out of the country, for a long, intractable period. Europe, maybe—no, more remote. Kazakhstan. Bad roads, poor infrastructure, organized crime, very hard to just hop on a plane or the Internet and deal with a new house. Better to have a tenant there keeping things safe and cozy until he gets back. Which could be a really, really long time. In fact, he bought the house precisely
because
I’m living in it. I can’t leave. He’ll actually
pay
me to stay.”

He stared at her, awe and amusement in his eyes.

She grinned. “I’m good, aren’t I?”

Rolling down the window, he stuck his head out into the thickly falling snow. “This is it! We’re the first ones here.” When he pulled his head back in and shut the window, clumps of snow scattered around him in the car. “Our place has orange reflectors along the top windows, but it’s not dark enough yet to light them up.” With a forced, bright grin, he hit his turn signal, checked over his shoulder, checked his mirrors, and slowly edged the car into a driveway.