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  After taking care of business in the bathroom, I walked quietly back out. I was trying to decide if I should get dressed or just slip back into bed. That decision was made for me when I returned to an empty bed.

  Brooke was gone.

  I went to the window and saw Brooke running across the driveway. Her legs were bare and she was wearing the t-shirt I remembered putting on after my shower the night before. Now I had to decide whether to go after her or just let it go. With a sigh I fell back onto the rumpled sheets.

  That wasn’t really a choice. I couldn’t let her go, thinking I was just as bad as Chet. When I rolled over to push myself up, I saw a tiny bit of red lace peeking out from under the pillow. I pulled out a pair of very small red lace panties. Looks like I have a valid reason to go find her now.

  Chapter Five

  Brooke

  When I was safely inside my house, I leaned my back against the door and slid down to the floor. The tile was cold on my bare ass, and it was a stark reminder that I had just run across the driveway wearing nothing but Adam’s shirt. He was tall enough that it hung to mid thigh and covered everything, and it was the first thing I had grabbed when I woke up.

  When I woke up. Naked. In Adam’s bed.

  He was in the bathroom, and I just couldn’t stay there and face him. God, he must think I’m such a slut. Of course he does, because that’s what I am. A stupid girl so desperate for love that I’ll jump in bed with any guy who shows the least bit of interest. Or, in Adam’s case, he’s too drunk to know any better.

  A sharp knock rattled the door I was leaning against, and I squealed. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I whirled around and scooted back from the door.

  “Brooke? Are you there?” Adam’s rough voice said through the door.

  I pursed my lips together, to keep myself from saying or doing anything stupid. There was a thunk on the door at about the level of his head.

  “Brooke, I know you’re in there. Are you okay? I’m…I’m sorry.” There was a long pause, and I thought he might have left. Then I heard him say more quietly, “I…I’ll leave your underwear out here.”

  Oh, God.

  “And you can keep my shirt…or return it…or throw it away. Whatever you want.”

  I waited to hear what he would say next, but there was nothing. Realizing he was gone, I jumped up and peeked out through the blinds. Adam was walking away, his shoulders slumped, his hair thoroughly mussed and his hands stuffed in the pockets of his cargo shorts.

  When he disappeared inside his apartment, I opened the door just a crack and yanked my panties off the doorknob. I threw them in the hamper upstairs along with the rest of my clothes from last night and collapsed on my bed.

  Grateful that I didn’t have to work today, I crawled under the covers, still wearing Adam’s shirt. My head hurt and my stomach rolled from the tequila, but I didn’t have the energy or the motivation to move from under the covers.

  Lifting his shirt over my nose, I inhaled deeply. It smelled like him, and blurry memories from last night flashed through my mind. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I do know that I started it. I was certain of it.

  I was also certain that I had just had the best sex of my life. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember most of it. All I knew was that I had felt loved and cherished. Which was ridiculous, considering I had only just met him. Yet as I drifted off to sleep, I couldn’t shake the memories of being held while I slept.

  When I woke up much later that day, the house was quiet. Gram was probably at the church for the bake sale. I dragged myself out of bed and down the stairs in search of water and something to eat. My head still ached, but otherwise I wasn’t feeling too hungover anymore. I washed down a few Advil with some water and followed that up with the cookies Gram had left on a plate for me. Peanut butter chocolate chip. Nothing better.

  After my snack I went back to my room in search of my phone. I found it in the hamper in my shorts pocket, and there were a couple of missed calls from Chet and a text from Poppy. Knowing nothing good would come from talking to Chet, I deleted his calls and read Poppy’s text.

  Poppy: Dinner tonight?

  Me: Yes. What time?

  Poppy: Come over at 5:00 and do my hair?

  Me: 

  At least I had something to do tonight that would keep me out of my friendly neighbor’s bed. Now I just had to figure out how to avoid him for the next year or however long he lived there. Blowing my long bangs out of my eyes, I went to the window. Adam’s car was gone. Hopefully he would still be gone when I left in a couple of hours.

  And he was. Though that didn’t stop me from speed walking to the garage and backing out of my driveway in record time. Poppy’s apartment that she shared with Ford was only one street over from my house. Normally, with the weather so nice, I would walk. But I was not risking running into Adam.

  I parked on the street in front of the old Victorian that was a lot like my house only it was divided into apartments. One upstairs and one downstairs. Poppy lived in the upstairs apartment, and she opened the door one second after I knocked. It had been less than two weeks since she moved out, but it seemed like forever.

  “Hi!” Poppy squealed, pulling me in for a big hug. She must have missed me too, because she normally wasn’t the squealing type.

  “You look great,” she said, holding me at arms’ length and taking in my outfit. I was wearing slim black Capri pants with an emerald green halter top and black strappy heels with little bows around my ankles.

  “Maybe I should change,” Poppy said, looking down at her own outfit of denim mini skirt, Cornell t-shirt and flip flops.

  “No, you look perfect,” I said. It was true I had spent many an evening trying to dress her up, but that just wasn’t her. Poppy was naturally beautiful without fancy clothes or a ton of makeup.

  “Besides, Ford would kill me if I made you look like me.”

  She laughed, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” It was no secret that Ford thought I was a bad influence. The truth was that Poppy was a good influence on me.

  “Come on, I’ll straighten your hair tonight.” I walked ahead of her into the bedroom and flipped on her flat iron. “So, how’s it going living with a boy?”

  Poppy wrinkled up her nose like she had smelled something bad. “Boys are kind of gross. But, other than trying to train Ford to put down the toilet seat and not drink straight out of the milk carton, it’s going really well.” Her sour face was replaced by a dreamy smile.

  “Good. I’m happy for you,” I said.

  The flat iron was ready, so I pulled a chair over in front of the mirror and started dividing her long wavy brown hair into small sections.

  “So, how’s the new tenant? Ford said he met him the other night when he came in to the pub for dinner.”

  My hand was shaking slightly as I ran the flat iron down the first section of Poppy’s hair. “Um…he seems nice,” I said. Then I made the mistake of meeting Poppy’s eyes in the mirror. Her hazel eyes narrowed, and my own filled with tears.

  “Brooke? What’s wrong?”

  I blinked rapidly and looked up at the ceiling. It worked, and I was able to save my eye makeup. “What’s not wrong?” I tried to laugh, but it came out as a pitiful sniffling noise.

  Poppy started to stand up, probably to try and give me a hug. But I put my hands on her shoulder and firmly sat her back down. “Sit. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine. What happened?”

  Slowly smoothing the flat iron over her hair, I sighed. “You were right, Poppy. What you said that night at the bar.”

  Poppy visibly flinched. “I didn’t mean it, Brooke! I was hurting from losing Ford, and I took it out on you. I was being a bitch. Plain and simple.”

  Several months ago we had a girls’ night out with Leah and Lindsay, the wives of Ford's best friends, Josh and Grady. Ford had left for a coaching job in Louisiana, and Poppy wasn’t taking their break up well. Trying to cheer her up, I told her to f
ind a new guy to distract her because that’s what I always did. She had said, “Yeah? How’s that working out for you?”

  At the time I was hurt, though I didn’t let her see it. Poppy was the nicest person ever, and I knew she wouldn’t say something like that if she wasn’t in such a bad place. But I was finally realizing what she said was true. Ever since high school, I had jumped from guy to guy looking for…something. Something that everyone else seemed to have, but I could never find.

  “You were right. I don’t know what I’m doing, but whatever it is, it’s not working. I actually thought things might be different with Chet. He was going to take me out last night. For a real date, not just a late night booty call.”

  Poppy was watching me carefully in the mirror. “I’m guessing this story doesn’t have a happy ending?”

  I shook my head. “He ditched me the second he got a call to sub in his buddy’s band. He’s never going to change. I see that now. Just like every other guy I’ve dated. I’m beginning to think the problem is me.”

  Poppy opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off. “I’m the common denominator.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her what happened with Adam, but I couldn’t do it. For one thing, I don’t remember what exactly did happen. Though I could make an educated guess from the way we woke up. But I just couldn’t admit to one more bad decision.

  And that’s what it was. A bad decision. No matter how much of a nice guy Adam Branigan seemed to be, the fact remained that I had no business jumping into bed with him two hours after meeting him.

  “Maybe you should take a break from guys for a while,” Poppy suggested.

  I frowned at her. “I’m not really into women, Poppy.”

  She nearly choked, she started laughing so hard. “That’s not what I meant!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I know. You’re so gullible.”

  Poppy rode with me to the pub, so she could wait for Ford to finish his shift and go home with him. When we got in my car, I noticed the time was only 5:38.

  “Why are we going out so early? I just ate lunch like two hours ago.”

  Poppy shrugged. “Leah told me to be there by 6:00, which means I have five hours to hang out until Ford gets off work.”

  “I’ll keep you company,” I offered. Anything to keep me away from my house and a possible run-in with Adam. I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to avoid him for the rest of his one year lease, but right then I was only worried about taking it one day at a time.

  It only took us a few minutes to drive to downtown Penn Yan, and Leah and Lindsay weren’t there yet. So I grabbed a big table in the corner while Poppy went to say hi to Ford. I’m sure it had only been a few hours since they’d last seen each other, but when she walked over, Ford grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him. They kissed for what seemed like forever, until a couple of guys at the bar started banging their beer bottles and whistling.

  Poppy walked over to the table looking a little dazed. If she wasn’t one of my best friends and the sweetest girl on the planet, I would be jealous. Okay, maybe I was a little jealous, but I was also happy for her. She and Ford had been through some rough times, but in the end they were together. In all of my past relationships, I had been the only one to go through rough times.

  The bell on the door jingled as it was pushed open and a noisy crowd poured in. I smiled when I saw it was our crowd - Leah and Josh, who was holding their almost one year old daughter, Maddy, and Lindsay and Grady, who had their two month old daughter, Brie, strapped to his chest in a Baby Bjorn. The green tinge of jealousy bubbled up again, but quickly vanished when they all came over to the table. There were hugs all around between the girls, while the guys immediately went to the bar.

  Leah dropped into her chair and blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “I’m exhausted. Getting Maddy out of the house is exhausting.”

  Lindsay brushed her long blonde hair behind her shoulder and shrugged nonchalantly. “I didn’t have any trouble with Brie. Now getting Grady to put her down long enough to strap her in the carseat…that’s another story.”

  Leah shot her a look. “Yeah, that’s because she doesn’t move yet.”

  “Is Maddy walking? When did that start?” I asked. As far as I knew she was still just crawling a week ago.

  “She skipped walking and went straight to running,” Leah said sarcastically, though I could see the pride in her eyes.

  From across the room, Josh yelled, “What are you ladies drinking tonight?”

  “You know what I like,” Leah yelled right back.

  Josh wiggled his eyebrows. “Yeah, I know what you like, baby.”

  Leah rolled her eyes and flipped him off.

  Lindsay and Poppy didn’t bother to give their drink orders, because, like Leah, their guys knew what they liked to drink. I wished I had someone who knew what I liked to drink.

  “Brooke?”

  I shook my head. “Just a Diet Coke for me, please,” I shouted. All three pairs of female eyes swung to me.

  “Why aren’t you drinking?” Poppy asked, genuinely puzzled. “Oh my God! You’re pregnant! That’s why you’re so weepy.”

  “What? No!” I exclaimed. I might need to rethink my drinking habits if my friends thought the only way I wouldn’t drink was if I was pregnant. “I had way too much tequila last night. I don’t need a repeat tonight.”

  That seemed to appease their curiosity, and talk turned to how well Brie was sleeping at night and how much Maddy weighed at her last check up. I relaxed back in my seat and let my mind drift to last night. My bare arms got goosebumps, and a shiver ran down my spine when the door bell jingled again. It was the same feeling I had last night - my last memory before the tequila took over.

  Chapter Six

  Adam

  After Brooke ran from my bed this morning and my failed attempt to talk to her through her kitchen door, I left her panties on the doorknob and went back to bed. Many hours and two trips to pray to the porcelain goddess later, I felt steady enough to get out of bed for the day. At 5:30 in the evening.

  My stomach growled, reminding me it had been almost twenty-four hours since I had ingested anything that wasn’t alcohol. A quick survey of my fridge turned up two pieces of leftover pizza, a half gallon of milk and a lime. The sight of the lime started my head pounding again.

  It had been a long time since I’d been that drunk, if ever. And waking up with a beautiful girl on my chest and having no idea how she got there was definitely a first for me. I wasn’t starting out my time in this town well, that’s for sure.

  A hot shower and some clean clothes went a long way toward making me feel human again. Now all I needed was food. Looking out the window, I saw Eleanor getting into her little red convertible and speeding off.

  I had to talk to Brooke. To say what, I didn’t know. But I couldn’t just let it go. So I grabbed my wallet and keys and walked to her back door. After several minutes of knocking, there was still no answer. I peered through the window on the side of the garage and saw her car was gone.

  That problem would have to wait, but I could at least go in search of some good food. I remembered the pub where I ate last week and decided to go there again. The food was good, and I could catch some college football games on the TVs. Maybe Brooke would be home by the time I got back.

  It was prime dinner time when I got there, so I could see through the windows that it was crowded. The bell on the door jingled when I opened it. My eyes quickly scanned for an open table, but the only thing I was able to focus on was a bare shoulder and long waves of red hair. There can’t be more than one person with hair that color. When she turned around and fixed her bright green eyes on me, I had a flashback to the night before. It wasn’t much, just a flash of her eyes on mine right before our lips met.

  “Hey, Adam!”

  I wrenched my gaze away from Brooke’s and looked toward the voice. Ford was behind the bar and waved me over. We shook hands, and
I sat on an empty bar stool.

  “Hey, Ford.”

  Ford gestured to the two guys sitting next to me. “This is Josh Jansen, his daughter, Maddy, and Grady Hawke and his daughter, Brie. Guys, this is Adam Branigan. He’s the new principal at the elementary school.”

  I shook hands with both men. Josh set his little girl down on the floor and pointed her in the direction of the table where Brooke was sitting.

  “Go get Mommy,” he said, and she took off running on wobbly legs. She tripped over air, but caught herself with her hands before she face planted into the floor. Then she was up and running again, straight into the arms of a petite brunette sitting across from Brooke.

  The other woman at the table had long blonde hair and big blue eyes. I immediately matched her to the baby strapped to Grady’s chest. They had the same eyes.

  Ford set a beer in front of me, which I sipped out of politeness. I really didn’t want to see alcohol for a good long while, let alone drink it.

  “So you’re the guy taking over for pervy Principal Edwards,” Josh said, tipping his beer in my direction. “I’m glad that fat bastard finally got the boot. I swear he was just as bad when we were in school. Always ogling the high school cheerleaders.”

  Grady placed his big hands over his daughter’s tiny ears. “Watch your language, asshole,” he grumbled to Josh.

  “I came from New York City, so I’m looking forward to small town life,” I said.

  “Oh yeah?” Grady asked. “My wife, Lindsay, grew up in the city. She’s the hot blonde over there next to Josh’s wife, Leah.”

  I glanced back to the table and saw Leah talking animatedly while the other girls were cracking up at whatever she was saying. Except for Brooke, who was watching me right back.