Boy Next Door (Parkside Avenue Book #2) (4 page)

I winced slightly, as I climbed
into the car. Generally, I considered myself a fit guy, but my back hadn’t had
this much of a workout for quite a while, and I had a feeling I’d pulled something.

Cora noticed my discomfort, as
she turned on the ignition. “You know, yoga is excellent for stretching out the
muscles. You should try it sometime.”

“Are you offering to show me your
moves?” Because if she were, I could think of a few moves I definitely wouldn’t
mind seeing.

My innuendo went ignored, as she
concentrated on the road. “I meant you should take a class. I had a very good
instructor at the gym.”

“Not really my style. I prefer
one on one. Maybe you could teach me.”

“Oh no. I couldn’t. It wouldn’t
be right. What would people think? They might get the wrong idea.”

In my side vision, I watched the
line of her legs working the pedals. She had great legs. “Who’s going to know?”

“My daughter, for one.”

Leaning forward, I propped my
elbow on the dashboard to look her square in the face. “I don’t care if you
don’t. Do you approve of everything she does?”

“No, but she’s young.” She caught
my eye and frowned. “And so are you.”

“I’m nearly twenty-three.”

We took a right-hand exit, and
her head turned along with the car. “And I’m thirty-nine.”

“That’s nothing. Besides, you
don’t look a day over twenty-eight.”

Her head shot back. “If I didn’t
know better, I’d say you were flirting with me, Johnny.”

“Maybe a little.”

“Well don’t. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Why? Surely lots of men flirt
with you.”

“Some. And I’ve never been
comfortable with it.”

“I’m sorry. Friends it is then.”
If that was all she was willing to offer, I could work with it … for now. It
wasn’t as if I’d expected her to just fall into my bed, although it would have
made things a lot easier if she had. No. Breaking through her crusty exterior
wasn’t something that would happen automatically; it would have to be earned. A
classy woman like Cora needed wooing, seducing, and besides, I really liked her,
and she deserved more than just another notch on my bedpost. If I’d learned
anything, in the past few years, it was that finding the right girl is a
gamble, and I’d pushed my dick into too many slot machines, hoping to hit the
jackpot. Cora was the million-dollar drop. It was time to up the stakes.

“Why? What’s in it for you?” she
asked, her tone steeped in curiosity.

“The pleasure of your company.”

“You’re a strange boy, Johnny.”

“So people say.”

We pulled up in the car park and
the engine idled. Cora removed her purse from her bag and slipped me a couple
of twenties.

“Will that cover it?”

“Should do. Thanks.” I stepped
out onto the tarmac. “Have a nice lunch,” I said, waving her off with the
twenties.

After buying everything I needed,
I caught the bus back and spent another hour or so in the garden before calling
it a day.

Back at Pappa’s, Kendrick was
slouched in front of his favourite comedy show. He offered me a cursory glance.
“Where’ve you been all day?”

“Next door.” I collapsed into an
opposing chair.

“Huh?”

“At Cora’s place.”

TV forgotten, he held my eye. “What
the fuck were you doing there? Christ. Did you score with one of those hot
chicks?”

“Is that all you think about?”

He looked like shit. His
nocturnal lifestyle clearly didn’t agree with him. “There’re worse things,” he
said.

“Sadly, no sex involved. The only
thing I scored was a job. I’m sorting out the garden.”

“That’d better be all you’re
sorting.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I’ll be bummed if you
bag one of those two babes before me. You gotta respect the protocol, and I saw
them first.”

“No worries. I’ve only met one of
them, and she didn’t give me a second glance. I tell you what, though, you get
first dibs on the daughters if I get to bang the mother.” I winked.

He laughed. “You’re one sick
motherfucker, you know that? It’s a good job I know you’re joking. So, are you
up for another trip to the club? I put in a good word last night, and I reckon
I could score you a game in the back room. Just make sure you pay up when you
lose.”

“I don’t lose.”

Chapter Five

I did lose. Twice. Then I won a
small pot and lost the next. I was only up about two-fifty, but it was all part
of the plan. If I were going to hustle these guys, I needed to test the lie of
the land before making my move. The next round of cards was dealt and everyone
bet in the first round. I scanned the table. There were five of us altogether.
The tattooed guy opposite me was scratching his hand, which meant he had at
least a straight. The chain-smoking, fat guy on my left folded, leaving the
blond dude, wearing an open-necked, yellow shirt, and Snakehead, as I’d nicknamed
him, on my right. Snakehead had been the hardest to read all night. Only once
had the snake’s eye above his ear twitched, and it had happened immediately before
he folded. It wasn’t twitching now. He had something, but what? The pot had
crept up to over a grand, a great night’s work if I could pocket it. Yellow Shirt
called, then Tattooed Guy also folded, clearly not trusting his luck. Snakehead
lifted the corner of his cards to check his hand, then raised.
Shit
. I
had just enough to cover it, but I had to go all in, and if I lost the hand,
I’d be all out for the night, and severely pissed. I thought about my four
kings sitting on the table, and prayed they were enough. Yellow Shirt’s cheek developed
a tic as he had to go all in too, so I didn’t have to wait long for the cards
to be revealed. Being the last active player, he had to show his hand first. He
grinned as he laid his full house on the table, smugly, but stood up so quickly
that he knocked over his chair and almost tripped over it in disgust, when
Snakehead produced four queens and faced me expectantly.

“Beginner’s luck.” I beamed, as I
turned over the kings.

“Stiffed us, more like.” Anger
filled his cheeks with murderous blood. “No one has that much luck the first
time.”

I scooped up the pot from the
middle of the table and patted it into a neat pile, grateful we weren’t playing
with chips. Somehow I got the feeling I wouldn’t be given the chance to cash
them in. Bravado was the only way out. “How about I come back tomorrow and give
you the chance to win it all back? I’d stay but it looks like you’ve run out of
funds.”

Tattooed Guy thumped the table. “He’s
a fucking hustler!”

“I’m sorry. I thought that was
the point,” I said, standing. “Don’t a bunch of you let a couple of newbies in
each night and fleece them for every penny? It’s my guess that this dude hasn’t
been in here before, either.” My eyes flicked to the left and the guy shook his
head, before I faced Tattoo again. “What’s up, mate? Things not one-sided
enough for you?”

“Watch your mouth, and get out of
here before I paint it a brighter shade of red,” Snakehead snarled.

“No problem. See you tomorrow,” I
said, with a finger flick to the temple.

***

The next morning, I was up not
long after the sun to start work on Cora’s garden. There was so much shit to
clear, I felt like Prince Phillip hacking his way through a wall of thorns to
get to Sleeping Beauty. The wheelbarrow filled within minutes, and I wheeled it
around the side of the house to deposit the cuttings in the bin.

Cora’s voice drifted out from the
kitchen. “I’m not interested in another relationship. My life is far too busy,
and I’m too old to start again.”

“Nonsense. Look at me. I’m having
a great time,” said another woman’s voice.

I inched closer to the window to
listen.

“You’ve never been married,” Cora
said. “Your great time started in your teens and kept on going.”

I suppressed a snigger behind my
hand. Cora had a sense of humour. Craning my head around the window frame, I
looked inside. Cora’s companion was perched at the breakfast bar running her
hand over her excessively backcombed hair.

“Exactly. The world is too full
of gorgeous men to choose just one. It’s fun. You’re my best friend, and
without a man, you’re missing out on so much of it.”

“I’m perfectly happy as I am.”

“No you’re not.” The woman
laughed. “Look at you. You’ve got a face like a wet weekend, and if you take a
break from men any longer you’re going to run out of batteries. There’s only
one thing to put some colour back into those cheeks, and it comes packaged in a
tailor-made suit. Just get this thing over with, and I’ll have you back out
there in no time.”

Cora picked up two mugs from the
counter and placed one in front of her friend. “I don’t think so. You might
enjoy tense evenings, pretending to be interested in your date’s conversation,
and laughing in all the right places, but it’s not my idea of fun. You know
that.”

“What I know is I will not allow
you to end up a lonely, old prune.”

“I won’t, but I am set in my
ways. I don’t want to hide who I really am and have to make the effort to look nice
all the time. I’m past that.”

“Oh, that’s hogwash, and you know
it. You like to look good.”

Cora blew on her drink and settled
herself onto the stool next to her friend. “I like to keep in shape. There’s a
difference. I’m doing it for me, no one else.”

“All I’m saying is you can’t shut
yourself off from the male population, altogether. It would be such a waste of
your assets.” The woman turned her excessively made-up face, and I shot back
against the wall before she could spot me.

“My assets are fine as they are,”
I heard Cora add.

I had to agree, and I decided to
make it my mission to see she changed her mind about dating, but if I were ever
going to have the chance to get up close and personal with Cora, I had to stop
acting like a peeping perv. Turning the wheelbarrow around, I headed back to
work.

The women emerged from the house
as I was pruning suckers from the roses. It wasn’t the best time of year for
pruning, but they’d been left to run wild, and I would have been lacerated to
death trying to reach the rest of the flower bed if I hadn’t at least tried to
tame them.

Cora waved off her friend and
handed me a cup of tea. “I didn’t expect to see you here this early.”

I took the cup and nodded my
thanks. “There’s a lot to do.”

As she concentrated on the clump
of heather I’d had to move from beneath the rhododendron bush to a sunnier spot
by the lawn, I allowed my eyes to scan down her body. She was wearing a silk
robe with God knows what underneath. A co-ordinating nightdress? A lacy little two-piece?
It looked like nothing but her birthday suit when a breeze rippled the silk
over the peaks of her nipples, and I felt a stirring. I had to stop thinking
about her naked. Concentrate on her eyes, Johnny, her eyes. “Aren’t you going
for your morning run?” I asked.

“Later, maybe.” Her gaze moved to
the ground, as she made no effort to return to the house.

“Is everything okay? You seem a
bit down.”

“I have to do something this
morning that I haven’t been looking forward to.” She shrugged one shoulder as
if she didn’t care, when quite clearly, she did. The movement caused her robe
to dip at the neckline, and exposed a hint of cleavage to my grateful eyes. How
I wished I could reach under the material and expose the full glory of those
enticing breasts.

“Anything I can help you with?”

“No. No. I’ll be fine,” she said,
as she turned and disappeared back inside the house, leaving me both puzzled
and aroused.

I drained my cup and, not wanting
to litter the garden with dirty crockery, cautiously entered the house. The
layout was similar to Pappa’s place, if you discounted the fact that on the
ground floor Cora’s living room and kitchen had been knocked into one. I placed
my cup into the sink and walked back towards the front door, but before I
reached it, a faint sound of sobbing filtered down the stairway. Was that Cora
crying? Of course, it was highly possible it could be her daughter, but my gut
told me it wasn’t.

Chapter Six

Warily, I snuck up the stairs,
keeping to the edges where there was less chance of any creaking. I was definitely
turning into a fucking stalker. The sobs originated from the room I knew to be
the largest, and I guessed it must belong to Cora. I tiptoed up to the door. It
was slightly ajar. Through the small crack, I saw her. She was perched on the
edge of the bed cradling her head in her hands, dressed only in a red satin set
that did nothing to dampen the semi I still sported.

I knocked lightly.

“Cora? Can I help?”

She didn’t reply.

I pushed the door gently. “Cora?”

She sniffed and wiped away her
tears on the back of her hand. “What are you doing up here, Johnny?”

“I went to put my cup in the
kitchen and heard crying. What’s up?”

“It’s not your concern.” She
snatched at the dress lying at her side and pulled it over her head without
thinking, ending up in a tangled up mess, with half of the dress snagged on the
back of her head and arms everywhere. I stepped over and attempted to unhook
her from the twisted cloth. “Here, let me at least help you with this.”

She stood and recoiled from my touch.
“I’m fine,” she said, tangling herself further.

“No you’re not. Stop being so
fucking pig-headed and stand still.”

She sighed and allowed me to
remove the dress. I shook it out and lifted it back over her head. With my
assistance, it fell into place with ease.

I zipped it together at the rear
and stood back to admire the view. “There, that’s better,” I said. The red
material emphasized her slight tan and highlighted her eyes. She looked so
beautiful I wanted to rip the dress straight back off, lick the tears from her
face, and carry on licking until there was no part of her left untasted.