it shut behind him, he paused for a moment and closed his eyes. He had to stop torturing himself with this. Resolved, he stepped forward to his door. Just as he grabbed the handle, the lightbulb exploded above him, sending a shower of sparks and shattered glass onto his head.
He dove to the ground, searching the surrounding area for the cause, but nothing moved. There wasn’t even the normal neighborhood dog barking. Everything appeared to be perfectly calm, besides the frantic beating that echoed up from his heart.
He glanced back up at the darkened light. Was it possible that a defective bulb had somehow exploded, taking the shade with it? The permeating quiet told him that had to be the case. With another glance back toward the quiet street, he shrugged, a bit embarrassed. Talk about over-reacting. Thank goodness Julie had already closed her door. He’d have to get an electrician out to look at the fixture tomorrow after work.
Chapter 10
When Chris got home, it was still early evening and a lot of the neighbors were out enjoying the lingering light and warm temperatures. Julie was on her hands and knees in her front flower bed. The sight of her toned thighs in her cut-off shorts would normally have sent his cock twitching. Today, nothing stirred, but he still enjoyed the view. He sighed internally, but couldn’t help the grin that escaped as he watched her for a moment. “Are you digging for buried treasure?”
She glanced up sharply, obviously surprised to see him standing there, but then she gave a rueful smile. “I wish. That would be so much more fun than the cache of earthworms I seem to keep finding.” She wrinkled her nose at him as she sat back on her heels in the lush grass. “I heard that work was good. Toni called me. She was so excited that you all hired her. Thanks for giving her a chance.”
“Thank you. She’s perfect for what we need. Besides, she seems really fun and we need someone like that to offset Colton when he’s in a bad mood.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Because you and Jake never get in bad moods, do you?”
“No, never,” he said with mock horror. “My big brother has the market covered on that one.”
“Hmm-mmm.”
“You act like you don’t believe me.”
“Your powers of observation are astounding.” She smirked at him.
“Speaking of observing, what exactly are you doing here?” He looked around her flower bed which was full of holes, but couldn’t see anything else going on. It didn’t look like gardening to him. From his experience, that usually involved plants and he didn’t see any of those. Instead there was just dirt and holes. “Are you building a tunnel network for the neighborhood squirrels?”
“No, smartass. I’m gardening.” She continued to dig.
He looked around again. He still didn’t see any plants. He leaned over to the side to see if maybe they were on the sidewalk leading up to the door, but nope, it was clear. “Um, Julie, doesn’t gardening usually involve plants of some sort? I’ve never been known for my green thumb, but I’m pretty sure about that little fact.”
She grinned up at him and he noticed a smudge of dirt on her nose. And now that he looked at that, he noticed that she’d developed a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose. God, she was beautiful.
She lifted up a small cup that he hadn’t noticed sitting at her feet. “I’m planting seeds. I’ve never been the best caregiver. I figure if I can manage to grow flowers from seed, then maybe I can work my way up to a puppy. But first I need to prove that I can keep something else alive.” A frown developed between her brows and his heart gave a little lurch.
“You want a puppy?” he asked softly.
Her eyes lit up. “I’d love to have a puppy. Someone who’d be happy to see me when I come home at night, someone to keep me company when I can’t sleep, you know, just a companion.”
“I do know.” Was it wrong that he wanted to volunteer for that job? “Puppies are great.” His voice cracked, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Have you ever wanted one?” she asked him.
“Sure, when I was little I always wanted one, but when I got into the Air Force, I figured it wasn’t fair to have a pet with my deployments. It’s not right to have one you can’t devote the time