right here, standing behind the curtains, watching my almost-grown daughter walk the half-block to stand in front of my new office and wait for the bus.
When she got closer, the boy from Ian's party - I thought his name was Roman - lifted a hand and said something. I couldn't hear the words, but I saw him do it. Gabby walked a little faster, and when she turned to greet her friends, she was smiling a little too big. Well, well. My little girl had her first crush. At least I hoped it was her first! How old was I when I'd started to notice boys? Fifteen? Thirteen? Ugh, I couldn't remember, but I knew that look. I'd worn it often enough.
Still, since she clearly had at least one friend to wait with her, I felt comfortable enough to grab my heels, find my keys, and pour a cup of coffee. By the time I was walking out the door myself, the bus was just coming through the community gates. It stopped, and the kids had begun to file on by the time I made it to the end of our drive. Just as I stepped out into the street, Gabby waved at me. That shocked me, but then the boy beside her waved too, which meant she was showing where she lived. I tried my hardest to play it cool and just lifted a hand as I kept walking.
They were gone before I made it across the street, but the bus only had that one stop in Wolf's Run. The driver was allowed inside the gates, he stopped at the leasing office - the first building in the community - for the kids, then kept going around the entry circle and back out. This entire community was a massive place, set up so foot traffic would have priority. Behind the leasing office was a block of houses that shared a back fence. Across the street from those were more houses that backed up to the outside wall of the gated community. My place was one of them, but we were the closest to the front - which meant I was tucked into a little corner all my own. Technically, we lived in front of the massive gates, but only because the decorative entry area had been cut back from the street so there was enough room to make it look impressive. To me, all that mattered was that we were still inside the walls of Wolf's Run, and therefore safe.
The joys of a gated community didn't end there. Anyone wanting access had to make it past a security guard. There was a phone number listed for every household inside, including mine. Not even my ex-husband could make it in without clearing it with me first. In my opinion, that was part of the charm. One more way to keep my daughter as safe as possible.
I was smiling when I opened the door and stepped into the office. The clock showed I was barely late, only three minutes, but a man was already waiting inside, sitting in one of the chairs in the corner. Unlike most businesses, this seating area looked more like something that belonged in a fancy hotel lobby. Groups of chairs had been clustered together, complete with a little table and flowers in the middle. The problem was that I really didn't have a clue what I should be doing, although I was willing to fake it.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
He smiled at me before raising his voice. "Ash! Your new hire's here."
Which meant he wasn't a client. I felt a little of that nervous tension fade before I realized he looked familiar. "Wait..."
That smile of his grew a little more as he leaned back to expose his green polo with the Wolf's Run logo on the left side of his chest. That only made the fabric stretch, proving how nicely his shirt fit, and how well-muscled the lean body was under it. My eyes jerked up to his face, trying to place those sultry golden eyes and the dark scruff he wore like a beard. I'd definitely talked to him yesterday. This was not the kind of face a woman forgot, but I couldn't figure out when. After meeting the entire neighborhood, faces and names had blurred together a bit.
"Pax, short for Paxton," he said, helping me out, "and yes, I live next door to you. We met yesterday over the grill, and briefly the