Don't Tempt Me

Several times he’d seen her yawn, but not once had she slowed down. The way she moved, how she blushed...her smile. He liked it all. He liked her. Too much.

She definitely shouldn’t be here.

She must have felt him looking—again—because she went still, then glanced his way. For a second their gazes held before, once more, she looked him over. And damn, he liked that, too. The girl had a hungry way of devouring him with those whiskey-colored eyes.

Hogan stepped between them as he set out a lamp, unwrapped a decorative dish and tossed a throw pillow onto the couch.

That broke the spell. “Oh, you don’t have to do that.” Setting aside a plate and hurrying into her small living room, Honor said, “Just leave everything and I’ll arrange it later.”

“We’re here,” Hogan told her, carrying a box of books to a squat bookcase. “Might as well get it set up where you want it.”

Fluttering around, fretting, she said, “Oh, but...you guys have already done so much and it’s getting late and honestly I can get this all done myself, so—”

“I’m only here temporarily,” Hogan explained. “But for now, we’re neighbors. Besides, we didn’t have anything else to do today.”

“And I brought food,” Colt said as he walked back in the front door with two boxes of pizza and a twelve-pack of Coke.

Honor’s shoulders slumped. “I’ve worked you all through dinnertime.”

That made Colt laugh. “Pretty sure we insisted.”

“They did.” Eyeing the pizzas with greed, Lexie said, “Those are mighty big pies.”

“Yes, ma’am. Enough for all of us.”

“You’re a good boy, Colt.”

The banter between Lexie and Colt only seemed to rattle Honor more. She made a beeline for her purse on the kitchen table. “I’ll pay you for it. How much—”

“No,” Jason said before Colt or Hogan could speak. The firm refusal stopped her in her tracks.

Softening things, his brother explained, “Jason gets a deal because the pizza girl is hung up on him.”

Honor swiveled around and stared. “Pizza girl?”

“True story,” Colt said. “But I’d call her a woman, not a girl.”

“Only because she’s too old for you.” Hogan said to the ladies, “She’s early twenties, and real cute.”

Jason rolled his eyes. The pizza girl—emphasis on girl—was pretty enough, but he wasn’t interested. She might be too old for Colt, but she was definitely too young for him. “Everyone’s hungry, so let’s eat.”

Honor looked around her house. “It was super nice of you to go get food—”

“Because I’m starved,” Lexie said.

“—but there’s nowhere here to sit, much less eat.”

Colt hitched his chin toward the back of the house. “I cleared a path for you over to our backyard. We have a picnic table. Let’s go there.”

She stared at Colt, wanting to refuse but unsure how to deny a seventeen-year-old boy. Using her wrist to brush bangs out of her eyes, she waffled. “But—”

“No buts,” Hogan told her. “You don’t want to be unneighborly, do you?”

Jason didn’t mind Colt urging her, but what was Hogan’s endgame? “You guys go on. Get out some paper plates and stuff. I’ll help her finish in the kitchen and we’ll be right over.”

After a long speculative look, Hogan’s mouth lifted in a sly grin. “Sure.” Then to Lexie, “You coming?”

Lexie looked to Honor. “Do you mind? Or was there something else I could do?”

Immediately Honor shooed her away. “Go, sit. I’ll only be five minutes.” Unfortunately, the second the others were gone, she tried to shoo him away, too. “Really, Jason, I’ve got it. There isn’t that much more to do.”

Jason took in all the still-full boxes, the stacked kitchen, and shook his head. “Looks like a lot to me.”

“Everything I need right away is unpacked. I’ll get my bed together and then do the rest of it little by little. I promise, it won’t be a problem.”

He studied her and saw her cheeks go warm again. The woman blushed far too easily. Walking past her without a word, he entered the kitchen and picked up where she’d left off.

And he didn’t have to go on tiptoe to do it.

From behind him, she said low, “This is ridiculous.”

“What’s that?” He didn’t pause in unloading plates to the bottom shelf where she could better reach them, and putting serving bowls and platters toward the top.

“I don’t even know you people.”

Over his shoulder, he took in her disgruntled and confused expression. “Around here, neighbors help neighbors. When Sullivan Dean moved in across the street, we did the same thing. Few months ago Nathan Hawley moved in on the other side of me, and we lent a hand.” He shrugged, broke down the now empty box and put it on the stack of cardboard by the back door.

“I haven’t met them yet.”

“You will.” And though it shouldn’t, that bothered him. Both Sullivan and Nathan were single. Neither seemed to be on the prowl, but with a lady like Honor, who knew? “Clearbrook has a lot of community stuff. Volleyball, barbecues, that sort of thing. You’ll meet everyone in no time.”

Edging back into the kitchen but keeping some distance between them, she started folding dishrags into a drawer. “You’ve had a lot of people moving in?”

“Houses around here stayed empty until the city decided to revamp things.”

“Are you new to the neighborhood?”

“Grew up here, actually.” He found another empty box, and another after that, breaking each one down so the cardboard made a nice flat stack. “The house used to be our dad’s. When the area deteriorated, he saw no reason to keep maintaining the property. About eight years ago he decided he’d enjoy Florida, so I bought it from him.”

“Wow. You must’ve been pretty young.”

“Twenty-four. Old enough to know what I wanted.” He’d always loved the house and the memories that came with it. Before his mom died, it was a home. After that...both his dad and the house fell apart. “It needed some work, so I got a good deal, and Dad got the cash he needed to relocate.” These days, his father rarely visited any memories that reminded him of his deceased wife—including his sons and grandson.

“Win-win,” Honor said.

“Right.” Leaning back on the counter, he watched her close one drawer, then begin filling another with place mats, oven mitts and such. “So...no man in your life to help you get moved in?” Her friend Lexie had already announced neither of them was married, but a woman Honor’s age, looking the way she looked, surely had a guy or two hanging around.

As if the question threw her, she paused, searched for what to say and in the end just shook her head.