“You sound old,” she said, laughing as she turned onto Orange Blossom Way.
“You’re the one who tells me I need to rest.” He tried to peer past the bougainvillea on Babe’s property as they drove by. “What’s so special about Babe’s new tenant?”
Skeeter winked at him. “I’ll let you guess.”
Chuckling, Sailor ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t going to fall for this again. “I’m not going out with someone who lives across the street, so cut that out right now.”
Skeeter turned into the driveway, grinning. “Me? I said nothing.”
After stashing his gear and showering, Sailor couldn’t stand Skeeter’s teasing anymore.
He sauntered onto the front porch and tried to get a look at Babe’s cottage, but trees and bushes obscured it.
Absently, he picked off some yellowed leaves from his robust schefflera. He’d inherited his mother’s green thumb. He enjoyed having a little jungle on his porch, which caught some indirect, dappled morning sun.
A dog or a couple of cats would be good company, but he traveled too much to care for them. He’d feel guilty about leaving them alone. Plants were a good compromise.
He was still puttering around on his porch when an older model red convertible wheeled around the corner and disappeared onto the side street. The woman wore a visor and sunglasses, and her chestnut hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
He could swear that was Maileah.
Sailor called through the screen door. “Hey, Skeeter. I’ll be right back.” He rushed off the porch before she could ask where he was going.
He trotted across the street but slowed to a stroll as he neared her car. He didn’t want to look too eager.
She was taking a shopping bag from the vehicle. The sun caught her hair just right, illuminating golden streaks he longed to brush from her face.
“Need a hand with that?”
Maileah turned around and pushed up her sunglasses onto her head. “Hi there. You can get the other ones, thanks.”
He was a little taken aback by her casual greeting, not that he expected her to shower him with affection. That wasn’t her style.
“You’re not surprised to see me?”
“I knew you were coming back.” She shrugged as thoughstating the obvious. “Babe introduced me to Skeeter. We all watched you at Cuppa Jo’s.”
“So I heard.” He picked up the rest of the bags and followed her into the cottage. He’d never been inside the small house before, although he’d been to the Babe’s for the occasional backyard barbecue.
“You can put those in the kitchen,” she said.
Sailor glanced around the cozy rooms. “I didn’t know you were planning on moving.”
“It was time. Junie and Knox needed their privacy, and I wanted a place where I could work.” She paused. “It’s been a long time since I lived alone. I thought it would be quiet, but the birds wake me every morning.”
“We have a lot of them,” he said. “I hear them in the morning when I take off.”
Something seemed different about her, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. She acted cool toward him, or maybe she was just preoccupied. After all, she hadn’t been expecting him.
As if reading his thoughts, she opened her mouth to say something but closed it. She began putting cleaning supplies away.
He tried again. “This looks like a great place. Has Todd seen it?”
“Nope.”
He rubbed his neck, unsure how to follow up on such a short answer. “Hey, are you hungry?”
She looked up, suddenly interested. “Isn’t Skeeter around?”
