I need a fiancée. This is win-win.”
She took the grocery bags and turned them upside down, emptying them before shoving them back at him. “We can’t stand each other. You with your tattoos and your loud punk music or whatever.”
He frowned. “Excuse me, that’s classic rock.”
“Whatever. No. You are all wrong. If you have a clean-cut brother, I’m down. But you and I will not mesh. Not to mention that woman looked like she wanted to carve me up into pieces, so thanks, but no thanks.”
This was not the end of this conversation. “Okay, well, you think about it.”
“Answer’s no.”
“You want to tell me what you have against me?”
“You mean besides you being arrogant, loud, a womanizer, flirty and accosting me with kisses?”
He smirked. “You liked the kiss, I could tell.”
She stormed past him and opened her door. “Out.”
With a sigh he turned to go. “I’ll give you a couple days to think about it.” She rolled her eyes, but as he left, he could have sworn he saw her lips twitch. Well, at least it was a start. He had a few days to wear her down. He wasn’t going to the Voss house without her.
* * *
“So tell me exactly what happened. You came home with James, my least favorite friend, and then next thing you know your neighbor’s kissing you?”
“I have no idea what happened.” Val paced back and forth in her living room in front of the couch as Mel looked up at her. “One second, James was bumbling through a breakup, and the next thing I know Mr. Sexy and Tattooed and Terrible Neighbor was kissing me.”
“So exactly how did he kiss you?” Mel asked. “Was there tongue, or was it a peck? Did he hold you close up against him? Or was it one of those cases where he just leaned in with his face?”
Val considered. Her mind ran through the kiss over and over again like a movie reel. Bennett with his direct stride and intense focus on her. Bennett wrapping his arm around her waist and sliding one into her hair and then tucking her against him intimately as he lowered his lips. “Yeah, he definitely had me pressed up against him.”
Mel hooted. “This is fantastic. Finally, someone we can dig our teeth into who isn’t a boring Marcus replacement.”
Val frowned at her best friend. They didn’t talk about Marcus, since he’d unceremoniously dumped her before her final exams senior year. Val didn’t like to reminisce about that period of time. Marcus and everything that came with him was better left forgotten.
Mel held up her hands. “Easy does it. All I’m saying is that ever since Marcus, you’ve been looking for that perfect Morris Chestnut kind of guy. You know, tall, athletic, charming as hell, great job, the right connections, the right schools. You’ve pretty much been dating a cookie-cutter version of the same guy for the last five years, and it never works out for you.”
“You’re wrong. I am not trying to replace Marcus. So what if some of the guys have the same qualities? I happen to like those qualities.”
Mel shook her head. “No. Your parents like those qualities. You don’t know what you like.”
“Of course I know what I like.” Mel had no idea what she was talking about. Val knew what she liked. Of course she knew what she wanted. She dated. Yes, maybe she aspired for a very specific look. Tall, chocolate and in good shape. That didn’t make her super shallow, did it?
“No, you don’t. Because you’ve never dated anything other than the Marcus version. And let me just say, if you’re gonna date versions of Marcus, please upgrade. Do not downgrade. That makes no kind of sense. Now, I want to hear more about that sexy neighbor. He sounds like someone completely opposite to Marcus.”
Val’s stomach flipped at the mere mention of Bennett. Stupid hormones. So what if he made every nerve ending stand up and pay attention? There was more to a relationship than great chemistry. “No, not gonna happen. I don’t know what his deal was. But I’m not jumping on the gravy train.”
“Of course you’re not. Because you never do anything outside of your little box.” Before Val could even argue, Mel continued. “You’ve been saying for the last year how you want to shake up your life. With Sol getting married, you were trying to do your own thing. Break free a little of the usual expectations. What happened in that? Because James was not making that happen. And to make matters worse, he was calling you boring. How is that even possible?”
Yeah, the jackass had called her boring. That was hardly fair, especially since most times when he talked Val had to fight to stay awake. She hated it that Mel was right. But she had said for her New Year’s resolution that she wanted to try something different, something new. For once do things for herself. “Okay, fine. I might have said that, but it’s not like I’m not already doing that with my job. I take risks and chances all the time.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.” Mel tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You need to supercharge your life. Yes, you love your job, but sometimes I feel like one of the reasons you love your job is because you know it makes your family crazy.”
“Mel, you know how much I love what I do. I love to eat, and plus, with my nose and my senses, it’s a perfect fit.” Her nose had always been sensitive, but after an accident at age eight, her sense of smell raced off the charts.
“Fine. I hear you. I just want you to have joy in all areas of your life, not just work. And to do that, you’re going to have to stop doing the usual and step out of your comfort zone. You are the one who said you wanted to do that. It wasn’t me. Let’s face it, I’m lazy. I would never have agreed to such a thing for a New Year’s resolution. But then again, I don’t have sexy tattooed neighbors kissing me.”
“Damn, Mel. Do you have to bring him into this every couple of minutes? It’s already impossible to think about anything else.”
“That’s because your subconscious wants to think about him. Honey, would it hurt to do something different? What would you have to lose? Worst case scenario, you march over there asking why he kissed you, he says he doesn’t know, he was bored, then you two make out like a couple of teenagers.”
Val had to laugh at that. Mel could be ridiculous. But she also had a point. She wanted to shake up her life—well, this was one way to do it. “Fine, I’ll talk to neighbor boy. Are you happy now?”
“I won’t be happy unless you take him to Sol’s wedding and tell me he has a twin.”
Nobody in their right mind would believe that Val was dating someone like Bennett. Nobody. Especially not her parents.
As she posted her latest review of a restaurant on Spring Street that did a killer Thai avocado salad, she glared at the wedding invitation pinned to her calendar.
Yes, she needed a date, but that guy? He had helped her with her groceries, and he was right, James was a jerk. And the look of irritation and annoyance on James’s face had been well worth it. But the most irritating part was
