My Beautiful Neighbor (The Greene Family Book 1) by Piper Rayne (phonics reading books TXT) 📕

“Only two days before you’re cleared for action.”

“It’d be five minutes if you’d loosen up the reins. I’m clearly fine.”

His hands slides up the hem of my shirt, running along my bare back, as he kisses me. He’s been big into making out and heavy petting. Last night we said we’d watch a movie and somehow our lips wouldn’t separate. When he went back to his house, I felt a longing I knew wasn’t good. My feelings for Cade are growing and soon heartbreak will be a consequence. I’ll have no one but myself to blame.

I break the kiss because I have to get back to the store if I want to have all the displays up and ready, but I need to talk to him about my parents’ imminent arrival. “So, my mom is coming for the grand opening. Both my parents are. She knows nothing about us, so no worries, but she’s nosy and pushy and…”

He kisses me again, this time without tongue. “It’s fine. Let’s remember you’ve been stuck with my family for a while.”

I nod because he’s right. Although I never think of it as being stuck. I enjoy his family a lot. “It’s just a warning. If she catches a whiff of something between us, it might not be good.”

“I can handle myself. I’m a big boy.”

My hand slides between his legs. “You’re definitely a big boy.”

He slides closer as though we’re not in front of the windows of the brewery and Jed isn’t just down the hall in the office.

Damn, he’s so sexy and gorgeous and sweet. The total package.

“I should go.” I unwind myself from him and grab the stuff we were working on, including the five open beers.

“Okay. Want some help?” he asks, standing.

“Nope. I’ve got it. See you later.”

I walk out of the brewery and into my shop before I exhale a deep breath. Fix this, Presley. I cannot keep pretending that my feelings don’t exist.

But I don’t want to be unhappy during my grand opening. This is supposed to be a fresh start where I’m on cloud nine, so I might as well live it up until then. After the grand opening and duo night, I’ll break my own heart and be honest with him. I promise.

It’s finally the day we can have sex and I’ve been waiting for Cade all morning. Hell, I thought he’d be here at midnight, banging down my door with a bow on his dick. But it’s now ten o’clock in the morning and nothing.

I open the curtain for the millionth time. His truck is in the driveway still, so he hasn’t gone to work. I planned to work from home today and not go into the store since I figured I’d be on my back or straddling Cade most of the day. He must have told Jed he wasn’t going in too—so why isn’t he over here?

As I’m about to close the curtain, I see him come out of the house and walk toward his truck. Maybe he forgot to buy condoms and has to run to the store? He stops and I shut the curtain quickly, dodging away from the glass. Through a sliver of an opening, I see him look up at the apartment, but he doesn’t make any move to turn this way. He walks past his truck toward a path in the forest I’ve noticed but never dared to go through.

Maybe he’s waiting on me? Making sure I’m still cool with this? He has been a gentleman our entire time together. So I grab my sweatshirt, slide on my boots, and walk out of the apartment to follow him.

Every other truck is out of the driveway, so no one else is home. I follow the opening in the trees that Cade went through, careful not to step on too many branches. This path definitely hasn’t been used in some time or only by a limited number of people. I push away branches as I walk, but I still don’t see Cade and wonder if he ventured off the path.

I should probably go back to my apartment and wait, but that’s not me. So I venture on, and soon I do spot Cade at the edge of a lake, squatting and staring out over the water.

For a moment, I soak in the vision of him in the middle of this pristine piece of nature. Like so many other times, I’m struck by how beautiful of a man he is—both inside and out. He must be deep in thought to not have heard me approach, so I turn to head back, feeling now that I might be overstepping. Whatever this lake means to him, he obviously doesn’t want me involved.

I take a step back and a branch cracks loudly under my foot. Cade turns to face me, no expression on his face. He returns his full attention to the lake and I decide to take that as an invitation that he’s okay having me here. Maybe he wants to open up. I know his mom’s birthday is coming up and it’s a big deal for the family. Maybe we’re going to bridge that gap from friends with benefits to something more.

I wrap my arms around his stomach, pressing my cheek to his back. He stiffens for a second, but then relaxes and rests his hands over mine.

“Are you okay?” I whisper.

“Yeah, I was about to come up,” he says. “I just decided to clear my head for a second.”

He swivels in my hold, and his knuckles run down my face as his gaze fixes to mine. I ruined whatever this moment was for him.

“I can wait back at the apartment.”

He shakes his head. “Don’t be silly. We’ve been waiting for this moment for too long to waste any more time.”

He puts his arm around my shoulders, and we walk away from the lake. I wish he’d trust me enough to tell me what’s bothering him. Instead