“What key?”

  “The key underneath the step.”

  “I didn’t put a key there.”

  “Well, there was one there, and I’m not going to let you suffer alone. I’ve got you, Verity.” He pulled her into his arms and held her.

  She didn’t fight him. She let go and sobbed.

  ****

  She’d lived in the city for a long time. There was no way she would store a spare key underneath her doorstep. That was just asking for trouble.

  Verity didn’t know why it was there, or how it got there, but she didn’t care. She was used to this day hurting so damn much. She was normally alone, wallowing in her misery. With Hector’s arms around her, in some odd way, it helped. She had never had anyone to share her grief with.

  He let her go long enough to warm up some soup.

  Hector was being so sweet. She sat on the sofa while Cutie was curled up on the floor right in front of the fake fire.

  “I’m sorry,” Verity said.

  “Don’t be.”

  “You didn’t need to come around,” she said.

  “Yeah, I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t here before.”

  He was here now, and that was all that mattered. She put the spoon into the soup, lifted it to her mouth, and sipped at it.

  It was a plain tomato soup, but it was her favorite. “This is nice,” she said.

  “It’s not homemade. It came from a can. I found it in your stash.”

  She chuckled, then became very aware of how she must look. Her face all red and swollen from crying. “I must look a mess.”

  Hector shook his head and took her hand as she tried to hide her face. “You’re beautiful.”

  “You lie so easily.”

  “I’m not lying. You’re incredibly beautiful. Do you want to tell me about her?”

  “You want to know?” Verity asked.

  “She raised an incredible daughter. I know she’s going to be one heck of a woman.”

  She smiled and Verity nodded her head. “She is. She really is.” She sobbed.

  Hector took her hand. “I’m here.”

  Verity sniffled. “You’re being so sweet to me.”

  “It’s all part of the charm.”

  “I think it would be easier to handle if you were a bully to me.”

  “Not happening,” Hector said. “That guy is long gone. He was a dick who gave in to peer pressure. I’m much stronger now.”

  “Wow, the fierce and respected Hector Carter admitting to falling for peer pressure.”

  “At the time, it was the curse of being popular.”

  “I bet it was.” She sniffled. She couldn’t think of him being the jerk. “My mom was like this force to be reckoned with. Even when Dad left for a younger woman, to go and sow his wild oats, it was like he didn’t matter.” She sighed. “I know she loved my dad, and she was heartbroken, but she was always so strong. Nothing ever brought her down. She was happy, like all the time. She always told me that life is worth living. We only get this one shot at it, and she didn’t want to spend it wallowing.”

  She ate some more of her soup. It was still warm, but it wouldn’t be long before it got too cold. Verity couldn’t stand cold soup.

  “Don’t forget to eat your bread,” Hector said.

  “Even when we got the diagnosis, she didn’t cry. She just looked at the doctor and said, ‘Right, how do I fight this thing? What do I do?’ Me? I was falling apart. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”

  Hector took her hand.

  She had started to shake, a little unnerved by the memories.

  Verity remembered sitting in that doctor’s office and feeling like her world was ending. Nothing could happen to her mother. Nothing, and then all of a sudden, she was given this hard reality check where something was going to indeed happen to her mother.

  “So, Mom didn’t wait around. They did everything. The chemo, the drugs, all of it. I was by her side, and even when she was having an off day, she still made me get in front of that camera and share my food with the world. I thought it was going to work. She was so strong. So determined. The doctor had told me that a good state of mind would help. A fighting one, and my mom, she had that.”

  Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.

  “It wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter how hard my mom fought, or what she thought she was capable of. Nothing was ever good enough because the cancer didn’t go. It kept on coming back.” She sniffled. “Even when she got the terminal diagnosis and given a … an estimate of how long she’d live, she was still fighting ’til the end. She didn’t once give up.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Hector said.

  “I miss her so much. If she was here right now, this book, it would have already been written. She wouldn’t have allowed me to give up. She must be so ashamed right now.”

  “No, I don’t think for a second that is true. Your mom would never be ashamed of you.” Hector reached out to push some of her hair behind her ear. “I’m thinking that no matter where she is, she’s your cheerleader and she only wants what is best for you.”

  Verity smiled. “She would have adored you.”

  “I am a catch with the ladies.” He winked at her.

  She rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know how I got so lucky with you, but I am so glad that I did.” She sighed, realizing what she said, she quickly sat up. “Not that this is … er, wow. Do you want something to drink?”

  She had to put distance between them.

  Before Hector could stop her, she was already to the fridge, opening it up and looking inside for some wine or beer. She never really stored any for drinking herself.

  Every now and then, she’d have a beer if she’d purchased some for a recipe, but that hadn’t happened recently.

  “Verity, don’t run away,” Hector said, joining her in the kitchen.

  “I’m not running away. I’ve got nothing to run away from or to.” She chuckled and even to her own ears, it sounded false. She tried not to cringe to give the game away.

  “Do you want to talk about the cursed-house thing again?” he asked.

  “You believe in that?” From the moment Hector mentioned it, Verity couldn’t help but wonder.

  There were feelings building inside her that she wasn’t accustomed to. This was Hector Carter, the bully from her childhood years. A complete and total asshole, and yet, she had felt herself falling for him.

  It scared the crap out of her.

  Love and romance were not in the cards for her, at least she didn’t think they were.

  “Maybe,” Hector said. “You can’t deny that something isn’t … at work here.”

  She licked her lips and shook her head. “Wow, so you think that … no, you know what? I don’t want to do this. Please leave.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Hector asked.

  “I’m asking you to leave because right now what you’re insinuating with pointing between us is that the only way you and I could ever be together is because of some stupid outside force. Is that because you couldn’t for a second imagine being with someone like me?”

  “Whoa, you just … enough.”

  “No, not enough. Get out. This between us, it’s not going to happen. You’re here for a vacation, and I’m here to work on my cookbook. I don’t need this with you. I don’t need you to think that the only reason you could fall in love with someone like me is because of some super paranormal fate or whatever the hell it is working between us.”

  She wasn’t in a very confident mood.

  “That is not what I’m saying.”

  Cutie had come to hear what the commotion was about, but Verity moved Hector toward the door. Opening it up, then throwing him right back out.

  Before he got a chance to say another word, she slammed the door, flicked the lock, and then collapsed against it.

  She didn’t hear him leave, and she slowly moved down the door, drawing her knees up to her chest and feeling the tears coming so close to the surface, threatening to spill over.

  Her heart raced. She felt a little sick.

  “Am I so unlovable?” she asked.

  Cutie didn’t say a word. She came up toward her, sniffing the ground before settling in her lap and wanting a stroke.

  Running her hands down her dog’s back, she felt the tears once again. This time, they were not from the loneliness or because of her mom. They were for Hector.

  She feared the cursed-houses thing was exactly right.

  Sniffling, she stared ahead of her. The tears made it blur.

  She had fallen in love with Hector, and she didn’t know if it had anything to do with the cursed-house thing or just because he wasn’t the same guy she once knew. He was different. Considerate. Loving. Charming. He was everything and she knew deep down, her mother would have told her to give him a second chance. Even if he didn’t deserve it.

  She hugged Cutie to her chest and waited for the pain to leave her body, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  The only cure for that was Hector, and she had pushed him away.

  Chapter Ten

  One month later

  Hector sent Sean home.

  He didn’t want his best friend around while he … wallowed. He also didn’t need his friend to see this. His stalking. How he waited for a single moment to see Verity. Wanting to be near her.

  Stupid house thing.

  After a month of not being in Verity’s company and only being able to see her from time to time in odd glances outside in her yard, or walking Cutie, he had to get out of the house.

  He went for his usual runs early in the morning, but right now, he needed to just get away from all of his problems.

  The doctors had advised him to not do any strenuous exercise until they knew for certain what was going on. Hector didn’t like to think of his heart condition because to him, it wasn’t really one. The doctors at the time had told him it was known as broken heart syndrome. They didn’t know the exact reason why, but they tended to pinpoint it to stress.

  He had a highly stressful job.

  It wasn’t a heart attack, and they hadn’t prescribed him any medication other than rest at this time. Mainly because he refused to take any medicine until he solved it without going the medicinal route.

  He was a stubborn asshole and felt he knew his body better. Removing elements of stress from his life could help. At least that was what the doctor had said. Sean had been there with him, and that was why they had come here, to this fucking house, right next door to the love of his life.

  Hector stopped the moment he felt the tightness in his chest. Putting his hand flat against his chest, he bent forward and took several deep breaths.

  The last time this had happened, he’d just finished up a meeting. Sean had been there, talking to him, and then, this tightness had happened, which caused him to have difficulty breathing.

  “Are you okay?”

  He looked up to see a woman he recognized. It was the younger of the two women.

  The pain, as quickly as it appeared, seemed to go.

  “Anna-Beth, right?”

  “That’s me. We met a little time ago. I’m looking for Elizabeth. My friend, she, er, from time to time, she likes to check on the people who live in the house.” Anna-Beth’s face went bright red. “I’m sorry. She sounds crazy, I know.”

  “She said you lived in that house, right? Before.”

  “I lived in one of the houses,” she said.

  “And your … current husband, he lived next door to you.”

  “Yep.”

  “Don’t you…” Hector stopped and held his chest. “Do you think your love is real?”

  Anna-Beth chuckled. “You have feelings for your neighbor?”

  “Yeah, no, I don’t know. How can it be true feelings if it is nothing more than a manipulation?” he asked.

  “Do you feel like they’re manipulated? Before you found out about the whole cursed-houses thing, weren’t you starting to fall for her?” Anna-Beth asked.

  He opened his mouth, closed it, and then with his lips firmly pressed together, he nodded. “Yeah, I was.”

  From the moment he saw her on the day they moved in, he was smitten.

  “I get that to some they might feel their emotions have been played with. Neighbors move in together all the time, and nothing happens, but for those of us who have lived in those houses. Or at least for me, I know how I feel about my husband. He is everything to me. When I’m with him, I finally feel complete, loved, accepted. He is my everything, and there is not a single second that I don’t feel truly blessed because I got the opportunity to fall for my soulmate.” Anna-Beth smiled. “You can hate the houses and think that maybe your life was part of some ultimate divine intervention, or you could see that over time, you looked at your neighbor, you spent time with them, and those feelings developed.”

  “Or they were always there to begin with?” Hector asked.

  “Huh?”

  “I, er, I knew my neighbor before we were, you know, together.” He forced a smile to his lips. “We don’t have the best past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have the best future together.”

  Anna-Beth looked over her shoulder and shook her head. “I agree with you, and I seem to have found my little problem running around.”

  Hector glanced over his shoulder to see the older woman with her leather jacket firmly in place.

  “You’re still living in that damn house?” Elizabeth asked. He finally remembered her name, or did Anna-Beth call her that?

  Damn it, the pain in his chest was hurting.

  “Yeah, I still am.” He winked at her.

  “I don’t get these kids today,” Elizabeth said. “They always think that time will wait for them. Like the magical clock is going to stop for them so they can wait around to be with their precious one. Time doesn’t stop for anyone, son. It only keeps on moving forward, and you have got to make a choice, to enjoy the ride or to jump right off of it.” Elizabeth shook her head. “Waiting around to tell the woman you love her because you think you’ve got plenty of time left.”

  Hector hated how the woman made sense. Time was way too precious. He hated to admit it, but it was so very true.

  “It was nice to meet the both of you.” He held his hand up while keeping another firmly on his chest.

  This wasn’t good. The pain was exactly like before. He’d only felt it the once, but right now, this was a second time.

  What stress could he be feeling exactly to warrant this kind of feeling?

  His fingers were also starting to feel a little numb, which was unusual.

  Moving back toward his home, he looked at their two houses. They were so perfect. The sun was shining down on them, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was a sign.

  I don’t do fucking signs.

  I don’t do warnings.

  As if on cue, his chest squeezed a little tighter.

  Fuck. He had to get to the hospital.

  Hector moved forward, but rather than go to his home, or to his car, he went to Verity’s.

  Slamming his fist on the door, he didn’t know what compelled him to do this, only that he had to see her, to talk to her.

  Elizabeth, the crazy old lady, made so much sense. Time was so easily wasted because everyone thought they had so much time. No one knew what the future held for each other, or for themselves, but what they did know was that each of them had a time limit. A moment when the heart stopped beating, and it was their time.

  Life was so damn short.

  It was a blessing and a curse.

  He’d already wasted one opportunity to be with Verity as a kid back in high school.

  Hector had noticed her. Not completely, not as a besotted high school kid, but an appreciation of her.

  It was so long ago and such a fleeting feeling. She’d been in the library with Sean, and he, himself, was flunking biology, but he’d not had the heart to ask his nerdy best friend for help. He’d gone to study himself. Pretending to make out with a girl with his jock friends. He’d watched Verity.

  He had seen her sitting there, the pencil in hand that she occasionally rubbed across her lips, chuckling at some comment from Sean, and he didn’t know what it was, the sun, feeling out of place, whatever, but he’d thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d seen.

  The dust from the books had clearly gotten to him, at least, he thought it had, and he’d snuck right out of the library, complete with the biology book he’d needed to study. Once he aced that test, he’d snuck the book right back into its place.

  He’d stolen a few glances from that moment forward, but they hadn’t even been worth thinking about.

  Verity opened her door, and he stared at her now. So beautiful. So sexy. His neighbor, and the love of his fucking life.

  “A curse or not, I am in love with you, Verity Hill. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “Hector, you don’t look so good.”

  He held his chest tightly. “And one day, you are going to marry me because you are going to see what a catch I am. Call Sean. I need to go to the hospital.” And then everything went dark.

  ****

  “He has a heart condition?” Verity asked, pacing the floor of the hospital.

  “It’s not an actual condition, well, not. It’s complicated.”

  “Well, uncomplicate it for me.”

  Hector had collapsed in her arms. She hadn’t been strong enough to hold him up, but she had done what she could, trying to keep him safe. He hadn’t hit his head as she’d nestled him to the floor.

  She had been so scared, but she’d called an ambulance, and as she rode with him in the back, she’d called Sean.

  They were both sitting out in the waiting room.

  “Maybe it would be better if you sit?” he asked.

  “No, I’m not sitting.” Her heart was racing and fear chased up her back, threatening to claw at her. She felt sick.

  Hector had told her that he loved her and then in her arms, he’d collapsed. What kind of man did that?

  You love him too.

  She hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him, and now as she was in the main waiting area, she didn’t know if she would get a chance.

 

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