Angela Campbell - Spirited Away

The irony of that idea tugged at his mouth. “I’m not married.”

“Oh.” She glanced back toward the window. “Girlfriend?”

A chuckle tickled his windpipe. “Don’t have one of those either.”

If this was her idea of fishing to see if he was attached, she was doing a lousy job of being subtle.

She bit at her lower lip. “Point is, we didn’t mean to bother you and your friend then.” She turned and practically had to drag the growling dogs after her. “Come on .”

Noah scratched at his neck and followed her. “Wait. What do you mean, me and my friend?”

With a nod toward his house, she seemed more preoccupied with the dogs than him now. “The woman in the window.”

He jerked his gaze toward the upstairs bedroom window. The light was on. What the—? His muscles froze, rooting him to the spot. He hadn’t been in the room tonight. No reason for that light to be on.

All thought of his new red-headed neighbour fled his mind as he bounded up the stairs and back into his house. This could be his best chance to catch the person who’d been messing with him.

But there was no one in the bedroom, nor any other room in the house. He searched them all. Nothing.

The house was empty.

Mornings sucked.

After letting the dogs out, Spider lumbered like a zombie from the kitchen back to bed and groaned when she saw that it was an hour-and-a-half earlier than she’d planned to get up. Only six hours since she’d fallen into blissful slumber. She faceplanted into bed and pulled the sheets over her head.

Working from Zach’s house. Can set own hours. Sleeeeep.

A heavy weight settled against the back of her neck. She was drifting toward unconsciousness so she ignored it until, a few seconds later, the sheet tugged at her hair, exposing part of her face to cold air and the light in the room. A tiny claw nicked her scalp.

“Stop it, cat!” She swatted over her shoulder and connected with fur. “Y’all are seriously messing with my beauty sleep,” she grumbled and dug deeper into the pillow.

The cat’s weight shifted away from her.

She started to doze, but a sharp prick at her ear followed by “Mreeeoow” shocked her awake again.

Spider flung the sheets off her head and glared at the animal. “You have a litter box! What do you want?”

Abbott shifted on his front paws on the pillow beside her, watching her with big, rounded kitty eyes that rivaled those of Puss in Boots. “Meow.”

“You’re hungry?”

He stood and brushed against her. “Meow.”

She glanced at the clock. “According to the note Hannah left, it’s not time for you to be fed yet.”

“Meow.”

“Will you let me get some more sleep if I feed you?”

“Mrreeow.”

“Don’t make a habit of this, cat.” With heavy-lidded eyes, Spider padded into the kitchen and set the cat’s food out. Charlie and Costello came running, and Spider shrugged. Why the heck not? After pouring them some food, she shuffled back to bed, nudging the bedroom door shut. Darn animals could entertain themselves for a while.

She glanced at the clock again before tugging the sheets over her face and snuggling into the pillows. Ah, sleep.

Her muscles relaxed as her mind sank into a comfy dream. A lake glistened beneath bright sunlight as birds chirped in the distance. Music and singing grew closer. Wearing one of his trademark suits and over-sized glasses, Elton John sat on the lounger beside her cooing out a song about unicorns and elephants – Wait, what? –while the hot neighbour from yesterday peeled his shirt off and dove into the gleaming water, revealing a set of abs so chiseled Michelangelo would have drooled.

The hottie from the lake surfaced right in front of her, slicked back his wet hair exposing arm muscles so defined she wondered if he was for real, and, smiling, asked her, “Do you wanna—?”

Spider’s eyelids jerked open as the bed sheet pulled at her hair and slid toward her shoulder. Something sat on her feet, so she kicked toward it, hoping to dislodge whichever animal was making a nuisance of himself now.

And she’d been having such a delicious dream, too.

“Abbott!” She flung the sheets away from her, sat up, and glanced at the foot of the bed.

No cat. No dogs.

She blinked as she stared toward the door, which was still shut.

“Guys?” she whispered, and glanced around.

Something or someone had just tried to tug the sheets off her – right? She patted the bedding to make certain she was alone. Totally alone.

Hmmm. Dream? That kind of didn’t make sense though. About as much sense as Elton John belting out a song about unicorns and elephants. Then again … She snickered and shook her head.

Sighing, she pushed the hair away from her face and decided she might as well get up. It was almost nine. Time to get up anyway.

She was wiggling her feet out from under the covers when the sheet she still held in her right hand ripped free of her grasp and landed in a heap at the end of the bed. Ripped. Right. Out. Of. Her. Hand.

And then she saw—

Holy crap!

Heartbeat racing to a near explosion, Spider screamed and bolted for the door, throwing it open and darting for the living room. Charlie and Costello started barking and nearly tripped her in the hallway as they ran like maniacs toward the room she’d just deserted. Abbott sprang to his feet and disappeared into one of the rooms in the opposite end of the house.

Spider pounced onto the sofa, grabbed the phone and hugged a pillow to her chest as she stared in the direction from which she’d come.

The dogs were barking like a pack of wild things.

“Be careful!” she called out to them from where she huddled at the edge of the couch.

She punched in 9 and 1 to her phone, then hesitated. Dang it all, what if she was overreacting?

In what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds, the two dogs quieted to a few huffs and came trotting down the hallway. Costello poked his head around the corner and looked at her as if he was thinking, “Exactly why were you screaming again?” Charlie sprinted toward her, leapt onto the couch, and began slathering her face with yucky dog kisses.

The pillow made a great shield against yucky dog kisses. “Was someone in there or what?”

Probably not, since no one had tried to kill her yet.

Costello jumped on the couch beside Charlie and panted hot, stinky breath in her face in reply. She pushed his nuzzle away.

Oh yeah. She was so not a dog person.

“You’re right.” She petted both dogs as she glanced wide-eyed down the hallway. Had she seen what she’d thought she’d seen? “I was probably dreaming or something.”

Probably.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

She squealed and both dogs went berserk, jumping off the couch and charging towards the source of the noise – the front door. Her rib-cage almost broke from how hard her heart slammed against it. Heaven help her, she was going to have a heart attack before this day was finished. Hand to her chest, she followed the animals, nudging them aside so she could see who on earth had just bypassed the doorbell and banged on the door so darn early … and with such force. Was it The Hulk? Sheesh.

No, not the Hulk.

Hello! Hottie neighbour alert.

After hurriedly punching in the alarm’s deactivation code, she jerked open the door and flung herself at Noah. “Thank goodness you’re here!”

Charlie whizzed past, but Noah reached down with one hand, grabbed his collar and pushed him back into the house before he could get far. She seriously needed to remember that dog did that. Realizing her arms were still twined around the man’s waist, she pulled back.