Next Door Neighbors (2 page)

              Why did I have to bang into him? Twice!?

              As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jill clearly saw the image of the man in her mind: tall, strong and tan. His dark eyes were seductive and wanted to lure her in. His coffee brown hair, that covered his face and head, was neatly trimmed. She remembered his voice sounded deep and to die for.

              And why, oh why, did he have to be so good looking?
Jill whined to herself.

              Finally she arrived home. Both bags in hand, she got out of the car and went inside. She allowed herself one more thought of this never-before-seen man before shifting gears to making the casserole and getting ready for girl’s night.

              I just hope I don’t run into him again. Literally!

2

              The annoying timer on Jill’s older oven started to resound. When she got into the kitchen to turn it off and to take the nine by thirteen inch dish out, she noticed a car’s headlights entering her driveway. Right away she knew who it was, and the time on her microwave confirmed it. Jill’s best friend was really good at arriving at the exact time she said she would. No time to worry about running late, she grabbed a couple of pot holders so she could take out the smoking hot breakfast casserole.

              “Ow!”

              Jill was moving a little too fast and accidently touched the end of the oven rack right on the area of her arm that the oven mitt no longer covered. After placing the casserole down on the pot holders and closing the oven door, she quickly glanced at the area giving her pain. It didn’t look that bad. All of the sudden Amanda burst through the door.

              “Ready to go, hun?” she asked, chewing on a piece of gum.

              “Almost. I just have to bring this over next door and I’ll be good to go.”

              “Hurry, hurry, hurry! The movie starts in thirty minutes, and you know how I like to watch the previews!”

              “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

              Hurrying was all Jill had been doing since she got out of the financial meeting she had after work. She was looking forward to relaxing at the movie theater. The thirty minutes couldn’t come soon enough.

              Jill put the casserole dish into a carrier and headed towards the door. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”

              Jill walked out the door, leaving Amanda standing alone in her kitchen. She went towards the back of the house and through her back yard over to her neighbor’s back door; the same walk she had done many times for a couple years now. More recently she had been doing it on an almost daily basis because of how Elena was feeling. Most days she looked perfectly fine, but Jill knew the amount of pain Elena was actually in. She knew how daily chores were beginning to be more and more of a hassle for her.

              As Jill walked across Elena’s driveway, she noticed a dark-colored car in the driveway that she didn’t remember seeing before.

              Hmm, must be the guest she is having over tonight.

Jill knocked on the door a couple of times and then waited patiently, knowing full well that it would take Elena a little longer to come to the door than the average person. She could hear movement on the other side of the door, and then slowly the knob turned and the door started to open.

              With a big smile on her face, Elena said, “Hi, Jill! I can’t thank you enough for this dinner. My son and I will enjoy it so much!”

              So that’s who her guest is!

              “It’s no problem at all,” Jill smiled back, handing the dish off to her.

              Elena took a slow, deep breath in, savoring the smell of the biscuits and gravy casserole. “It smells so good!”

              “Well, I hope you two enjoy it.” Jill took a step back, not wanting to stay, adding, “I’d stay a while if I could, but my friend is waiting for me. It’s girl’s night tonight.”

              “Oh, that’s okay, dear! Do you at least have time to quick meet him?”

              “Meet who? Your son? Umm –”

              Before Jill could say anything further, Elena called out, “Brian! Brian, can you come to the door, please? There’s someone I want you to meet!”

              Jill took out her cell phone to quick check the time, knowing full well that Amanda was eyeing the time as well, probably a little frustrated that it was taking longer than it should to bring a meal to a neighbor’s house.

              “Well, well, well,” Brian said teasingly when he saw his mom’s neighbor at the door.

             
Gasp!

Jill froze at the sound of his voice. She knew once she looked up that she would see the very man she hoped to have never seen again.

Putting her cell phone back in her pocket, she looked up and smiled as best as she could. “Uh, hi,” Jill said sheepishly. She then reached out her hand to formally introduce herself. “I’m Jill Stevens, your mom’s next door neighbor.”

“I’m Brian. Brian Montgomery.”

Jill was very impressed with Brian’s handshake. It was firm, but not crushing. His hands strong, but gentle all at the same time. As if his good looks weren’t enough, Jill got butterflies in her just from his touch. “It’s nice to officially meet you, Brian. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you. Sorry about earlier by the way.”

              “Earlier?” Elena piped up, bemused.

              She looked at Jill, then at Brian and then back at Jill, waiting for someone to pass along some information as to what was going on.

              “It’s okay, Jill. Really! Stop apologizing for it.”

              The two of them held each other’s gazes until Elena spoke up again, this time a little more loudly. “Earlier?” She was getting a little impatient that no one was divulging any details.

              “Oh, sorry, mom,” Brian chuckled. “Jill and I ran into each other at the store earlier today.” He made sure to emphasize the ‘ran into’ part.             

              “Had to say it that way, huh?” Jill tried to say it in a teasing way, but felt more embarrassed than anything.

              “So you guys already met then,” Elena stated more than questioned. She went on to add, “Well, you two will probably start seeing a lot of each other.”

              Looking directly at Jill, Elena explained to her that she had asked her son to come stay with her for a while since she was having a lot of pain and needed extra help taking care of some things.

              Shifting her focus to Brian, Elena reminded him that Jill stopped by quite frequently, and that she was, after all, her next door neighbor. More importantly, she was the dear, dear friend she had told him about on numerous occasions.

              “Sounds good, Elena,” Jill replied.

              Looking at the both of them, Brian so tall and toned, and Elena so short and pudgy, Jill said, “I hate to cut this short, but my friend is waiting for me so I should probably get going.”

Smiling up at Brian, she told him again that it was nice to finally meet him, and then she gave him a small wave goodbye.

“It was nice to meet you, too.”
Turning to his mom, he said, “Here, mom, let me

take this from you.” 

              He grabbed the hot supper and headed back inside, the last thing Jill seeing was the sparkle in his eye. She turned to leave herself until Elena stopped her. “Oh, Jill?”

              “Yes?”

              “Don’t let my son being here stop you from coming over. I’d miss you terribly if you stopped coming by. Just pretend he’s not even here,” Elena suggested with a small giggle.

              “Oh, I won’t stay away. I promise,” Jill assured her.

              “Good. You go have fun tonight, and thanks again for the dinner.”

              “You bet.”

              Jill was finally free to go back home where Amanda would no doubt be annoyed and upset that Jill had taken a really long time.

---------------

              When Jill got back inside her own home, she caught her best friend in the living room spying out the side window through the blinds. “What are you doing?”

              Amanda jumped from being taken off guard. “Well, I was wondering where you were so I thought I’d peak out this window to see if I could see anything.”

              “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

              Jill went into the bathroom to quick check her face in the mirror to make sure she was presentable enough for the movie theater. As she went, she started giving the details as to why it took longer than it should have for her meal drop off. “It seriously wouldn’t have taken that long if it weren’t for the fact she wanted me to meet her son!”

              “Couldn’t you have said no?”

              Jill rolled her eyes at her friend’s somewhat rude remark. “Well, I tried to get around it, but before I could say anything she called him over!”

              “Ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness! Is that him?”

              Jill came out of the bathroom, finding Amanda still looking out the window through the blinds. “Where?”

              “Come over here,” Amanda beckoned with both her words and hand motions.

              She seemed a little too excited for Jill’s taste, having no clue as to why she would be.

              Jill carefully peaked out the window herself, knowing full well that if she was careless she would be caught in a heartbeat. Elena’s driveway was right next to this window, and odds were that Brian’s car was probably directly in front of them.

              Her eye spotted him right away, and she took a moment to watch his every move. She enjoyed the way his muscles slightly bulged as he took one piece of luggage after another from his car. His well-toned body was so defined, and Jill again began to experience butterflies as she thought of him touching her.

              Amanda ruined her moment by pointing out all the obvious. “He sure is a nice piece of eye candy.”

              “Amanda!”

              “What?”
              “You’re married remember?”

              Jill seriously couldn’t believe what her friend had just said.

              “I know, but a girl can look, can’t she?” Amanda replied.

              Jill didn’t know what to say to that. She personally felt that being married meant keeping your eyes only on your spouse, but as life would turn out, she wasn’t an expert in that department. Not wanting to dwell too long on all of this, Jill looked at the clock on the wall and reminded her friend that they needed to go. “If you stare too long you won’t get to see your previews.”

              “Oh, all right.”

              Jill was relieved that she enticed Amanda to move on.

Both girls grabbed their respective purse and headed out the side door.

“You’re driving, right?” Jill asked.

              “Of course! I am parked in the way, aren’t I?”

              Jill lightly laughed off the apparent stupid question.

              I so need to relax!

---------------

              As Amanda backed out of Jill’s driveway, she purposely went far enough down the road so that both girls could get one final glance at Brian unloading his car. Naturally, Amanda pretended not to notice too much. She kept her focus mostly on the road as she maneuvered her car, watching to make sure she didn’t back up into anything. Jill, on the other hand, tried to watch him through her peripheral vision one last time, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious.

              Except Brian happened to look up from his task just as Amanda had stopped the car to shift it into drive. He politely waved.

              “Um, he’s waving, Jill,” Amanda said, acting as if her friend was clueless. “You don’t think he saw us looking do you?”

              Jill turned her head to see if what Amanda had said was true. Sure enough, Brian stood by his car, left hand in his pocket and right hand waving. Jill thought she saw a smile, but she didn’t look long enough to know for sure. She did wave back so that she at least didn’t come across as rude. Then as the car continued forward, she slowly sank in her seat, wishing the events of the day had never happened.

              “So is he staying a while?” Amanda wondered with a raised eyebrow.

              “I don’t know. All Elena told me was that she asked him to come up here to help her take care of some things.”

              “You know, Jill,” Amanda started.

              Ugh, here we go!

              “You should try to see if he’s married or dating anyone. You know, maybe you could go out with him?”

              “Amanda, you of all people know that I’m not even going to go back down that road again.”

              “I saw the way you were looking at him, though,” Amanda pushed. She didn’t know when to leave well enough alone.

              “You looked at him the same way!” Jill blurted in exasperation.

              Amanda gave a small laugh. “I’m just saying, Jill. That’s all.”

              “Well, no thanks.”

              “Okay. Okay.”

              The girls sat in silence for a while, leaving Jill to her thoughts of possibly being interested in Brian. Any thought or feeling that did arise, however, she quickly dismissed. She had learned her lesson already, and never intended to travel down that road again.

As they got closer to the movie theater, Jill decided to speak up. “So what movie are we going to see?”