Boy Next Door (Parkside Avenue Book #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

thing over with, and I’ll have you back out
there in no time.”
    Cora picked up two mugs from the
counter and placed one in front of her friend. “I don’t think so. You might
enjoy tense evenings, pretending to be interested in your date’s conversation,
and laughing in all the right places, but it’s not my idea of fun. You know
that.”
    “What I know is I will not allow
you to end up a lonely, old prune.”
    “I won’t, but I am set in my
ways. I don’t want to hide who I really am and have to make the effort to look nice
all the time. I’m past that.”
    “Oh, that’s hogwash, and you know
it. You like to look good.”
    Cora blew on her drink and settled
herself onto the stool next to her friend. “I like to keep in shape. There’s a
difference. I’m doing it for me, no one else.”
    “All I’m saying is you can’t shut
yourself off from the male population, altogether. It would be such a waste of
your assets.” The woman turned her excessively made-up face, and I shot back
against the wall before she could spot me.
    “My assets are fine as they are,”
I heard Cora add.
    I had to agree, and I decided to
make it my mission to see she changed her mind about dating, but if I were ever
going to have the chance to get up close and personal with Cora, I had to stop
acting like a peeping perv. Turning the wheelbarrow around, I headed back to
work.
    The women emerged from the house
as I was pruning suckers from the roses. It wasn’t the best time of year for
pruning, but they’d been left to run wild, and I would have been lacerated to
death trying to reach the rest of the flower bed if I hadn’t at least tried to
tame them.
    Cora waved off her friend and
handed me a cup of tea. “I didn’t expect to see you here this early.”
    I took the cup and nodded my
thanks. “There’s a lot to do.”
    As she concentrated on the clump
of heather I’d had to move from beneath the rhododendron bush to a sunnier spot
by the lawn, I allowed my eyes to scan down her body. She was wearing a silk
robe with God knows what underneath. A co-ordinating nightdress? A lacy little two-piece?
It looked like nothing but her birthday suit when a breeze rippled the silk
over the peaks of her nipples, and I felt a stirring. I had to stop thinking
about her naked. Concentrate on her eyes, Johnny, her eyes. “Aren’t you going
for your morning run?” I asked.
    “Later, maybe.” Her gaze moved to
the ground, as she made no effort to return to the house.
    “Is everything okay? You seem a
bit down.”
    “I have to do something this
morning that I haven’t been looking forward to.” She shrugged one shoulder as
if she didn’t care, when quite clearly, she did. The movement caused her robe
to dip at the neckline, and exposed a hint of cleavage to my grateful eyes. How
I wished I could reach under the material and expose the full glory of those
enticing breasts.
    “Anything I can help you with?”
    “No. No. I’ll be fine,” she said,
as she turned and disappeared back inside the house, leaving me both puzzled
and aroused.
    I drained my cup and, not wanting
to litter the garden with dirty crockery, cautiously entered the house. The
layout was similar to Pappa’s place, if you discounted the fact that on the
ground floor Cora’s living room and kitchen had been knocked into one. I placed
my cup into the sink and walked back towards the front door, but before I
reached it, a faint sound of sobbing filtered down the stairway. Was that Cora
crying? Of course, it was highly possible it could be her daughter, but my gut
told me it wasn’t.
     

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Warily, I snuck up the stairs,
keeping to the edges where there was less chance of any creaking. I was definitely
turning into a fucking stalker. The sobs originated from the room I knew to be
the largest, and I guessed it must belong to Cora. I tiptoed up to the door. It
was slightly ajar. Through the small crack, I saw her. She was perched on the
edge of the bed