The Perfect Neighbor Read Online Free PDF Page B

that made her look so fresh and pretty and appealing. “Grant Campbell—‘Macintosh’—that your old man?”
    “He’s not old, but yes, he’s my father.”
    The Campbells, Preston mused, meant the MacGregors. And wasn’t that a coincidence? He moved over to stand on the opposite side of the counter and help himself to the cookies she was arranging in a stylish circular pattern.
    “I like the edge to his work.”
    “I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.” Because he was reaching for another cookie, Cybil smiled. “Want some milk?”
    “No. Got a beer?”
    “With cookies?” She grimaced but turned to her refrigerator. Preston had a chance to see it was well stocked as she bent down—which gave him a chance to appreciate just what snug black slacks could do for a perky woman’s excellent butt—and retrieved a bottle of Beck’s Dark.
    “This do? It’s what Chuck likes.”
    “Chuck has good taste. Boyfriend?”
    She smirked, getting out a pilsner glass before he could tell her he’d just take the bottle. “I suppose that indicates that I’m the type to have
boy
friends, but no. He’s Jody’s husband. Jody and Chuck Myers, just below you in 2B. I was out to dinner with them tonight, and Jody’s excessively boring cousin Frank.”
    “Is that what you were muttering about when you came home?”
    “Was I muttering?” She frowned, then leaned on the counter and ate one of his cookies. Muttering was another habit she kept trying to break. “Probably. It’s the third time Jody’s roped me into a date with Frank. He’s a stockbroker. Thirty-five, single, handsome if you like that lantern-jawed, chiseled-brow sort. He drives a BMW coupe, has an apartment on the Upper East Side, a summer place in the Hamptons, wears Armani suits, enjoys French-provincial cuisine and has perfect teeth.”
    Amused despite himself, Preston washed down cookies with cold beer. “So why aren’t you married and looking for a nice split-level in Westchester?”
    “Ah, you’ve just voiced my friend Jody’s dream. And I’ll tell you why.” She wagged a cookie, then bit in. “One, I don’t want to get married or move to Westchester, Two, and really more to the point, I would rather be strapped to an anthill than strapped to Frank.”
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “He bores me,” she said, then winced. “That’s so unkind.”
    “Why? Sounds honest to me.”
    “It is honest.” She picked up another cookie, ate it with only a little guilt. “He’s really a very nice man, but I don’t think he’s read a book in the last five years or seen a movie. A few selected films, perhaps, but not a movie. Then he critiques them.”
    “I don’t even know him, and I’m already bored.”
    That made her laugh and reach for another cookie. “He’s been known to check out his grooming in the back of his spoon at the dinner table—just to make sure he’s still perfect—and he can spend the rest of his life, and yours, talking about annuities and stock futures. And all that aside, he kisses like a fish.”
    “Really.” He forgot he’d wanted to grab a handful of cookies and get out. “And how is that exactly?”
    “You know.” She made an
O
with her mouth, then laughed. “You can imagine how a fish kisses, which I suppose they don’t, but if they did. I nearly escaped without having the experience tonight, then Jody got in the way.”
    “And it doesn’t occur to you to say no?”
    “Of course it occurs to me.” Her grin was quick and completely self-deprecating. “I just can’t seem to get it out in time. Jody loves me, and for reasons that continue to elude me, she loves Frank. She’s sure we’d make a wonderful couple. You know how it is when someone you care about puts that kind of benign pressure on you.”
    “No. I don’t.”
    She tilted her head. Remembering his empty living room. No furniture, and now no family. “That’s too bad. As inconvenient as it may be from time to time, I wouldn’t trade it