The Voyeur Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page B

and it momentarily charmed me, before I caught myself and sanity prevailed.
    “Ah, Gabriel, you’re here.” Earl caught sight of me first. “I was just telling Ali about the time you let Tamara dress you up as a girl for Halloween.”
    I hated that story. I hated that no one ever seemed to forget it. You try to do the brotherly thing once and no one ever let you live it down.
    “I was a kid,” I muttered in self-defense.
    “You were twenty-seven,” Earl corrected without missing a beat.
    I refused to be drawn into one of Earl’s little games where he tried to get me to socialize by coaxing me into conversation with people I really didn’t want to talk to. He’d been doing that since I was a kid, inviting random kids over off the street to play with me because I liked being alone. Thankfully, that was during a time when neighbors trusted each other and no police were phoned. By the time I was a teenager, I learned not to tell my grandfather about not having friends. I lied mostly. It wasn’t until high school when I met Mac and Lloyd and the lie became a fact. As a grown man, he was no longer interested in finding friends to keep me company. His job now was to find me a woman, because I refused to. Women were a complication I wasn’t mentally, or emotionally equipped to handle. Ali was definitely the sort I needed to stay away from. Everything about her screamed dangerous, which was ironic considering she looked like a librarian.
    I glanced towards the woman in question and caught her already watching me with a look of contemplation that made my apprehension prickle.
    “What?”
    One corner of her mouth twisted downward in what I could only assume was grudging acceptance.
    “Nothing,” she grumbled in a manner that suggested I was just too stupid to understand.
    Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t have. The woman made no sense and I was pretty sure half the stuff that came out of her mouth were things that didn’t get filtered properly through her brain, like she blurted out the first thing to pop into her head and be damned the consequences. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. While I appreciated and respected honesty, she always seemed to be laughing at me, not with me.
    “Is that all you can say?” she suddenly blurted.
    I faltered mid stride. “What?”
    She sighed heavily. “Thought so.”
    Then she walked away, leaving me staring after her with absolutely no idea of what just happened.
    “Do you see why I like her?” Earl stepped up next to me.
    “No,” I replied honestly. “She’s insane.”
    Earl patted me on the arm. “It’s the crazy ones that are the best to have around. Your grandmother drove me insane and I was married to her for fifty years.”
    “Crazy also sets your clothes on fire,” I muttered. “And you better get that insane notion out of your head.”
    Earl’s white eyebrows migrated together. “What notion?”
    “The one where you set me up with her. I know what you’re up to.”
    “Set up? What? I don’t understand this new age talk.”
    “I can find my own women.”
    He blinked those big, brown eyes at me. “Are you building one from scratch?” He put his hand up when I started opening my mouth. “I get it. What happened to Regina—?”
    The contents of my stomach soured and I felt it working up my chest to pool at the back of my throat.
    “Gramps…”
    “I know!” He closed a hand around my arm. “It was horrible, but you can’t go on in life like this. What happened to her wasn’t your fault. It’s time, Gabe.” He gave a meaningful squeeze and let go. “Besides, let me let you in on a little secret.” He leaned in close and lowered his voice. “Your stick doesn’t magically get waxed on its own and eventually, you’ll give yourself blisters.”
    With those sage words of wisdom, my grandfather hobbled his way out of the shop, leaving me standing there watching after him, torn between wanting to face palm and laugh.
    “Hey, you leaving?”