The King Next Door

He nodded. “You watch Connor. I’ll get the ladder.”

He was already headed for the garage when she called out, “You don’t have to do that, I can—”

Lifting one hand to acknowledge her, he shouted back, “We’ve already had that conversation, remember? It’s no problem.”

“No problem,” she muttered. Nicole shot a look at her son, happily digging holes.

It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the help. But Nicole had been on her own for a while now. She wasn’t a delicate blossom. She knew how to fix plugged toilets and dripping sinks, and she took out her own garbage and killed her own spiders.

She didn’t need a man’s help.

But, a small voice in her mind whispered, was it really so bad to have it once in a while?

“Fine.” She watched Griffin stride from the garage to the back door. The old wooden ladder was balanced on one shoulder and those darn board shorts of his looked to have dipped another inch or so. “He’ll help, then he’ll go home,” she assured herself.

Then she could go back to watching him. From a safe distance.

“Where’s the new lightbulb?”

“It’s on the counter. Griffin—”

He shot her that fast, amazing grin again. “Be done in a minute.”

No, he wouldn’t. Her kitchen, like the rest of the small house her grandmother had left her, was old and out of date. The fluorescent lightbulb in the ancient fixture was three feet long and almost impossible to coax out of its fasteners, if you didn’t know the little tricks to manage it. She’d have to help.

She glanced at her son. He was busy with his shovel. Just like the pirates in his favorite book, he was probably looking for buried treasure. She’d be able to see him from the kitchen window. “Connor, honey, you stay right there, okay?”

“’Kay!”

Hurrying into the kitchen after Griffin, Nicole saw that he already had the ladder positioned under the burned-out bulb. As he took one step up, the whole thing swayed and he looked down at her in amazement.

“You actually stand on this thing? Got a death wish?”

“It works fine,” Nicole argued, somehow feeling as if she had to defend her late grandfather’s ladder. She was pretty sure it was as old as the house, but it was perfectly serviceable. “You just weigh more than I do.”

“If you say so,” he muttered, and climbed up another couple of steps, still swaying like he was standing on the prow of a boat. “I’ll have the old bulb out in a second.”

“It’s not easy,” she said. “You have to wiggle to the left twice, then back to the right and once more to the left.”

“It’s a lightbulb, not a combination lock.”

“That’s what you think,” Nicole told him, trying to keep from staring at his flat abdomen—which just happened to be at eye level. It had been way too long, Nicole thought, if just being this close to Griffin King was making her feel a little weak in the knees.

Damn it, she knew better. Griffin, like every other King, was a player. A master of flirtation and seduction. And didn’t that sound interesting, her mind whispered.

Her mind drifted as she considered tugging at his board shorts just a little. Dragging them down until—

“I’ve got it,” he grumbled, shaking her out of her thoughts, thank heaven.

“Be careful.” She frowned up at him, but he was too busy with the light to notice. “Remember to wiggle to the left first.”

“It’s just. A. Little. Stubborn.” He yanked the bad bulb out and held it one hand triumphantly. “Hah!”

A small, blond torpedo raced through the open back door. Connor was running so fast he never saw the ladder until he crashed into it.

Nicole let go of the ladder to grab her son.

The ladder swayed sharply to the right.

Griffin’s balance dissolved and he reached up with his free hand to grab the light fixture to steady himself.

He pulled it right out of the ceiling.

His eyes went wide.

Nicole gasped.

Chunks of old plaster fell down on them like hail.

Connor wailed.

The ladder tipped farther.

Griffin toppled to one side, then jumped, still clutching the remnants of the light fixture he’d yanked free.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Three little sounds.

Nicole looked up to see a wisp of smoke and the first flames erupt. “Oh, God!”

“Everybody out!” Griffin dropped the lightbulb and grabbed hold of Nicole and Connor, steering them out the back door to safety.

Two

The firemen were very nice.

They let Connor wear one of their helmets and sit in the big truck, while an older fireman kept watch.

Nicole was grateful. She needed a minute. Or two. Or maybe thirty. She sighed as she let her gaze slide from her son to the mess that was her house. Fire hoses were stretched across the lawn, now muddy from too much water and too many feet. Neighbors were gathered around watching the excitement—even Mr. Hannity, who had to be a hundred and ten, had pried himself off his front porch to get a better view. And Griffin was talking to one of the firemen like they were old friends.

Standing alone at the end of her driveway, Nicole listened halfheartedly to the conversations and noise around her. There was a buzzing in her ears that she thought might be the personification of the panic beginning to chew at her insides.

Her knees were still a little shaky and her stomach did an occasional slow roll. Probably leftover adrenaline still pumping through her system. Griffin had moved so fast, snatching Connor from her, then grabbing hold of her arm to pull her out of the kitchen. Thank God she kept her cell phone in her pocket. She’d used it to call the fire department the moment they were clear of the house.

Her house.

She hadn’t been back inside yet. Didn’t even know if she wanted to go look at the disaster that was now her kitchen. Nicole could only imagine what she’d find, and her imagination was pretty darn good. And while those dismal thoughts were spinning through her mind, more piled on for the trip.

Insurance.

Of course the house was insured, but there was a huge deductible—to make the payments easier to live with. And now, thinking of trying to meet that deductible was giving Nicole cold chills in spite of the sun beating down on her shoulders.

How was she going to pay for this?

How could she not?

“Jim says it’s not too bad, considering.”

“Huh? What?” Nicole looked up at Griffin, surprised to find him standing right in front of her. Her mind really was tangled up in knots of misery if she hadn’t noticed his approach.

He tipped his head to one side and studied her. “Another fugue state? Or shock? Maybe you should sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down,” she said. In fact, what she wanted to do was throw herself onto the grass and kick and scream for a while. But since that wasn’t going to happen, she asked, “I want to find out what shape my house is in and see if it’s safe.”

“Jim says it is.”

“The fireman you were talking to?”

“Yeah.” Griffin shrugged. “Don’t get your feminist temper rolling. I didn’t head him off to get information. I went to school with him, can you believe that coincidence? Jim Murphy. He’s a fire captain now. Married, got a million kids …”

“All very nice for Jim,” Nicole said tightly. “What did he say about my kitchen?”

“Oh.” The smile dropped from his face. “He’ll be over to talk to you in a minute. He’s just checking the place out again before they wrap things up and leave.”

“So the fire’s out.”

“Absolutely,” he assured her, and reached out to lay one hand on her shoulder briefly. “Electrical, but you knew that.”

Yes. She’d probably be hearing that series of pops in her dreams for weeks.

“Apparently your wiring’s shot,” Griffin told her.

“It was working fine until today,” she argued, even though she knew he was right. The wiring was old; the pipes were antiques. But there just never seemed to be enough money to fix everything. She’d made plans, of course. Big plans, for a remodel of the kitchen, for adding a huge bath onto the master bedroom. Maybe a deck off the kitchen … but they were just plans. Pie in the sky, as her grandmother used to say.

“Yeah, and I feel really bad about that,” Griffin said, bringing her back to the conversation. “If I hadn’t tugged on the light fixture …”

A part of her wanted to agree. That angry, desperate voice inside her wanted to shout, I told you I didn’t need any help! But sadly, fury wasn’t going to change anything. She shook her head and waved one hand, dismissing his guilt. “Things happen. Nothing to do about it now, anyway.”

In fact, she was lucky Griffin hadn’t fallen off the ladder and cracked his skull, too. Then she’d be dealing not only with fire damage but doctor bills, as well.

“Besides,” she said, turning her gaze to look at Connor, grinning at her from under the huge helmet he was still wearing, “we’re all safe. That’s what counts.”

“Good attitude,” Griffin said, and turned when Jim Murphy walked up to join them.

“Ms. Baxter,” he said and shook her hand. “The house is safe for you to enter again, but I wouldn’t advise staying there until you’ve had all of the wiring checked by an electrician.”

“Right,” she mumbled. “But the fire’s out? It’s not going to spring back into life?”

He smiled and shook his head. “No, it won’t. The power’s been shut off to the kitchen circuits. But because of the age of the house, that circuit also runs through half of the living room, so there’s no power in there, either. Just to be safe, I’d have an electrician and a contractor check everything out before you turn the power back on.”

“Of course.” Professionals. Electricians. Contractors. Then there would be plasterers, painters … visions of dollar bills flying out an open window popped into Nicole’s mind and she again fought the urge to kick and scream. Pushing the worry to the back of her mind, she forced a smile and said, “Thank you. I appreciate you getting here so quickly.”

“Glad we could help,” the man said and looked over his shoulder at the house. “It’s built well. These old houses have good bones. I know it seems like a lot now, but,” he added, turning back to smile at her, “it could have been a lot worse. As it is, once the main problem is fixed, you’ll be good. There’s no structural damage.”

Small favors, Nicole thought.

“Thanks, Jim,” Griffin said, shaking the other man’s hand. “Good to see you. Say hi to Kathy for me, okay?”

“I’ll do it.” He walked toward the fire truck, and Griffin joined him. “Maybe we could do dinner some night, huh?”

Firemen were still moving around her lawn, rolling up hoses, talking, laughing together. The crowd of neighbors was breaking up, with only the nosiest lingering. Jim and Griffin were still catching up and Connor was now “steering” the big fire truck with a wild grin on his face.

Nicole had zoned out. Let the two old buddies make plans for beers and burgers. Let her son revel in little-boy daydreams. Right now, she was more concerned with what she was going to do next. The sad truth was, she had no clue.

“You okay?”

She glanced up, surprised to find that Griffin had joined her again. “Not so much.”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” he said, “but you’ve got insurance, right?”

“Of course I have insurance,” she snapped, then bit her lip. It wasn’t his fault she was in a mess. Well, she supposed technically it was his fault since he’d ripped the light fixture out of the ceiling while he was changing a bulb she hadn’t asked him to change. But it wasn’t as if he’d set out to burn down her kitchen.

“Then don’t wind yourself up so tight,” he advised. “You’re safe. Connor’s safe. The house can be fixed.”

“I know,” she said firmly, trying to convince herself more than him. It was true, after all. She’d find a way to get it done. She could maybe take a loan out on the house, though she really hated to do that. It was paid for and not having a mortgage payment every month was a blessing she never took for granted. Still, it wasn’t as if she had a lot of options. She also didn’t want to discuss any of this with Griffin.

“You’re right. We’re all safe. The rest will get handled. Now—” she looked over at the fire truck and her happy son “—I think I’ll go collect Connor before he stows away on the truck and I never see him again.”

“Okay, then, you want to go in and take a look?”

“Not really,” she admitted.

“It’ll be okay,” Griffin said.

She looked up at him. “Have you ever noticed that people say that whenever things are absolutely not okay?”

“Good point. But not looking won’t change anything.”

“Also a good point.” She sighed heavily and glanced at her house briefly before walking to the truck. There she retrieved her now-sulky son from the fireman who was his new best friend. When she walked back to Griffin, Connor on her hip, she said, “You don’t have to go in with me.”

He only looked at her for a long second, and in his eyes, she read plainly that he wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed.

“Yeah, I do.” He waved to the firemen, then followed her around the side of the house to the back.

Funny, just a couple of hours ago, she’d been minding her own business, stealing peeks at a barely dressed Griffin while he lounged in a hot tub. Now they were banded together to inspect what she suspected was complete devastation.

Her stomach jumped with nerves and worry, but there was more than that, too. Thanks to Griffin’s presence, she was even more on edge than she might have been. Nicole actually felt him behind her. It was almost like an electrical charge on the air.

Oh, God. Electrical charge.

Electrical wiring.

Fire.

Yeah, this was no time to be indulging in a hormonal surge.

She came around the corner of the house, saw the back door standing open and, for a second, could only think about the flies and bugs that were no doubt racing into the house. Then she realized insects were the least of her problems. She steeled herself for whatever she was going to find, then climbed the three short steps and went inside.

There was no way Nicole could have steeled herself enough.

The kitchen looked as if it had come through a hurricane. Water everywhere. Smoke stains on the ceilings and walls, like black shadows crawling across the paint. The ceiling itself was pretty much torn out. The plaster that had first rained down on them when Griffin pulled the fixture free was nothing compared to what the firemen had done to contain the fire.

Gaping holes stared back at her when she looked up, as if the house itself was glaring at her accusingly. Plaster dust and water, congealed into a heavy paste, littered the worn counters, and the floor was covered in the stuff.

“Oh. My. God.”

She wanted to cry. And scream. And grab a shovel and a broom and start returning her world to normal. But as her gaze studied what was left of her ceiling, she knew it was going to take a lot more than elbow grease to get this job done.

“House is dirty!” Connor shouted, clapping both hands.

Instinctively, she tightened her grip on her son.

“It’s a wreck,” Griffin pointed out unnecessarily.

Nicole stood in one spot and did a slow turn, letting her horrified gaze take in the destruction. For the first time, she understood completely what the phrase her heart sank was referring to.

“I don’t even know where to start to clean this up,” she murmured, shifting a look through the open doorway into the living room. That room hadn’t entirely escaped, either. Furniture had been pushed aside and puddles of water had gathered on the hardwood floor.

For one second, she remembered the last time her house had been flooded, when her pipes sprang a leak and Katie had rushed over to help, dragging Rafe King along with her. It was the first time she’d met Rafe. And now, here she was, her house was flooded and yet another King was on hand for the occasion.

“You don’t have to clean it up,” Griffin said from behind her.

“You see anyone else signing up for the job?” It would take her hours, she thought miserably.

“We’ll get a cleaning crew in here,” he suggested.

“I can’t afford that,” she argued.

“Well, you can’t do it alone, and I’m not doing it,” he said.

“Who asked for your help?” Nicole’s temper, already frayed by the fire, began bubbling.

“Not you,” Griffin said and folded his arms over his chest. Shaking his head, he blurted, “You wouldn’t ask for help if you were neck-deep in quicksand and sinking fast, would you?”

“If you think that’s insulting, you’re wrong,” she told him. “I can take care of myself. Been doing it for years.”

“And because you can do it, you should?”

Connor squirmed again and rather than keep trying to hold on to him, she stalked past Griffin and walked out into the backyard. At least here she wasn’t surrounded by what was left of her house. The cloying smell of wet smoke wasn’t choking her. And she wasn’t as tempted to sit down on the ground and cry just for the hell of it.

Setting Connor down, she watched him race off to the flowerbed and his beloved shovel. Sunlight played on his blond hair and his sturdy little legs pumped with his eagerness to get back to playing.

When Griffin walked up behind her, Nicole didn’t even look at him. “I know you’re trying to help, but it’d really be best if you just went home.”

“Right.” He moved to stand in front of her, forcing her to look up at him. Those blue eyes of his were fixed on her, daring her to look away. So of course she didn’t. “You really think I’m just going to walk back to the house and hop back into the hot tub? Adventure over? End of story?”

“Why not?”

He laughed shortly. “I think I was just insulted, but we’ll let that one go for now. What I can’t figure out is if you’re really this stubborn or if it’s an act for my benefit.”

Stunned, she stared at him. “Why would I do anything for your benefit, Griffin?”

“Just what I was asking myself,” he muttered. “But if you’re serious about this, it’s just as crazy. I’m not going to leave you here alone with a two-year-old in the middle of this wreck.”

She wasn’t sure why he was upset. It wasn’t his house that had caught fire. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“Well, then, you should decide it. How are you going to manage with no power? No kitchen?”

Nicole didn’t have an answer for that. Yet. She’d figure something out, though. She always had. Her gaze shifted to Connor, sitting in the shade, singing to himself as he piled dirt from the flowerbed onto the grass. Everything in her softened and toughened up at the same time. She would do whatever she had to. For her son. “This is my house, Griffin. Where else am I supposed to go?”

“Next door with me.”

“What?” Her gaze shot to his.

He pushed one hand through his hair and this time Nicole was so stupefied by everything else around her that she barely noticed the flex of his muscles or the dip of his board shorts at the movement.

“The fire was my fault.”

“True,” she said, then shook her head when he winced. “I mean, no. It’s not. Not completely.”

One black eyebrow lifted and she idly wondered how people managed that. Then she sighed. “You were trying to help.”

“And burned down your kitchen.”

She gave him a wry smile. “I didn’t say you had helped. I said you were trying.”

He smiled, too. “Look, Rafe and Katie’s place is huge.”

“I know,” Nicole said. “Ever since they got married, Katie complains that she’s never sure what her house is going to look like from one day to the next. Rafe is always adding something or tearing something else out and building bigger …”

She’d never envied Katie the financial security she’d gained by marrying into the King family. But sometimes, late at night when she was alone, Nicole silently admitted to being jealous of the love Katie had found. The security of knowing she didn’t have to handle everything on her own. She and Rafe were so good together that Nicole couldn’t help wishing that somehow, someday, she might find that same kind of love for herself.

Of course, her romantic history read like a Greek tragedy, so she’d accepted the fact that the chances of that happening were slim to none.

But, she had always consoled herself, she had her son. Her business. Her home.

Well, until today she’d had a home. She looked over her shoulder at the house that wouldn’t be livable for weeks.

“Nicole, you know it’s the best answer. Hell, the house is so big, we won’t be in each other’s way.” Griffin moved in closer. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe. For you or for Connor.”

“Probably not …”

Clearly exasperated, he asked, “You really want to live in a hotel while this place is fixed?”

No, she really didn’t. Not only was the thought of trying to keep her nearly three-year-old son contained in a tiny hotel room exhausting, but there was the cost to consider. She couldn’t afford to fix the kitchen and live in a hotel.

“Besides,” Griffin added, “this way, you’ll be close by while they’re working on your place and you can stay on top of things.”

True. All true. But she hated owing someone. She took care of herself and her son and she’d done a damn good job of it, if she had to be the one to say it. Depending on someone, accepting favors from anyone, was just something Nicole didn’t do. Not anymore. Not since her ex-husband had taught her the hard way that the only person you could count on was yourself.

She looked up at Griffin and ground her teeth together. He looked so sure of himself, fresh irritation spiked inside her. Mainly because, though she didn’t want to admit it, Nicole knew she didn’t have a choice, and she really hated that.

But, she told herself, the truth was, if this had happened when Katie and Rafe were at home, Katie would have insisted that Nicole and Connor move in. So having Griffin extend the invitation wasn’t really much different, was it?

Her mind laughed at the pitiful rationalization. Hmm. Happily married couple offering her a place to stay, or a matching offer from a gorgeous, single guy who made every one of her hormones stand up to do a fast boogie. Sure. Exactly the same situation.

Frowning, she pushed that thought aside.

Boogying had not been a part of the offer, sadly.

Besides, she reminded herself, Griffin had started the fire in her kitchen.

“You know it’s the only solution,” he said.

“Yeah, it is.” Nodding, she glanced back at the kitchen and tried not to picture what it looked like in there. Instead, she imagined it after the work was done. Maybe, if it wasn’t too expensive, she could upgrade it a little. Maybe this would turn out to be a good thing.

Then her gaze shifted to Griffin, who was watching her out of brilliant blue eyes. His tanned, muscled chest caught her attention for one wild second. If he had been temptation living next door … what was it going to be like living with him?

It was a nightmare.

The next morning, Griffin rubbed eyes gritty from lack of sleep and told himself he might as well get used to it. Sure, Rafe and Katie’s house was big. But he’d been exaggerating a little when he’d assured Nicole that there was plenty of room for all of them.

He’d forgotten that all of the bedrooms led off the same hallway. His room was directly across the hall from Nicole’s, and he could have sworn he heard every move she made during the night.

She’d paced, then sat on the bed with a telltale squeak. Then she’d been up and pacing again. Several times she opened her bedroom door and took the four steps to the room where Connor was sleeping. She’d open that door, walk across the wood floor, pause. Then back across the room, close the door and pace in her own room again.