I Kissed The Boy Next Door Read Free Page B

his arms, and throw me in the air like he used to do.”
    Her words struck him, and he gulped. He knew the feeling , though his mother wasn’t dead. But she was miles away, living her new life without her children.
    She glanced up at him. “You hungry?”
    He shoved the thought aside. “I could eat.”
    She waved him forward through a cluttered mudroom and into the kitchen. The kitchen was wide and spacious like what you’d see in a farmhouse. White cabinets circled the right-hand wall, interrupted by a large bay window hung over a farmer’s sink. A kitchen island sat in the center.
    He met the gaze of her brother when he entered.
    “Tray, this is Jackson Phillips. He moved in next door.”
    Tray , whose actual name was Travis, jerked his chin upward.
    Jackson stared for a moment, taken aback. He’d only ever seen her brother from a distance, and that was three years ago. But having just looked at her dad’s picture, he had to look twice. The resemblance was unreal.
    Lucy waved Jackson toward the island. “Sit,” she said.
    He claimed a stool in time to see her bend over into the refrigerator. Nice. He refocused his gaze on Travis’s face. Polite conversation would be better than what his brain kept doing.
    “‘Sup ?” he asked.
    Her brother raised his coffee cup, steam drifting before his face. He took a noisy slurp. “Not much.”
    Lucy straightened and moved to a cabinet, the refrigerator door swishing shut behind her. Travis sat his cup down with a thunk. And Lucy stooped over, reaching onto a lower shelf. She really must stop doing that.
    Jackson tried to stop his wandering gaze, too late.
    H er brother turned around to view his sister’s extended butt then faced forward, one side of his mouth curled upward.
    “So tell me,” Travis said, “you got a girlfriend?”
    Lucy slammed the cabinet too hard, and Jackson jumped in place. “N-no,” he stuttered.
    “You looking?”
    Setting her pan down on the stove, Lucy revolved on her heel and riveted her eyes on the back of her brother’s head. “Travis, cut it out.”
    Travis smirked and waved his hands, palm outward. “Just wondering.”
    She turned around and stretched a groping hand over her head to lift a bowl from an upper shelf. And her top crept up, revealing the slender curve of her waist. “Don’t let him bug you,” she said, setting the bowl on the counter.
    “ Ain’t me that’s bugging him,” Travis said to her back.
    And h e was right about that. Did she not know how she looked? Or did she not care? Jackson drew figure eights on the counter with his fingertip.
    Lucy flicked her brother a glance. “Don’t you have to wash your truck or something?”
    Ignoring the shake of his head, she returned to her cooking. Soon the heady aroma of frying bacon wafted through the room. The pop of the toaster and smell of eggs followed. Within minutes, she set a plate before him. She then fetched her own and joined him around the island.
    Her brother gave her the eye. “Nothing for me?” he asked. “You feed the neighbor, but not your own brother?”
    She paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “ I like him better.”
    Jackson covered his grin with a strip of bacon.
    Travis returned to nursing his cup of coffee, and Jackson bent over his plate. For a while the only sound was the clinking of forks and chewing of food. It was as Jackson lifted the last bite to his mouth that Lucy’s phone buzzed.
    Twisting around on the stool, she pressed the button and leaned over the screen. Her face took an on interesting expression.
    “Aren’t you going to answer that?” Jackson asked.
    She didn’t respond, but instead pushed the phone beneath his nose. He looked from her to the phone before reading the text. It true Jackson P lives next door?
    His voice raised. “Jackson P.”
    Word spread quickly. He scrolled up the screen. “Esther?” he asked. “ The Esther? Esther, ‘Hey, Jackson,’ Esther?”
    She nodded. “The same.”
    She laid a finger