Series: The Laws of Opposite Attract Series by Vi Keeland
Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 105253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
I’d been so lost in my head that I’d nearly forgotten about the plan to visit baby Hope.
“I’m going,” I told him. “But I’ll meet you guys there. I have some stuff to take care of first.”
Brayden looked skeptical. “Like what?”
“Holden gave me a list of shit to do in his absence, and there’s one thing I’ve been putting off. I want to be able to tell him everything is under control and that I’ve knocked everything off the to-do list. So I’m gonna get that done before I head over there.”
“What is it?”
“It’s that family in four-ten. That woman, Vera, with the two rowdy teenagers—the ones we call Frick and Frack. There have been more noise complaints about that apartment lately. We have to issue a warning that if it doesn’t stop, they’re going to be evicted.”
“Ouch. Sounds like fun.”
“Yeah.” I lifted my brow. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding it. Feel like doing the honors for me?”
“Nah. You’re better at that shit. You’re the mean one out of all of us.”
That was probably true. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He snickered, then looked closer at me, tilting his head. “You okay?”
My lip twitched. “Yeah. Why?”
“I don’t know. You seem…preoccupied, maybe?”
“Nope,” I lied. “I’m good.”
He squinted. “Okay. Whatever you say.”
After Brayden left, I headed up to 410, unsure how to approach this. All I knew about the woman who lived there was that she was a single mom. I sympathized with her in that respect; it couldn’t be easy dealing with those kids. But she never responded or did shit about all the other warnings we’d issued over the past several months. I knew it wasn’t always possible to control teenagers, but there was only so much the other tenants could tolerate.
I took a deep breath before knocking on her door.
The door opened. “Finally. It’s about ti—” She paused.
Huh?
It felt like all of the air had rushed from my body. In fact, I might have been hallucinating, because the woman in front of me was not the middle-aged lady who lived in this apartment with her kids.
Not her at all.
But I knew this person.
I knew this bohemian beauty intimately. I just never thought I’d see her again.
What the hell is she doing here?
Practically speechless, I uttered, “Devyn?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry.”
The door slammed closed.
“I’m sorry.”
That was the last thing she’d said to me before she left me in the hotel, and now it was the last thing she’d said before she shut the damn door in my face.
Think.
Think.
What do I do?
My pride got the best of me. I decided not to knock again. Fuck that. I was not one to grovel or push things. I didn’t know whether to be pissed or confused right now.
She clearly didn’t want to see me. But I had a job to do at this place, and she wasn’t even the person I needed to speak to. Is she the nanny? That had to be it.
I was going to need some time to think about how to approach things.
Did that really just happen, or was I in the middle of one fucked-up dream?
***
After leaving the hospital, I opted to walk the several blocks back to the building in order to clear my head.
I hadn’t been planning to say anything to Holden about what had happened before I came to visit. But when he pointed out the look on my face, I sloppily confessed everything. Brayden overheard part of that conversation—only about a mystery woman in the building, not that I’d had a one-night stand with her.
Brayden admitted that he’d seen this woman around the building over the past few days, but he had no idea who she was or that she was living in 410. How the hell could I have not noticed her? But more than that, who was Devyn? Why was she living in that problematic apartment? Was she, in fact, the nanny? Those two tyrants were too old for a babysitter, weren’t they? Though it would’ve helped to have someone watching over them with the havoc they wreaked.
When I got back to my apartment, I grabbed a beer from the fridge to take the edge off. I downed about half of it before I left it on the counter, grabbed myself by the virtual ball sac, and headed back to 410.
Adrenaline pumped through me as I traveled down the hallway and up in the elevator. For all I knew, Devyn wasn’t even there anymore. Maybe her shift had ended, and she’d gone back home. But I still hadn’t issued the warning I was supposed to, and that needed to happen whether she was there or not.
At least that’s the excuse I’d told myself about why I was going back.
When I made it to 410, I hesitated for a few seconds and psyched myself up to knock. Finally, I forced myself to rap my knuckles against the door.