Page 12 of The Neighbor
Jared finally gets a hold of his wife and yanks her up onto her feet, even as all the while she’s kicking and screaming for him to get her hands off her. Wrapping his arms around her, he holds her tightly as Sara scrambles to stand up.
I watch, waiting for her to get her two cents in since Suzanne is immobilized, but Sara simply runs out of the tent and takes off down the street. Slightly calmer, the aggrieved wife pushes her husband off her and spins on her heel to leave too. All of us look at Jared like he’s some zoo animal we aren’t sure we want to get too close to, but he takes it all in stride, grabbing his bottle of beer and walking out from under the tent to sit on the curb.
“Well, that was interesting,” Harold says with a chuckle, immediately getting a silent reprimanding glare from his wife.
Marilyn immediately sets out to clean up the mess left by the two women’s brawl, and Caroline jumps in to help her. Seeing my chance to show myself as a good guy, I crouch down next to her as she scoops up the remainder of the tortilla chips I brought. She gives me a strange look, almost as if she’s decided to condemn all men for being jackasses because of Jared.
“Thank God I bought two bags of these chips. I didn’t realize I needed a contingency plan, but I’m happy I had one,” I say with a smile as I help her clean up.
Caroline turns her head and stares at me, and for a long moment, I think my attempt at making conversation has gone badly. But instead of being angry, she gives me a tiny smile and nods.
“I didn’t realize this neighborhood was so exciting. You hear how suburbia is so boring, but I would beg to differ after today,” she whispers.
“It’s not usually this interesting, although I’ve only been to two of these neighborhood parties. Just wait until Kimmy sees this. I hope she doesn’t have a breakdown right here in front of all of us.”
That makes Caroline grimace. “She worked very hard on putting this event together.”
I instantly sense I’ve offended her, which is not going to help in my quest to get to know more about her, so I quickly add, “She really does. Four kids to take care of, and she never fails to have a smile on her face and enough enthusiasm to wrangle an entire neighborhood.”
My attempt to show some appreciation for Kimmy gets me a softer look, and Caroline sighs. “She really is a good person. I hope this doesn’t upset her.”
Looking up, I see Harold and Tim staring down at me like I’ve got three heads growing out of my neck. I must be breaking some rule in their man handbook by helping Caroline and Marilyn clean up the mess. If they had any sense in their heads, they might consider the idea that a single guy like me may want to make a good impression on the pretty single woman who’s new to the neighborhood.
Even if that’s not my motive behind my behavior at the moment. I have far different things in mind than mere romance.
Behind me, I hear someone gasp, and I turn my head to see it’s Kimmy. The poor thing has tears in her eyes as she covers her mouth and whimpers.
Marilyn hurries over to console her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. “Oh, it’s okay. I bet we can get another table set up in no time.”
She looks around the tent and says, “Everyone go back to their houses and get something else for the food table. We can fix this lickity split.”
As I stand up to do as she ordered, I see Caroline wince again. When she follows me out of the tent, I ask, “Is something wrong?”
With a nod, she quietly answers, “I don’t have any more lemon bars.”
I’m not usually the type of person who wants to help a damsel in distress, but something about the sadness in her blue eyes makes a twinge nip at my gut, so I say, “I’m sure I have something at my house. I’ll grab whatever I can find, and you can say it’s from you. How’s that sound?”
Her expression immediately perks up, and she nods, giving me a big smile. “Oh, that would be great. Thank you!”
“Great! I’ll be right back.”
As I hurry up the street to my house, I silently congratulate myself on breaking the ice. Now I’ll get to find out all abouther. Gratitude has a way of making a person want to share more about themselves than they normally would.
I fling open my front door, instantly loving the air conditioning as it hits me with a blast of sixty-five-degree air. Compared to the ninety plus degrees we’re enduring outside, this is heaven. I stop for a moment, closing my eyes as I revel in the coolness of my home. If I didn’t hate socializing with people so much, I’d invite everyone in to continue the party here.
Spying the second bag of tortilla chips, I grab them off the counter and quickly scan my kitchen for something for Caroline. Too bad I didn’t grab that nearly stale coffee cake off the bargain rack. Not that it would have been very good in that heat, but beggars can’t be choosers, and after the ruckus Jared, Suzanne, and Sara caused, even hard cake is better than nothing.
A noise in the living room makes me snap my head around, and I’m stunned to see Caroline standing just inside the door. What the hell is she doing here?
Smiling, she leans back against the doorframe and says, “Your house is very nice, Adam. Even better, it’s so refreshingly cold in here. We should all come up here to continue the party.”
Hearing those words spoken aloud by someone else sounds even more horrifying than when I joked to myself about that idea a few seconds ago. Sure my disgust is written all over my face, I force a smile and shake my head.
“I think it’s important to Kimmy that we do it outside. Something about it being a true neighborhood thing, I guess.”
It’s a good enough lie that Caroline nods her agreement. “Yeah, I think you might be right. So did you find anything you can let me claim is from me? Not that I’m in a big hurry or anything. Take as long as you want. I’ll just be here enjoying the coolness and admiring your house.”
Suddenly, my home feels incredibly small, and every part of my life feels like it’s on display for her to see and inspect. Myparanoia begins to ratchet up notch after notch as I quickly scan my kitchen for something to give her but find nothing.