Rhett

I'm walking around my new house. It's everything I was looking for when I thought about settling in here. The massive staircase. Tall ceilings. Large kitchen. Four bedrooms and an office. An enclosed sunroom out back. The yard is amazing, with a patio for having friends and family over. It needs some updating but I want to keep the integrity intact.

I look out the big window in the living room and see Winnie. She looks adorable. Messy. It makes me smile. She must be walking home from work. My family mentioned she lived close by. I feel a little like a stalker as I walk through the house to keep her in frame. I'm surprised when I see her open the gate and walk into the cottage right next door. I knew we would be living on the same street but I had no idea she would be this close. I feel my lips turn up. We're neighbors.

I take the stairs up two at a time remembering to grab my keys I left on the bathroom counter. The rest of my things should be here Sunday, which is probably when Winnie will find out I'm living next door. I wonder how she'll react. While I've been thinking about her over the years, she could have been forgetting everything we shared all those years ago. That thought is foreign to me. There's absolutely no way I could forget anything about her. I smile thinking about the summer I had no idea would be my undoing.

It was just two weeks after I turned 25. I had just been drafted into the NHL. In three months, I would be moving to Seattle to start my hockey career. Before my life got too busy, I was home visiting for the summer and we were celebrating with a camping trip up in the mountains. It was supposed to be a small group of us but with Colt involved things got out of control pretty quickly.

More people were still showing up to our campsite and there was too much beer floating around. I had plenty of other people to focus on, but there was only one person I could be bothered to look at. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't the only one looking. Winnie had always been beautiful. That was just a fact that existed in the world. Like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. There was gravity and Winnie was beautiful.

I watched as she flitted from boy to boy most of the night, smiling sweetly, but politely declining drinks. If you didn't know her you would think she was having a good time—I knew different. I could tell by the tightness in her shoulders and the way she kept touching her right temple that she was getting anxious, yet it still drove me crazy she was willing to give her attention to everyone but me. Against my better judgment, I was about to go ask if she wanted to take a walk when I saw her excuse herself from one of the drunk idiots hanging all over her and head towards the lake. Following her was a bad idea. I wasn't always full of good ones.

I told myself that trailing after her was just to make sure no one else did, but that excuse was flimsy at best. The truth was I wanted to be near her. To talk to her. I had missed her while I was away at school, no one makes me laugh the way she does. I watch her climb over a large rock at the waters edge and let her feet dip into the lake. Watch her visibly relax under the moon. She tilts her head back and her hair falls down her back. I've never wished to be anything other than what I am but I wished I were an artist so I could paint her in this moment and have it forever. I take a step forward, not sure what to say and hear a branch snap under my foot. She whips her head around and stares at me with wide eyes that turn threatening when she sees it's me. She looks so vicious I can't help the nickname that comes out.

"Hey, honeybee." She rolls those pretty melted honey eyes and my lips twitch.

"Rhett? What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be back at the bonfire with your adoring fans?" I can't hide my smile now. She must have really needed to some alone time. She's snapping at me. I decide to swat back at her.

"Jealous, honeybee?" I've caught her staring at me plenty of times over the years. She backed off when she got a boyfriend at 17. I wanted to tell him to get lost but that wasn't really fair of me if I wasn't planning to do anything about it. Tonight though, I felt differently. She gives me a flat look but I think I see her tense a little before I go on. "I figured I would let Colt have a turn. He's not one to get jealous, but he did invite most of the people here." She snorts.

"How very generous of you." My smile widens after she turns her head back to the lake. Not giving me a second glance. I'm moving toward her then, helpless to the pull.

"So what are you doing out here alone? Where's Marigold?" I ask her as I settle beside her on the flat rock she's camped on. She sighs before answering me.

"It's just really loud—and I don't know more people than I do." I study her profile, the freckles across her upturned nose are barely visible in the moonlight.

"It is really loud, I guess it doesn't bother me as much since I'm in used to-…"

"If you say ‘your screaming fans', Rhett Holloway…" She cuts me off with the threat, her finger pointed at my chest. The look on her face is serious but I can see the shine in her eyes and even though I've looked at her all night, having her face this close to mine has my chest warming. I grab her hand and pull her closer. Her breath catches. The part of my brain that makes decisions is impaired and it's not from the alcohol.

"That's not what I was going to say," I say quietly. Her hand in mine is drowning out the voice in the back of my head reminding me that this is Colt's sister. She looks at our hands and then back up to my face. I'm not sure what she sees there but her brows pull together and she looks so adorable I can't take it. I let my other hand slide up her bare arm and feel goosebumps rise before I tangle my fingers in the curls at her neck and lean closer.

"Rhett…?" My name is a question and I can taste it in the air.

"Yes, Winnie?" I run my nose up the side of her cheek. My mind is empty except for one thought that plays on loop…please don't push me away. She swallows.

"Are you going to kiss me?" Oh, thank God. I brush my mouth against hers gently once, then twice. I'm trying to hold back and go slow. I don't want to overstimulate her, I want her to enjoy this.

"Rhett?" she whispers again. Oh no, I've already ruined it.

"Yes, Winnie?" I wait for her to tell me that this isn't what she wants and how bad her rejection is going to feel. Her answer sealed my fate. Solidified that I would follow this woman anywhere. Anything she wanted, I would give.

"When I asked if you were going to kiss me I meant really kiss me."

I laugh quietly in the empty bedroom upstairs and run my thumb over my bottom lip. I'm getting ready to relive mine and Winnie's first real kiss when a light out the window catches my attention. My favorite thing about it is that the master bedroom is the big window on the back of the house that I'm now realizing faces Winnie's cottage. I can see right into Winnie's kitchen, which is probably her favorite thing about her place. That thought makes me smile.

She's always been good in the kitchen. In so many of my memories of her she's helping mom in the kitchen with dinner or baking something for dessert. I'm so proud of her. I just wish I could have talked to her more over the years. I see her standing in the window and at first I think she might be facing me. I am proven wrong as she turns and reaches for something high, stops and gives me a torturously long look at so much of her bare skin and black lace covering very little of it. I gulp and before I can stop myself I—wave? No. I did not just wave at her like some creepy pervert.

I see her form drop from view. Oh, God, she probably thinks I'm some stalker—she's not totally wrong in thinking that. I was being stalkery. I need to go tell her it was just me. I rush down the stairs, almost tripping and falling down the last five. I don't even bother with my shoes as I jog down the sidewalk to her gate, jump it and make it onto the porch. I ring her doorbell and wait. I ring it again. There's a small commotion inside, a curse that has me pinching my lips together so my laugh won't escape.

I see motion to my left and see the blinds on the window move then more cursing and footsteps. The door flying open has me taking a step back, I'm not prepared for the sight before me. I scan her flushed face and her haphazardly pulled up hair with little pieces escaping all over. She's so adorable I can hardly stand it—but what has my full attention is the faded sweatshirt that"s swallowing her. It's mine.

"Rhett? What are you doing here?" She pops her head out and looks from side to side as if to see if the coast is clear.

"Well I figured I should come over and explain."

"Explain what? How do you even know where I live?" She shifts her weight to the side, leaning against the door frame and crosses her arms. Defensive. Great.

"Well, I wanted you to know that I wasn't staring at you or spying on you. I just happened to be upstairs when—well when I noticed the light on—and then I noticed you didn't have any?—"

"Wait! That was you next door?!" she cuts off my stammering which I'm grateful for. I just nod. Her head tilts to the side as she stares at me, eyes swimming with questions. The flush that stained her cheeks a few moments ago is now spreading down her delicate neck.

"Uh, yeah. I just signed the papers today." I give her a grin I know she used to love. She blinks.

"Signed the papers? On what?" She asks the questions slowly. I roll my eyes.

"The house, Winnie. I'm moving in this weekend."

"You're kidding. I didn't even know it sold." Her arms loosen to her sides and she puts a hand on her cocked hip. We're getting somewhere.

"It did…" I grin at her again. "Hey, neighbor." She makes a little hmph sound.

"So, you're really planning on sticking around then?" Now it's my turn to be confused.

"Of course. I told you I took the coaching job at the school." She bobs her head.

"Yeah, I know. It's just surprising that you would stay after being gone for so long." Her tone is accusing and I'm more than a little thrown off by it.

"It's always been the plan to come back. You know that. I told you that." Her eyes meet mine then and something flickers there between us but it's gone before I can name it.

"That's great. Like I said at the bakery, your family has really missed you. I better head in now. I have to be up early for the festival in the morning. I guess I'll be seeing you—neighbor." She smirks and goes to shut the door. I turn to leave but can't stop from teasing her.

"Night, Winnie. You look great by the way." She rolls her eyes and opens her mouth with what I'm sure is a witty retort but I'm not done. "In my old sweatshirt—and out of it." I wink and her eyes bulge before she looks down at her body, throwing her arms over her chest again. I chuckle the whole way home.