Neighborly Complications (Excerpt)

A PIPE!  She grabbed a pipe that was sticking out of the ground for some reason and held on tight.  She had no idea what purpose this particular piece of pipe held, except that at this moment, it was saving her life.  Now if I can just hang on…  Her feet slipped again, as they desperately scrambled to find purchase against the slimy wall.  It felt like the wall was made of stones, which would make something there for her to grab with her shoe-clad feet, wouldn’t it?

Her hand was hurting, and she tried to hold the pipe with both hands.  It wasn’t a big pipe, and since she couldn’t really see what it was connected to, if anything, she didn’t want to grab it with both hands and put all of her eggs in one basket.  She tried her best to hold still and not jiggle anything that would make her fall all the way into this well.

Claire’s head and shoulders were still above ground level, but the rest of her body had sunk through the rotten, water-logged plywood that was “covering” this giant hole in the ground.  While holding the pipe, she tried to feel around with her other hand to see if any of the rest of the wood was sturdy enough to hold her.  No dice.  Everything her hand touched, crumbled and fell into the abyss below.  Apparently, she grabbed a nest of some sort, because hundreds of tiny spiders crawled around on her hand.  She shook them off, while holding on to the pipe with her other hand.  Terror filled her veins as she screamed again.

“Hang on, I got you.”

Enormous arms wrapped around her body, under her armpits, and lifted her out of the hole.  She looked up at her savior.  And up, and up…until her eyes met the caramel colored eyes of…Adonis.  He pulled her back out of the hole, tripping over her beloved pipe, and tugged her down with him as they ended up a tangled pile of limbs in the weedy yard.

    She had no idea who this magnificent specimen of a man was, but he was her hero, having just saved her from a horrifying death.  Well, possibly.  If she hadn’t died, she certainly would have been extremely uncomfortable for who knows how long.

“What happened?”  His melted, ooey gooey, caramelly eyes oozed concern, as they looked down from his body’s perch atop Claire’s body.  Ohmygosh.  He’s on top of me.  His mouth turned down at the corners, and his hands were still wrapped around her rib cage.  She couldn’t answer, her heart was beating too hard.  She couldn’t really say if it was because of her brush with certain death, or because she had the most gorgeous man on the planet on top of her.  He smelled good, earthy, like grass and man.

Her breath hitched as she looked into that face of his, and the next thing she knew, she was crying like a baby. She hated crying, and the fact that she was doing it in front of this stranger, made her cry even more, much to her own mortification.  He climbed off and pulled her into a sitting position next to him, and cradled her head against his concrete chest making shooshing noises, begging her not to cry.  What is it about men and crying women?  I just almost died.  Although, hearing his heart pound in his chest was calming her down quite a bit.

“I didn’t realize I was (hic) walking over that (hic) plywood, and I f-f-fell in.”   

“Well, you’re okay now.  It’s okay.”  His broad hand rubbed up and down her spine in a comforting gesture.  It made a warm mushy feeling spread out from the center of her chest down to her thighs.  “I have some plywood in my garage.  I’ll bring some over and put it over that well until you can have someone come over and fill it in with concrete.”  His hand still rubbing her back.  Her body still all warm and mushy.  His smell still manly, grassy goodness.

Claire looked up at him, their faces were inches away from each other. His eyes looked straight into hers, then his gaze traveled to her lips.  Seemingly jealous of the attention that her lips were getting, Claire’s tongue snaked out to moisten the top one.  As if recognizing the desire that seemed to be radiating from her pores, he spread his lips slightly, and inhaled sharply.  She could smell his toothpaste.  His hand cradled her face, and he used his thumb to wipe a tear off her cheek.  Then he rubbed his thumb down her jaw line.