Page 19 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls (Ivy Falls #3)

My phone buzzed in my pocket. These days I was almost afraid to look at the screen.

The onslaught of messages from my mother was getting to be too much.

I hesitated before tapping in my passcode.

When I saw it was from Gray I groaned. He’d been relentless in his quest for me to call Missy.

This time he suggested we go on a double date with one of the girls he was currently seeing. That wasn’t going to happen.

I pushed through the courtyard gate and walked up the stairs. My body hung heavy with the weight of the day. Once I had the outside door open, the electronic sound of early 90s pop filled the hall. A towering stack of boxes sat outside the door beside mine.

Today of all days a new neighbor had to move in?

I stifled the grumble crowding my throat. All I wanted was to come home to peace and quiet. Now that plan was shot to hell thanks to the new occupant’s obsession with a remix of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’.

It took a minute to flip on a few lights in my apartment.

I crossed to the freezer and pulled out a pot pie and threw it into the microwave.

After I took off my button-down and khakis that reeked of Betadine and rubbing alcohol, I pulled on a Vanderbilt T-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts.

The scent of baked pastry and thawed vegetables filled the kitchen.

On the ship there was a hot meal every night.

I’d sit in the same spot at the back of the dining hall with my friends, swapping stories about our day and where we planned to travel when we had precious time off.

Standing alone in my empty kitchen left a dull ache in my chest. I missed the heated conversations at dinner over our favorite movies or losing sports teams. If the meatloaf or pot roast was the best thing that came out of the kitchen.

How the coffee tasted more like you were swallowing grounds than liquid, but we drank it anyway due to our long hours.

I pulled out a chair at the small bistro table and went to work on the pot pie, scrolling through my phone. There were more texts from my mother that I was ignoring. I knew I had to call her, confess about going back to Africa, but I was too exhausted to cross that bridge.

The music continued to throb through the walls, and I switched to my social media to see what my friends had posted online. It was a time suck, but it felt good to stay connected to the Humanity of the Seas staff. To know what they were up to while I was gone.

Britney Spears morphed into the low bass beat of Rihanna. The voice was muffled, but my new neighbor knew every single line to the chorus of ‘Umbrella’.

Great. Now I’d have that earworm in my head for days.

The music annoyingly banged around inside my head while I demolished the pie. When my plate was clean, I walked to the sink and dumped the remaining crumbs. Thankfully, I’d bought a new carton of mint fudge ice cream from Minnie’s Market.

After a few bites, the knots loosened in my shoulders as I sank onto the couch. The low drone of the Atlanta Braves’ announcer made my eyes flutter closed.

A crash a few minutes later nearly rolled me off the couch, sending the half-eaten ice cream flying. Several screeches followed by more than a few F-bombs bled through the walls. Instinct had me on my feet and racing outside. I knocked on my neighbor’s door several times with no answer.

My heart picked up speed. What if the new tenant had passed out and water flooded the entire floor?

I continued with my insistent knocks until the deadbolt flipped with a clanging snick. The door flew open and I double blinked at the sight in front of me. Wet dark hair and smooth pink skin wrapped in a lavender plastic shower curtain. A trickle of blood dripped from an arched eyebrow.

‘What are you doing here?’ Piper tugged the plastic around herself tighter.

I stepped back, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. ‘I live… next door.’

‘What?’ she screeched.

‘Yes, and you’re bleeding. There’s a cut on your head.’

She clutched at the curtain wrapped around herself with one hand and used her other hand to touch her face. Her mouth puckered at the blood staining her fingertips. ‘My shower rod fell. Must have caught me in the eye.’

I stayed frozen, wanting to help but knowing this was her personal space that I had zero intention of invading.

‘Do you want… Can I have a look at that cut?’

She touched the spot again and winced. ‘Fine, come in.’

Cardboard boxes and plastic bins sat in a haphazard pile in the center of the room. Her floor plan was the same as mine but the rooms were flipped so we shared the same bedroom wall.

‘Medicine kit and a flashlight?’ I asked as the puddle grew around her feet, my gaze snagging on the daisy-yellow nail polish on her toes. I forced my attention to the cabinet where she pointed and I grabbed the white metal box. ‘Do you want to get a towel? I can wait.’

Her lips pinched into a thin line. ‘You think I’d be standing here in a shower curtain if I had a towel?’

God, she is beautiful when she is annoyed.

‘You took a shower without a towel?’

She jabbed a finger at me. ‘You can leave if all I’m gonna get is judgment. I was hot and sweaty and wanted to rinse off. A towel was the last thing I was thinking about.’

A vision of her in the shower raced through my head. I took a thick gulp and looked away from her ruby-red lips. At the end of the counter was a napkin and I shoved it in her direction.

‘Press this to your head and go put on some clothes. When you’re ready, I’ll take a look at the cut on your head.’

‘You’re ordering me around now?’

It was hard to keep a straight face with her tugging that curtain around her, the illustrated unicorns at the bottom scrunching together as she moved.

‘Yes, because you’ll never get your cleaning deposit back if you keep dripping blood on the floor.’

She rolled her eyes and huffed out, ‘Yes, Dr Foster.’