Then his eyes closed and the spell was broken as he moved a bit away growling, “Fuck.”

He pulled his cell out of his back jeans pocket, flipped it open and put it to his ear as his gaze came back to mine.

“Lawson,” he said into his phone and I moved further away thinking distance was a good thing. He was a good neighbor. He didn’t need to be being neighborly and have the person he was being neighborly toward throw herself at him. That would be wrong. “Yeah, right,” he continued. “I said I’ll be there, I’ll be there. I got somethin’ I gotta do. When I’m done I’m on my way. Yeah?” He paused and kept hold of my gaze. “Right. Later.”

He flipped his phone shut and shoved it back in his pocket.

“Work?” I asked.

“Love it most the time, hate it right about now,” he answered.

“Unh-hunh,” I mumbled like I understood what he meant when I didn’t. Changing a doohickey wasn’t the height of entertainment that you didn’t want to be torn away from to do work you loved.

“Gotta get this done, Mara,” he told me.

“Okay,” I replied.

He stared at me and didn’t move. I did the same.

Then his grin came back and he repeated, “Gotta get this done.”

“I know,” I said. “You have to get to work.”

“Yeah and I gotta get this done.”

I blinked then said, “So, um…can I help?”

“You can help by lettin’ me get this done.”

What did he mean? I wasn’t stopping him.

“Please,” I motioned to the sink, “carry on.”

His grin became a smile. “Sweetheart, what I’m sayin’ is,” he leaned in, “you’re a distraction.”

I was?

Oh God! He was saying he didn’t need me hanging around chatting with him.

I was such a dork!

“I’ll, uh…go make dinner.”

“Good idea.”

I nodded. “And thanks, um…for, you know,” I motioned to the sink again, “helping out, especially when you’re so busy.”

“Any time.”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t happen again,” I pointed out the obvious. “But thanks anyway.”

A sound came from deep in his chest. I realized it was an immensely attractive chuckle and he said, his voice deep and vibrating with his chuckle, “Mara.”

There were many things I wished in my life. Many. Too many to count.

But the top one at that moment in time, scratched at the top of that list in a way I knew it would stay there a good long while, was that I wished with everything that was me that my life would lead me to a new life. One where I would hear Detective Mitch Lawson say my name in his deep voice that vibrated with his laughter time and time and time again.

“I’ll just go,” I whispered and turned to leave.

“I’ll show you the valve to turn off the water another time,” he offered to my back.

“Thanks,” I said to my bedroom.

Then I was out the door.

Detective Mitch Lawson left not ten minutes later. He was carrying his toolbox. He lifted a hand in a wave as he walked through my living room-slash-dining-room space. But he stopped at the door, his eyes leveled on mine and he said two words.

“Saturday. Pizza.”

Then all I saw was my closed door.

Chapter Two

Pizza

I sprinkled the cheddar cheese liberally around the edges of the pizza dough to be certain when it cooked the dough would puff up. Those edges would be thick and soft, like they always were, and crusted with yummy cheese. Then I stood back, swiping grated cheddar cheese residue from my hands.

I stared at the pizza. It was a work of art. My barbeque chicken pizza was great but I could tell this one was better than any I’d made before. I’d put the chicken into marinade yesterday morning, poking the br**sts with the tip of a knife so the barbeque would sink deep. I hadn’t broiled it in the broiler. Instead I’d grilled it on my cast iron grill pan that had been seasoned with much use so the chicken pieces had deep charcoal grill marks. It was kind of a pain in the ass to do it that way but I knew it would taste a whole lot better. I’d bought the expensive black olives and taken time to chop the mushrooms fine. I used twice as much cheese and I bought the expensive kind of that too.

Just looking at it, not to brag or anything, I knew this particular pizza could win awards. This particular pizza was fit for a king and it was definitely fit for Ten Point Five Detective Mitch Lawson.

* * * * *

My faucet had broken on Wednesday.

On Thursday, I’d gone to work and because I was brimming with my encounter with Mitch, I had to tell someone. In a moment of quiet at the store, I grabbed Roberta and we curled up on one of the display beds. There, I told her everything (except my classification system of Ones to Tens and the fact that I was secretly in love with him, now more than ever).

* * * * *

I had been at Pierson’s for seven years and Roberta had worked there for five.

She started out as a part-timer, doing something to bring in a little extra money for the household and to get her out and about so she didn’t spend twenty-four, seven with her kids. After that her husband decided he was in love with his best friend’s wife. He moved out. Then he moved from their home in the suburbs of Denver to Portland and suddenly Roberta was the primary breadwinner for herself and her three kids.

Our boss and the second generation Mr. Pierson who owned Pierson’s Mattress and Bed was a top-notch guy. He was a family man, loyal to his family and to his family of workers so he put her on full-time even though it was a hit for all his salespeople. We didn’t need another full-time salesperson and we worked mostly on commission.

Barney lost his mind and bitched about it all the time to anyone who would listen. But I figured Mr. Pierson knew Barney’s time was short since Barney was a dick and like anyone, Mr. Pierson didn’t like dicks. But since Barney was a good salesperson Mr. Pierson didn’t really have a reason to get rid of him that was legal. That was, until Barney tried to make things so difficult for Roberta that she’d have to leave. He did this by being an even bigger dick to her. I talked her into lodging a complaint, then Barney was gone and all was well in the world of Pierson’s Mattress and Bed.

Roberta had been a Seven when I met her because she was pretty, petite, with thick brunette hair and a little extra weight that she held well. She was also happy with her family and her husband in their suburban house with two cars and vacations to Disney World. She’d slipped down to a Five Point Five when she got angry and moody and hated the world and mostly all the men in it after her husband left. Now she was back up and surpassed the Seven to be an Eight because she’d settled into her new life; her kids were great kids and came through the divorce really well because she was a great Mom. She’d realized her husband had always been a big jerk, she’d just not noticed it so much because she loved him. Therefore, she had come through to the other side stronger; an independent woman with a happy non-nuclear family and was secure in the knowledge that she was a good Mom and better off without her jerk of a husband.