Free Taken With You by Shannon Stacey Page B

throw pillow at him. “Out!”
    He was still laughing when he let himself out through her kitchen. Bear had been waiting for him, staring at the door, and Matt gave him a good scratch behind the ears. “Let’s go, bud. We’ve got to make my bed and get yours upstairs. And I have to find the coffee filters or we’ll have a rough morning.”
    Bear ran ahead of him, then stopped at the back door, looking utterly confused. Matt laughed at him and opened the door so the dog could go in.
    “Tomorrow we’ll install your door, okay? I have to dig my tools out of the garage and all that. But right now, beds and coffee are number one on the list, so we’ve got some work ahead of us.”
    Bear walked into the living room and jumped onto his end of the couch. After giving the cushion a good sniff to make sure nothing about it had changed, he curled up and closed his eyes.
    Matt shook his head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t try to make you into a K-9. You’d give up the farm for a belly rub and a nap.”
    When his dog ignored him, Matt went out to the garage and looked at the stack of boxes. The coffee filters hadn’t been in any of the boxes marked kitchen . So where would he have put them?
    If push came to shove, he could probably borrow a few filters from his neighbor. She had a coffee machine similar to his on her counter. But he’d gotten her all wound up and he figured there was a good chance if he asked for a coffee filter, she’d probably go so far as to brew a pot and drink the whole thing in front of him out of spite.
    Matt chuckled and dug into a box stupidly marked miscellaneous . He was probably going to enjoy living next to Hailey. She had a great laugh and it was easy to push her buttons. It was a great combination as long he remembered not to let her figure out how to wind him up.
    That wouldn’t be good at all.

SIX
    H AILEY SAT AT her table, sipping her Sunday morning coffee and wondering if assaulting a law enforcement officer didn’t count if the officer in question wasn’t in uniform at the time.
    Walking across the yard and heaving the saw or the drill at his head would still be assault, but it might be a misdemeanor if he wasn’t on duty. Plus, if he was out of uniform, he was probably unarmed, which was something to consider. Chucking power tools at a guy with a gun wasn’t a good idea.
    And he’d only lived next door for twenty-four hours.
    Today was not only Sunday, but it was the weekend before Memorial Day weekend. Yard day. Today was the day she traditionally cleaned up any remaining debris from winter and made sure her lawn mower and edger were running okay. Sometimes the pavers around her perennial beds were shifted by snow and ice, and she’d check those. She had a lot of perennials and bushes because gardening wasn’t her favorite thing to do, but she liked her yard to look nice.
    But Matt was out there. Sawing and drilling and hammering and, in general, being noisy. And Bear didn’t like the whiny pitch of the saw, so he’d bark like mad whenever it was running, and Matt would laugh.
    And he had no shirt on again. The man seemed to have a serious problem with clothing and she wasn’t sure how that would go once it was the middle of summer. Then would come shorts, if he bothered. Worse, she wasn’t sure if she was dreading it or looking forward to it.
    When a car pulled into her driveway, she frowned and went to the window. It was Paige’s car and Hailey felt a pang of concern. She rarely showed up unannounced and she hadn’t been out much at all since having the baby.
    By the time she got outside, Paige had hung a massive diaper bag over her shoulder and was wrestling the car seat out of the backseat.
    “Let me help you.” Hailey took Sarah’s seat while Paige kicked the car door closed.
    “Are you busy?”
    “Nope. Just drinking coffee and putting off my to-do list for the day.”
    “I can help you with both of those things. Only one cup of coffee for me, though. I