Free Not His Type by Lisa Crane

enjoys teasing
me.”
     
    “Really?” Riley
asked, laughing.  “You think that’s it?”
     
    “Sure, what else
would it be?” Brooke asked, a blank expression on her face.  At the wry look he
gave her, it was Brooke’s turn to laugh.  “Oh, please!  Travis Cooper is so far
out of my league, it’s not even funny!  You heard him yourself.  Big brother. 
Little sister.  End of story.”
     
    “If you say
so…Bunny.”

Chapter 10
     
    On her lunch
break, Brooke drove to a convenience store.  She had in her purse a week’s
worth of tips from her job at the diner.  In the store, she handed her electric
bill and the cash to the clerk.  The woman began processing the payment, then
frowned curiously.
     
    “Says here you
got a zero balance.”
     
    “What?  No,
that’s not possible.”
     
    “Says so right
here,” the woman said, pointing at her screen.  She shrugged, popping her gum. 
“I mean, I’ll take your money, but do you really wanna pay a utility company if
you don’t owe ‘em yet?”  She held out the money and the bill.
     
    “Thank you,”
Brooke said uncertainly.  She walked back out to her car and pulled out her
phone.  She quickly dialed the number on the utility bill.  She couldn’t reach
a human being, but the recording did, indeed, say her account balance was
zero.  Brooke followed the recorded voice prompts, listening to the payment
history; the mechanical voice said a payment had been made online that
morning .  How was that possible?  Then it hit her.  Travis.  Somehow – she
didn’t know how – he had paid her electric bill; she was sure of it.  What was
that man up to?
     
    While Brooke was
gone, Riley and Jazz sat in the small office eating the lunch Jazz had packed
that morning.  As they ate, they talked about their new employee.
     
    “So what was all
that about the neighbor?” Jazz asked her husband.  “What are you thinking?”
     
    “I’m just saying,
it was almost like he was trying to convince himself Brooke was like a
little sister, you know?  He said it twice.  Just seemed like overkill to me.”
     
    “And what about
Brooke?” she asked thoughtfully.  “Does she really think he’s out of her
league?”
     
    “Yes, but I’m
not sure why,” Riley answered.  He grinned at his wife.  “I mean, she’s no
Latin beauty, but she’s cute.”
     
    “It’s okay,
Riley, you can be honest,” Jazz laughed.  “She’s more than just cute.  That
curvy little figure, those pouty lips – and did you see those eyes ?”
     
    Riley rose.  He
leaned across the desk and kissed Jazz.
     
    “But she’s still
no Latin beauty, my little Latin beauty.”
     
    “I love you,
Riley Parker!” Jazz giggled.
     
    A knock sounded
at the door to the bakery.  Riley turned to leave the office.
     
    “Back to the
grindstone, my love,” he said.  “Oh, it’s Brooke.  And she doesn’t look very
happy.”  He unlocked the front door, and flipped the “Closed” sign back to read
“Open”.  “Hey, Brooke, how was your lunch?”
     
    “My new neighbor
is the most arrogant, high-handed, controlling man I’ve ever met!” she blurted
out.
     
    “Ha!” Riley
laughed sarcastically.  “You never met my father!”
     
    “He paid my
electric bill!”
     
    “And…that’s a
bad thing, hon?” Jazz asked, confused.
     
    “Yes!” Brooke
snapped.  “He paid the hospital bill, he took care of my dog, he dragged me to
his house and fed me and made me sleep in his guest room and now he’s paid my
electric bill, and…now that I’m saying all this out loud…I realize it just
makes me sound like an idiot, doesn’t it?”
     
    “No!” Jazz
answered, her laughter barely contained.  “The nerve of the man, feeding you
dinner and making sure you got a good night’s sleep!”
     
    “He paid your
hospital bill?” Riley asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral.
     
    “Well, he felt
like the accident was his fault,” Brooke said.  She