Free Smitten by Janet Evanovich Page B

room.
    â€œHe’s flashed for two nights now,” Lizabeth said. “Maybe he’s tired. Maybe he’s taking a night off.”
    â€œDamn pervert,” Elsie said. “He should be locked up. He should be ashamed of himself for going around terrorizing defenseless women.”
    â€œYou don’t seem very terrorized,” Lizabeth observed.
    â€œYeah, but I’m a Hawkins. You know us Hawkinses are tougher than most. It takes more than a naked man to terrorize a Hawkins.”
    A stone pinged at the window, and Elsie stopped rocking. There was silence in the room while both women held their breath, waiting for another stone to hit. Lizabeth crept from her bed and pulled the curtain aside. A spot of light slid across the window, briefly illuminatingLizabeth. There was darkness for a moment, then the flasher turned the light on himself.
    Elsie let out a small gasp. “Well, will you look at that!” she whispered. “The man’s standing there just as bold as could be in his birthday suit!” Her eyes narrowed. “The nerve of that man! Don’t this beat all.” She moved a fraction of an inch closer to the window. “Is that all he does? He just stands there?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œDon’t it get boring?”
    â€œYup.”
    Elsie watched him for a moment longer. “I suppose it’s a good thing he’s not dangerous. If he were dangerous, I’d feel like I had to get my forty-five and blast him one.”
    â€œDon’t even think about it. Nobody’s getting blasted from my window.”
    â€œNothing to worry about. I don’t shoot to kill. I always aim for the privates. Nothing a pervert hates more than to get shot in the privates.”
    â€œYeah,” Lizabeth said, trying not to smile. “That’d put a crimp in his style.”
    Elsie mournfully shook her head. “I’m a pretty good shot, but I’d have a hard time with this guy—he hasn’t got much of a target. Nowonder the poor man wears a bag over his head.” She looked hopefully at her niece. “Don’t it ever get more exciting?”
    â€œNot so far.”
    â€œWell,” Elsie said, “thank heaven for small favors.” She grasped the screen and slid it up into the top half of the window so she could lean out.
    â€œHey, you damn pervert,” she yelled at the man. “You should be ashamed of yourself, going around showing everybody your business. Haven’t you got anything better to do than to stand there looking like a damn fool?”
    There was an audible gasp of breath from the flasher, the light blinked out, and the man ran off, crashing through the juniper and azalea bushes that bordered the backyard.
    â€œOw,” Elsie said, “that’s gotta smart.”
    Â 
    â€œI should never have told you,” Lizabeth shouted after Matt. “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”
    Matt looped a length of electrical cable over his shoulder. “That’s what Elsie said. But I don’t care what body proportions this flasher has, I don’t want him coming near you.”
    He handed a two-hundred-watt floodlight to his electrician and pointed to the large oak at the rear of Lizabeth’s property. “I want a flood installed there and the cable run underground. I want one at either end of the house.”
    â€œThis is my house,” Lizabeth said, running to keep up with Matt. “You can’t just come into my yard and take over. You can’t tell me what to do with my house.”
    â€œWhen’s your birthday?”
    â€œNovember 3.”
    He grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her to him. He kissed her long and hard and released her. “Happy birthday,” he said. “It wouldn’t be polite to refuse a birthday present, would it?”
    â€œI don’t like being bullied.”
    â€œYou’re not being bullied,” Matt said.