Chapter 4
Kristen managed to get a good night’s sleep in spite of her fight with Adam. She woke refreshed and energized which was exactly what she needed for a day that would likely be just as emotionally draining as visiting her father at the cemetery.
She wasn’t looking forward to the task at hand. She hadn’t been inside her father’s house since he passed away and she knew that going there now would be very painful. Still, his things needed to be packed up.
As soon as Kristen entered her father’s neighborhood, she became flooded with memories. Until she had moved halfway across the country for college, Kristen had lived her entire life in that neighborhood…that house. She had learned how to ride her first two-wheeler on the street right in front of her father’s house. She remembered how scared she was when her father suggested they remove her training wheels.
“I’ll be right beside you,” her father promised. And, at first, he did run alongside her, ready to catch her if she began to wobble or fall. As the five-year old Kristen gained confidence, though, she started pedaling faster making it hard for her father to keep up. She remembered looking back and seeing him bent over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath…but displaying a proud smile. His smile quickly changed to a look of concern as she crashed the bike into a hedge from Ms. Calputo’s yard. It took her father almost three weeks to convince Kristen to try riding the bike again, but she eventually did and mastered it, like everything she attempted.
As she turned to pull into the driveway, Kristen couldn’t help glancing at Ms. Calputo’s house. Though she had long ago passed away, the yard still contained the hedge that softened Kristen’s crash that day so many years earlier.
Kristen put the car in park and shut off the engine, but remained seated. She needed a few minutes to get the nerve up enough to go inside. After what felt like forever, but in reality was probably just a few minutes, Kristen grabbed her purse and headed up the walkway.
“Not again!” Kristen cursed under her breath as she put the key in the lock and attempted to turn it. She had been telling her father for years to replace the lock, but he never seemed as bothered by it as she was. When she couldn’t manage to get the door unlocked, Kristen decided to get in the house the same way she did when she was a teenager, sneaking home after curfew.
Thinking back on it now, she figured her father had to have known that she used to climb in and even out of the dining room window. The latch hadn’t worked for as long as she could remember, so she was always able to get in and out easily. And, since her father always seemed wrapped up in something in his office, he rarely checked to make sure she was home in time.
Kristen even went so far as to keep a set of pajamas hidden in the china cabinet so she could change into them as soon as she got home. That way, if she was heading up the worn and creaking stairs, she could turn around and pretend as though she had just come downstairs to check on her father. The next day, she would just retrieve her shoes and clothes from the china cabinet and replace them with a clean pair of pajamas.
As she tried to lift herself up into the window, she found it wasn’t as easy as she remembered from the past. Kristen finally managed to get the first half of her body in the window, but with her rear still sticking out she heard a voice.
“Can I help you?” a man asked. Even without being able to turn around and see who it was, Kristen knew the voice was speaking to her.
“My key didn’t work,” Kristen explained. If she hadn’t have been in such a compromising position, she would’ve told the man to mind his own business. Reluctantly, she asked him instead to give her a push.
Andrew Steel was Thomas’ neighbor. He didn’t know who the woman was that was entering his neighbor’s house through a window, but he certainly planned on finding out. “Before I give you a hand,” Steel began to ask with a smirk as he stared at the woman’s firm rear end hanging out of the window, “can you tell me who you are?”
Kristen was livid. She was not at all the type of woman who ever answered to a man, certainly not one she didn’t even know. And, to make it worse, her stomach hurt as it pressed uncomfortably on the window sill. She wasn’t able to get in on her own though, so after weighing her options, she decided it was easier to just play along and answer.
“My father lived here. I’m here to pack up his things,” she said loudly, to make sure he heard her. Without comment from the man, Kristen felt his strong hands on her ass. Her cheeks reddened, but she managed to get the rest of the way in the house. She promptly turned around ready to give the man a piece of her mind. “How dare you…,” she began with fire in her eyes, but the man cut her off.
“You asked for a hand,” he replied smartly. “How else do you suppose I helped you get inside?”
Kristen stared at the man. He seemed to be somewhere around her same age…maybe a couple of years older. He had short dark hair, styled in a timeless, classic style and a nose that seemed to have been broken…probably more than once. As she held his gaze, she noticed he also has piercing green eyes. They seemed to bore right into her. She wouldn’t look away, though.
Seeing that the man wasn’t intimidated, Kristen decided to just get on with her task. “That’ll be all,” she said, as though she was dismissing the help.
Steel held his position. There was something about the woman that intrigued him. She was hard and rude, but he could also see a softness in her no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Even though he didn’t think she was lying about why she was breaking in, he wanted more time with her. “Do you really think I’m going to just take your word that your father lived here? Do you have any proof?”
He had heard about her father’s death and didn’t mean to cause her any pain. He just wanted a chance to introduce himself and maybe get to know her name as well.
Kristen stood speechless. “Who was this man that was demanding to know who I am?” she wondered. “I don’t owe you any explanations!” Kristen answered and then closed the window behind her.
“Okay. I’ll just call the cops!” Steel yelled through the window before turning to walk away. A smile spread across his face as he counted to three in his head.
“Wait!” he heard the woman yell as she opened the front door. “Here is a picture of me with my father…are you happy now?”
Steel pretended to examine the picture closely, holding it up and comparing it to the woman in front of him. “Well, there are some similarities,” he conceded.
“It’s me!” Kristen yelled. She was getting madder by the minute.
“And your name is….?”
Kristen wondered what she had to do to get the man to leave her alone. “My name is Kristen Casey,” she said without smiling or adding even the hint of a friendly tone to her voice.
Steel smiled as he reached for her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Kristen. My name is Andrew Steel, but you can call me Steel.” Before letting Kristen have her hand back, he brought it to his lips and places a light kiss on it.
Kristen immediately yanked her hand back. She wasn’t sure if was out of revulsion or because of the tingle she had felt. Without saying anything, Kristen walked inside and closed the door behind her, leaving the Steel standing alone on the porch.
Though Steel wasn’t used to having women react that way to his charm, he wasn’t offended. He just saw Kristen as a challenge…one that he would enjoy.