The Neighborly Thing to Do Book 1: Neighborly

“Nurse Hendry,” Beefcake said, nodding at her in recognition. His smile was much warmer without the harsh hospital lights glaring down on him.

“You know my name?” she asked.

He laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, you’re pretty hard to miss.” His eyes roamed across her face.

For a second, insecurity gnawed at her. Was that a dig?

Kids in school used to call her Bubblegum Head because her hair was an obnoxious shade of strawberry blonde. Or maybe he had heard her bark one too many times at the hospital. She could be a little bossy, she supposed.

“You were a whirlwind today. Pretty remarkable,” he said, his smile earnest and his ears going pink.

“Oh,” she said, hiding her satisfaction at the compliment. “Thank you.”

“Travis Knightley,” he said, extending a hand to her in greeting.

She tucked the mail under her arm to shake with him. “Lara Hendry.”

“I knew that already,” he teased.

Lara’s face ignited in embarrassment. She looked down the hall, wondering if she should put an end to the misery caused by her own awkwardness when Travis did her the favor himself.

“Would you like to come in for tea?” he asked. “Unless you’re too tired, of course.”

Five minutes ago, she had been just that. But now? How could she refuse that invitation? Wouldn’t be the neighborly thing to do, would it?

His tree-trunk-sized biceps didn’t hurt either.

A few minutes later, Lara was sitting in Travis’s cozy apartment, cradling a mug in her hands and feeling its warmth spread through her. She found herself happy to sip tea across from him while engaging in chitchat.

She learned that Travis was astonishingly sweet—and very cute, which she had known going into this, but his sweetness made him all the cuter.

“How long have you been working at KGH?” Lara asked before taking a careful drink of the steaming liquid.

“I’m actually a floater in the network, so I bounce between four different hospitals. I’ve been doing that for a few years now. It can be tough some days, but I don’t have to tell you about that. I just like helping people, y’know?”

That was something they could bond over. It was Lara’s favorite part of the job: solving someone’s problem and seeing the relief it brought them, no matter how small the problem may have been.

“Medicine is just so interesting,” she gushed, going into how she had ended up as a trauma nurse. “There’s always something new to learn, some new puzzle to solve. The trauma unit might be overwhelming some days, but I’ve never seen the exact same problem twice.”

That made Travis laugh. “That’s doctor talk if I ever heard it.”

Lara’s gaze dropped to her mug. “One day, maybe,” she said, hopefulness swelling in her chest. “What about you? Any plans for future greatness?”

“I like my job. It’s steady, I get the gratification of helping people, and as a floater, I don’t work full weeks. I actually own a landscaping company.” He nodded toward a beige cap with a leaf logo hanging by the door. “We do a lot of work with the government on reforesting, too.”

Lara hit him with her most incredulous stare.

He laughed again, nearly snorting his tea. “What’s that look for?”

She couldn’t bite back her own smile. “So, you’re just an incurable do-gooder, then, huh?”

“What can I say?” He sighed wistfully. “Not all heroes wear capes, I guess.”

Lara rolled her eyes but couldn’t help being completely charmed by him. “No, they wear scrubs, apparently.”

Before long, they were both yawning into their empty mugs, signaling the end of their conversation.

“Don’t forget your mail,” Travis said as Lara walked to the door, and he grabbed the meager stack off the table to give it to her. “Oh, this one’s for Zavien.”

The reminder of the misaddressed envelope jolted her.

“You know him?” she asked as she took them from Travis’s outstretched hand.

“Yeah, he’s in apartment 32D, just across from yours. Bit of a recluse, but, hey, at least he’s quiet.” He shrugged.

“Right.” Lara examined his printed name. An innocent typo, then, she decided. She would leave him a message kindly asking him to revise it, and all would be righted. “Well, goodbye, then,” she said, giving Travis one last smile.

Travis’s door closed softly behind her, and she glanced back at it, her lips forming a smile from the thought that he was only a few apartments away.

Ahead of her, a door opened, which made her face forward, and a man stepped out into the hall. Lara’s eyes locked onto him as he lumbered toward her. He was slouched, but it did little to hide his height.

Honestly, that was the only part of him not totally hidden.

He wore a dark baseball cap slung low over his eyes and a black face mask that obscured the rest of his appearance. These things combined with his dark-colored outfit to seemingly suck all the light out of the space.

A shiver ran down her spine, her vision tunneled on him, and she halted in her tracks, which probably made her staring even more obvious, but she couldn’t seem to stop.

When he passed her, he glanced at her, his dark eyes meeting hers for a beat, making her breath catch in her throat. After a brief nod, he looked away and turned the corner toward the elevators.

The moment he left her line of sight, light and oxygen returned to the hallway.

She shook her head to collect herself, taking two breaths before chalking her reaction up to fatigue. As she continued on her way, she tried to brush off the disturbance he had left her with.

It wasn’t until she reached her door that she realized the apartment the man had exited was directly across from hers—32D.

Where Zavien Crane lived, according to Travis.

That is the man I have to deal with? The thought of having to confront him face-to-face filled her with dread, so she decided to go another route.

With a sigh, she pushed past the uneasy feeling in her chest and pulled out a pad of pink Post-it notes from her bag. She jotted down her request for him and bent to slip it under his door.

She stooped low, peering at the gap above the floor, where she swore she could see a light on and hear music playing softly. She paused.

Maybe he lives with someone?

Still crouched, she gave three good knocks and waited.

Nothing.

Holding her breath, she slid the envelope over the threshold and then wiped her hands clean of Zavien Crane and his misplaced mail.