Still Go Crazy

1. Grace

Chapter One

Grace

My ancient cat, Wayne, let out a plaintive meow.

“Seriously?” I countered, turning to glare at Wayne.

Wayne c****d his head to the side before lifting his haunches slightly and settling back down. His only reply was another meow. This time, his annoyance was quite clear.

I eyed the tree from where I stood on the back deck. It was a lovely dogwood situated in the backyard. “Wayne, how the hell did you get up there?”

Although I didn’t expect an answer, I was genuinely curious. According to the vet, Wayne was close to blind as a result of his cataracts. He was approaching seventeen years old, so it was surprising he could see anything, much less climb a tree.

I rested a hand on my hip, contemplating my options. “I need to get to work, you know,” I called over to him.

Wayne didn’t even deign that with a response. My father had gotten Wayne for me when I was twelve, and Wayne had come to live with me in this duplex after I graduated from college. My parents bought the duplex when they had a brief separation while I was in college. After they reunited, they kept it and rented it out. When my father passed away, my mother deeded the whole place to me.

I’d arranged for a property management company to rent out the other half of the duplex because I hated trying to screen tenants. I wished I knew who’d moved in the day before because I could’ve used some help at the moment.

With another long look at Wayne on his perch, I glanced at my watch and contemplated if I had enough time to do this. It didn’t really matter if I did because I wasn’t leaving until Wayne was safely inside.

Wayne meowed again, and I glared at him from the porch. “You’re an i***t, you know?”

This wasn’t the first time Wayne had climbed into his favorite tree and been unable to get down. I had an excellent view from the deck upstairs. The duplex was built into a sloping hill with the living space on the upper floor with a garage that was nothing more than a glorified storage space on the lower floor. Stepping back inside, I jogged down the stairs and snagged the ladder before walking out into the backyard. I leaned the ladder against the tree and commenced the rescue of my adventurous, geriatric cat.

I climbed to the top of the ladder with my feet firmly hooked into the rungs. I was reaching for Wayne when he meowed and shifted just as I leaned over to get him. In a flash, one of my feet wobbled, I lost my balance, and reflexively grabbed for the closest sturdy branch. Unfortunately, I accidentally kicked the ladder loose when my weight shifted.

“Wayne!” I exclaimed as I found myself dangling from the tree branch. Granted, I was only maybe ten feet in the air, but I didn’t really want to drop from this height. Wayne walked closer, leaning his head down to nuzzle my hand. He peered at me, his foggy round blue eyes assessing me.

“You know, Wayne, you can’t keep doing this,” I said conversationally as I assessed my situation. My only actual option was dropping to the ground.

Just as I was considering whether or not I might break an ankle in the process of doing so, I heard a voice.

“Grace?”

I knew that voice. Oh-so-very well.

My pulse took off at a gallop, and my stomach knotted immediately. Of all the times for Boone Reeves to see me, it just had to be now. I promptly decided I’d rather dive straight to the ground and break my ankle than ask for his help. As soon as I made that decision, I looked down and reconsidered. The grass was just far enough away that if I didn’t land well, it would be unpleasant.

More unfortunate than me encountering Boone at this particular moment was the fact that Boone was a rescue kind of guy. Peering over my shoulder, I saw him jogging off the back porch of the duplex.

What the hell is he doing here?

Boone stopped at my feet and glanced up. Without even asking, he quickly propped the ladder against the tree and climbed it, reaching for my hand.

“Come on,” he said. “I’ll get you down.”

“Boone, that ladder can’t hold both of us.”

“Sure it can. Come on, Grace.”

Wayne meowed loudly and then started purring. My cat was f*****g purring at the sight of my ex. The man who all but threw my love in the trash.

Boone’s face cracked with a grin. “Nice to see you again, Wayne.” His gaze swung back to me. “Grace, your arms are shaking. Let me help you.”

My arms were shaking, and my hands were tired. I didn’t want help from anybody, most adamantly not Boone. But I prided myself on being a smart girl.

Biting back a sigh, I shifted slightly, and Boone wrapped his arm around my waist. The feel of his strong, steady touch was like a live wire, electrifying my entire body.

I had successfully avoided too much contact with Boone for almost a year now. Without a doubt, being this up close and personal with him was a special kind of hell.

“Boone.” His name just slipped out, my voice sounding frayed. I was getting anxious as he tugged me a little closer.

“Grace, I’ve got you. I promise.”

The thing was, I believed him. Boone wouldn’t drop me. He might’ve once kicked my love to the curb as though it had never mattered, but he wouldn’t let me fall. Truth be told, he wouldn’t let anyone in my situation fall. He was strong and resourceful, oozing with that save-any-damsel-in-distress vibe.

I stopped resisting, and Boone pulled me even closer. I finally let go of the tree branch completely, both out of resignation and sheer tiredness. My arms were shaking and a strange tingling sensation was taking over. I made a mental note to start doing pull-ups, almost embarrassed at how poor my upper body strength was.

With one hand on the ladder, Boone held me close as I fumbled to get my feet on the rungs.

“I gotcha,” he said.

The raspy vibration of his voice, so close to my ear, sent an inconvenient shiver chasing over my skin. In a matter of seconds, we were on the ground. I stepped back abruptly, my legs almost giving out. I didn’t know if my shakiness was from hanging onto the branch …or from getting too close to Boone.

My cheeks were hot, but I willed myself to look at him. I wasn’t going to be a coward. I met his gaze head-on, trying and failing to take a deep breath. My body was in an all-out war with my mind.

Boone was everything I remembered and more. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen him recently. It was more that I hadn’t allowed myself more than a passing glance. The young man he’d once been had been honed into much more of a man. Tall with a rangy build, his shaggy dark blond hair was rumpled with the ends brushing his shoulders. He moved with an unconscious grace and was all lithe, lean muscle.

Boone looked at me, his dark chocolate gaze coasting over me, warm and concerned. “You okay?” he asked.

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for that.”

He gestured up toward Wayne. “I’m guessing you were trying to get Wayne down.”

Butterflies had taken up residence in my belly, an unsettled bunch of them. Wrapping my arms around my waist, I gripped my elbows tightly, trying to find an anchor inside the storm of emotions buzzing through my body.

With Boone’s eyes holding mine, the beginning of a grin teasing at the corners of his mouth, I felt as if I had stepped through a window in time—back to our senior year of high school when Boone was my boyfriend. We spent many afternoons together, and Boone had been endlessly amused by Wayne’s antics.

“Yeah,” I finally managed to reply, the word coming out ragged.

“I’ll get him.” Boone turned, climbing the ladder before I could even respond. In another moment, I heard him murmuring to Wayne as my cat nestled into the crook of his arm, staying put as if he were a well-trained, obedient cat.

“Where should I take him?” Boone asked once he was standing on the ground in front of me again. Wayne, the disloyal cat that he was, was purring up a storm now and rubbing his chin against Boone’s shoulder.

I had to unstick myself and climb back through that window in time to the present. “Right this way,” I said, turning and almost running into the house. Coming to a skidding stop on the back deck, I looked up at Boone. “I can take him.”

Wayne, as if he knew what I meant, meowed and burrowed deeper into Boone’s arms. When I tried to reach for him, Wayne was having none of it, shifting away from me and burying his face against Boone. Boone chuckled.

With a sigh, I gestured for Boone to follow me inside. “Come on up.”

The downstairs of the duplex contained a shared entryway and two separate staircases that led to the upstairs on each side. I had a sickening feeling that the property management company had rented it to Boone.

Opening the door upstairs, I held it as Boone walked through. At that point, Wayne leaped out of his arms and immediately climbed into his small bed on the windowsill.

“Well, thanks again,” I said as I turned back to Boone.

This was supposed to be the point where Boone took the hint and left. He didn’t.

Cocking his head to the side, his gaze swept over my face. “I’m just now realizing that you’re my neighbor,” he said softly.