Chapter 1

1

Felix Lane brought the coffee cup to his lips while staring at the empty bird cage in his kitchen. He should get rid of it but doing so would mean erasing Sunny and Sunny had been his only companion for more than seven years. Sighing, he looked out of the window only to quickly turn away.

Across the street, Kirk Shoo was standing by his mailbox staring right at the window as if he could see Felix through the glass. Perhaps he could. Sometimes Felix suspected Kirk could read his mind or had placed a tracker in Felix’s car or something. No matter where he went, Kirk would show up.

Sometimes he believed he was crazy, that his subconscious turned every tall, dark haired guy into Kirk, but every so often the real Kirk would walk up to him and try to strike up a conversation.

Heat climbed Felix’s face, and he moved farther away from the window while waiting for Kirk to go back inside. A minute went by. Felix didn’t have time to wait him out, he couldn’t be late to work. Pouring the coffee into a to-go cup, he prepared to make a run for the garage. He glanced out the window again. How long did it take to fetch the paper?

His avoidance of Kirk may or may not have gone a bit overboard. Felix couldn’t explain it—it was the way Kirk looked at him. Most often he wore sunglasses, but when he didn’t, his eyes were so intense, almost yellow when the light fell a certain way, and Felix always broke out in sweat—not to mention the way he stuttered as he tried to come up with an excuse to run and hide behind the nearest door.

It was the way he towered over Felix, how he stepped into his personal space every chance he got as if Felix was a magnet and he couldn’t resist the pull. It was the way he smelled. Felix wanted to bury his nose in his neck and inhale, and he couldn’t say what the scent was, no cologne smelled like Kirk did.

But, most of all, it was because of the coffee incident.

Felix had been late for work and had yet to learn Kirk’s newspaper-fetching routine. He’d grabbed his bike from the garage, a to-go cup in hand, and he’d been pedaling for all he was worth straight into Kirk.

There had been coffee everywhere.

How he could’ve failed to see him was a mystery, it was as if he’d appeared out of thin air.

Kirk swore he wasn’t hurt and the coffee stains weren’t a problem. He’d smiled too much, reached out to steady Felix more times than needed, and Felix had taken the car to work every day since.

Grabbing his bag with his lunch box, he stalked toward the living room. Kirk was watching his front door, so he headed for the patio.

Felix went through the back door, breathed in the flowery summer air, and slipped into his garage’s side door, screened by his cottage-style home.

When he turned out on the street, a large spotted cat rushed across the lawn from Kirk’s and into the woods behind their houses. It sprinted off so fast Felix wasn’t sure of what he saw. It looked like something belonging in a zoo, but his eyes were probably fooling him.

He hardly ever saw cats. When he’d first moved in, there’d been the occasional one coming around, but he couldn’t remember seeing a cat in ages.

Felix and Kirk’s were the houses farthest down the lane on the last street in the neighborhood. They were surrounded by leafy, lush terrain, which was the main reason Felix had bought the house seven years ago. He and Sunny had moved in on a cold day in April, and there had been nothing but peace and quiet until two years ago when Kirk Shoo had bought the house across from his and Felix started to take his car to work.

Kirk wasn’t rowdy in any way. Felix had never seen a single person visit him, there was never any loud music or noisy vehicles, despite Kirk looking like he could be into motorcycles with his frayed black jeans, motorcycle boots, and leather jackets. He never wore these for his mailbox trips. He always stood there in a tattered black T-shirt complementing his rebel looks. The dark stubble on his chin and the tousled hair was enough to make Felix stare, he didn’t need the jeans and T-shirts clinging to his sculpted body, too.

He made an annoyed sound and righted his glasses.

When he’d first moved in, Felix had been a little curious and had taken a walk to see if there was a name on the mailbox. There had been—Shoo. Felix had jogged back home and told Sunny they’d get a sweet family of Asian descent as neighbors.