The only thing worse than having a hot neighbor you’re too intimidated to talk to is accidentally hitting his cat with your car. Felix Lane was perfectly content to spend the rest of his days with Sunny, his canary life companion, in their quiet little corner of the suburbs. But then Kirk Shoo with his unusual eyes moved in across the street, and Felix’s carefully constructed life is starting to unravel. When your every bad-boy fantasy lingers at the mailbox, stands too close and smells too damn good, what’s an under-appreciated administrative assistant to do? Besides sneak out the backdoor to go to work? But when Kirk’s cat runs out in front of Felix on his way home, he has no choice but to face the music and his dream man. Unless ... What starts as a tragic accident turns into something far more bizarre. And when Felix’s backyard begins to look like a pet cemetery, he has no choice but to come clean. That is, if he can manage to find his sexy neighbor at all.

Nine Stones

His sparrow was hopping around in the magnolia tree, and Felix placed his coffee cup on the patio table before heading back inside to grab some leftover seeds of Sunny’s to sprinkle over the flagstones.


Sunny had loved those seeds. Used to be that when Felix grabbed the bag, he’d start twittering in a high-pitched way he never did otherwise. Felix rubbed his chest as he remembered how Sunny had cuddled into his hand and how he’d tried to groom him. He’d been such a lovely bird.


The sparrow—Ms. Swan he’d named her. Ms. Swan was a perfect name for a mommy sparrow, or maybe not perfect, but it’d have to do. He didn’t know of any girl bird names.


There was a light breeze, the sky clear blue, and a bumblebee was making love to his pink passion petunias—life could be worse.


Chapter 20