The Secret Admirer Next Door (Love Next Door Series Book 1) *Editing*

Chapter 1

November 2018

I'm getting too old for this, Abram Goodwin thought as he fingered his way through his paper Rolodex nonchalantly. The late afternoon sun poured in through the wide front window of Trusty’s Auto Repair. He’d been attentively watching his beautiful receptionist lean against the front podium desk, his mind swimming with a million conflicted emotions. Her long, sunflower-print skirt draped over her perfectly curvaceous figure, and a  white short sleeved shirt that hugged her upper torso just so and gave him teasing glimpses of the sweet caramel skin just on the small of her back. Her fingers cradled her chin as if in deep thought about something as she gazed out of the large front window. His “dead” heart stammered at the mere sight of her.

He couldn’t explain it nor pin-point when it had happened, he’d just known it was sometime in the three months she had returned to Vincentville.

Valerie Davison had been working at the shop for two months, helping him convert his paper files into electronic format. It was As if she spoke a foreign language when her sweet voice explained computers to him; yet somehow, he could listen to her talk about Windows and Microsoft all day just to watch those plump lips press together while he pictured them on his.

He tried not to think of Valerie as anymore than an old friend, because the truth was he was old enough to be her father. Abe had even briefly known her father, before his untimely passing, long enough to call him a close friend. He’d known Valerie’s father would not approve of his new found attraction to his eldest daughter, so he’d struggled to keep his newly surfacing feelings at bay. It had proved more difficult as the days went on. It certainly didn’t help that he lived just across the way from her. He just sat in his unrequited daze, admiring the way the golden light turned her ebony skin a light bronze.The way her perfect lits would pucker when she was in thought, and her glistening thoughtful chocolate brown eyes that seemed to peer into his very soul.

He perched in his leather chair, wondering what rolled around in that beautiful mind of hers. Valerie was kind genuine and even when she held the weight of the world on her shoulders, she did it with such poise and determination. In that way she was like his late wife, Liv. Though Valerie had less of a poker face, he worries showed everytime she nibbled on her finger nails, like she did at that very moment.

She worried a lot, Abe knew it. and She’d been forced to grow up so fast. Her parents had both died in a car accident, and she’d chosen to step up and raise her three younger sisters. It was after the girls had grown up, gone to college and moved from the family home, that she’d left Vincentville to do the same.  

Abe had heard she’d gotten married to some Lawyer she’d met in college. When when he’d heard that, he assumed she was happy. He didn’t hear anything else about Valerie or the Davison sisters until she’d answered the door three months ago. He’d seen the minivan in the driveway of the old Davison house, and assumed the place had been rented out and he was meeting his new neighbors. It was Valerie, beautiful, curvaceous, grown up Valerie. His heart jolted to life as soon as she opened that door.  

   In friendly chats after, he’d found out she was newly divorced, with two children, and still looking after her youngest sister, Camila. She was still putting everyone’s happiness before hers and still had no idea how extraordinary she was.  

With what confidence he could muster, he approached the small desk, leaning his elbows on it next to hers, even as his arm lightly brushed hers it send a shock against his skin, but didn't budge. Clearly too lost in her thoughts to notice him.

“What are you looking at?” He asked moving toward her ear. He felt a slight shudder as he spoke. He'd spooked her.  He let out a sheepish chuckle, “I'm sorry.”