McKenzie, Cooper - Saving Chloe (Siren Publishing Classic) by Cooper McKenzie Page A

do you spend your evenings hanging out with the single people?
    She’d only lived in the neighborhood for three months. When she’d moved in, she had hoped to be friends with her neighbors. The block consisted of a nearly equal mix of divorced people and long-term, happily married couples. With a few exceptions, the neighbors were all in their forties and fifties.
    Between her day job as a pharmaceutical sales representative and her night job as an editor of erotic romances, she had innumerable acquaintances, but few true friends. She thought this eclectic group might be a good place to start making the friends that Charles, her ex-husband, had never allowed her to have.
    Instead of saying what she really felt, she swallowed the bitterness and sighed. “I’ve got deadlines, and I’m falling behind,” she said softly. “Besides, I kicked Bill to the curb last night.”
    Jasmine blinked at that announcement before throwing herself at Chloe and hugging her tight. “I’m glad you finally ditched Bill. You can catch up on work this weekend,” Jasmine said as she stepped back and pulled on Chloe’s arm again. “Come on, you need one more beer so we can celebrate your emancipation from the idiot.”
    “No, Jasmine, I’m going home now.”
    With that, Chloe jerked her arm from the other woman’s hold. The sudden move pulled Jasmine off-balance just enough that she teetered on her four-inch stilettos and had to grab the porch railing to keep from falling on her ass. Before anyone else could speak, Chloe hurried down the four steps and across the yard to the city-maintained sidewalk that was one of the big selling points of the neighborhood.
    Behind her, she heard the “Porch People,” as they referred to themselves, talking. Their tone had gone soft without the quick bursts of laughter. She had no doubt they were discussing her and whether or not she really had to work. She was certain by the time they gathered again, each would have come up with the perfect solution for her rocky love life. Like theirs were any better.
    “They just don’t understand,” Chloe muttered to herself as she turned toward home. She blinked back tears of frustration as she walked down the sidewalk.
    When she reached the yard of her little bungalow, she glanced over her shoulder to confirm no one had followed her. It would not surprise her if one of the regular Porch People, Jasmine, Winston, or Ray, would come down to convince her to return to the gathering. Thank goodness the sidewalk remained empty.
    Looking around through the dim light provided by old-fashioned streetlights and the waning moon overhead, she saw no one except the man who lived across the street. He was the one the Porch People had warned her against being friendly with. They claimed he was strange and antisocial and foreign. That statement had made Chloe curious about him. She had seen him numerous times over the past weeks, but never had the opportunity to meet him face-to-face.
    Chloe climbed the three steps to the small, square, covered stoop that led into her postage-stamp-sized house. She felt out of breath and drained, unable to go any further without resting. So instead of retreating inside behind the security of the two locks on her front door and two locked back doors, she sat down on the top step with a weary sigh. Thankfully, she had remembered to turn the living room light on before she’d left, four hours earlier.
    A shadow moving across the street caught her attention, and she watched as someone ambled across the street. She didn’t have the energy to jump up and go inside to avoid a conversation.
    Besides, she wanted to meet whoever lived in the big Victorian that overshadowed every other house on the block. While she had seen him several times since moving in, they had yet to formally meet.
    When she had brought him up to the Porch People, speculation was that he was a strange character and right for their little clique. Even Winston, who knew