“Based on my grandmother’s all-caps messages, Tabitha only had eyes for you this morning.”

I scoffed. “No offense but Alice is full of shit.”

“Tabitha is single,” he replied. “My grandmother confirmed it.”

I balked a little. “She is? Never mind. That’s none of my business, and so what?”

He elbowed me as he walked past. “I’m saying now’s your chance to ask her out, ten years later.”

“That’s a big no on going for it.”

“Give me one good reason.”

My nostrils flared. “Willie Kaminski.”

His eyes narrowed. “Wasn’t he a kid you boxed against in high school?”

My cheekbones tingled with past pain. “When I sparred with Kaminski, I knew to watch his right hook every time. If you took one to the cheek it was like being hit with a fucking sledgehammer. I wouldn’t step into a ring with Willie and lean into a hook. I’d avoid it. Sleeping with a woman like Tabitha, whose gonna leave any day now and probably not come back for another ten years, might end fine for her.” There was a sharp pinch in the center of my chest. “It doesn’t end fine for me.”

Rowan looked ready to argue this point—like he always did—but one of the other staff members called his name from down the hallway. “You got saved by a staff meeting. But maybe I see your point. Although my two cents is—”

“I don’t think I need it.”

“—you might be overthinking things.”

I scooped up my toolbox and followed him down the hallway. “You wanna come keep lecturing me while I fix the sink for you?”

He laughed at that. “Yo, I call it like I see it.”

My phone buzzed with an alert. A text message from an unknown number.

I swear this is a coincidence, but my dad just told me he’s baking lemon squares for the diner tomorrow. Guess this means I’m getting all of your secrets and/or baby photos!!

A slow smile spread across my face. I’m assuming this is Tabitha, I sent back. And I have no secrets.

That wasn’t true at all. And one of my biggest ones involved her.

It is Tabitha, your new neighbor and local gossip instigator here on Tenth Street.

There was a beat, then: And we all have secrets, Mr. Machine. I’ll just need to tempt them out of you.

The warmth that spread through me didn’t feel like a right hook, but I wasn’t stupid. Nor could I pretend that Tabitha’s friendly encouragement about fixing the lot didn’t have an impact on why I was now deciding to do it.

And that was an even bigger problem.

It was a good thing I now had another problem to focus on and fix. It would make it a lot easier to avoid my beautiful neighbor and all the ways she might tempt me.