“She lives in California.”

“Oh—”

“But I’ll get my daddy. Don’t worry, he’s really good at rescuing people!” She raced up her deck stairs.

“No! No, I’m okay! I’ll just wait for my friends!” I called out, but she’d already disappeared into her house.

I blinked, hoping I’d wake up from this new take on the naked-at-school nightmare I was currently living. When that didn’t work, I resigned myself to the fact that I was about to meet my new neighbor.

In my underwear.

While literally wedged in my landing.

So much for first impressions.

Wait. Shit. I’d shaved my legs, but waxing had pretty much ceased since…well, a while ago. My landscaping habits had gone from meticulous to well…au naturel. I hadn’t given it much consideration, or even cared until this very moment.

This very inopportune moment.

But my panties were boy-cut, so there was a prayer of a chance that everything would stay covered, right? Could this possibly get any worse?

There had to be a limit on the amount of humiliation someone could endure.

The screen door shut next door, and I bit my lower lip, the pain reminding me yet again that this was definitely not a dream.

“Come on, Daddy!” Finley yelled.

“I’m coming, honey,” a deep voice replied. The footsteps that followed down the steps were heavy, masculine.

“It’s okay, Miss Morgan. I brought my daddy. He was showering, but now he’s not.”

I opened my eyes to see Finley looking up at me with a smile, nodding her head enthusiastically.

“Thank you, Finley.”

A pair of bare feet appeared next to hers, attached to muscular legs that led to a pair of blue swimming trunks and then abs that disappeared as a white T-shirt slid over his stomach and a recognizable tattoo.

I looked up into familiar, ocean-blue eyes and groaned.

Oh God. Just strike me dead. Right now.

It was Mr. Carolina.

Apparently, there was not a limit on humiliation.

Chapter Two

Jackson

Huh. Well, this was definitely not the way I’d planned on introducing myself to the new neighbor. It was like I’d stumbled into one of those magic acts where the girl was cut in half with a box…except this one sure didn’t seem like the willing-assistant type.

Damn if she didn’t have the legs for it, though.

“Okay,” I said mostly to myself, completing a quick assessment of the situation. She was wedged in the weak spot of the landing, the one I’d suggested Diane and Carl get fixed before they put the house on the market. Hell, I’d been begging them for years to fix it, thinking one of them would meet the same fate.

I forced my gaze upward and found the profile of my new neighbor’s face as red as her Hello Kitty underwear, which was the only scrap of fabric between her exposed ribs and her toes. Underwear I definitely shouldn’t have seen…or taken notice of.

But, in my defense, they were right there in my face.