http:\/\/writtenfireside.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Part 2<\/p>\n
Deep blue eyes flickered in his direction for mere seconds, but it was long enough for him to realize a few things: his neighbour may be a teacher but she was definitely no old lady; she was tall, slim and beautiful. She was also clearly miffed.<\/p>\n
Amanda wanted to look her new neighbour in the eye and tell him exactly what she thought of rude people, but when her eyes met his clear green ones, a jolt shot down her spine, leaving her momentarily breathless.<\/p>\n
When she\u2019d seen him lying on the lounge chair a few minutes ago, she couldn\u2019t help but notice his muscled legs and arms. She hadn\u2019t been able to see his eyes because a hat covered his face. A hat he hadn\u2019t even bothered to remove when she spoke to him. But now she was experiencing the full impact of his stare.<\/p>\n
And wow \u2013 the man was impossibly attractive. The faded t-shirt he was wearing couldn\u2019t hide his well-built, muscled upper body. Put this together with the bottom part she\u2019d seen earlier, and you had a very large, very sexy man looking looking over her fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI \u2026 thank you,\u201d was all she got out. Her mouth felt dry and stringing more words together was difficult.<\/p>\n
He was holding Gertie close to his chest and the little dog was obviously smitten. She was staring up into his face adoringly while licking his hand.<\/p>\n
Irritated with Gertie, the man and herself, Amanda stomped closer to the fence to get Rachel\u2019s little dog. But as she approached, the the horrible truth intruded \u2013 her sister was dead, Gertie was now her dog.<\/p>\n
Trying to blink back the tears that seemed to be constantly ready to fall, she held out her hands to take Gertie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry about just now,\u201d the man said while putting Gertie gently into her hands. \u201cI \u2026 had a bad dream and \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were rude,\u201d she said in a clipped voice, doing her best not to look into his eyes again while willing the tears not to fall. \u201cI was only trying to find Gertie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know and I\u2019m sorry \u2026\u201d he began, but she put Gertie down and turned her back on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine,\u201d she just about snarled while she walked briskly towards her part of the duplex. She was not going to cry again, damn it!<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, Gertie, you haven\u2019t eaten yet,\u201d she called out, expecting Gertie to follow her and run ahead as she usually did when either eating or food was mentioned.<\/p>\n
But behind her Gertie started barking. Exasperated, Amanda looked over her shoulder at Gertie. The little dog was standing exactly where she\u2019d put her down just now, barking like crazy while she looked from Amanda to the new neighbouras if \u2026 as if she was trying to get them closer together.<\/p>\n
Amanda snorted at the ridiculous idea. She\u2019d probably slept too long over the weekend and was seeing things that weren\u2019t even there. Her mother was right, she should get out more. But ever since Rachel\u2019s death \u2026<\/p>\n
She pushed the thought away as she always did. \u201cCome on, Gertie,\u201d she called, but the little dog kept on barking, kept on swivelling her head from Amanda to the new neighbour.<\/p>\n
The man laughed. Laughed! \u201cWhat do you think she wants?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea,\u201d Amanda said while she walked back and picked up Gertie.<\/p>\n
\u201cShush!\u201d she scolded Gertie and the little dog immediately dropped her head onto Amanda\u2019s arm and whimpered as if she\u2019d been hit.<\/p>\n
Amanda rolled her eyes. \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n
The neighbour put out his hand and rubbed Gertie\u2019s head. Excitedly, Gertie began licking his hand while she gave Amanda what could only be described as a triumphant look.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Noah by the way,\u201d the man said with a grin. \u201cNoah Hale.\u201d He held out his right hand.<\/p>\n
Amanda stared at the big hand for a few seconds. She didn\u2019t want to touch him. If a mere look into his green eyes was able to nearly reduce her to a puddle,she shuddered to think what a touch of his hand would do.<\/p>\n
Gertie barked and nudged her hand until she held it awkwardly out to Noah.<\/p>\n
His hand folded over her fingers while Gertie barked excitedly. Her eyes met his and this time she saw beneath the clear green, this time she noticed \u2026 the pain.<\/p>\n
Part 3 will be written by Angela Campbell and will be available on 7 July – enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/angiecampbell.blogspot.co.uk\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am so pleased to be part of Lori Connely’s Written Fireside story again! The title this time is Can’t you see? Part 1 has been written by Lori Connely and you can find it here: http:\/\/writtenfireside.blogspot.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6,4],"tags":[45,46,47,11,43,44,12],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-blogging","category-books","category-writing","tag-dogs","tag-pets-for-vets","tag-ptsd-teacher","tag-romance","tag-writtenf","tag-writtenfireside","tag-contemporary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"loriconnellyh_cantyousee1\"](\"http:\/\/elsawinckler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/loriconnellyh_cantyousee1.jpg\")
<\/a>The title this time is Can’t you see<\/em>?<\/p>\n