The one thing he did know was that he didn’t feel done bringing his music to the masses.
Noah Matthews and Last Stand hit it big in the music business when he’d was twenty-one. But that had been fifteen years ago. Fifteen long, hard years. He’d changed a lot from that na?ve, hard-partying boy. They all had. The rest of the band were married with kids. The press called him, ‘Last Man Standing’, and it was true.
He didn’t have anything against marriage, he just couldn’t understand how it would work with his schedule. He’d had some long term relationships, if you wanted to call meeting-up-for–a-few-days-once–a-month a relationship. But nothing made the Earth stand still. Nothing that would make him want to change his lifestyle. The other guys in the band had found great women and made it work—proving it wasn’t impossible—but the band was slowing down. They wanted to spend more time with their wives and children, and he couldn’t blame them.
Noah’s bandmates were like brothers, and their wives his sister-in-laws. They’d been together since high school. It was nice having this extended family since his father had left when he was a baby and his mother had died from breast cancer when he was nineteen. Watching his band and their families meet up again, after months of being apart, made him long for something he wasn’t sure he even wanted. Or could ever find.
He looked over to his neighbor’s house when he saw an upstairs light. I wonder if old lady Patsy still lives there.
Noah had just purchased the home and was there, looking things over, when he’d met his neighbor, Patsy Hanson. She was a pistol. He smiled as he remembered her checking out his ass every time he turned around. It didn’t bother him, he was used to it. He’d had a great conversation with her and she’d given him chocolate chip cookies that had reminded him of what his mom used to make when he’d been a boy.
He watched someone jog out of Patsy’s house and into his garden and sat up straight in his chair. Well, that can’t be Patsy. What’s she doing? She never looked up at the house, completely focused. He almost called out to her but the vision of her tight, little ass wiggling around stopped him. Deciding to see what she was up to he kept a close eye on her, wondering if she might be a paparazzi.
Having lost sight of her, Noah started down the stairs toward where he had last seen her, curious to see more than the fleeting glance he’d gotten from above. And what a sight she was. Walking down the stairs he was able to get a better view of her. She wasn’t that tall from what he could tell and had a trim body with nice curves. Wavy dark brown hair with blonde highlights, tied back in a ponytail, came alive in the rising sunlight, some tendrils escaping around her neck and cheek, yet she didn't move a muscle, even though it had to tickle. His fingers itched to tuck the strands behind her ear, but her attention was completely on the viewfinder of her camera.
Noah lost track of time, watching her take picture after picture, as he sipped his cooling coffee, trying to memorize every line of her body, and wanting to know what she was doing near his home. He moved forward, trying to see what she was looking at, and watched her visibly relax, shaking the tension out of her shoulders and coming back to her surroundings. She even gave her pert little rump a shake in what he assumed was happiness.
It was time he let her know he was there.
"Sam didn't tell me he’d planted such a beautiful flower. If I’d known they had blooms like you at the Home Depot, I’d have had him stock up for the whole year." He spoke softly, hoping not to scare her.
The woman gasped and spun around to face him, one hand on her chest, the other holding her camera like a weapon. Staring wide-eyed, she looked up to meet his eyes. After a brief moment he watched as her eyes darted around looking around as if she had forgotten where she was.
Looking back at him she said, "Geez! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Her eyes grew larger and he knew she recognized who he was. Her mouth dropped open but she quickly closed it.
"No," he chuckled. Face-to-face, she looked even better than he’d thought. She had the whole girl-next-door look going for her. "Here I was enjoying the view of the ocean and having some coffee when someone steals into my garden and starts to crawl around. I figured the polite thing would be to meet her." He held his hand out.
She blushed and started to dust off the dirt and mud from her jeans, but looked up sheepishly and extended her hand "Hello, I'm your next-door neighbor Alexia Hanson.”
"Noah Matthews." He didn’t release her hand and made it a point to maintain eye contact. "Do you always crawl through other people’s gardens?”