Strange Behavior

Chapter One

"I saw your aunt in the cemetery."

Hannah glanced up from her cell phone. Her neighbor and resident hottie Tyler Foster stood right in front of her, arms crossed in front of his broad chest, an expectant look on his gorgeous face.

"So? Maybe she was visiting my uncle's grave." Hannah shrugged and resumed texting her friend, trying to ignore the flutters in her stomach at having Tyler so close. He usually didn't approach her when they were at school, especially at lunch, when he was surrounded by all of his adoring fans—er, friends. All the girls in school had a major crush on him, including her.

Well, she had a sort of crush. She'd known the real Tyler Foster, before he became popular and gorgeous and all the girls wanted him. His family had moved in next door to her house when he was five and she was four.

Back then they'd been friends. Summers were when they were especially close. They'd learn to swim together at his pool, their moms encouraging them to cross the shallow end in a race. The summer before third grade they'd gone through a video game addiction. To the point their moms shooed them out of house at the hottest point of the afternoon, always grumbling about how they didn't get any exercise.

They made a tree fort together the summer after fifth grade. Climbing up and down that giant oak tree in Tyler's backyard, their feet slipping off the slats Tyler had nailed onto the tree's trunk. Their laughter ringing loud and always making Tyler's old dog bark. It had been fun. The absolute best summers of her young life were always spent with Tyler.

Until Tyler fell out of the tree house and broke his arm.

His dad ripped the rickety house out of the tree the next day. Late July and their summer antics were ruined. She should've known then that it was an omen. A sign their relationship was about to change significantly.

Once they hit middle school, he became unattainable, belonging to another crowd. The popular one—whereas she remained firmly rooted in middle ground. Not ostracized but not popular either. She was content there. She didn't miss Tyler's friendship. Not anymore.

At least, that's what she told herself.

So why was he talking to her now about her aunt, of all things?

"I don't know. It was late. In the middle of the night." He sat beside her on the bench, his body nudged against hers. He was warm and solid and he smelled really good, though she tried not to notice. "She had a—" His voice lowered. "—shovel."

Hannah started to laugh. Her aunt Vivian was the town eccentric and it didn't help she owned the odd little vintage jewelry shop on Shadow Street downtown—a place full of weird and unexplained happenings. Everyone loved to make her aunt out like a complete freak when really she was a sweet but eccentric old lady who had no qualms in displaying her strange behavior. "What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me she's digging up graves? And what were you doing out at the cemetery in the middle of the night anyway?"

Not that it was any of her business, but come on. Hanging out in a cemetery at night was pretty weird.

He shuffled his feet, the dry leaves crunching beneath his heavy black boots. Tyler always dressed to perfection, looking like he walked straight off the pages of a magazine. Plus, he was just that good looking, what with his dark brown hair that always seemed to flop into his eyes and his equally dark gaze.

Which was at this very moment directly pinned on her.

A shiver moved down her spine at the intense gleam in his eyes. Tyler had certainly never looked at her like that before.