Love Me Sweet (Love Me book 1)

Chapter 5

Ben knocked on her door and waited, then knocked again.

"What!" she demanded as she threw the door open, squinting up at him under the porch light. It had only been ten minutes there was no way she had fallen asleep that fast.

"Did I wake you?" he asked innocently.

"Just about," she said with false cheer, "what do you want?"

"Can I borrow your ladder?" he asked. Maybe she was out of it enough not to ask too many questions; then he wouldn't have to admit to locking himself out of his house.

Lia stared at him blankly as if his words hadn't registered or didn't make sense.

"I'll forgive the debt of the lamp if you let me borrow your ladder," he offered.

She blinked. "Fine!" she said briskly. "Wait here." Then she closed the door.

Ben stepped away from the door and waited, he was just about to knock again when she joined him dressed and wearing shoes.

"You could have told me where it was; I would have gotten it myself."

"There is a system," she insisted as she led the way to a door in the brick wall that surrounded the main house. When she opened the door, his jaw dropped as the amount of stuff that was pushed into the small space.

"Ida, she owns this place, has a system, and you'll wake the entire neighborhood if you don't know it." She moved a few things into the alley then disappeared only to reemerge with the ladder leading the way.

"It's only half past eight, I don't think the neighborhood is asleep yet," Ben pointed out, admiring the way her arms flexed as she held the ladder. He was relieved that she hadn't asked why he wanted it.

"What do you want it for?"

This time Ben looked at her, silently, blinking.

"Look, I've had a very hard day, I'm tired, and I want to go to sleep," he could hear the tears in her voice.

He sighed, a sucker for tears. "I locked myself out of the house, but I think the window above the porch is unlocked from earlier today."

"There, was that so hard?" she asked, shocking Ben because she hadn't teased him about it.

"But you'll probably fall through the roof on your way to the window." And there it was, the hidden barb.

"You just don't quit, do you?" he took the ladder from her and pushed it up against the roof. All concern he felt for her dissipating in an instant.

"I'm just saying if you took care of your things then broken lamps and failing roofs wouldn't happen." She shrugged offhandedly.

He stopped at the base of the ladder and looked at her with disbelief. "Your dog broke my lamp!"

"But he didn't break your roof; you did that all by yourself, didn't you?" She crossed her arms and waited.

Muttering under his breath, he turned and started to climb the ladder. He was halfway across the roof when a patrol car pulled into the alley with lights flashing.

He sighed and closed his eyes. The police had only stopped giving him grief.

Suddenly, there was a flashlight in his eyes. "You want to come down from the roof sir?" the police officer demanded.

Ben rolled his eyes and turned to look down at the officer. "Would you mind if I came down through the house, the roof is a little precarious, and I'm afraid it won't take my weight a second time."