It was hard for Mollie Greenspan to remember a time when she had a neighbor.  Her quiet lakeside home had been an inheritance from her grandmother, who had raised her after her parents passed away in a tragic car accident.  The lake on which the house sat was calm and quiet, with three other homes around it.  There were two on the opposite side of the lake that sat unoccupied for most of the year until the warm summer months came.  Hers was quite far from theirs and sat on the same side as a home that had been unoccupied for a few years.  Mollie relished the quiet and calm that her home had provided, far away from the hustle and bustle of the town just a few miles down the road.  She could lie on the dock, as she did today and sun herself with no disruptions and play her music as loud as she wanted.

                Today however, her plans did not go as usual.  She had just turned over onto her stomach when she realized her golden retriever Boo was staring off into the distance.  A large truck had pulled into the driveway of the house next to hers and there were men unloading furniture out of the back, Boo must have been staring at them.  She couldn’t believe that after all these years somebody had finally bought the place.  She watched nervously as they brought box after box into the house.  She heard laughter and yelling but overall nothing too crazy.  She decided it would be better to not drive herself crazy watching them and wondering what kind of people they would be.  She stood up and pulled her cropped t-shirt over her head, letting it slide off her shoulder as it normally did.  She went to grab her shorts to tug on but before she could even get a leg in, she heard a scream and Boo took off running towards the neighbor’s house.

“Boo!”

She took off running after him and followed his golden tail as it swished right through the doorway of the house.  She found her dog, licking the face of a man who was on his back on the floor.

“I’m so sorry!  He’s not used to having other people around so when he heard the scream he took off running!  Is everything okay?”

The man on the ground laughed, as did one who Mollie now noticed was standing to her right.  The man on the ground pet Boo’s head and stood up, grabbing a nearby towel to wipe dog slobber off his face.  When she finally got a good glimpse of him, he looked strangely familiar and had the best eyes she’s seen in a long time.  He looked her up and down, not in the dirty way it usually felt but quickly, taking in her state of undress.

“Sorry, we were out on the dock and he came running,” Mollie explained, grabbing Boo’s collar and pulling him back towards her.  “You must be my new neighbor, I’m Mollie.”  She extended her hand, which he shook firmly.

“You’re just lucky I like dogs,” the man joked.  “I’m Josh, and you must be the girl next door.”

“Are you okay?  I heard a scream.”

“I’m fine, just tripped over some boxes.  You never mentioned your name.”

“I’m Mollie, this is Boo.  We live next door.  I’m really sorry about this…” 

“You said that already,” Josh said with a smirk.

“I’ll just go then, I’m sure you’re really busy…”

                Mollie grabbed Boo’s collar and practically ran out the door.  She kept her feet moving until she was safely inside her front door.  Covering her face with her hands, she could feel the heat of her blush.

“Nice way to make a first impression Mollie,” she muttered to herself.

***

“Ty, do you know where the box of….ahhhh!”

JC Chasez couldn’t stop himself once he hit the large box in front of him.  He crumpled into a heap on the floor and let out a shout.  Day one in his new house and he was already hurting himself.  Before he could get up, a large dog started licking his face.  For a moment, he panicked, but then he sat up and laughed at the randomness of the situation.  He spotted his brother, Tyler, in the doorway to his left and saw he was also laughing.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

A beautiful blonde with big blue eyes came running through his new door.  The first thing JC noticed was her eyes and the second was her lack of clothing.  The girl had come in with a cropped shirt and bikini bottoms on, tied on the sides.  Her legs were tanned and toned, like she spent a lot of time outdoors.  She kept apologizing and the red blush that filled her cheeks was priceless.  After exchanging names and letting her apologize once more, the girl, whose named turned out to be Mollie, ran out before JC could say anything else.

“This is why I hate you,” Tyler said, coming further into the kitchen to offer his brother a hand up.  “You haven’t even moved in yet and already you have a half-naked girl in your house!” 

“That girl was not half-naked for me,” JC pointed out, “and I’m not sure she even looked at me, she was so worried about her dog.”

“Well I was looking at her and she was fine.”  Tyler popped the top on a can of soda from the cooler on the counter. 

“She was beautiful,” JC mumbled.

“Oh no, do you have the hots for your next door neighbor?”

“Whatever you say bro.”

The two men managed to finished unloading the truck and return it to the rental place by sundown.  Unloading all the boxes would take a few more days.  Tyler would be here for another day and JC hoped they would be able to finish it by then.  It was daunting to move but after a horrible break up and recording, JC had decided he needed a place that felt secluded where he could recharge before they headed out on the road.  His place in LA was good for the quick trips he made there but Florida had really begun to feel like home in the last few years.  His house, however, was too public.  The fans knew where he lived and he felt caged in when he was there. 

So he found this secluded lake and the only house for sale on it.  He wanted to be able to go out in his yard and not worry that someone was looking over the fence.  He wanted to be able to go out and not worry what story would be written about him if he came home drunk.  The realtor had mentioned that he had a neighbor and for a moment he hoped it would be some nice old person who had no idea who he was.  Instead he got a beautiful woman who was young enough to possibly recognize him.  He hoped, if she did, she would keep it to herself.  As the sun went down over the lake and JC sucked back the last of his beer, he also hoped she might be looking to get to know her new neighbor.  He spotted her silhouette in the light of her kitchen as he stood up from the chair on the back porch.  He’d make a proper introduction once he got settled.

                Mollie caught her new neighbor peeking through her window later that night.  She was on the phone with her best friend and she had to admit, she was peeking too.

“So is he hot?” 

“Johanna!”

“What?  You have young new neighbor that you feel the need to call and tell me about and you’re not going to tell me what he looks like?  It’s not like you called to ask me about my day, which sucked by the way.” 

“He’s gorgeous.  I turned into a blabbering mess after looking at him.  I’m usually so cool and collected.  He’s tall, has dark hair that’s kind of long and the most piercing blue eyes I have ever seen…and that bottom lip.”

“Bottom lip?”

 “I just want to bite it…,” Mollie surprised herself with how candidly she was talking about someone she had barely met.

“Oh you’ve got a crush!”  Johanna’s squeal filled the phone.  “I’m happy for you!  You haven’t so much as looked at a man since Michael…” 

“Satan.  We now refer to him as Satan.”

“Whatever.  I’m just glad you noticed someone.  I was beginning to think that moving back into Nana’s house wasn’t good for you.” 

“Nana left me this house for a reason Jo.”

“And maybe you just met that reason.  Listen,” Johanna began.  Her voice took a more serious note.  “You know I love Nana and I was so sad when she passed but living alone out in the seclusion of those woods?  I was beginning to think you were hiding.” 

“I was.  No Nana and the man I thought I would marry turning out to be the worst person alive… I definitely came here to hide.”

“And…?” 

“And maybe you’re right.  Maybe I need to stop hiding.  It’s been two years since all of that happened.  Maybe it’s time to move on and meet new people.”

“That’s my girl.” 

“It’d be so much easier if you were here,” Mollie muttered.

                Mollie had grown up in New York and Johanna had been her partner in crime as they made their way through elementary school on Long Island’s east end and through college at NYU, sharing a dorm room and many memories.  Once Mollie graduated college, Nana moved down to Florida to retire and Mollie and Johanna stuck it out in a Big Apple apartment working entry level jobs and, for Mollie, auditioning for any dance castings she could get to until Nana passed away and Mollie broke off her four year relationship with Michael.   It had been a dark time for Mollie and she needed to regroup and be by herself.  So Johanna tearfully said goodbye as Mollie moved down to Florida, to the home where her grandmother had retreated after so many years in busy New York.

                Ever since she’d moved down here, Mollie’s life had been solitary.  She rescued Boo from a shelter and she spent her days looking for dance classes and auditions but always finding reasons not to go.  She hadn’t made an effort to make new friends and she hadn’t made the effort to find a job, dancing or otherwise.  Fortunately, the house was fully paid for and Nana had left behind quite a bit of money.  Her frugal ways paid off.  Until now Mollie had been the only person living on the lake and town was far enough that it would require an effort to go and socialize.  It was hard to build a new social circle when you knew nobody.

“I know but you really should get out more.  Besides, I just bought tickets for a trip down to good old Florida for our birthday.”  Though their birthdays were actually two days apart, the girls had always referred to “their birthday” as the whole week of and had celebrated together almost every single year of their lives.

“Yes!  I’m having JoJo withdrawals!” 

“You gotta promise to properly introduce yourself to that hot new neighbor of yours before I come.  My flight leaves on the 11th and I’m staying until the 15th.  That’s all the time I could get off from this god forsaken job.”

“So I get a week to introduce myself to mysterious neighbor boy?” 

“Yup so get to it or I’ll move in on him when I get down there.”

                Mollie rolled her eyes as her friend rattled off the things we were going to do when she got there.  All Mollie could think about was why her neighbor looked so familiar.