"Well, hello neighbors! Nice to see you! Won't you have a seat and let's see if we can help you?" Stan Wilson suavely beamed, dollar-bill signs almost clicking in his eyeballs, Beth thought, but she hardly cared. Lord, he was handsome! "Who can we make happy?"

"The little wife, Stan," she heard her boisterous husband say, using their neighbor's first name as if they'd known him for years, and adding a gruff little laugh. "Poor kid needs some foot-wear… and why not, on the end of those legs, eh?"

Beth cringed with embarrassment as Stan drew up his stool, still smiling toward her husband, an obvious starchiness in the expression. Oh, why didn't that asshole keep his big, blowhard mouth shut? She crossed her legs, presenting her right foot.

"What did you have in mind, milady?" her gentlemanly neighbor softly questioned, gazing up at her with deep, dark eyes, the trace of a smile flickering about his attractive mouth, as with seemingly super-sensitive hands, he removed her shoe.

"Oh… something in a sandal, maybe. Black and with platform heel… though I'm not sure," she quickly added, reluctant to discard her original baiting temptation, and the longer she sat there trying on shoes, perhaps…

"Aahh… we have a sharp new sandal that's all the rage this season, Mrs. Durke," he said, agilely swinging up and away.

"Come on now, Stan, you guys should call us by first name, seeing we're neighbors, right?" Jay mouthed after him. "She's Beth and I'm Jay. You're Stan and your wife's name's Sara, isn't it?"

"Yes… that's right. Sara and Stan."