Crash! The noise woke Anastasia from a sound sleep. Sitting upright in bed, she turned on the lamp and shot a bleary-eyed gaze at her Wallace and Gromit alarm clock. The British cartoon characters usually made her smile, but all she noted now what that it was almost two in the morning. The crashing sound seemed to have come from directly outside her front door.

Deciding it was better to fear the noise you knew rather than the one you didn't, she slid out of bed and tiptoed from her bedroom across the living room to her front door, turning on another light as she went along. She put her nose to her door and cautiously peered out the peephole.

All she could see was a denim-clad rear end -- a masculine rear end, most definitely. And a rather nicely formed one, at that.

Then she saw the rest of the man as he straightened and shot a wary look over his shoulder at her door. It was David.

For two days she'd been waiting from him to finish packing up his stuff and finally show his face, and his rather nice bottom, here. She'd begun to wonder if he hadn't decided to back out of his agreement with his grandmother.

But now he'd shown up with a bang, or rather a crash and several inventive curses.

Making the most of the moment, she opened her door and, putting one hand on her hip a la Mae West, drawled, "Welcome to the neighborhood, big boy."

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