What If You & Me (Say Everything #2) - Roni Loren Page 0,16

let out a breath, already mourning the loss of her company, and stood to follow her to the door. “Yeah, I have to head out to meet a friend. But thanks again for the brownies. You really didn’t need to go through that kind of trouble.”

She stopped at the door and turned to face him. “Not a problem. I enjoyed making them. My friends tell me my love language is baked goods.”

His eyebrows lifted.

She cringed. “And…that sounded weird.” She laughed self-consciously. “I just mean that I communicate in baked goods—usually purchased, not baked. I promise I’m not hitting on you.”

The words were playful, but they hit him like shrapnel, cutting in multiple places. Of course she wasn’t hitting on him. Of course this wasn’t flirting. Of course she was inviting him to tour WorkAround to be helpful, not to ask him out. She was being nice. Everyone was being so fucking nice to him these days. He forced a smile. “I knew what you meant.”

She wiggled her fingers in a wave and stepped out onto the porch. “See you on the lawn sometime, neighbor. And let me know if you decide you want that tour.”

“Thanks. Will do.” He shut the door behind her and then pressed his forehead to the doorjamb, deflated. “Fucking pathetic, man.”

He was so out of practice with women that he didn’t even know how to distinguish a neighbor offering a favor from interest anymore. The old version of Hill would’ve flirted his ass off with Andi. He would’ve turned on the charm and had her laughing and would’ve gotten her to go out to dinner with him tonight—or better yet, let him cook for her. He would’ve taken her to his bed and shown her all the fun ways he could make her feel good.

Now he was left with none of the finesse and all of the wanting.

He needed to steer clear of his neighbor. He was trying to find ways to get out of this mental hole, not make it worse by reminding himself what he couldn’t have.

***

“She baked you brownies?” Ramsey said between shoveling french fries into his mouth. “Dude, that was a clear opening to ask her out.”

Hill dumped more spicy salsa on his plate of nachos and shook his head at his friend. He and Ramsey had a standing lunch date each week since it was weird visiting the fire station with Josh, the scumbag who’d slept with his fiancée, still working there. “It was not an opening. They were guilt brownies. She felt like she’d insulted me about my leg, and she’s too nice to let something like that go. If you’d met her, you’d realize there’s no chance this was an attempt at flirting with me.”

“Why not?” Ramsey asked, dumping more ketchup on his plate. “She married or something?”

“That’s not what I mean.” Hill grabbed his phone off the table. He wiped it on his jeans where the sweat from his beer had gotten his screen wet, and then typed Andi’s pen name into the search. Her author website came up, and he turned the phone toward Ramsey. “This is her.”

Ramsey wiped the salt off his fingers and took Hill’s phone, bringing it close to his face. “Whoa. Hot.”

“Yeah. And young. And definitely not in the market for some washed-up firefighter who spends most of his time in doctors’ offices and therapy appointments.”

Ramsey scrolled, his gaze still on the screen, the light of the phone illuminating the faint freckles that redheaded Ramsey denied he had. A probie firefighter had once called Ramsey “Freckles” and had ended up on solo toilet-scrubbing duty at the station for a month. “Shit, she writes horror novels. That’s kind of awesome—or concerning. I mean, she probably knows a hundred ways to kill a man. But she’s also at a higher probability for being kinky.”

Hill groaned. “That is one hundred percent a bullshit assumption.” He forced his mind not to go there, not to picture Andi in all kinds of fun, naked situations. “All it means is that she likes scary books.”

Ramsey set Hill’s phone down and lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay, got it, man. But I don’t see why you didn’t ask her out. I mean, the worst that could happen is she says no.”

“No, the worst that could happen is she has zero interest and I put her in a completely awkward position with a guy she has to live next door to. Or she could laugh—that’d be fun.” He shoved a chip