“That might work if we were friends,” she finally answered, glancing around the fire hall to see if anyone was paying them the slightest bit of attention. They didn’t seem to be. Too bad. She was ready for an interruption. Why weren’t Sophie and Cole back with Greyson yet?
It was almost as if...as if her cousin had purposely left her alone with Andrew. No doubt that’s exactly what So-in-Love Sophie and her boyfriend had done.
“We could be friends,” Andrew suggested, his expression both pulling her in and annoying her. How could he be so arrogantly self-assured and yet have such kindness in his eyes at the same time? “All friendships start somewhere. Why shouldn’t ours start right here, right now?”
Because so many things about you terrify me.
“I’m not sure we have anything in common,” she said instead, glancing toward the doorway.
“Maybe not,” he admitted. “Too bad though because we would have had a good time.”
Morgan was sure she would have. There was that whole being attracted to the wrong kind of man thing she had going. It was all fun and games in the beginning and then...and then, it wasn’t.
Andrew, with his motorcycle, plane-jumping, and firefighting was definitely not what she needed if she ever decided to date again.
“I’m a fun guy.”
“And a modest one,” she added, emotions torn in a thousand directions. Why did he have to be so likeable?
He grinned. “Glad you noticed that about me.”
“How could I miss it? Your humility was the first thing I noticed.” What was she doing? “Seriously, I appreciate the offer, but like I said, I work twelve hours on Monday. Sorry.”
“If you insist upon depriving yourself of the pleasure of my company, maybe I could still take Greyson?”
That had her pausing and staring at him in shock. “You want to take my son to dinner by yourself? Absolutely not.”
“I guess that didn’t come out exactly right. Sorry. I meant on the sleigh ride, but I understand why you said no.”
“Even if I was crazy enough to allow a stranger to take my child out for the day—which I’m not—I still wouldn’t think it’s a good idea. Please respect my decision on what’s best for my son.”
He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “I won’t mention it in front of him, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend the day with him—and you. And, for the record, I’m not really a stranger since our grandmas have been best friends most of their lives. That makes us practically family.”
“This is how you’re trying to convince me to go to dinner with you?” she couldn’t resist asking. “By saying we’re practically family? Seriously?”
He chuckled. “Is it working?”
She shook her head.
He reached over, picked up another brownie from an almost empty box, and took a bite, still looking at her with a sparkly Santa twinkle in his eyes. “Okay, if that’s what you want, Morgan. Thanks for the brownies.”
Chapter Four
“I guess somebody got shot down.”
Losing focus on the gruesome aliens he was destroying on the video game monitor screen, Andrew winced. Ben had overheard his conversation with Morgan? He should have known his buddy wasn’t nearly so absorbed with cleaning his equipment as he’d pretended to be.
“Your hearing must be messed up.”
From the chair next to Andrew’s in the fire hall’s dayroom, Ben snorted. “Nothing wrong with my hearing. Major crash and burn—I couldn’t miss it, kind of like that alien kicking your butt there.”
Andrew made hash of the alien in question. “Crash and burn makes it sound like I was trying to get her to date me, and that’s not true. I asked to be her and Greyson’s friend. That’s all. Can you blame me? She made me brownies. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who makes you brownies?”
“The kid made you brownies,” Ben argued as another round of aliens arrived to prevent them from moving on to the next game level.
“Exactly. I want to be his friend, too. Future firefighter and he bakes me brownies, which makes me like the kid all the more. You, not so much,” Andrew said, never taking his gaze off the game.
“Because you know you’re never going to oust my top scorer position on our favorite video game?” Ben teased.
