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Hollyn pulled her cinnamon roll out of the bag and grabbed two napkins from her desk drawer, handing one to Andi. “I didn’t know you had a firefighter friend.”
Andi spread the napkin on her lap and unrolled a piece of the cinnamon roll. “He’s my new neighbor. I met him unexpectedly over the weekend.”
Hollyn licked a glob of frosting from her fingertip and grimaced, but Andi knew the grimace was her friend’s Tourette’s acting up and not her opinion of the pastry.
“I love that you meet someone once and you call them a friend,” Hollyn said. “There’s like a ten-step application process and a gauntlet to make it through to get that designation from me.”
Andi grinned as she swallowed her bite of dough. “Ha. Well, I feel honored to have been accepted into your circle of the chosen few. I have my own tests. Neighbor dude has only passed the preliminary quiz. I’m not inviting him over for grilled cheese or anything. But his pepper-spray advice was solid. I googled.”
Hollyn watched her for a moment, chewing, her eye twitching a little. “Does he live alone?”
Andi shrugged. “I assume so. He wasn’t wearing a ring.” She frowned. When had she even noticed that? Her subconscious must’ve been taking notes. “Plus, I’ve only heard his big feet traipsing around over there.”
“Big feet. Interesting.” Hollyn’s gaze took on a mischievous look. “Young guy? Old guy?”
Andi thought back to the other night. She’d been so freaked out to see anyone on her doorstep at that hour, and then taken aback by her body’s reaction to Hill, that she hadn’t thought about what his age might be. “Not old. Older than us but like, I don’t know, late twenties, early thirties? He had that old-soul look like he’d seen some stuff. But that’s not surprising if he’s a firefighter.”
Hollyn’s brow lifted. “Old soul, huh? Is he cute?”
Andi scrunched her nose, the question catching her off guard, and she forced another bite of cinnamon roll down. Was he cute?Cutewas not a word she’d use for him. There was nothing “cute” about that serious face, those wide shoulders, and that deep voice. Sexy, yes. Hot, for sure. Her fantasy from the other night flashed through her mind, and warmth rushed to her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “I guess. If you like the big, bearded, dark, and broody type.”
“Please God, don’t let that be her type,” said a voice from the doorway.
Andi turned, finding Hollyn’s fiancé, Jasper, leaning against the doorjamb with an amused look on his face.
He stepped inside, adjusted his dark-rimmed glasses, and then spread his arms, Hulk-style, trying to widen his lean frame. “But if it is, I can be beefcake.”
Hollyn bit her lip, smiling adoringly at her guy. “What you are is exactly my type.”
“Goofy improv actor?” he confirmed and walked over to peck Hollyn on the lips.
“Obviously.”
“Sweet. I’m your man.” He turned to Andi after stealing a piece of Hollyn’s cinnamon roll and popping it in his mouth. “So, who are we talking about? What’s the word? Give me all the details.”
“Andi’s new neighbor is apparently a hot firefighter,” Hollyn said, tone playful.
Andi groaned. “I said no such thing.”
“Uh-huh,” Hollyn said.
“Fine,” Andi admitted. “He’s not…difficult to look at.”
Jasper propped a hip on the corner of Hollyn’s desk and grinned. “Uh-oh, Andifinallylikes a boy. Fitz is going to be so bereft when I tell him. He’s harboring a mad crush.”
Andi gave him anoh-pleaselook. Fitz McLane owned an investment firm that took up most of the fourth floor of WorkAround, and he was a nice enough guy, but he also could sell ice to an Eskimo. “Fitz acts like he has a crush on every woman in the building. He likes to be adored. And I don’t ‘like a boy.’ Neighbor dude is definitely a man. And I never said I was into him. I’m just objectively saying that he is a nice-looking human.” She pointed at them, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t do that thing.”
“What thing?” Hollyn asked, setting her chin in her hand and obviously enjoying the teasing way too much.
“That thing that people do once they’re a couple and want everyone else to suddenly couple up,” she said. “You become like gossipy grandmothers playing matchmaker.”
Hollyn shook her head and held up her own wagging finger. “Oh, no you don’t, Lockley. You were like my own personal cheering squad, trying to get things to work out with me and Jas. You don’t get to pull that couple card on us.”
Andi put her hand to her chest. “Me? I was simply seeing two people who obviously needed to be together and encouraging that. That was being a good friend. But you don’t even know this guy.Idon’t even know this guy. He could be a crappy human. He could be married and not wearing a ring. He listens to country music, so we’re already starting off at a deficit.”
“Country?” Jasper cringed. “Yeah, sounds like a lost cause. I’ll tell Fitz his crush is safe.”
Hollyn offered the rest of her cinnamon roll to Jasper and cleaned her fingers on her napkin. “Look, I won’t be that person. You’re a grown woman who can make her own choices on who she’s interested in or not. But at the very least, it can’t hurt to get to know your neighbor a little, right?”
