AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“T.J., stop eating ice. You’re going to mess up your teeth,” Frankie said.
“Thanks, Mom.”
Frankie rolled her eyes and redirected to Rowan. “What finally lured you off that couch, Rosebud?”
Temperance cut in. “Rowan’s been splitting her time getting potting soil all over my apartment and emasculating perfectly nice men.”
Rowan snorted. “Everyone knows I’m trashing your apartment ninety percent of the time. Emasculation is only a side hustle.”
“Ah, permission to approach?” A familiar baritone cut in from behind her, and Rowan smelled him before she saw him.
Juniper. Cinnamon gum.
Oh, boy. Here we go.She felt tangible warmth at her back as a large body drew close. Her insides pitched downward like she was on a poorly balanced ride at the county fair.
Temperance lit up and extended her arms. “There he is.”
Heat flooded up Rowan’s neck to splotch her cheeks and ears with red. Frankie clicked her tongue, unapologetically curious.
Greenhouse Guy entered their little ring of light like a lanky, earthbound archangel, and greeted Temperance with a hug. The scruffy beard and ball cap from earlier had hidden a face a decade younger than she’d originally assumed. Now, he looked like he’d stepped from the pages of a J.Crew catalogue.
His hair was brown sugar generously brushed with honey, slightly damp at the tips from a recent shower. It curled in wide waves away from his face, like Michelangelo’s freakingDavid. He’d shaved, revealing a deeply dimpled chin below a luscious mouth. A hint of overbite made his top lip slightly fuller than the bottom one. Rowan was typically unmoved by conventionally attractive men, but this guy was more than classically handsome.Something about the arrangement of his features and the way he moved his body made it difficult for her to look away.
He was mesmerizing.
God, if she’d known he looked like this under the scruff, she’d have let him capture her.
Temperance leaned into him, and he bent low to drop a casual kiss on the top of her head. The two were conspicuously, comfortably beautiful together as they shared the brief hug and murmured greeting.
“Did you need to shower off the shame of being on the losing team of Brady Team Tag?” Temperance teased.
The corners of his mouth tipped into a slight smile. “I’ll need to have a good cry later.”
“I didn’t even know you’d arrived until an hour ago,” Temperance said.
He kept one arm around Temperance’s shoulders, tucked the opposite hand in the pocket of pants so wrinkled they’d obviously been hastily removed from luggage. “Cab dropped me off, and I jumped right into the game.” He looked straight at Rowan. “Couldn’t resist.”
Rowan swallowed so hard it hurt. In the distance, she saw moonlight shimmer on a small body of water. She wanted to dive in headfirst and never surface again.
Instead, she did the next best thing: she hid in plain sight behind Frankie’s overt charisma and innate knack for small talk. Really, it was a superpower.
“Who do we have here? T.J., have you been hiding a boyfriend from us?” Frankie said.
“Are we too old to say ‘boyfriend’?” Temperance smirked. “Also, not my boyfriend.” She and Greenhouse Guy shared a look that suggested it was the most absurd thing they’d ever heard.
“Cousin?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Masseur.”
“Nope.”
“Gardener,” Rowan murmured into her wine. Her friends didn’t hear, but one of Greenhouse Guy’s brows quirked, and a vague smile hovered on his lips.
He stepped away from Temperance and extended a hand to Frankie. “Harrison Brady, and I’m, ah”—he glanced over his shoulder at Temperance—“I guess we’re siblings-in-law? Is that a thing?”
Temperance nodded. “My sister, Maren, is married to his brother Nathan. But more important than that, Harry and I arefriends.”
