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Bela was a rescue from a hoarding situation. She was a beagle-sheltie mix, and I adored her. She was still a shy girl as she hadn’t been socialized at all before she landed with me. She was as loyal as could be and shadowed me everywhere I went, inside and out. She stayed with my parents whenever I was traveling with work, and they spoiled her extra.
I loved my little house. It was mine, just mine. It was a small single-story, modern ranch. A family who vacationed here built it, but then they didn’t travel here much, so they sold it. When it was up for sale and I could afford it, I snapped it up quickly.
It had light hardwood flooring and big windows in every room. There were built-in shelves in the hallway and an angled roof that rose high in the front, offering light all through the house, even down the hallway. One side of the hallway was lined with windows and the other with the doorways to bedrooms. I had my own suite with a bathroom that included a luxurious soaking tub and a rainfall shower. There were two other bedrooms, one of which I had turned into an office. I didn’t like to admit it, but I was prone to working even when I was at home.
I studied myself in the mirror when I walked into my bathroom. I had changed out of my jeans into a pair of comfortable cotton pants with a wide waistband that rested low on my hips. I wore a ribbed tank top above that with a lightweight cardigan sweater that fell to my hips.
My hair was still down, and I contemplated putting it up in a ponytail. I acted decisively as soon as I thought that, snatching my brush off the counter and swiftly brushing my hair up and back into a ponytail high on top of my head. I pushed my glasses up on my nose.
“Stop worrying about how you look,” I ordered myself.
I heard tires on my gravel driveway and dashed out of the bathroom, slowing to a walk as I turned out of my bedroom doorway into the hallway. I didn’t want Kenan to see me running down my hallway, so I stopped in a little alcove between the hallway and the living room area. I could see out front from here, but he couldn’t see me because there was a built-in shelf on the wall serving as a natural divider between the hallway and the living room.
I watched as Kenan climbed out of his SUV and pulled out the pizza boxes. His vehicle was dark navy, and I’d teased him more than once that it matched his eyes. I watched as he approached my house, his gait long and easy. He had two pizza boxes resting on one arm and clutched two six-packs of beer or something else in his hand.
He knocked lightly, opening the door without waiting. Because those were the kind of friends we were. “Hey there!” he called when he closed the door behind him. I composed my expression and rounded the corner into the living room.
“Hey, hey,” I returned and pasted a polite smile on my face.
“I got our usual,” he said as he walked across the living room toward the kitchen.
I followed him, stopping beside the counter. It was a wide rectangle island with bright royal-blue tiles.
“One pepperoni and one mushroom?” I prompted as Bela circled Kenan’s legs.
He was one of a few people she felt comfortable with beyond me.
He waggled his brows. “Of course. I made sure to get the new holiday mead and some beer.”
“Oh. You beat me to that. I haven’t been by the winery in a few days. The holiday one is that spiced cider beer and mead, right? I wish they had that all year.”
Kenan set the beer and mead on the counter. “Same here. Blake says they don’t do that because he likes to charge more money for it.”
Fireweed Winery made some of the best wine, beer, and mead around, most definitely in Alaska. They’d won some national awards over the years as well. It was the Cannon family legacy.
Kenan glanced at his watch. “We’ve only got fifteen minutes until the show starts. Let’s get going.”
The next hour or so felt mostly normal. Well, except for the fact that Kenan sat near me on my couch, which suddenly seemed ridiculously small. I had what I thought was a generously sized sectional, but the side that faced the television was shorter.
As if he could read my mind, Kenan commented, “You need a bigger couch.”
This wasn’t the first time he had said as much. I slid my gaze to his, wishing I didn’t notice how stunning his eyes were. They were bright, almost starlight blue.
My belly flipped, and I took an unsteady breath. “You’ve mentioned that,” I said, trying to keep my voice light.
“Well, it bears repeating,” he said dryly.
There was, maybe, at best, a foot and a half between us on my couch. I could feel the heat radiating from him across that short distance. Or perhaps my body felt like it was on fire being close to him. I’d never quite understood the concept of being hot and bothered by someone until now.
Sweet hell. I was deeply in lust with my friend and didn’t know how to make it go away. I didn’t want us to be those friends who grew apart, or those friends who ruined a perfectly good friendship with sex. I just wasn’t the kind of person who could do casual. It had never gone well for me.
I tried to carefully take a deep breath. With my pulse strumming along, stumbling and tripping with its racing pace, my breath felt short. I worried I would get light-headed due to a lack of oxygen.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite pull it off. Kenan cocked his head to the side. “Are you okay, Quinn?”
“Uh-huh,” I managed, swallowing before taking a gulping breath.
“Were you holding your breath?” His eyes held a sly, teasing gleam that I knew all too well.
