The Heat is On Read Free Page B

new BFF Aidan and set up a pub crawl or something, you know, have a three-way or fourgy or whatever it is you guys do.”
    “He’s not my BFF,” Matt grumbled. “We just hang out sometimes.”
    Because all my friends are in love, he wanted to add, but didn’t because he knew Annabel e would just accuse him of being jealous. He wasn’t, though. He was happy for his friends, he truly was, but their no-longer-single status made it hard for Matt to find a wingman for a night on the town. A few months ago he’d gone for beers with Aidan Rhodes, who worked in Naval Intel igence out on the base, and the two men had instantly hit it off. Aidan was a couple of years younger, and like Matt, was always up for a good time.
    And though he wasn’t going to admit it to Annabel e, he and Aidan did have a threesome last month, with a hot redhead visiting from Kansas.

    “I don’t want a fourgy,” he added with a frown. “I want some good, old-fashioned one-on-one with the hot blonde I met. Is that too much to ask for?”
    “Stop whining. It’s unattractive.”
    “That’s not what you said the night I rocked your world.”
    Annabel e didn’t even have the decency to blush.
    Instead, she just laughed again. “You rocked my body.
    There’s a difference.”
    Was there? He always felt oddly uncomfortable when Annabel e, or any of his friends, for that matter, tried to explain what love felt like. Sure, he loved people—his mom, Nana O’Connor, his four older sisters. But love love? He had no clue how that felt. If he weren’t constantly surrounded by happy couples, he wouldn’t even believe it existed.
    He and Annabel e got out of the car and headed for the door of the flower shop. He walked ahead, opening the door for his friend’s girlfriend like the southern gentleman he was. A bel chimed as they entered the store, and almost immediately, the heady and powerful scent of flowers fil ed his nostrils. He breathed it in, reminded of the yard in his mom’s Nashvil e house. The O’Connor women loved to garden.
    His gaze took in the elaborate arrangements and baskets
    of
    fresh-smel ing
    flowers
    practical y
    overflowing the shop’s smal space.
    “So pretty,” Annabel e murmured as she admired a vase containing bright yel ow tulips intermingled with curly white wil ow and white shasta daisies. That he knew the kind of daisies they were boggled the mind.
    Apparently he’d picked up some gardening knowledge over the years without knowing it.
    The sound of footsteps came from behind a green curtain separating another doorway from the main room. “I’l be right with you!” a muffled feminine voice chirped from back there.
    “I like this place,” Annabel e whispered to him. “It’s the perfect combination of charm and elegance. Think Hol y wil like it?”
    “How the hel would I know?” he mumbled back.
    “This is why you should have brought Holly and not me.”
    “Hol y was busy. And you’re my friend. Friends do this kind of stuff for each other.”
    He pretended to brood, but he wasn’t annoyed that Annabel e had dragged him along on her errands. He liked spending time with her, and he was actual y proud of her for what she was trying to accomplish.
    She’d left behind a successful job at one of the top event planning firms in San Francisco just so she could be with Ryan, and Matt ful y supported this new venture. Together with Carson Scott’s wife, Hol y, Annabel e had started an event planning business of their own, and the two women had already planned and catered some seriously ritzy parties. Matt helped out at one of their wedding receptions, and had been floored by the results.
    The footsteps from the back room grew louder.
    Matt swung his head toward the curtain in time to see a very familiar face.
    Recognition dawned in her gray eyes at the same moment.
    “Seriously?” Savannah said with a sigh.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” he blurted out, “but I’m not stalking you.”
    “Uh, I wasn’t