Finding Mr. Right Next Door by Sarah Ballance

Author:Sarah Ballance
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Two-Hour Romance Short Reads, Women's Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Contemporary Romance, Contemporary Romance, Best Friends, Friends to Lovers, Neighbors, Roommates, Forced Proximity, Firefighter hero, Playboy hero, Humor & Satire Fiction, General Humorous Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Rom Com, Entangled Lovestruck, Entangled Publishing, Sarah Ballance, Firefighters of Station 1, Series Romance, Category Length Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Matt was definitely not fine.

If he had any sense, he’d have left the house. Instead he sat there, watching the clock, wondering what Lexi was doing. The unfortunate part was that he had a pretty good idea with whom she was doing whatever, and it was killing him.

He hadn’t imagined that moment between them earlier in the kitchen. And she wasn’t wrong to ignore it. But he didn’t know how either of them could pretend it didn’t happen. If she’d only laugh, agree that yeah, that was definitely weird, and start one of those stupid movies she liked, maybe for good measure toss some popcorn at his face, everything would be fine.

Once she moved on, things never would be the same between them, but he needed them to be okay. He could live with okay.

In the meantime, he was so distracted by the clock that he sat through thirteen minutes of an ad on his music app because he hadn’t noticed the skip option had popped up. Frustrated, he tossed his phone onto the sofa beside him. He thought about taking Waffles for a walk, but it was nearly nine at night and Waffles wasn’t the active sort. He was more of a warm boulder that required five pounds of food each day, and Matt had enough troubles without picking a fight with a dog that nearly outweighed him.

Eight fifty-five.

Fifty-six.

When headlights finally swept the wall seventeen minutes later, Matt jumped from the sofa and walked out just as Lexi and Dave stepped onto the porch. Lexi’s eyes flared wide, then narrowed, suspicion darkening them to an intriguing shade of cobalt.

“Can I help you?” she asked. It was a striking rendition of a customer service voice, which meant she was pissed, and he should probably sleep with his eyes open, just in case. But the damage was done. He had nothing to lose.

“I was worried,” he said. To his credit, it was the truth. He nodded at Dave, who seemed somewhat wary when he returned the gesture.

“If you’re so worried,” Lexi said, “maybe next time I should arrange a police escort. Oh, wait.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “This dad routine is getting old, Matt.” She turned her back on him to face the cop. In a much nicer tone, she said, “I had a great evening. Thanks for allowing me to tag along.”

“It was my pleasure,” Dave said. He threw another nod in Matt’s direction before saying to Lexi, “I’ll text you?”

“Please do,” Lexi said. She watched him get in his car, offering a final wave, and didn’t look at Matt again until Dave was out of sight. Finally, she turned to him. “What. Are. You. Doing?”

Despite the literal hours he’d spent thinking about this moment, he realized he wasn’t sure what to say to her. That his world seemed to spin a few degrees left of center when she was off falling for some other guy? That she meant too much to him to ever risk

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