Page 12 of Finding New Dreams

I looked back at Gina, who was glaring at me. “All right, all right. No need to pull out the death stare. Yes, I did meet someone at the club last night.”

Gina’s face immediately switched to dirty delight. “Mhm, and where is he now? Lounging on your bed, waiting for you to fall back into his chiseled arms?”

My smile faltered as I imagined Flynn, shirtless, beckoning me to come back to him, then tugging me down…

“Earth to Rosie,” Gina’s voice clanged through my daydream like the town church bell.

I blinked. “No, he… It didn’t work out that way.”

Gina halted on the white sidewalk, her hands on her hips. “And why not? You practically melted into a pile of dreamy goo just thinking about him.”

I shrugged and kept walking so that she had to hurry to catch up. “He’d just flown in. He doesn’t live here. Why start something up with an out-of-town stranger?”

“Um, for fun?”

“You know I want more than that, Gina.”

“Then why bother talking to him at all?”

My steps slowed a bit as I thought about it. “He was…different. Perfect in that moment. The polar opposite of Zane and most of the other online dates. He was handsome, smart, funny, so charming, and seemed to really like me. I couldn’t not talk to him.” I slid a glance her way and braced for impact. “Or kiss him.”

Gina gave a gasp worthy of a soap opera and smacked my arm. “You kissed him? Mr. Perfect? And what, ran away?”

I wrinkled my nose a bit, not liking her wording, but nodded.

Instead of spouting all the reasons I shouldn’t have let him go, like I expected her to, Gina looked at me with sadness in her eyes. “I wish you would’ve given him a chance. Maybe he would’ve surprised you.”

I sighed. “By what, being everything I want him to be? Life doesn’t work that way. He admitted he’d never had a relationship last longer than six months, and he was from out of town. Nothing about that says ‘ready to put down roots.’”

Gina shook her head as we climbed the front steps of Chloe and Hunter’s log cabin-style house. “Sometimes the thing we’re looking for is in the place we least expect it.”

Frowning, I bent down and picked up the copy of the Tangled River Gazette resting in front of the screen door. “Or maybe I just need to keep looking. Either way, can we not mention any of this to Chloe? I don’t want her worrying about me.”

Gina gave me a soft smile and nodded. I pulled open the screen door to knock on their front door. But my knuckles never touched the wood.

Instead, the door swung open to reveal a half-naked man on the other side. His dark hair fell in waves around his high cheekbones and strong jaw. Lean muscles tightened under deeply tanned skin. A dusting of dark hair trailed from his belly button to the waistband of his dark jeans.

My eyes darted upward just as those full, kissable lips dropped open in surprise.

I gaped back, struggling to breathe as I faced Flynn, the new star of my fantasies both awake and sleeping. And all I could think was that he had the most alluring teal eyes, like sea-colored gemstones.

Then involuntary words flew from my mouth. “What the hell are you doing in my friend’s house?”

5

FLYNN

I almost didn’t register her words at first. There was a loud ringing in my ears as my mind flew from one thought to the next, all wondering how, how, the magical woman from last night was on my doorstep.

She looked even more beautiful in the daylight if that were possible. The same wavy black hair. The same wide eyes that were rapidly blinking at me in disbelief. She clutched the newspaper I’d been looking for to her chest.

“Rose,” I breathed, my hand leaving the door frame to touch her cheek, to verify that she was indeed real.

Her friend’s sharp gasp halted my motion, and my eyes darted to the pretty woman next to Rose. Dropping my hand, I remembered her question.

“My sister lives here,” I answered belatedly.

“Chloe?” Rose squeaked. Then her face whitened. “Flynn Higgins? You’re that Flynn? Chloe’s Flynn? Her brother?”

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