“And of course,” she went on, “everyone is going to want to talk to you about Willow Voss.”
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactly making your little neighborhood shindig sound appealing.”
She again had to smile at his dry tone. She really did like the man, she decided.
“If anybody becomes too intrusive, you can give them that exact death stare. It’s quite intimidating.”
He made a face. “For your information, I know how to occasionally make small talk with people. It’s not my favorite thing but I have to go on book tours and speak with strangers all the time.”
“Good to know.” She could do dry, too.
“But if I get into trouble with some talkative neighbor or other, it will be your job to rescue me.”
She snorted. “My job? Why me?”
“You’re the one trying to drag me out of my writing cave for a neighborhood party.”
“Fine. Be a hermit crab if you want to. Your mom can always take your kids to the party without you.”
Before he could answer, Olive raced over to them, her hand outstretched.
“Grandma, look what I found. Zara says it’s a sand dollar. My friend Finn found one, too.”
She dutifully exclaimed over the shell in her granddaughter’s hand, trying to decide if she was grateful for the interruption or not.
Either way, Olive was a great reminder that she and her sexy new neighbor were at completely different places in life. She was a grandmother, for heaven’s sake, while he was a single father of two young children who were still grieving for their mother.
As attracted as she might be to him, she had to keep all that in mind before she did something stupid like develop a serious crush on the man.
Chapter Six
Andrew
For some reason, Andrew still felt light as eiderdown as they returned to his place, though walking into the depressing apartment above the Stormhaven carriage house definitely put a damper on his mood.
The place wasn’t terrible. It would probably be a decent place for a single guy on his own. Not for a dad with two active children. A guy who also needed his own writing space.
“I’m hungry,” Finn said. “What’s for dinner?”
He thought of the nearly empty refrigerator and the equally bare pantry shelves. He needed to get to the grocery store again, since the few staples he had bought a week ago were running out.
They couldn’t continue to eat takeout or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal.
He had hoped to hire a housekeeper by this point, someone who could cook and clean and help out with the kids when he needed it, but Andrew didn’t feel as if he could hire someone until things were more settled in their lives.
Would that day ever come? Right now it seemed a world away. Andrew felt as if his whole life was on hold.
“How about if I order pizza?” he finally said. Could he be more of a single dad cliché right now?
“Yay!” Finn exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air as if he had won his second grade spelling bee.
“Yum,” Zara said. “Can you order half cheese for me?”
Unlike her brother, Zara could be a picky eater sometimes,yet another reason he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about cooking.
“You bet,” he said.
He made the call to the better of the two pizza places in town—yes, they had tried both—and was unloading the dishwasher when he heard a knock on the door.