No.
I was not swooning.
Reagan Wright did not swoon.
Ever.
I was not about to start over a tall, green-eyed, muscular, tattooed, firefighter.
Damn it.
Maybe a little.
Just enough to imagine him naked. It was a well-accepted fact that the quickest way to stop swooning was to get turned on.
At least it was in my world. Everyone else needed to get on board that train, because I’m telling you, it worked.
What would Noah look like naked?
I tapped my fingers against the side of my mug and stared out of the back window.
He had to have abs. Most guys didn’t have biceps out of a Men’s Health magazine unless they had the abs to go with it, which meant he also had the pecs and that tempting V that curved over a guy’s hips.
Did he have more tattoos? Or was it just his arm? Should I paint tattoos on there or was I just setting myself up for disappointment?
Wait.
I wouldn’t be disappointed. I was never going to see him naked.
Um, more naked.
Ahem.
No more tattoos. Just in case. I liked to be surprised now and then.
You know.
There was always the chance I’d wrangle him into bed. Or a bush. I really wasn’t that fussy.
Maybe not a bush. The branches could get scratchy. Not that I’d ever had sex in a bush.
I had some dignity.
Seriously. I did.
Two knocks at the front door pulled me out of my thoughts. As I’d suspected earlier, the cavalry had arrived, and it smelled like they came bearing food.
I looked at the bags. “Did you bring food?”
Halley nodded. “Grandma said that we were going to hell if we didn’t.”
Ava put her bag on the counter. “Which she is an expert in, considering she’s wearing a black leather mini skirt to church.”
“Maybe she thinks God likes that.”
“Don’t.” Halley held up a hand. “Just… Abigail has lost control. I expect her to become an alcoholic any day now.”
“If she’s gone this long without succumbing, she’ll be fine.” I got up to help unpack but was quickly shooed back to sitting down. “I’m fine!”
I was sick of saying that now.
“Sit!” Ava demanded. “We’re gonna fix you some pancakes and you’re gonna tell us a little more about, well, that hot piece of ass who was in your room yesterday.”
“His name is Noah,” I said. Never mind that I’d just been undressing him inside my mind. “He sent me a picture of his cock and then saved my life.”
“That’s quite the apology.” Halley sniggered.
This was insufferable already. “Coincidence. It’s a coincidence.”
“Nothing in life is a coincidence.” Ava put a pot of strawberries on the counter and turned to look at me.
“Here we go,” I muttered, nursing my mug a little closer to me.
“I know you don’t believe in this stuff, but fate is a thing, Reagan. It exists. There are some things that happen that are against all reason and are completely inexplicable. I think you meeting Noah was one of those.”
Halley shook her head. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you buy that Kool-Aid.”
“There’s no other explanation for it,” Ava continued, completely oblivious to the fact Halley had a frying pan in her hand.
A frying pan she had no business holding
“Ava,” I said.
“It was fate. Granted, your apartment burning down was a nasty side effect of that—”
She was kidding, right? She considered me being homeless as a ‘nasty side effect’ of fate? She needed help.
“—But it’ll all work out. He’s hot. He’s literally your dream guy.”
“Ava,” I said again as Halley set the frying pan on the hob.
“Sometimes the universe just has plans for us that we don’t understand, and that’s okay.”
“The universe needs to tell you to shut up!” I banged on the table. “Halley has a frying pan in her hand! I don’t want another fire!”
“Oh, crap!” Ava grabbed Halley and moved her away from the cooker before she plucked the pan from the hand of our kitchen-impaired friend. “You know you’re on strawberries duty. Reagan doesn’t need to go through anymore trauma, thank you.”
Halley pulled a knife out of the block and raised her eyebrows. “You know what’s traumatic, Ava? You and your drivel about fate.”
I nodded along solemnly.
“Even though this is weird, and you may have a little hippy point…”
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
Back the fuck up.
“She does not have a point!” My voice was an octave too high. “Oh, my God, did you drink her Kool-Aid? What’s wrong with you? Are those morning jogs scrambling your brains?”
“It is weird, though.” She tossed a glance over her shoulder at me. “What are the chances?”
“I don’t know. I don’t do math.”
“I bet we could start a thread on Reddit and someone would figure it out,” Ava mused.
“We are not starting a thread on Reddit.” This was ridiculous. “It’s a coincidence. A really weird, slightly uncomfortable coincidence.”
“Does he think it’s weird?”
“I’d be alarmed if he didn’t.”
“So you’re still texting,” Halley stated.