Page 45 of Icebound Hearts

“No, you’re not. You’re chopping. There’s a difference.”

He glares at me for a second, but I can see his resolve wavering. Finally, he huffs a laugh under his breath, then brushes off the onion chunks from his fingers and reaches into his pocket. He swipes to unlock the phone, leaving an onion juice streak on the screen, then taps to open the app and hands me the phone. “No funny business.”

“Me? Funny business? Never,” I say as I take the phone and instantly swipe right on a pretty brunette his age. “Oh, whoops, my finger slipped. Must’ve been the onion juice.”

Sawyer glares at me. “What did I just say?”

“Have you even opened this thing since I set up the profile for you?” I shoot back, and although it takes him a second, he shakes his head. I purse my lips, narrowing my eyes at him. “Really? Then why did I do all that work?”

“I just did it to placate you. I’m really not interested in dating right now.”

“Well, I guess no one can fault you for not being honest. But seriously, look at her. She’s pretty! Wouldn’t you like to go on a date with someone like that?” I ask, turning the screen to show Sawyer an honestly beautiful redhead in her late twenties named Jessica. It kills me to even have to talk to him like this about another woman, but I don’t have a choice.

“She’s fine,” Sawyer answers without ever looking, intensely focused on the onions. It’s frustrating, to say the least, because I really want him to find someone who’ll appreciate how amazing he is—since it absolutely can’t be me—but he doesn’t seem at all interested.

Well, not inheranyway.

His eyes finally drift up to mine, and I can’t put my finger on what it is I’m seeing, but there’s something there. An intensity that makes butterflies flap wildly in my stomach. He draws in a breath as if he’s about to say something, and the butterflies go wild. But instead of speaking, he just lets the silence drag out between us for a long moment until I’m sure he hear the heavy thudding of my heart.

“Here, look. It’s easy.” I clear my throat and show him my phone, hoping it will defuse the tension hovering in the air.

As much as I want to, and as much as I’m starting to wonder if maybe he does too, I can’t afford to let things get muddy between us. Sawyer is my boss and my brother’s teammate. I can’t cross that line, no matter how tempting it is.

A real guy-next-door type named Derek is on my screen. He’s not gorgeous, but he seems like a nice guy based on the multiple pictures of him doing volunteer work with animals, so I swipe right on him. “See? You swipe right if you like them. If they’ve already liked you, or they do it after you, you’ll get a match. Then you can talk.”

“Looks like Derek wasn’t interested,” Sawyer says with a little smile as he reaches under the cabinet for a large frying pan, sounding way too satisfied about the fact I didn’t get a match. He sets the pan on the stove and turns on the burner.

“Maybe not right now. But there’s a chance he just hasn’t seen my profile yet. The apps are kind of weird like that sometimes. You’ll like someone and forget all about them until weeks later when they randomly like you back and message you.”

“Wow, that sounds like a great time. You’re really selling it,” he says as he oils the pan.

“I mean, sure, it’s not the most natural way to meet people, but when you’re a busy single dad, how else are you going to do it?”

That seems to get Sawyer’s attention because after he tosses the onions into the pan, filling the kitchen with an aromatic sizzle, he stares at me. “Fine. Give me my phone. I’ll at least try.”

I hand it to him excitedly and stand to his side to watch as he scrolls through the profile of a girl who’s honestly way too young for him, but my opinion doesn’t matter. It can’t matter.

“Hm. She seems nice but too young,” he says, and I breathe a little sigh of relief that worries me more than when he swipes right on her profile. The heart animation plays, and Sawyer looks at me, horrified. “But I didn’t like her!”

“You swiped the wrong way,” I say, stifling a laugh. “It’s swipeleftif you don’t like them, swipe right if you do.”

“This is so stupid,” Sawyer grumbles, although he keeps scrolling the profile of a pretty blonde in her early thirties named Ava. He drags his finger halfway to the right. “I like her. It’s a right swipe, then?”

“Yup, you’ve got it.” Sawyer finishes the swipe, and the match animation plays, inviting Sawyer to send Ava a message. “See! You got a match. She likes you too. Women usually want the guy to make the first move, so say something to her, and don’t make it cheesy.”

“So I shouldn’t tell her matching with her is the goal of a lifetime?”

A laugh bursts out of me. “Oh god, you’re hopeless. Hockey puns? Really?”

Sawyer chuckles and sets his phone on the counter to go back to cooking. “I’m messing with you. I would never say something that awful.”

“Well, that’s good.” Sawyer’s phone buzzes, and I glance over at it to see a message from Ava. “Oh, she took the initiative and wrote to you already.”

Sawyer is rummaging in the fridge with his back to me, but he glances over his shoulder. “What did she say?”

“She loves the picture of you and Jake at the hockey game. So I guess she doesn’t mind you having a kid, which is another great sign.”

Then why do I feel so shitty right now?

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