Page 5 of Relief Pitcher

He shrugged. “Professional development?”

A laugh rumbled through my chest as I flipped over to the guide and scrolled for something to watch while periodically glancing at Tyler. It was weird having another man in my space.

“What do you usually watch on TV?” I expected him to say something likeAmerican Pie.He gave me adult Stiffler vibes.

He studied me over the rim of his cup. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Sure.”

“Promise that what’s said in the spooky forest cabin stays in the spooky forest cabin?”

I stared at him incredulously. “Did you call my house a spooky forest cabin?”

Tyler gestured around us. “We’re in the forest, we’re in a cabin, and it’s spooky.”

“I beg your pardon, sir. There’s at least oneLive, Laugh, Lovesign in this house. There’s nothing spooky about it.”Look at me cracking jokes.

Tyler gaped at me before his lips curved into another grin. I was quite enjoying those. Might as well get my fill before AAA arrived.

“No one knows this about me, but I have a weird obsession with Hallmark movies. I have my own subscription to the channel and only watch it on my iPad when I’m alone. Pathetic, right?”

“Why haven’t you told anyone?”

“If you knew me, you’d know how ridiculous it is that I watch romantic movies. I view it as a scientific endeavor. Like watching bees get it on and trying to figure out how it all works. It’s fascinating to me.”

I laughed while navigating to my DVR and launching a winter Hallmark movie I’d recorded. I couldn’t claim it was scientific for me. I was just a sap who enjoyed watching people fall in love.

Tyler lit up when the movie started. “Oh my god. You’re amazing!”

My cheeks heated as I hid my smile with my coffee cup. While the movie played, I kept my face forward but darted glances to the side out of the corner of my eye. Tyler seemed enthralled with the movie, commenting on how absurd everything was, but I could’ve sworn I heard a swooning sigh at least three times.

“But why is he acting like that? She’s going to go back to the city at the end of the month,” he asked after a while.

“Because he knows he’s found something special and doesn’t want to let it go.”

His eyebrows bunched together. “I don’t get it. There are a dozen other hot chicks in that town he could get with.”

“I’m starting to get what you meant about not understanding romance.”

Tyler smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

Instead of focusing on the plot with the big-city business guy sent to buy the small-town flower farm and the woman trying to save said flower farm, I mused over why I felt so immediately comfortable around Tyler. Not that most people made me uncomfortable, but I would’ve expected having a guy in the house would have me at least a little on edge. Maybe because Tyler didn’t treat me as fragile or broken. He didn’t know that my husband had died of a brain aneurysm three years ago. He didn’t look at me with sadness or ask how I was doing in that certain way that implied surely I couldn’t be anything but devastated every second of every day.

The pang in my chest was no longer as devastatingly sharp. The pain from losing Aleck so suddenly still hurt, and it probably would forever, but the ache had somewhat dulled. Morphing from an open wound to a chronic ailment I’d learned to live with. Now, I tried to focus on memories that brought me joy and laughter.

Tyler chuckled. I glanced at him again, all comfortable on my couch. Aleck would’ve thought Tyler’s car issues were a perfect setup for a porn movie. He would’ve made an excuse to get me alone in the kitchen and pitched having a threesome. I was a monogamous guy, but Aleck had been more open. We’d agreed to occasionally invite someone into bed with us, and it had worked. I had the feeling he would’ve loved Tyler.

I’d been loosely toying with the idea of getting back out there and dating or at least finding something casual, but I hadn’t been sure if that was something I actually wanted or if it was only Danita’s voice in my head urging me. Telling me her brother would haunt me if I didn’t get my ass out there.

As Tyler laughed at something from the movie, I wondered if it might be my voice in my head pushing me to date, not Danita’s. Maybe it was time to listen.

CHAPTER4

TYLER

“You’ve got to be kidding. They have a festival event all about making snowpeople? That’s a bit of a stretch, even for a silly Christmas movie. There’s no way those kinds of festivals happen in real life.” I glanced over at Cooper, who had a small smile as he watched the couple on the screen get into a snowball fight.

Cooper was seriously hot. He was tall and thick with a soft belly and meat on his bones. His long light-brown hair was pulled back into a bun. Guys with long hair were catnip for me. Especially sweaty long hair after great sex.Stop thinking sexy thoughts. It’s not the time or place for it.I didn’t want to get tossed back into the rain for being a creep.

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