Page 10 of Can't Take Moore

Skylar’s eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together in excitement. “Such great timing! It’s like fate is telling you to go see her.”

I wasn’t a big believer in fate, but I was willing to use it as an excuse to break my rule about mixing business with pleasure. Vienna had just given me the perfect excuse to pay her a visit, and that was exactly what I was going to do.

3

Vienna

Idusted my hands off as I put the last of the dry goods in the pantry. I had accomplished a heck of a lot more than I’d expected for my first day in my new house. Before the Reinholds had left, they carried in the stuff I’d managed to fit in my SUV into the house. Then Mike surprised me when he told me that the local grocery store was on the app that I used in Chicago. Even better, several restaurants were available through my favorite food takeout service.

My kitchen was stocked, and my belly was full as I wandered through the rooms of my new home. I wasn’t done decorating yet, but so far, all of the furniture was to my taste. The same couldn’t be said for my Gold Coast condo, where my mom and sister had picked everything out. The vibe there was very contemporary with clean lines and sharp angles. This place was cozier, with a homey ambiance that made me want to curl up and relax, tucked away from the prying eyes of the rest of the world.

The soft, plush ottoman in front of the oversized sectional in the living room invited me to throw my feet up while I grabbed one of the throw blankets I’d selected from the Reinhold Furniture website. The cable company had shocked the heck out of me by showing up at the earliest part of the four-hour timeframe I’d been given, so I could stream whatever I wanted on the eighty-inch flat screen on the wall across from the couch.

In the office, the dark wood of the desk, rich colors in the accent rug, and large overstuffed chair in the corner made me want to run out to a bookstore so I could fill the shelves lining one wall. I’d love to hole up in there and spend an entire weekend reading sometime. Now that I didn’t have anyone around to tell me what to do with my time, it might actually happen.

The four-poster bed in the master suite was the pièce de résistance, giving that room the ultimate cozy feeling. The area rugs, throw pillows, and abundance of blankets only added to the effect. I’d always had to be a morning person—getting rink time before the sun rose tended to do that—but I could easily picture myself sleeping in often.

I was headed to the front door to grab my phone charger out of the SUV when I heard a knock on the door. All of my appointments for the day were done, so I had no clue who it could be. I was surprised to find a guy on my front porch who could easily be in a magazine spread modeling the designer suit he was wearing.

With his chiseled jaw, plush lips, five o’clock shadow, and dimpled chin, he had the kind of looks I was attracted to. My fingers itched to fix the lock of dark hair that had dropped onto his forehead. I felt my cheeks heat when I met his gaze, the intelligence in his brown eyes making me wonder if he knew what I was thinking.

But when he spoke, I was more worried about what he was thinking.

“Not hard at all.”

My brows drew together. “Pardon?”

He jerked his chin to the left and explained, “I was answering your text. It wouldn’t be difficult to have a porch swing put in.”

My text? Holy heck!The hot, suit-wearing guy at my door was my real estate broker?

“Dean?”

“Oh, shit. Sorry,” he apologized with a grimace, raking his fingers through his thick hair. “We’ve talked so much via email and text, I kind of forgot you’d have no way of knowing what I looked like when I showed up on your doorstep.”

“Um, wow…yeah. I wasn’t expecting you to show up to tell me how easy it would be to do the porch swing thing when I sent you that text.” Especially not when I was a complete mess after the drive and getting the house organized.

“If I had only replied, I wouldn’t have been able to bring you this.” He held out a white box with the green and pink Leaves & Pages logo on top and followed it up with one of their to-go cups.

Cradling the box against my chest with one arm, I glanced down at the tag dangling from the rim of the cup and noticed it was the same tea blend I’d gotten earlier in the day. “Nice place. I stopped by there when I was driving through town on my way here.”

“Yeah, I heard.” He gently tapped the top of the box. “When Skylar found out that you were one of my clients, she felt bad about not giving you a warmer welcome to town.”

I was hit by a niggling suspicion. “Is she the pregnant blonde with the hovering husband?”

His deep chuckle washed over me. “Yeah, my cousin Baxter is the one doing the helicopter routine. As she gets closer to her due date, he’s finding new levels for his overprotectiveness.”

Internally cringing over what all they’d shared with him about my visit to the cute shop—like how I’d mentioned that I could use the books as an excuse to loiter long enough to look Baxter’s cousins over—I asked, “How much longer does she have to go?”

“Right around a month.”

I hadn’t spent much time around babies, but the thought of cuddling a newborn made me all warm and fuzzy inside. “Nice.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled, his handsome face lit with joy. “We’re all excited for the birth. He’s the first of the next generation of Moores.”

“He?”

He nodded. “Yeah, male genes run strong in our family. I have two brothers and a ton of male cousins. Not a single girl in the bunch. The news about Baxter and Skylar having a boy wasn’t much of a surprise.”

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