Page 24 of Fools in Love

The doors opened, and I followed her as she stepped inside. Reaching around her body, I pushed the button for the tenth floor and didn’t miss the way her breath skipped at my closeness.

“You know,” I whispered near her ear and watched as her eyes closed in response, “we never did finish our conversation about Sheila.”

April immediately tensed, her shoulders moving up a full inch as her hazel eyes shot back open and met mine.

“The one where you said shesees things.”

The way I’d said it made her smile, and she swatted my shoulder playfully.

“I only meant that she has a knack for bringing couples together. She sees it before they do.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.” April sounded exasperated. “I’ve asked her a thousand times, and she always just shrugs her shoulders and says she can’t explain it. She says it’s a feeling she gets.”

“Do you get that feeling too? With your couples?” I wondered if it was something that perfected itself with time or if there was more to it than that. Was this some sort of ability, or did it come with the territory and familiarity of the job?

“It’s only happened twice.”

“Were you right?”

She smiled and nodded. “Yeah.”

“So, is that what Sheila’s doing here?” I wagged a finger between our two bodies. “Between us?”

The elevator came to a stop as April looked at me, unsure of how to answer.

“I think so. But to be fair—” she started to explain, but I pulled her out as soon as the doors opened and held her against me. She was so short compared to me, even in her heels, and I liked the way her head rested perfectly on my chest. She stopped talking completely, her body melting into mine.

“Keep going,” I encouraged before giving her a soft kiss.

April cleared her throat and looked away from me, like she needed to do that in order to focus. And I understood completely. Looking at her and trying to make sense of any thoughts I had in my head at the same time was a fucking task.

“I was saying, to be fair, I think she was onto something.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

JUMPING THE GUN

APRIL

Itruly never saw this coming. Me and Robbie, the grumpy firefighter who, before tonight, had always seemed to be in a perpetually bad mood. The fact that I was walking hand in hand toward the front door of his apartment to most likely—no, definitely—have sex with him was something I could have never foreseen.

The night of the bachelor auction felt like it had been a million years ago even though it had only been a few weeks at most. He’d been such a jerk then. And he still was sometimes. But behind that rough exterior was a guy with an aching heart. Someone who had been hurt over and over again.

Under the surface of this hot-as-hell fireman was a man who felt like he wasn’t worth loving.

I planned on showing him just how worthy he was.

We walked through his front door, and I stopped myself from gasping at how clean his place was. It had to be his occupation. All the strict rules for keeping the firehouse organized spilled over into his home life. Which, trust me, I was not complaining about. Men could be slobs. How nice it would be to live with someone who wasn’t.

LIVE WITH SOMEONE? Slow down, cowgirl.

“It’s not much, I know,” he started to say, and I wasn’t sure what he meant at first before I realized that he lived in a studio and not a one-bedroom.

Did he really think I cared about that? This was Manhattan after all. Living here was expensive.

“But I’m only here half the time,” he added.

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