Page 6

Her face softened, and I tried not to let the gleam of approval mean too much.

“You donate baby blankets? And you make them yourself?”

I nodded, glancing back at her car.

“Yeah, they are one of the first things I learned to make.”

“That’s so sweet!”

I couldn’t let her think my hobby was all altruistic.

“Naw, we just need to keep our hands busy. It helps to combat the stress of answering nine-one-one calls.”

She snorted. “I have some idea from Jimmy of how hard dispatch can be. If knitting was just about stress relief, I imagine you’d have a baby blanket business empire by now, not be donating them.”

I glanced her way quickly, before watching another car maneuver around us and out of the lot. “We have that too.”

Her bark of laughter caught me by surprise, and I glanced back to her dancing brown eyes.

“No way.”

I nodded reluctantly. Why had I admitted to my knitting hobby again? She seemed amused, was she laughing at me?

I cleared my throat. “We have a booth at the local farmer’s market. It helps fund our yarn habit and the donated clothing and blankets we share with local shelters and hospitals.”

Spending Saturdays at the market was one of my favorite things. Being outside, watching people mill about and browsing the crafts was peaceful. The normalcy and slow pace of it all was a nice foil to my regular job.

Andi’s grin widened. “You, Ty Sheldon, are a man of hidden talents.”

I grunted, uncomfortable with the praise. “I think your car’s ready now.”

She sobered at my change of subject, and I kicked myself. It was the easiest we’d been with each other since The Incident, and I’d blown it.

“Thanks again,” she said softly. “I really appreciate your help tonight.”

“No problem. I’ll follow you home, make sure you get there safely.” I did my best to infuse my tone with things I couldn’t say aloud. Her happiness, her safety, were paramount to me. Asked or not, I wanted to be there for her if she needed me.

“Ty, you don’t have to do that.”

“No, but I want to,” I admitted.

I didn’t need to tell her how much I wanted to follow her. I’d forgotten how being near Andi warmed me, from the inside out. Like sunshine. I needed more sunny skies in my life. Reminders that the world wasn’t all chaos.

She carefully folded the blankets, setting them in the back seat, before pushing open the passenger door. I disconnected my jumper cables and stowed them as she got back into her car.

She waved, and I hopped back into my truck, following her taillights as she exited the parking lot.

Would Jimmy approve of me following his sister home? Maybe. If he thought I was seeing her safely there instead of perving on her, he wouldn’t get on my case.

But the truth was, I wanted to see where she lived. Know everything about her.

And that was a problem.

I’d had my chance at a romantic relationship with her and blown it. Convincing her to give me another opportunity without shattering one of my oldest friendships with Jimmy seemed unlikely. I couldn’t afford to lose more friends. Not after the debacle with Jess and Dean. Losing my whole friend group during our break-up sucked. Maybe, if Jess hadn’t fallen for a teammate, it wouldn’t have felt like I lost everything and everyoneall at once. The combination of my injury and her defection meant the end of my soccer career and rejection from men who had become like brothers hit me when I was lowest. I had too few real friends left to risk losing more by angering Jimmy, pursuing his sister.

But maybe friendship with Andi was worth a try?

Chapter 3 – Andi