Title: Finding Mr.
Right Next Door
Series: Firefighters of
Station 1
Author: Sarah Ballance
Release Date: May 11,
2020 (ARC)
Published By: Entangled
Lovestruck
Category: Contemporary
– Romance – Firefighter
Type: Digital –
Paperback
Rating:
Heat:
Blurb:
For Lexi
Dean, burning down her kitchen was disaster enough. Agreeing to move in next
door with her totally off-limits best friend, Matt Freeman, until her house is
livable again?
Utter madness.
They’ve always been close, but this is ridiculous. If she’s not bumping into him at the refrigerator, he’s at the front door giving her date the third degree. And slipping between his borrowed sheets? That’s about as distracting as listening to his shower run, because suddenly all she can think about is rivulets of water cascading down his spectacular body—the one he seems to be going out of his way to make sure she notices.
Not that it matters. He can flaunt his firefighter abs around her all he wants. They already share everything—their jobs, their friends, their backyard, even their dog—and that means only one thing: Lexi is not going to risk losing any of it by dipping a single toe in the temptation that is Matt Freeman.
Lexi may not know how to handle a fire extinguisher, but this is one fire that just might burn them both if they’re not careful...
Utter madness.
They’ve always been close, but this is ridiculous. If she’s not bumping into him at the refrigerator, he’s at the front door giving her date the third degree. And slipping between his borrowed sheets? That’s about as distracting as listening to his shower run, because suddenly all she can think about is rivulets of water cascading down his spectacular body—the one he seems to be going out of his way to make sure she notices.
Not that it matters. He can flaunt his firefighter abs around her all he wants. They already share everything—their jobs, their friends, their backyard, even their dog—and that means only one thing: Lexi is not going to risk losing any of it by dipping a single toe in the temptation that is Matt Freeman.
Lexi may not know how to handle a fire extinguisher, but this is one fire that just might burn them both if they’re not careful...
By reading any further, you are stating that
you are at least 18 years of age.
If you are under the age of 18,
please exit this site.
Favorite Lines:
This guy was cheaper than
dollar been night … he was ninety-nine cent bottled water. ~ Matt
She slipped one leg in
the burlap bag and batter her eyelashes at him. “What do you say, Matt? Want to
crawl in the sack with me? With a knowing grin, she added, “You did offer,
right?” ~ Lexie
Vocabulary Word:
Saccharine
sac·cha·rine | \ ˈsa-k(ə-)rən , -kə-ˌrēn, -kə-ˌrīn \
Definition of saccharine
1a: of, relating to, or resembling that of sugarsaccharine taste
b: yielding or containing sugarsaccharine vegetables
2: overly or sickishly sweetsaccharine flavor
3: ingratiatingly or affectedly agreeable or
friendly
4: overly sentimental : MAWKISHa saccharine love story
Excerpt:
“I’m not sure,” Lexi muttered. “I was making a tart and I turned away for a moment and…”She stared at the ground, toeing at a strip of grass that had crept into the crack of the sidewalk. The warmth of the late morning sun had nothing on the embarrassment heating her cheeks, which just gave her another reason not to look at her friends, but she couldn’t stare at the ground forever. Resigned, she lifted her gaze to meet Diego’s. “Guys, could you please, please not tell anyone?”
“Wait. You made a dessert?”Diego’s brow lifted in surprise. “What, like a flambé?”To his credit, he didn’t look like he found his question terribly funny, but behind that professional mask of his, she’d bet money he inwardly howled with laughter.
Matt snorted indelicately. Nothing inward with him. “Do you think Lexi, of all people, can make a flambé?”
Lexi rolled her eyes—yep, here it was—while Diego did a terrible job of suppressing a grin. “I think she did.”
They should just get Shane and Jack on speaker so they could all howl in unison. Get it over with. Her eyes heated, and her frustration grew. She did not want to cry, but with her lawn torn up by firemen and their equipment and her door hanging open and her friends staring at her, she was at a justifiable breaking point. And she did an Oscar-worthy job of not hitting it until someone pulled on the hose and it jerked backward, taking out her fledgling Japanese tree lilac that had been propagated from one of her grandparents’ beloved gardens. They were long gone, but the new landowner had let Lexi take cuttings.
And the lone scrawny survivor had just been raked from its bed, across the wet lawn, and into the gutter.
“It was just a tart!”Lexi burst out. “I wanted to surprise Elsie with her mother’s recipe and I don’t know, I guess the butter from the crust—” She stopped when she saw Matt and Diego were on the verge of laughter. She wanted to be mad, but they didn’t know how much that stupid tree meant to her, or how badly she wanted to make a beautiful tart, or how desperately she’d been trying to turn into a baking, gardening, domestic goddess.
“You were making my grandmother a tart?”Matt asked. “She’s pretty much the baking champion of Colorado, and you were making her a tart?”
“She hasn’t baked in years,” Lexi reminded him, as if that justified the brand-new low she’d just reached when it came to ruining otherwise good recipes. She and Matt’s grandmother were close. Closer, probably, than Matt and Elsie. He tried, but the old woman bewildered him—intentionally, Lexi often suspected—and Elsie was old-fashioned enough to prefer to have a woman’s help when it came to more delicate matters. Lexi had known Matt’s grandmother for as long as she could remember, and she’d naturally fallen into the role of caregiver as the elder woman aged.
“Have you baked ever?” Matt asked. “Successfully, that is?”
Lexi turned slightly, doing the best she could to show Matt her back. He, of all people, already knew the answer to that.
“You aren’t going to be able to live in your house for a few days, maybe longer,” Diego said.
Lexi’s jaw dropped. “I can’t live here?”
“Maybe the average person shouldn’t under the circumstances,” Matt said, butting right back in, “but this is Lexi. If you just board up the kitchen, which she clearly has no use for, she’ll be fine, and the rest of the neighborhood…well, suffice to say we’ll all sleep a little better tonight.”He countered her wounded look with an apologetic grin and held up his phone. “As far as it not getting out, we all get dispatch notifications.”
“Crap,” Lexi muttered. She’d forgotten that little detail. She turned to stare at her house. It looked okay, barring the slight cosmetic damage to the yard and what she could see through the window. Maybe she could just board up the kitchen.
The little bit of hope lasted until the inspector showed up a few hours later and informed her otherwise. “Sorry,”he said, not sounding the least bit apologetic. “You’ll need to strip out the damage and pass inspections on the plumbing and electrical before you can stay here. Do you have a contractor in mind?”
No, she did not. She had a shower in mind, then a nap. She was exhausted, and now it looked like she’d be crashing at her parents’place for however long it took her to get her kitchen rebuilt, which meant the distance of her morning commute would be a nightmare. Lexi barely did mornings as it was, and now she’d have to figure out how to do them an hour earlier.
“I don’t know,” she said, hugging herself. She wore Matt’s sweatshirt, oversized on her smaller frame, and the faint scent of him brought her a ridiculous amount of comfort. Ridiculous because he’d never let her hear the end of this, and the last thing that felt was comforting.
“Hey, Lexi.”She looked up at the sound of her name to see her neighbor, Keith, who owned a construction company. “I’m sorry about your house. If you need someone to spearhead the repairs, I’ll match your lowest estimate.”
“That’s incredibly generous,” she said, thinking of the renovation he’d done to another home on their block. Lexi and Matt had once wandered over to an open house and had been astounded by what had been done with the same simple floor plan she and Matt each had. The real estate agent had absolutely raved about Keith’s work, saying she recommended him to her clients. “I’d love for you to take the job,” Lexi told him, grateful to find a bright spot in this debacle. She hadn’t even thought to worry about finding someone to do the repairs.
“If you put it all in writing,” Matt said from behind her, causing her to jump. His voice wasn’t unkind, but it was decidedly in her business.
Keith smiled. “Covers my butt as well as hers,” he said. “Get a few estimates. Your insurance company will want to see them, and we can talk about any differences to make sure you get what you want out of the restoration.”He glanced back at the house, then to Lexi. “Where should I deliver the paperwork?”
“My parents’house,” Lexi said. She hadn’t talked to them yet, not wanting to worry them and having fully believed she could stay at her own place, but they certainly wouldn’t turn her away. “I’ll text the address—”
“They’re an hour away,” Matt interrupted, frowning. “That’s a long commute.”
“Well, my tent is at the cleaner’s,” she said drily. “And I’m quite the fan of hot water and indoor plumbing, so I’ll just have to—”
“Stay with me,” he said. When she didn’t respond, he added, “I’m next door. Your stuff is right here, easily accessible. You’re over here all the time anyway, and I have the extra bedroom. There’s absolutely no reason you should drive two hours a day.”
“Well, there is the one about not invading your…privacy.”The excuse fell flat at the end—at least compared to what she wanted to say—but the neighbor was right there, and she didn’t want to call Matt out on his endless parade of first dates, not one of whom she wanted to run into on a middle of the night bathroom run. And as for her own dating life…that was definitely something she wanted to keep under the proverbial sheets, to the extent that she’d kept a secret bit of news from him for an entire week now. A record. She should have known that wasn’t going to last.
“You wash my underwear,” Matt said, eliciting a raised brow from Keith. “I think we can share a house for a few days.”
“Three weeks for a kitchen,” Keith said. “Maybe sooner once I get in there, but that’s a safe ballpark.”
“Three weeks,” Matt repeated. “That’s nothing. And what about Waffles?”
Lexi groaned. This had potential for disaster written all over it. They shared friends, a dog, coworkers, a property line, and Matt was like a son to her parents, while his grandmother would be stuck in granny panties for the rest of her life without Lexi there to covertly supply the thongs Elsie insisted on wearing under her housecoat. If the living situation went wrong, it would ruin everything. Lexi choked down a troubled sigh.
Her burned-out kitchen could easily turn out to be the least disastrous thing about this day, but Matt had her on one point: she didn’t have a single excuse that would justify her abandoning their dog.
“Okay,” she finally agreed. “I’ll stay.”
Highlight:
The doorbell rang. He glanced at his cell. He’d arranged a date of his own, and while he’d be loath to admit it to Lexi, he had no problem acknowledging to himself that its entire purpose was to give him a reason to keep an eye on her. Lexi wasn’t stupid or reckless, and she could definitely hold her own in most circumstances, but this random stranger dating thing left his stomach in knots. Maybe he’d luck out and know the guy, or at least know of him, and there wouldn’t be an issue, but for now he was swimming in issues. And if that meant sucking down dollar beers while his date downed eight-dollar watered-down cocktails, he was good with that. At any rate, he didn’t expect his date for another thirty minutes, so this must be Lexi’s guy. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth.
He opened the door anyway.
His date, Carla, stood there in a mini electric-blue dress, every curve on display. “You’re early,” he said, surprised.
“You’ve never invited me to your house before,” she said with a toss of her dark, glossy hair. “I thought we might be starting with dessert.”
Matt groaned inwardly. He liked her, and he couldn’t exactly blame her for the conclusion, but she had it completely wrong. He’d asked her to meet him here because he didn’t want to somehow miss meeting Lexi’s date. Matt was genuinely surprised she hadn’t had the guy pick her up at her own house, but he figured she knew that wouldn’t stop him. Matt would either meet her date or be the weird guy staring from the property line, and this version was probably going to be easier to explain. “Actually,” he told Carla, “we aren’t alone.”
Carla’s lips pursed. “Oh?”
The doorbell rang again. Rather than answer Carla, Matt reached for the door, expecting Lexi to come barging into the room at any minute. However futile other plans might have been, he still couldn’t quite believe she hadn’t breezed past him an hour ago just to avoid Matt laying eyes on Mr. Right Enough.
Matt swung open the door, revealing a decidedly normal looking guy on the other side. Dark hair, decent tan, looked like he worked out. “Hi,” the man said, extending his hand. “You must be Matt. I’m Dave.”
Matt accepted the proffered hand, grudgingly admitting to himself that the guy had a decent grip. He didn’t try to crush him, so no posturing. And Lexi had already told him about Matt? And not in a way that had Dave the least bit apprehensive, which meant she had managed to convince at least one person in Dry Rock that their friend zone not only existed, but ran deeper than the Kawuneeche—at least if body language meant anything, as this guy was completely unconcerned. Matt suddenly remembered his own guest, and with Dave looking expectantly at him, said, “Lexi will be out in a minute. This is a friend of mine, Carla. Carla, Dave.”
Dave managed to greet Carla without gawking at the way she was poured into that dress. Matt’s grudging respect for the man kicked up a few notches, but his inability to hate the guy was getting on his nerves. He didn’t want Lexi going out with a caveman, serial murderer or not, but in the half a minute since he’d met Dave, the idea that she might actually end up liking this guy certainly didn’t help Matt’s chances of liking him. In that split second, all he could see was her laughing, her silky blond waves sliding across her shoulders and falling carelessly when she brushed them back with manicured fingertips. And in his little vision, unlike the countless times that scenario had played out in real life, she wasn’t looking at him.
In no one’s world was Matt jealous or possessive, but in that moment, one thought threatened to knock him on his butt.
In the most ordinary of ways, Lexi was his.
He knew why she hadn’t told him about this dating thing. Somehow she’d known he wasn’t ready to share her. He wasn’t ready to lose her, and he sure as hell wasn’t ready to come to terms with that. And while he was undeniably getting ahead of himself, their usual movie night with this dude planted on the sofa between him and Lexi wasn’t going to happen. He felt the calculated loss with an actual physical ache in his chest, and he vowed right then and there that he didn’t care how mad Lexi got—he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her.
Then Lexi walked into the room, and whatever small talk Dave and Carla had going on ceased, and with it, Matt’s plan to make sure the guy didn’t gawk at anything lower than Lexi’s face.
Hell, Matt was gawking.
Lexi wasn’t poured into a dress. She wasn’t on display. In fact, she had on a pair of faded blue jeans he knew for a fact were worn to softness. Visually, he traced the threads that lined the hole just above her left knee, knowing they were a road map to a tickle spot that made her eyes shine and her laughter dance. He didn’t recognize the tee she wore with it, but the cornflower blue was the exact same shade as her irises and rested so casually against her curves that he had to swallow to keep the drool off his chin. But none of that grabbed him like the light that seemed to emanate from her. She was like a kid at Christmas, and it was for someone else…someone else he couldn’t even bring himself to hate. Yet.
“You must be Lexi,” Dave said. “It’s great to finally meet you.”
Finally? She’d just joined the site a week ago. How quickly had this guy latched on? Within a second, if he had half a brain.
“You, too,” she said. She glanced at Matt. “I hope he wasn’t—”
“I wasn’t,” Matt said. He felt sick. Absolutely sick.
“Matt and I are old friends,” Lexi explained to Dave. “I actually live next door, but I’m staying with him while my kitchen is being renovated.”
That little proclamation got Carla’s attention. “You’re staying here?” she asked Lexi.
Lexi gave the other woman a saccharine look of compassion. “Oh, I’m sorry, is there a problem?”
“No,” Matt answered. “So, Dave, you must really like beer.”
Dave’s expression quirked between amusement and humor, landing somewhere in between. “I don’t hate it,” he said. “Why?”
“Well, dollar beer—”
Lexi hushed him by grabbing his throat, in the most literal sense. “Your buttons are undone,” she said, fussing with the ones way up at the top that Matt never fastened. When Lexi’s fingers grazed his neck, tugging at the uppermost button, he became painfully aware of the rest of her, the heat of her so close, the softness of her skin, the countless times he’d rested his head against her while they’d binged the kind of crap he couldn’t care less to see. His pulse shot up and he wasn’t sure if it was her proximity or the not-so-idle threat in her actions. She knew he hated anything fitting that snugly around his throat.
“I just want to make sure you get home safely,” he said, almost choking over the words when she snapped his collar shut, nonetheless managing to shoot a pointed, likely feral look at Dave.
She glanced at Carla and winked before saying, “Okay, Dad. Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for a date?”She brushed back his hair, leaving a trail of awareness everywhere she’d touched.
“I am ready,” he grumbled under his breath, a quiet warning that Lexi ignored.
Instead, she tugged once more on the shirt that now felt like a vise around his neck and said, “There. Totally hot.”
Matt blinked. She thought he was hot? A thousand times he’d strutted around shirtless in front of her trying to get any kind of reaction and it happens now? When she has a date? When he has Carla, shooting daggers between him and Lexi?
He tried to kick back the feelings that seemed to steal air from the room. They meant nothing. He cared way too much about Lexi to screw up things between them over what could only be a misplaced bout of jealousy, no matter how hot his skin burned. Still, he said his goodbyes perhaps a bit too brightly, earning an odd look from Lexi, but the moment passed. Or he could only assume it did for her, because in the end Carla breezily told him she was grabbing a drink from the fridge and so it was just him, watching Lexi walk away, her attention on another man, everything about her vividly radiant and sexy and happy.
He couldn’t stop staring.
She never looked back. …
Review:
Lexie isn’t known for her cooking
prowess. A disaster in the kitchen she might be, but she is determined to bake
a successful version of Matt’s grandmother’s tart. Big mistake. All she is left
with is a flaming kitchen, a ruined family heirloom tart pan, and all of her
co-workers on her front porch dousing the inferno. The most sensible plan is to
move next door with her best friend, Matt, during the renovations. After a bit
of hesitation, she concedes. But the forced proximity to her best friend since
childhood stirs up all kinds of emotions and feelings they have never allowed
themselves to explore for fear of ruining their perfect friendship. But
chemistry and attraction under the same roof are difficult to extinguish and
before too long, Lexi and Matt are creating a blaze of their own. But where do
you go once the line has been crossed?
Matt has wanted Lexi since forever, but
once they settled into their comfortable friendship, the risk involved if they
didn’t work out became too much to gamble against. So when Lexi needs a place
to crash, offering her a place to stay is automatic. What he didn’t count on
was the fierce protectiveness that would consume him. And the fact that she’s
just started dating – and a cop (his biggest rival as a firefighter) – isn’t
helping one bit. So when they finally give in to their overwhelming passion, neither
knows how to proceed, terrified that everything will change. And boy does it.
Now something big is simmering and the outcome will determine if their
relationship is ruined or has simply moved up the ladder to the next rung.
You guys! If you want a super fun, super
cute, ridiculously hot, crazy sexy read … look no further. I was giggling and
fanning myself in equal amounts throughout this entire book. I loved the
friends to lovers' idea of this book. Matt and Lexi had amazing chemistry and watching
them try to deny it was a pleasure to watch unfold. One of the best scenes is
when they have already indulged once. Not knowing the best course of action and
scared of voicing their true feelings, they decide to ignore the whole thing ever
happened. But neither can stop thinking about the other. Eventually, they end up
trying to tempt each other. Matt mows the lawn shirtless, Lexi does yoga in the
front window, and that’s just the footnote of the scene. I mean who would be
able to resist? These two tempt and torment each other relentlessly, and it’s brilliant.
The one thing I became annoyed with was the incessant bagging on Lexi and her
cooking skills. Heck, skills in the kitchen, period. Forget only the cooking
ability. Or inability as it were. At first, it was just a bit of ribbing between
friends given the debacle in her kitchen. Understandable. But Lexi has a
horrific reputation in this respect and they never let her forget it. After a
while I just wanted them to shut up and leave her alone. It almost bordered on
unfriendly banter, so if I had a complaint, it’s definitely the unrelenting
teasing.
Several secondary
characters add a lot to this story. I especially found Matt’s grandmother
entertaining. She’s like the cool kid that never got the memo that she’s older.
Living just as carefree as a teenager, but wise with her years of experience,
this lady damn near steals the book. Bordering on inappropriate, she’s the
grandma everyone wants to have. Lexi’s parents were also introduced. They didn’t
have a very big role to play within these pages, but I appreciated their
supportive nature and love for the main characters. On the more serious side is a
fellow firefighter, Diego. Recently divorced, his wife cheated on him, yet he
still maintains his belief in love and ends up playing a pivotal role in
bringing one of the characters round to seeing the truth of their relationship.
If I wanted to see anyone’s story following this book, it’s definitely Diego. A
guy as great as he is with the crap deal he got doesn’t deserve to remain
unhappy. He must have his own HEA at some point. I’m not sure if there is
another book within this series yet. I assume there is one for Shane and Caitlin,
but I could be wrong. This book is listed at part of the series, FIREFIGHTERS
OF STATION 1, but it has no number associated with it. As a result, I am unsure
if it is the first book in the series, or not. Regardless of its order within
the series, it is a truly entertaining read that just might have you blushing as
you read through a few particular pages. The passion between Matt and Lexi is
crazy hot and the games they play with one another are exciting if a little
annoying. I only say annoying because at one point I was screaming at them to
just drop the façade and get it on. The fact they truly know each other inside
and out allows them to play on a whole different level than your typical neighbors
to lovers book. This best friends to lovers aspect definitely kicked things up
a notch. And with them living next door, temporarily together, and working
together, there isn’t much time to play the avoidance game they are set on
enacting. Or maybe there is more than enough time, depending on how you look at it. As a first read with Ms. Ballance, this book was fantastic. I enjoyed
every minute spent with this cast of quirky characters and eagerly await my next
experience with these hot firefighters and the women who set them ablaze.
Kindle
version provided by NetGalley/Entangled in exchange for an honest review.
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