Bringing Home the Bad Boy (Second Chance #1)(18)

Faith started to laugh, but then the laugh faded into a contemplative hmm. “Although, being close to your neighbors wouldn’t be all bad…”

Charlie looked over at her, then followed to where her eyes were glued.

“… If your neighbor looks like that,” she finished.

“Hello,” Sofie purred. Then to Charlie, she said, “Oh my gosh, is that him?”

“Him, who?” Faith asked. Then turned her eyes back to Evan. “Oh. Him.”

Wearing tennis shoes and running shorts, a T-shirt dangling from his waistband, a shirtless Evan Downey jogged off his deck and onto the beach. He turned his head left, then right, as if trying to decide which direction to run. When he spotted the three of them, and Charlie hoped it wasn’t because they were all staring with their tongues hanging from their mouths, he started in their direction.

“Looks like we’ll get an introduction,” Sofie said.

Oh boy. Okay. Okay. She could do this. “Be cool,” she said, more to herself than her friends.

“Like Fonzie,” Faith said.

Sofie laughed. Faith laughed. Charlie couldn’t make a sound. Her eyes were too busy traveling the expanse of Evan’s bare chest, tattooed round shoulders, and strong arms, all the way down to his confident stride as he approached the porch.

Then he was there. Standing in front of them, his mouth quirked just so.

“Good evening, ladies.”

Faith muttered, “Wow” under her breath, and Sofie sucked in a shallow breath.

Charlie managed a, “Hey,” but heard the catch in her voice.

Also, she should tear her eyes off his naked-from-the-waist-up body. Should being the operative word. He rested a hand on the square white pillar at the foot of her porch—the arm with the evergreen trees—and propped a foot on the bottom step, his grin both sexy and confident, and she couldn’t look away.

“I’m Sofie Martin.”

Right. Introductions.

Charlie blinked out of her stupor. “Evan, these are my friends, Sofie and Faith.”

His grin widened to a distracting degree. He nodded at each of them. “Looks like you’re up to no good.”

“Hummus?” Faith offered.

He scrunched his face. “Gonna go with no on that one.”

Sofie laughed. Faith laughed. Charlie swallowed a mouthful of wine. After—how about that, it did finish on a cherry-chocolate note—she blew out a low exhale, and glanced back in the direction of his house. “Where’s Lyon?”

“Sitter. Librarian’s great-niece.”

“You could have dropped him by here while you ran.” Both her friends’ gazes snapped to her.

“GNO is no place for a seven-year-old, Ace.” The nickname drew more curiosity from her friends.

“You know the acronym for Girls’ Night Out,” Sofie observed. “You’re a keeper.”

“I had a wife. I know my stuff,” he said with an easy smile. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to your hummus.” With a pat of palm to pillar, he turned his back on them and took off jogging down the water’s edge.

Charlie watched until he became a grainy shadow in the distance, then dragged her gaze away from his ass. On the way, she came eye-to-eye with Faith, whose lips lifted impishly. “He is smokin’ hot.”

“Seriously,” Sofie concurred. “And he likes Charlie.”

“Of course he likes me. He was married to my best friend,” she said, reaching for her wine.

“That’s not the kind of like she means,” Faith said, her smile evident.

“You,” she pointed at Sofie, “are reading too much into this. And you,” she gestured to Faith, “are engaged to be married.”

“And you”—Sofie poked Charlie in the arm—“are changing the subject. Admit it. He’s ridiculously hot and you’d love to know what’s under those running shorts.”

“Sofie!” Charlie said in a harsh whisper.

“We all want to see what’s under those running shorts,” Faith said through a laugh.

The sip of wine turned into a gulp. Okay, her friends had a point. His body was beautiful and mostly bare and she did want to see what the rest of it looked like. Which was awful. And made her a horrible best friend.

Sorry, Rae.

“Ace?” Sofie prompted.

Charlie opened her eyes, relieved to talk about something other than if Evan was a boxer-or-briefs guy—if he wore them at all.

Oh boy.

“I’ve never had a nickname,” Faith said.

Charlie cleared her throat, and her mind of Evan’s… everything. “It’s a funny story.” She couldn’t keep from smiling. The memory was a good one. “The four of us used to have poker nights when I lived in Columbus. Russell, me, Evan, and Rae. We usually played for Oreos or gummy bears, but this night in particular, we played for change. With real coin on the line, I decided to sneak an Ace of hearts out of my sleeve for the win. Evan busted me.”

Sofie gasped. “You? She who does everything right?”

Charlie’s jaw dropped. “I do not do everything right!”

“You do. You’re the goodest girl I know.”

She was? A frown pulled her lips. “Good” sounded synonymous with “bland.”