Free Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) by Leeanna Morgan

floor plan accented by a rock fireplace, granite counters, and slate and wood inlaid floors. Beware the mortgage payments.”
    This time Dylan’s mouth tilted into a full throttle smile. “I’m beginning to like your sense of humor, Annie.”
    “I wasn’t being funny,” she groaned. “If you look as though you like the house, I’m going to pull you out by the tail of your shirt.”
    “Could be an interesting afternoon.” Dylan stopped his truck outside a beautiful timber and stone home.
    “Oh, wow.” Annie couldn’t believe how pretty it looked. “Maybe I should stay in your truck?”
    “You can’t get out of the viewing that easily. I need you to tell me how wrong it is.”
    “What if I like it? Then it will be partly my fault that you have an enormous mortgage.”
    A zippy little red coupe stopped on the other side of the driveway.
    Dylan opened his door and smiled. “Polly’s arrived. Don’t look too excited. She’ll think we’re pushovers.”
    Annie knew that was the least of her worries. Dylan had smiled twice in less than ten minutes. It was enough to send her into a hormone heaven. And when he hid his laughing blue eyes behind dark sunglasses and opened her door, she knew she was in trouble.
    If you added in a house that ticked all of her ‘must have’ fantasies, she was in serious trouble.
     
    ***
    After seeing all three properties, Dylan knew which one he preferred.
    “No, you can’t go back for another viewing. It’s selling for an indecent amount of money.”
    Dylan was sure Annie’s hair must have looked like everyone else’s at the beginning of the day. Only now it was all frizzy and curly. Especially the strands that were floating around her neck. “Did you look at the homes around it?”
    Annie gazed at him with a wary look in her eyes. “I did and they were equally gorgeous.”
    “And did you know that the average price of the houses around the one we’re looking at is eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”
    Annie threw her hands in the air. “It still doesn’t make the house more affordable. It’s one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars over your budget.”
    “You liked it, didn’t you?”
    She crossed her hands in front of her chest and slouched down on the park bench they were sitting on. A group of kids were kicking a ball around in front of them, yelling and screaming as if they were playing in the finals of a world championship.
    He glanced at Annie.
    “Okay. I liked it,” she admitted. “If I had enough money I’d make an offer on the property myself. But I don’t, and you don’t either.”
    Dylan hid the smile working its way to his face. “I might have enough.”
    Annie gave up her bad cop attitude and turned toward him. “There’s no point getting into debt over a house. At the end of the day, it’s four walls and a roof. No matter how nice those four walls are, it’s still a house. What about the last property we saw? That was nice, too.”
    He slid his sunglasses down his nose and stared at her.
    She blushed beet red and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not going to be intimidated by your know-it-all attitude. Maybe it wasn’t as nice as the first house, but it was one hundred and twenty thousand dollars cheaper. Even the realtor thought it was a steal.”
    “The realtor doesn’t have to live in it.”
    “Neither do I, and I vote for the last house.”
    Dylan pushed his sunglasses over his eyes. “What about the kitchen in the first house?” He knew he had her there. If he’d been blind, he still would have felt her excitement ratchet off the got-to-have meter.
    “It was okay.”
    “Are you sure it wasn’t better than okay? You spent fifteen minutes opening every drawer and cupboard, then another five minutes running your hand over the granite counter.”
    “Kitchens are important.”
    “Really?”
    Annie’s chin tilted at a stubborn angle. “You can’t change my mind by dangling an awesome kitchen under my nose.”
    Dylan