Free Dating the Guy Next Door by Amanda Ashby Page A

said and then caught her breath as he made his way over. Her heart fluttered as he stood directly in front of her, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her.
    â€œKate.”
    â€œYes,” she managed to croak.
    â€œIf you want me to have a look at it, you’re going to have to turn around.”
    â€œOh, right.” She knew that. She quickly turned around as much to hide her heated cheeks as anything. But if she had trouble breathing while he was standing in front of her that was nothing compared to what her lungs were struggling with now that he was behind her. In fact, as she felt him carefully push her hair around to the side of her neck, she thought her whole body was going to explode with the effort of expelling oxygen.
    â€œI see what the problem is.” His breath caressed the nape of her neck, causing her spine to tingle in response. She could feel his hand moving away from her shoulders and trailing down to where the zipper was caught. Never had anything felt so exquisitely painful before.
    â€œI’ll try to be as gentle as possible.” Matt’s voice was husky as his fingers pressed into her skin and continued to tug at the militant zipper until it was finally released. “There, all done.”
    â€œThanks.” She spun around to face him. Somehow, the idea of him being so close and not touching her seemed almost unbearable. “S-so I guess I’d better be on my way.”
    â€œActually, I did have an ulterior motive,” he admitted, and Kate sucked in her breath. If it involved any more hiding out then she was just going to have to be firm with him. That or sell her shop and move somewhere far, far away. “I wanted to ask you out to dinner tonight.”
    â€œDinner?” Kate’s throat went dry. Was this a test to see if she was going to stick to her word? “As in a date dinner?”
    â€œWell, yeah, I guess if that’s what the kids are calling it these days.” His smile widened to reach his eyes. Then he titled his head and clamped down on his lower lip. Was he nervous? Her heart fluttered. There was nothing more endearing than a guy who was nervous when they asked someone out on a date. It also meant that she mustn’t have misjudged the situation as much as she thought she had the other night. Which might lessen the embarrassment she’d been feeling about it, but it didn’t solve her problem.
    â€œThere’s a new French place that has opened up at Pioneer Square. It’s had excellent reviews. Plus, if you wanted to go somewhere else for dessert we could walk along to Gio’s. They do an amazing cheesecake.”
    â€œYou’ve put a lot of thought into this.” Kate blinked, almost expecting him to pull out a spreadsheet of the evening.
    â€œOnce a planner, always a planner.” Matt let out a reluctant laugh and Kate almost found herself smiling before shecollected herself. Unfortunately, there was no way she could say yes. Not if she wanted to stay sane and focused on her work. Because if Monday night had proved anything, it had been that when it came to her neighbor, she wasn’t trustworthy. “So, what do you say?”
    â€œI can’t go. I’m sorry.”
    â€œOh.” Some of the smile left his face. “Well, we could do it another night. Maybe when you’re not so busy.”
    â€œThe thing is that I don’t date.”
    â€œLike ever?” Matt raised an eyebrow and looked at her like she had paint on her face.
    â€œThat was the plan. I kind of had a bad breakup and it put me off ever talking to a man again,” she admitted, while willing herself not to look at the slight bristle on his chin. She could almost imagine running her fingers across it. Or ripping his clothes off and touching his torso. It was a close call as to which one she wanted to do more. She also realized that maybe Jenny had been right about the pressure cooker. At this rate