From Neighbors...to Newlyweds?. Brenda Harlen

one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met.

      She had a heart-shaped face with creamy skin, elegantly shaped lips, a delicate nose dusted with freckles, and the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. He’d caught his first glimpse of her on moving day. She’d been casually dressed in a sleeveless yellow blouse and a pair of faded denim jeans with her honey-blond hair in a ponytail, but even from a distance, he’d felt the tug of attraction.

      Standing within two feet of her now, that tug was even stronger—much stronger than any self-preservation instincts that warned him against getting involved with a woman with three children who could take hold of his heart.

      “You do have your hands full,” he said.

      “Every day is a challenge,” she agreed. And then, to the boys, “Come on—we’ve got to go get your sister.”

      “Can we bring Pippa back to see the puppies?” Quinn asked hopefully.

      His mother shook her head. “In fact, you’re going to apologize to Mr. Garrett for intruding—”

      “Matt,” he interjected, because it was friendlier than “Mister” and less daunting than “Doctor,” and because he definitely wanted to be on a first-name basis with his lovely neighbor. “And it wasn’t at all an intrusion. In fact, it was a pleasure to meet all of you.”

      “Does that mean we can come back again?” Quinn asked.

      “Anytime,” he said.

      “And within two weeks, you’ll be calling someone to put up a fence between our properties,” Georgia warned.

      He shook his head. “If I did that, they wouldn’t be able to come over to play in the tree house.”

      “Mommy says we can’t go in the tree house,” Quinn admitted. “’Cuz it’s not ours.”

      “But a tree house is made for little boys, and since I don’t have a little boy of my own—” Matt ignored the pang of loss and longing in his heart, deliberately keeping his tone light “—it’s going to need someone to visit it every once in a while, so it doesn’t get lonely.”

      “We could visit,” Quinn immediately piped up, as Shane nodded his head with enthusiasm and Georgia rolled her eyes.

      “That’s a great idea—so long as you check to make sure it’s okay with your mom first,” Matt told them.

      “Can we, Mommy?”

      “Pleeeease?”

      He held his breath, almost as anxious for her response as the twins were. It shouldn’t matter. He didn’t even know this woman—but he knew that he wanted to know her, and he knew that it wouldn’t be a hardship to hang out with her kids, either.

      “We’ll talk about it another time,” she said.

      Quinn let out an exaggerated sigh. “That’s what she says when she means no.”

      “It means ‘we’ll talk about it another time,’” Georgia reiterated firmly.

      “I’m hungry,” Shane said again.

      She tousled his hair. “Then we should go home to make those pizzas.”

      “I’m not hungry,” Quinn said. “I wanna stay here.”

      “If you’re not hungry, then Shane will get all the little pizzas.”

      Georgia’s casual response earned a scowl from her son.

      “And you can help us paint the deck,” Matt told Quinn.

      The furrow in his brow deepened. “I guess I could eat some pizza.”

      “I’d take the pizza over painting, too,” Luke told him.

      “Unfortunately, we weren’t given that choice,” Jack said in a conspiratorial whisper.

      “And since you weren’t,” Matt noted, “you can go get the painting supplies.”

      Jack headed into the house while Luke picked up the basket full of puppies and moved it under the shade of a nearby tree so the curious canines couldn’t get in the way of their work.

      Shane and Quinn stayed by Georgia’s side, but their eyes— filled with an almost desperate yearning—tracked the path of the puppies. And as he looked at the twins’ mother, Matt thought he understood just a little bit of what they were feeling.

      In the more than three years that had passed since his divorce, Matt had wondered if he would ever feel anything more than a basic stirring of attraction for another woman. Ten minutes after meeting Georgia Reed, he could answer that question with a definitive yes.

      “Thank you,” she said to him now.

      “For what?”

      “Being so patient and tolerant with the boys.”

      “I like kids,” he said easily.

      “Then you’ll like this neighborhood,” she told him.

      He held her gaze as his lips curved. “I already do.”

      Matt watched as Georgia walked away, with one of the boys’ hands clasped firmly in each of hers. Obviously she wasn’t willing to take any chances that they might disappear again—even on the short trek next door.

      The first time he’d seen her, it hadn’t occurred to him that his gorgeous young neighbor might be a mother. Finding out that she had kids—and not just the adorable twin boys but a baby girl, too—had scrambled his mind further.

      Now that he knew about those children, it seemed wrong to admire the sweet curve of her buttocks in snug-fitting denim. And it was definitely depraved to let his gaze linger on the sway of those feminine hips—or to think about the fullness of breasts hugged by the soft blue knit cardigan she wore.

      She might have been a mother, but that reality did nothing to alter the fact that she was also an incredibly attractive woman. Something about the sexy single mother next door stirred feelings inside of him that hadn’t been stirred in a very long time. And while he was intrigued enough to want to explore those feelings, the kids were a definite complication.

      Matt had dated a lot of women without letting them into his heart, but he had no defenses against the genuine friendliness and easy acceptance of children. Especially not when the loss of his son had left a gaping hole in his heart that ached to be filled.

      “I know what you’re thinking,” Luke said, climbing back up onto the porch.

      “You think so?”

      His youngest brother nodded. “Yeah, she’s a pleasure to look at. But she’s got complication written all over her.”

      “I was only thinking that it was nice to finally meet my neighbor.”

      “You were thinking about asking her out,” Luke accused.

      “Maybe I was,” he acknowledged.

      Jack dropped an armload of painting tools at his feet. “Don’t do it.”

      “Why not?” he asked, unwilling to be dissuaded.

      “Slippery slope.”

      “You mean like an invitation to dinner might lead to a second date?” Matt didn’t bother to disguise his sarcasm.

      “And the next thing you know, you’re walking down the aisle,” Luke agreed.

      “You went out with Becky McKenzie last week.” He felt compelled to point this out. “But I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

      “That’s because when our little brother invites a woman to dinner, it’s just an invitation to dinner,” Jack explained.

      “And maybe breakfast,” Luke interjected with a grin.

      “But when you ask a