Silver Fox Next Door

She is thirty-one and has never once asked anyone for what she wants.Maddie Pruitt is a veterinary nurse who has spent most of her life being the easy one: the friend who covers the shift, the girlfriend who never complains, the daughter nobody worried about. When her cat wanders onto the porch of the new neighbor, she expects an apology and a quick exit. Instead she meets Jonas Halvorsen, a silver-haired architect with a scar on his forearm, a dry sense of humor, and a look that makes her feel as if someone has finally read her whole chart.Jonas has been divorced for two years and has decided he is finished. Then a one-eyed orange cat wanders in, a woman in coffee-stained scrubs starts knocking on his wall, and the rules he made for himself begin to give way. There is a code for the knocking. There are dinners, and long nights, and a hard day that ends with someone finally coming to find her instead of waiting to be asked. There is also a number, twenty-one, that Jonas cannot stop counting.Everything between them happens fast, and everything between them is chosen out loud. But when Jonas's fear speaks for him at exactly the wrong moment, Maddie has to decide what she will keep taking in silence and what she is finally ready to ask for.Inside this novella:- Age gap romance with a devoted, attentive silver fox hero - Instant chemistry between next-door neighbors who share one thin wall - Grumpy hero, warm and funny heroine - Divorced older man, a heroine who has never been anyone's first choice - Steamy, consent-forward love scenes between two adults who talk to each other - A cat with opinions, a hidden door, and a guaranteed happy endingA short, warm, swoony read for anyone who has ever wanted to be chosen on purpose.Contains explicit adult content. For readers 18 and older.