Not Just The Girl Next Door. Stacy Connelly

guy?”

      When Zeke had first mentioned the idea to Mollie, at least a dozen single guys had come to mind, but since then... Since then, he’d watched Mollie walk into a shop filled with sexy lingerie and he hadn’t been able to get the image of her draped in satin and silk and lace out of his mind.

      If mixing his dating life with his friends and family was a line in the sand he wouldn’t cross, then even considering any kind of romantic relationship with Mollie was the Great Wall of China. He and Patrick had long ago sworn they were brothers in every way that mattered, which made Mollie like a sister to him, and he would not—could not—think of her in any other way.

      But there was nothing to stop any guy she went out with from imagining all that and more...and he really had to ask himself why he thought Mollie dating was such a good idea in the first place.

      “I’m—I’m not sure,” he muttered. “It can’t be just anyone.”

      “Well, what about Dan Sutton?”

      The local lawyer was well respected in Spring Forest despite the fair share of gossip surrounding the disintegration of his business partnership and marriage after his partner and his wife ran off together. Still, Zeke shook his head. “He has his hands full raising his three girls.”

      “I don’t know,” Matt argued. “Maybe as a single dad he’s looking for someone to help lighten the load. And look how Dillon helped bring Ryan and Amanda together.”

      Dillon was Ryan’s six-year-old son, and what had started out as a pretend engagement to appease the boy’s grandparents had quickly turned into a genuine love match.

      “Dan’s a good guy, but he’s not right for Mollie. He’s a bit too conservative.” Zeke couldn’t see the man putting up with a layer of dog hair all over his expensive suits. “Mollie needs someone more down-to-earth.”

      “What about Cade Battle then? You can’t get much more down-to-earth than a farmer,” Matt pointed out, but Zeke was already shaking his head.

      “Cade’s too much of a loner.” Though the hardworking man had a soft spot for the Whitaker sisters and partnered with them to foster some of the less domesticated animals that showed up at the shelter, he barely gave the time of day to anyone else.

      Matt brought up a few more guys—Grant Whitaker, the Whitaker sisters’ nephew, and Davis Macintyre, a vet tech at the shelter, but Zeke shook his head. “Grant is heading back to Florida after the renovations on the shelter are complete. And Davis is even more introverted than Mollie. She needs someone who can help bring her out of her shell a little.”