Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 (10 page)

“So, what you’re saying,” Isabelle said, “is that Conner now gets to decide who you do and don’t date?”

Olivia shrugged. “Not entirely. But if he has a reservation about someone, like he does about Cody, I can’t just ignore that. And…” she started, then thought better of it.

“And?” Amanda pressed.

Olivia knew that Amanda was torn on this issue. Amanda knew personally that Conner’s misgivings were often overly dramatic. But she was also concerned about Olivia and couldn’t deny that Olivia hadn’t always made the best decisions in her love life.

“I have some reservations about Cody too,” Olivia admitted.

“Like what?” Isabelle wanted to know.

“He doesn’t do relationships.” Olivia held up a finger. “He could very easily lose interest after we sleep together.” She added a second finger. “He could decide that monogamy isn’t for him long-term,” she said as she put up her third finger. “And he doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with Conner either,” she concluded, extending a fourth finger.

“Well, first of all, Cody doesn’t do serious relationships because he wants
you
,” Isabelle said.

“And second of all,” Amanda added. “There is no way he’d lose interest in you. He’s been interested in everything else for two years. You add in sex and you’ve got him for good.”

Olivia felt her stomach flip at that. She liked how that sounded.

“All I know,” Emma said, “is he better have a damned good reason for putting Conner before you.”

Olivia knew her sister was trying to be supportive. “He must. Right? I mean, it must be something big to be more important than me and how he feels about me,” she said, expressing a thought—and concern—she’d had for a while. What if it wasn’t all that big and important? What if it was just more important than
her
? Did she really even want to know?

But she did. Desperately. “I need to know what happened between Conner and Cody,” she said. “I need to know what Conner’s problem really is and why Cody’s letting it get in the way.”

Amanda looked at Emma, who looked at Isabelle.

Isabelle shrugged. “I don’t know the story.”

“All I know is that it’s something that happened when they lived together in college,” Amanda said.

“It’s about a girl,” Emma said.

They all looked at her.

“A girl?” Olivia asked. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know much more than that,” Emma said. “And I only know that much because one night we were all drinking at Trudy’s and some girl came in and Cody commented that she looked a lot like someone named Ashley. Conner turned to him and said, ‘I can’t believe you said her name. We promised to never talk about her’, and Cody goes, ‘Sorry man. You’re right’.”

Amanda shook her head. “That doesn’t really mean anything.”

“There was something about their reactions. It was suddenly majorly tense.” Emma shrugged. “But yeah, that doesn’t tell much. Sorry.”

Olivia
hated
the idea that there had been a girl at the center of the strain between her brother and the man she was pretty sure she was in love with. But it made some sense.

“I need this whole story,” she said.

“Conner’s never going to tell you,” Amanda told her. “And if you ask, he’s going to suspect why you want to know.”

“That’s okay,” Olivia said. “I want to hear it from Cody anyway.”

Olivia felt her heart rate kick up. She’d never asked Cody about the story. Another thing she’d simply ignored, hoping it would never matter. But now that she was going to hear it from him, she was equally nervous and excited.

She looked around the table. “So will you help me?”

Isabelle was the first to say, “What do you need?”

“I need you to find out Conner’s side of the story,” Olivia said to Amanda.

“Me? Why me?”

Amanda was the most responsible, the one who had taken a lot of the worry and burden from Conner without him even realizing it when they’d been growing up. He trusted Amanda to share his concerns for their younger sisters. And he’d let himself be the most vulnerable with her. If anyone could get Conner to open up, it would be Amanda.

And if that didn’t work, Emma could wear him down and trick him into telling her.

But that was plan B. Because Olivia needed Emma here.

“What do we do?” Isabelle asked.

“I need you to help me get Cody over here.”

“You can’t call him?” Isabelle asked.

“I know this man,” Olivia told her. “He will not want to come to my house and spend time alone the day after that kiss.”

“Afraid he won’t be able to control himself?” Emma asked.

“Exactly,” Olivia confirmed.

They all grinned at that.

“You want me to call him?” Isabelle asked.

“I’ll have Emma call him.” She turned to Emma. “Tell him I’ve got my hands full in the kitchen with a baking project we’re trying out for your baby shower, and I need his help.”

“I thought we were doing vanilla and lemon cupcakes with…” Emma trailed off as she caught on. “Oh, right. It’s just a way to get him over here.”

Olivia smiled. “Right.”

“And he’ll drop everything and come right over to help you?” Emma asked.

“He’ll ask if you’re going to be here too,” Olivia said, knowing that Cody wouldn’t trust himself—or her—if they were alone. Which gave her a funny thrill.

“And I should tell him yes?” Emma asked.

“Yes. You won’t be lying. You’ll be here when he first shows up,” Olivia told her. “Then you’ll leave.”

“What can I do?” Isabelle asked.

Olivia grinned at her. “You can borrow a set of Shane’s handcuffs.”

Chapter Four

Cody let himself into Olivia’s house an hour later.

Olivia had the hand mixer running, clearly too busy to do more than greet him with a “hi” when he stepped into the kitchen. Which was a relief. Because even dressed down in a pair of old yoga pants and a T-shirt with an apron over her, she looked gorgeous. And he immediately flashed back to the night before.

Thank goodness her sisters were here. He had to keep his hands to himself and get Olivia firmly back on the best-friends-only track, and his only hope for the first few times seeing her after that kiss was to have other people around.

Eventually, he’d get his control back.

Probably.

Then she turned and dipped a finger into the bowl she held and lifted the glob of cupcake batter toward his mouth. “Here. See what I have so far.”

He wanted to strip her down, dump that bowl all over her and lick every drop of it off.

He was absolutely sure, however, that it would taste perfect when eaten that way.

Cody dipped his own finger into the bowl instead of licking it from her finger. He was at least
that
smart. She gave him a knowing look but didn’t say anything. He tasted the batter. “What’s the problem?” It tasted like really good dark chocolate cake batter.

“If we want chocolate, banana and coconut cupcakes do you think we should do banana frosting and put the coconut in the batter or the other way around?”

He completely lost his train of thought when she put her finger in her own mouth and sucked the batter from it.

That mouth. He’d felt it, tasted it, dreamed about it.

Damn.

“Uh,” was the best he could do.

He heard a soft laugh and felt two hands push him gently backward until he was sitting in one of Olivia’s kitchen chairs.

Olivia stepped close, her knee bumping his. “Coconut in the batter or the icing?”

He cleared his throat and gripped the edge of the chair seat. “Icing.”

“Then bananas or banana extract in the batter?”

Cody watched her dip another glob of batter from the bowl with her finger. Before she could lick it off, some of the chocolate slipped down the length of her finger, and when she did follow it with her tongue it required a longer swipe.

He had to fight not to groan as he was vaguely aware that her sisters were still in the room with them. Not that he should be groaning out loud even if he was alone with Olivia. But she knew how he felt. He couldn’t risk her sisters finding out that he wanted her. One of them might slip to Conner.

“Cody? Mashed bananas?”

He made himself focus on her question. Of course they should use real bananas instead of extract. It would make the batter really moist and heavy though. They might have to adjust other liquids.

“Yes. Definitely. And…” He forced himself to concentrate. “What about peanut butter frosting instead of coconut?”

Her grin was wide. “Oh, yes. Perfect.”

“We can use that recipe we made—”

“—for the PB and J cupcakes.”

They finished each other’s sentences at the fire station and in the kitchen. He’d grown used to it a long time ago.

Isabelle moved into his line of sight. “Wow, that’s weird how you do that.”

They’d heard that from the firefighters at Fire House Three for over a year.

“Tell me more about these PB and J cupcakes,” Emma said.

“They’re vanilla cupcakes with strawberry extract in the batter and jam in the middle, then frosted with peanut butter frosting,” Olivia said. “Cody came up with the jam in the middle idea.”

He grinned. Those cupcakes had rocked.

“Make those,” Emma said. “I want those for the shower.”

Olivia looked at her. “I thought you liked the lemon. They have custard in the middle.”

“The peanut butter frosting sounds amazing.”

Cody was paying much more attention now. “You already decided on lemon? I thought these banana and chocolate ones are for the shower.”

Olivia and Emma exchanged a look that was hard to decipher.

“Oops,” Emma said. Quickly she leaned over and grabbed Cody’s left wrist.

He heard a click, then Isabelle took Emma’s hand and started tugging her toward the door.

“See you later!”

And they disappeared.

Cody looked down at his wrist.

He was handcuffed to the chair.

He stared at the silver cuff for a moment, having trouble processing what it meant for a second. He tugged, and it sank in that Emma had handcuffed him to the chair.

What the hell
?

“Olivia,” he said, putting plenty of warning into his voice. “Unlock me.”

She shook her head. “Can’t. We need to talk.”

He tugged again. These were real cuffs. Heavy metal, no give. He looked up at Olivia. If the conversation required handcuffs, he absolutely did not want to have it.

“You want to talk about the kissing.”

“I want to talk about you and Conner.”

Well, shit. That wasn’t any easier.

“No.”

Olivia didn’t look surprised by that answer. She leaned past him and set the bowl of cake batter on the table beside him. The motion stirred the air around him and filled it with her scent combined with the aroma of chocolate.

He closed his eyes and did groan out loud this time.

She moved back and he reluctantly opened his eyes. She was standing with a hand on her hip and looking far too serious.

“I want to know what happened between you and Conner. What is it that makes him not trust you with me?”

When she said it like that, he felt a little stab in his heart. Conner
didn’t
trust him with Olivia. But Cody didn’t like to think about it like that.

“I don’t want to tell you.”

She sighed as if she’d been expecting that response. “I understand that,” she said, dropping her hands to her sides. “But you have to understand that I need this.”

“I understand why you want to know. But…I don’t want you to know.”

She nodded. Then straightened and reached behind her to untie the apron. “Then I’m going to have to force the issue.”

She tossed the apron to the side.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to ask you questions. Every time you say no or refuse to answer, I’m going to take a piece of clothing off.”

His mind raced. Seriously? Why would he even think of answering anything other than no? But as he took in her attire—four pieces of clothing, assuming she was wearing underwear—he realized he was in trouble. “I’ve, um…” He had to clear his throat again. “Already seen it all.”

She shrugged. “And once I’m naked, I’m going to come over there and sit on your lap.”

He only had one hand fastened to the chair. And it was his nondominant hand. His right hand was free with full range of motion.

Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.

“I can stand up and carry this chair out of here,” he said, realizing it for the first time himself. He was handcuffed to a simple wooden chair.

“How are you going to drive with a chair connected to your wrist?” she asked.

“I’ll walk.”