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

The most memorable event of the night, however—even including the car accident—had been the dumb party game Emma had come up with. Everyone paired up and put a small rubber ball between them. The first couple to roll the ball from belly button to chin won.

Olivia and Cody had been a team.

That was the longest the front of her body had been up against his.

Irritated that even the memory of that night could make her hot, she said, “I have a better idea.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s both sign up for the Love Is Blind program.”

“Love Is Blind?”

“It’s this special program through this site. You sign up without any physical description or photo. It’s all about being matched with someone based purely on interests and beliefs. It’s not about appearance at all. The site acts as an intermediary—the computer uses your data to match you up. You put in your favorite restaurants and what days and times you’re available. It’s completely objective. You don’t even exchange messages or anything. The computer matches you, sends you a date, time and place to meet and that’s it. After the date you decide if you want to exchange phone numbers and stuff.”

“You completely trust a computer to pick someone right for you.”

She forced a smile. “Your Perfect Pick.”

She could see his hesitation. She turned on the couch cushion to face him. “Really? You’re surrounded by beautiful, sexy women willing to fall into bed with you all the time.
This
is about finding something real. Come on, take a shot.”

“You’re going to do it too?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“No photo of you? No description? The guys who pick you are ones who think you sound interesting and sweet and have no idea how gorgeous you are?”

He did that all the time—threw in a compliment or something charming or sexy like he was talking about making a sandwich.

She nodded. “Thank you. And yes.”

He sat up, more interest in his expression now. “Okay, I like that. I can get into this then.”

“It matters to you that I not put a picture up?”

“Liv, if you put a picture up, every guy on that site is going to click.”

“Well, thanks, but—”

“If you’re going to do this, I much prefer the idea that the guys are wanting to meet you for reasons beyond what they see.”

She felt her heart melt a little. “Thanks, Cody.”

“So we’ll both do the Love Is Blind thing. Great.”

She liked the idea too. For similar reasons. If a girl wanted to get to know Cody based on similar interests and opinions, that made her a lot more comfortable than someone who just saw the hot guy with a killer smile.

“Okay.” She skipped past the photo upload and went into the Love Is Blind part of the website. “By the way, you owe me nineteen ninety-five.”

“Is that the going rate for true love?” he asked dryly. “Seems like a bargain.”

Chapter Two

Cody couldn’t believe he was letting her talk him into this. It made some strange sort of sense. As he watched Olivia type things into her computer, it struck him how stupid and how smart this was all at the same time.

He was pretty sure that he was in love with her. Or as close to being in love as he’d ever been. But Shane had asked him an important question one night when he’d confessed his feelings—
You sure it isn’t because you can’t have her?

No, Cody wasn’t
sure
of that. How could he be? He most definitely couldn’t have her. Did that make her more appealing? Maybe. Olivia wasn’t wrong when she said that he wasn’t used to working very hard with women. There always seemed to be plenty who wanted to spend time with him. So, did the facts that Olivia herself hadn’t fallen right into his bed and that their relationship required more from him than a charming smile and a shot of tequila make it more tempting? Possibly. Very possibly.

But it was quite established that he couldn’t have her.

He didn’t even blame Conner. Much. Conner knew about a chapter in his past that was pretty unflattering and unknown to most of the people currently in his life.

Conner trusted Cody with his own life, but would never trust him to take care of Olivia.

It wasn’t even all of his sisters. For a long time Conner had joked about wanting Cody to take care of Emma. Emma was…a handful. She’d given her brother more gray hair than the other three sisters, for sure. But Emma was strong and sassy and independent.

Which made her the type of woman Cody tried to hang out with. He liked women he could trust to tell him where to go if he needed it. Okay,
when
he needed it.

That wasn’t Olivia.

Cody understood Conner being protective of her. Especially knowing what Conner knew about Cody’s less-than-Prince-Charming behavior in the past.

Olivia was sweet and trusting and romantic and kind. But she had a strength she didn’t even see. She knew what she believed, and she would go to war to protect someone she loved. Still, she was forgiving and gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. Even him. Especially him.

Because Olivia put her full trust in him, Conner took his responsibility very seriously. He would never advise her to do something that he wasn’t one hundred percent sure would be safe and good for her.

Based on past experience, Conner couldn’t be one hundred percent sure of Cody.

Cody hated it. He suspected that Conner even hated it at times. But it was a fact and Cody didn’t know how to change it.

Cody regretted what had happened. He hated the whole ugly, lying-cheating-manipulating story. But Cody had learned an important lesson from it—that when people loved you, they gave you power. Power to hurt them. Badly.

Now he avoided women who were sweet, trusting and forgiving. He preferred sassy ones who would tell him to fuck off and completely forget his name by the next day if he pissed them off.

“Now pick a screen name.”

Cody pulled his attention back to the task at hand—falling madly and eternally in love. “Hotguy1981,” he said.

“It needs to be one that I don’t know.”

“Why?”

Her cheeks got pink. “It just does.”

Cody gave her a knowing look. “You afraid you’d be too tempted to pick me?”

“I can’t
pick
you,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “This whole part of the site is anonymous. No names, no photos. You’re not even supposed to put specifics about where you work—only what you do for a living—or where you live other than the city. It’s real facts about you as a person, but nothing to identify you.”

He felt a grin tug at his lips. “Then I can’t imagine a reason why it would matter if you know my screen name.”

“Well, you know…” She waved her hand like it was no big deal. “In case I
accidentally
saw your account and saw how many matches you’ve gotten. Accidentally.”

He loved when she inadvertently gave away her attraction—and potential jealousy in this case. Since it could only be inadvertent, he’d take it. He nodded. “Sure, okay, that makes sense. Wouldn’t want an accident to happen.”

Her cheeks got redder. “I think if we’re going to do this, we’re all in. We play by all the rules.”

“Well, I don’t want to know your screen name either,” he said as a thought struck him. “I don’t want to be able to see how many hits you’re getting.”

He liked the idea of men choosing to get to know Olivia based on her wonderful personality and interests. He wanted the guys who took her out to actually take her on dates where she might have a good time.

But he hated the entire idea of her dating with a passion.

So he wasn’t kidding about wanting to fall in love first. That was the only way he’d survive Olivia falling in love.

“You wouldn’t be able to see that unless you knew how to get in to my account.”

For once he was glad that he was computer challenged.

“Fine. Then I guess we’re okay.”

“Yep, guess so.”

They sat quietly, awkwardly for a moment. Then he had to ask, “Are you going to tell me when you go on a date?”

She looked over. “I don’t think so.”

That was probably for the best. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to know when you go on one.”

Ah. Good point. Very good point.

“Yeah. Ditto. Then…good luck, I guess,” he said.

She nodded. “You too.”

How stupid was that? Wishing her luck on finding another guy?

“Liv,” he started. Then hesitated. Who was he to give her advice?

“Yeah?”

“Make sure…he…deserves you.”

The thing was, Olivia was…probably too good for
any
guy.

Emotion flickered in her eyes and she started to lean in.

“We’re back!”

Olivia stopped as Shane and Ryan came through the front door, the tense moment full of emotions broken.

Thank god.

Begging her to never date anyone else and to grow old and gray going to movies and baking cookies with him was pathetic.

“Too sexy.”

“Well, that one’s not sexy enough.”

“It’s a first date.”

“Exactly. She can’t look like a Sunday school teacher.”

Olivia sighed and waited for Emma and Amanda to stop bickering. Then she’d put on the purple dress that she’d bought and loved.

This was the best method for dealing with her sisters, hands down. She had to let them both have input—there was no way to stop either of these women from giving input anyway—then she did whatever she wanted to.

“Sunday school teachers are not the only women who dress conservatively and tastefully,” Amanda told Emma.

“Okay, she can’t look like a college professor.”

Amanda narrowed her eyes. As a grad school instructor, Amanda definitely dressed more conservatively than yoga-instructor Emma did. “She’s making a first impression here on a guy she’s never met.” She held up a very pretty peach-colored dress.

“And she doesn’t want her first impression to be June Cleaver meets Sarah Palin,” Emma said, holding up a little black dress. Emphasis on
little
.

“But she also doesn’t need to look like she might run down to the street corner to make a few extra bucks after the date,” Amanda said, holding up a pair of black pants and a scoop-neck, royal-blue top.

“And she doesn’t need to look like she’s going to going to deliver the address at the Stick-Up-Their-Butts National Convention,” Emma said, showing Olivia a shimmery silver dress that was less fitted than the black but would show more cleavage.

Amanda sighed and tossed the dresses on the bed. “Maybe you should tell us about the date itself,” she said to Olivia. “Where are you meeting and what are you doing on this date? That might be more helpful than trying to dress for a guy you know nothing about.”

Amanda wasn’t thrilled about this date, and Olivia understood that. All three of her sisters had fallen for guys they’d known before dating them. The idea of Olivia—the sweet, innocent baby—venturing out into the great, big world of unknown men made her sisters nervous.

Thank god they hadn’t told Conner.

“I know stuff about him. Important stuff. He gets along great with his family—”

“So he says,” Emma interrupted. Even the less conventional, more daring of her sisters wasn’t entirely supportive of this.

Olivia went on anyway. “He has a full-time job where he’s in charge of several employees. He likes outside activities like hiking and running. He loves to cook and bake. We have a ton in common. We were a ninety-seven-percent match.”

“I can’t believe you don’t know what he looks like,” Emma said.

“It’s not supposed to matter,” Olivia said. “He doesn’t know what I look like either. It’s a match based on other things. More important things.”

“Well, where are you going?” Emma asked, as if maybe
that
would save this whole thing from being ridiculous.

“We’re meeting at Cliff’s.”

Amanda was clearly surprised. “Cliff’s is nice.” It was the swanky bar and restaurant downtown, across from the posh Britton Hotel.

Olivia had listed it as one of her favorite restaurants in her profile and had been pleased when the computer had chosen it as the site of the blind date.

“And it’s a nice public place where nothing bad is going to happen,” Olivia said, pushing up off of her bed and taking the new purple dress from her closet. “It’s not a place where I need to look like June Cleaver, but the black number might be a bit much. Or should I say, not enough?” She grinned and held the purple dress up. “This, on the other hand, is perfect.”

Neither sister could argue with that.

“Okay, Cliff’s is nice,” Emma agreed.

She took Olivia’s vacated spot on the bed and ran a hand over her tummy. She was four months pregnant, and anyone who didn’t know her would have no idea when she had a loose top or baggy sweatshirt on, but those close to her could already see a little bump. It made Olivia grin every time she noticed.