Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 (7 page)

“I can’t have this conversation with you.”

“I’m not asking you to
feel
it,” she said. “Just look at it.”

Talking about
not
feeling it put the idea of feeling it in his head. Dammit. “Liv.”

“Cody, look at my ass.”

He had to get points in the Good Guy column for trying so hard not to, didn’t he? He finally let his gaze drop to the back of her skirt.

The purple fabric molded gently over the sweet curve of her butt. The skirt wasn’t too tight, but the perfect—and, yes, firm—shape was easy to appreciate.

She looked over her shoulder. “Well?”

“Spectacular,” he said, putting a hand over his heart. “Best I’ve ever seen.”

It was. It went perfectly with her breasts. But he had to ham this up or he’d end up spreading her out on the bar and appreciating all of her curves up close—and without purple silk between them.

“Thank you.” She looked genuinely pleased as she reclaimed her seat at the bar. “Like I said, I’ve been working hard on it.”

“It shows.” Now maybe they could move on to a new topic. Any new topic.

“Spectacular,” she repeated. “I like that.”

“Feel free to quote me.” Maybe
now
they could move on.

“I might even get a pair of shorts that says
Cody approved
across the butt.”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “Olivia?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“You got it.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

He knew that she sometimes said things to mess with him. He did the same thing. They mostly succeeded in staying away from conversations that were too risqué…or tempting. But every once in a while he felt the need to check that the spark was still there.

It was stupid. But it always made him grin.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, neither drinking any more, both apparently lost in thought. It was nice.

She sighed, the sound tired and a little sad.

He looked over at her. “I’m sorry that you didn’t get to have drinks with your Perfect Pick,” he said honestly. He wasn’t upset that she hadn’t met and fallen madly in love with her soul mate tonight, but he was sorry she was disappointed.

She gave him a small smile. “Actually, I was thinking that I
am
sitting here having drinks with the perfect guy.”

He felt a flash of desire go through him, and it wasn’t the passionate, physical desire he was used to where she was concerned. It was a desire to be exactly what she’d said—the perfect guy for her. He cleared his throat. “I’ll admit to being awesome, but I’m not sure I quite pull off perfect.”

She laughed softly. “Well, perfect for me.”

He didn’t know what to say to that and wasn’t so sure he could speak past the tightness in his chest right then anyway.

“I mean, think about it. You and I have so much in common, like so many of the same things. I kept thinking as I typed the stuff into the computer that the guy I was describing seemed an awful lot like you.”

The tightness near his heart increased. He knew exactly what she meant. The woman she’d created for him on paper—or on her computer screen anyway—had seemed very familiar.

“I actually thought, wouldn’t it be weird if
we
got matched up?” she added. “I mean, I’m sure that’s nearly impossible. The chances of that have to be astronomical. But then, if you start taking out all of the people who
wouldn’t
be a good match, that narrows it down a lot, I’m sure. And we do have
a lot
in common.”

His heart kicked and his mind started whirling. What
were
the chances of that? Slim, at best. But what were the chances they would set up a date on the same night? At the same restaurant? And
both
be stood up?

He faced her on the barstool as the thoughts continued to swirl, finally combining into a question. Had Olivia set this up somehow?

He only knew the basics about how the Perfect Pick site worked, and Olivia had started his account. Maybe she’d somehow made it so she could get back into his account whenever she wanted to and had made sure the computer matched them.

He looked at her looking at him with wide, curious eyes.

Or was he totally full of himself?

Would she go to these extremes to date him? She could certainly tell Conner that it had been an accidental date, that they hadn’t exactly
chosen
to go out with one another.

They were, essentially, dating anyway. They went to nearly every social event together and he saw her every weekend. So what would she have gained from doing this?

That answer hit him hard.

Conner approved of them spending time together. Because he trusted that it wasn’t naked time.

The only difference between what Cody and Olivia already did and what she could do with an online beau was obvious.

He stared at her. Was that what this was about? Was this her way of getting what she wanted—what they
both
wanted? Was this a loophole?

He welcomed the nagging questions. They distracted him from dwelling on the fact that her dress was in his favorite color. And that she knew he liked her hair twisted up like it was tonight. And that, now that he’d allowed himself to notice, her dress had thick straps that ran over her shoulders and left her arms bare and had a deep V-neck that plunged between her breasts and showed off the delicate silver chain with the crescent moon charm she wore. The necklace that he’d given her for her birthday last year.

If she was dressing for a date with
him
, she’d nailed it.

Chapter Three

Cody closed his eyes—obviously the only way to keep from taking a thorough inventory—and swiveled his stool to more fully face the room. He opened his eyes only when he was sure Olivia would be out of his line of sight. He looked around the softly lit lounge.

“Did your date suggest this place?” he asked casually.

“No, the computer picked it. My date and I must have both put it down as a favorite.”

“That’s…interesting.” Cliff’s was a special place for them. They’d discovered it together. They were the only ones in their group who ever came here, and the chances of running into someone from work or the Hawks were almost zero.

“Interesting how?”

“The computer obviously picked this place for me and my date too.”

Olivia shrugged. “So?”

“This is a great place.”

“It is.”

“Do you remember the night we first came here? It was my birthday and they’d messed our reservations up at the other place. We were walking by and this place looked so nice. We came in and discovered the best shrimp scampi in town.”

“I remember.” Of course he did. He remembered every time he spent with her. It had been the night he’d given her the necklace she wore. If he and Olivia were going to go on a real date, this was definitely the place.

Dammit. She was his Perfect Pick.

That had to be it. Not many people their age would put Cliff’s down as a favorite, as it typically catered to an older, wealthier crowd. Besides, the chances of them both being here on the same night, then stood up were ridiculous.

Should he tell her? She’d be thrilled. She’d take this as a sign they were meant to be. She’d build this up into something huge.

Looking into her big blue eyes, his heart twisted. He wanted this to be something huge.

She must have seen something strange in his expression because she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“I think we were matched up.”

“You do?”

“It’s the only thing that really makes sense.”

“Um…wow…that’s…” she stumbled.

She seemed legitimately surprised.

“We were a ninety-seven-percent match,” she finally said. “That’s almost unprecedented.”

But he wasn’t surprised. “Told you my dream girl sounded a lot like you.”

That was a stupid thing to say. He knew it the moment he said it and her eyes changed. The look in them went from surprised to something much softer—something very tempting. He labeled it
affection
rather than anything more complicated.

“So we
were
set up with one another,” she said.

“Looks that way.”

“Well…crap.”

Not exactly the reaction he’d been expecting. “What?”

“This is a mess. We did this to stay
away
from each other and then we get set up? That’s perfect.”

She actually looked bothered by this turn of events. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t set this up.

Cody felt a streak of annoyance. “Well, clearly we’re
perfect
for each other,” he said. “This isn’t schnapps induced or because I accidentally saw you naked in the hallway. An objective computer program thinks we should be together.”

She sighed. “I know. Geez, we can’t even get away from one another this way.”

His scowled. “Are you actually
disappointed
to have been set up with me?”

“More…perturbed.”

“You’re
perturbed
that I’m the perfect pick for you based on things like beliefs and interests and not on looks or the fact our only kiss almost set the place on fire?” he demanded. “Out of all the guys on that site,
I’m
the one that is obviously the best match for you and that
perturbs
you?”

She was looking at him like he’d announced he was going to compete in the Miss America pageant in drag.

Finally she nodded slowly. “Yes, I’m perturbed that I paid money, spent time carefully filling in our profiles, did my hair and got a new dress to be set up with the guy I spend more time with than I do with anyone else, that I already know better than I know anyone else, and who I
can’t
be with
.”

That was a great point.

Still he said, “So the fact that I think you look fucking hotter than hell but you know I will keep my hands to myself, listen to all your stories and have a real interest in your new recipe for wild berry blintzes doesn’t matter at all?”

He sounded like an idiot. He was trying to sell himself as the perfect guy for her? What was that going to get either of them but more frustration?

But she didn’t have to seem so put out about spending the evening with him.

“Thank you for the compliment,” she said. “And sorry, but…yeah. The whole leg-shaving thing is even worse now that I know I did it for a guy who won’t ever know how smooth my legs are.”

He narrowed his eyes. “This other guy, a total stranger who you would have just met, would have found that out?” He didn’t like
that
at all.

“Well, at least he wouldn’t be sitting here promising to keep his hands to himself,” she shot back.

“He better have been at least
thinking
that. You don’t need to be going out with someone who’s feeling your legs on the first date.”

“But it would be nice to be out with someone who might feel my legs
at some point
.”

“I’ll feel your legs,” he said tightly. “You can rub them over any part of my body that you want. I promise I’ll appreciate your shaving effort like crazy.”

They sat staring at each other. Cody’s heart was pounding and he could see that she was breathing harder.

They never fought or argued.

And he couldn’t exactly say he disliked it. She looked gorgeous all wound up.

“Oh, sure. Great idea,” she finally said. “Let’s make this even worse.”

He growled—literally—at that. “Being set up on a date with me is
bad
and the idea of me rubbing your legs is
even worse
?”

She shook her head. “You know what I mean. This is crazy that we were set up when we were trying to stay away from each other. A dumb computer glitch and here we are—”

“Dumb?” He hated the way his voice rose on the word but he couldn’t help it. “Computer
glitch
? Where’s the girl who believes in soul mates and fate and true love?”

Her lips parted and she blinked at him in clear surprise. “You think we’re here tonight because we’re soul mates?”

Well…
that
might be pushing it. But…

“That seems like something
you
might be thinking.”

She regarded him carefully. “That does seem like something I would think.”

“So why didn’t you jump to that conclusion now?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Because it’s you.”

He felt his eyebrows rise and was strangely offended. “Why couldn’t
I
be your soul mate?”

“I’d hate to think that my soul mate would be the one man I couldn’t be with. That’s depressing as hell.”

Yeah, it was.

“You think someone else out there is your soul mate?” he asked. Wow, he fucking hated
that
idea.

She took a deep breath. “Honestly, Cody? I hope so.”

There was something in her voice, though, that made him press on.

“You would be disappointed to find out it was me? You’d really, truly be upset if I was your actual perfect match?”