Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 (9 page)

He worked to catch his breath. The kiss had been relatively sweet. Their hands were still outside of each other’s clothes. But he felt as if they’d shared something much more intimate.

He supposed they had. That kiss was the admission that this was what they both wanted. Not simple friendship, not crazed, tear-our-clothes-off-to-hell-with-the-consequences-until-morning desire, but the sweetness and tenderness too.

Tenderness was something he hadn’t had with a woman since Ashley. And that had turned out to be the worst thing he’d ever done.

That memory was enough to finally get him to let go of Olivia.

Cody dropped his hands and stepped back.

She stared at him, lifting her hand and running the pads of her fingers over her lips. “Wow.”

He gave her a smile. “Yeah.”

“Better than the movies.”

“You think so?”

“Right up there with the kiss at the end of
Never Been Kissed
.”

He chuckled. That was her favorite movie kiss of all time. “Quite a compliment.”

She watched him for several heartbeats. Then she dropped her hand to her side. “But not wanting to do it again would be a lot easier if you weren’t so good at it.”

So she already knew that it wouldn’t happen again.

Cody thought fast. Her realization was good, but he didn’t want that to ruin an otherwise magical night’s end. He stepped forward and took her face in his hands again. “You mean, it would have been better in some ways if I’d done something like this?” He put his mouth over hers again, but this time wide open, his tongue sweeping in large, sloppy, not-entirely-on-target arcs, her entire lower face getting wet. He made plenty of smacking and slurping sounds too, and by the time he’d gotten her nice and slobbery, she was laughing and wiggling and pushing against his chest.

“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, that would have definitely helped.”

He stepped back, soaking in her wide grin and sparkling eyes as she wiped his dog-worthy sign of affection from her face.

He smiled, filled with a multitude of emotions for this woman. “Goodnight, Olivia.”

She took a big breath, but her smile held. “Goodnight, Cody.”

He successfully did
not
pull a Rhett Butler and sweep her into his arms to stride up the steps to the bedroom—no matter how many times that scene played in his head on his way down the sidewalk to the still-waiting cab.

He even successfully resisted looking back at the best and worst date of his entire life.

Olivia awoke the next morning with a huge grin on her face. That lasted for thirty seconds.

Thirty seconds in, she realized she had a problem.

The one man her brother had forbidden her to date was the man who had laid the kiss of all kisses on her.

She’d dreamed about that kiss all night.

And not only the kiss itself, but the way he’d made it perfect. Leonardo DiCaprio would be proud.

Now she needed to figure out what to do about it. It had been a big enough problem that she liked and trusted Cody. It had been enough trouble that he was someone she was always happy to see, someone who really knew her, someone she could be completely herself with. It had been hard enough to
want
him so much physically. Now that was all rolled together with the fact that he got her. He understood that it was important to her and he’d cared enough about that to make the night end perfectly.

She threw back her blankets and reached for her cell phone on the bedside table. She texted three people the same message:
I’m making French toast.

Amanda, Emma and Isabelle would be over within an hour. Olivia being willing to make breakfast on a Saturday morning meant she needed to talk.

As she quickly showered and started the French toast, Olivia was surprised but pleased to find that she wasn’t feeling the effects of a morning after too much tequila. She did, however, drink three cups of coffee as she prepared the bananas Foster French toast and brown sugared bacon.

Cody must have kissed the poison right out of her system. She giggled at the thought.

“You’re laughing at bacon?” Amanda asked, coming in the back door. “This is worse than I thought.”

Of course she was the first to arrive. Amanda would be the most concerned that Olivia needed a sister powwow, especially the morning after a blind date.

“Not the bacon,” Olivia said, removing the strips from the baking sheet. “Just thought of something from last night.”

“You okay?”

“I’m…” Fantastic. Terrible. “Confused.”

“Was the date awful?” Amanda filled a cup with coffee and took a seat at the kitchen table.

“The date was…interesting.”

“Interesting how?”

“If you’re up this early the day after a date, it was either over by eight p.m. or you eloped and had to tell us all right away.”

That was how Emma Dixon came through the door.

Isabelle was right behind her. “Shane wants to know if he needs to kick anyone’s ass.”

Olivia had to appreciate the offer from her almost-brother-in-law. “No ass kicking needed.”

She dished up the food and waited until everyone was settled around the table.

“Olivia was about to tell me what was so interesting about her date,” Amanda said.

Isabelle bit into the French toast and moaned in approval. After she swallowed, she said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Olivia sat up straighter. “The night was interesting in that my date stood me up, Cody was there instead, we realized
we
had been set up and then he gave me a kiss that I will never, ever forget, as long as I live.”

There was a long pause without a sound.

Emma was the first to break the silence. “
Finally
.”

“Finally?” Olivia repeated. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. You finally realized that being with Cody is more important than disappointing Conner.”

Olivia frowned at her sister. “I’m not worried about disappointing Conner.”

Emma snorted.

“I’m not
just
worried about disappointing Conner.”

Emma leaned back and crossed her arms. “Then what are you worried about?”

Olivia looked at Isabelle and Emma, two women who she knew would do anything for her. But, in spite of how close they were, they didn’t know
everything
.

She glanced at Amanda. Amanda did know everything. At least about Olivia. Her oldest sister gave her a smile.

Olivia took a deep breath.

“Cody can’t be my soul mate. It’s not fair. That’s not how this is supposed to work. How is it possible that the universe matched me up with the guy that my brother forbids me to be with? How can it be destined that I love a guy I can’t have?”

Her sisters were all looking at her with varying degrees of surprise and worry.

“Who said soul mates?” Emma asked.

Olivia bit the inside of her lip. Then she sighed. “Cody did.”

Amanda’s eyebrows shot up. “Cody used the term
soul mates
, referring to the two of you?”

“Well, he was offended to find out that
I
didn’t think he and I are soul mates.”

“You don’t?” Isabelle looked shocked.

“I
can’t
.” Why didn’t they understand this? Denial was a great emotion. It was strong and when properly applied could keep all kinds of nasty, depressing, confusing and difficult stuff out.

But it only worked until someone brought things front and center and forced you to look at it.

Like now. She’d been happily denying that she and Cody could ever be more than friends. Yes, they had great chemistry. But she’d convinced herself that it simply meant there was another man out there who would be even better, more amazing, more tempting, more…everything. Because she and Cody were
not
meant to be. Her
perfect
guy would be someone her brother loved, respected and trusted and would give his unwavering blessing to, complete with a big old smile and a pat on the back.

Now her sisters were acting like they’d been waiting for the day when she’d throw herself into Cody’s arms and he’d whisk her off to a happily ever after.

“Did you hit your head or something?” Emma asked.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy,” Olivia said.

“For letting Conner decide who you date? Uh, yeah,” Emma said. “I mean, I get it. I was ready for him to lose his mind about me and Nate. But he didn’t. And he helped Shane pick out Isabelle’s engagement ring.”

Isabelle nodded. “I think you need to tell Conner that this is what you want. He wants you to be happy, Liv.”

Olivia knew that made sense. But whenever she thought about going for it and letting Conner just deal with it, her stomach hurt. It didn’t feel right and she couldn’t ignore that. She didn’t want Conner to deal with it. She didn’t want him to get over it. She wanted him to be
happy
about it. She knew he wanted what was best for her, and she wanted to know that he felt her husband was the best man for her.

Of course there was a chance—a teeny, tiny, almost microscopic chance—that Conner would come around.

But it was a huge risk. Telling Conner would ruin what she and Cody had now. If Conner knew they were hot for each other, he wouldn’t want Cody anywhere near her. Things would be tense for all of them. It was an all or nothing situation—they either told Conner what was going on and risked both her and Cody’s relationships with him, or they did nothing and stayed only friends. There was no in-between.

Bottom line, she trusted Conner. Cody seemed perfect, but if Conner didn’t think so…she couldn’t ignore that.

“I know you think I’m all for following my heart and trusting fate for love,” Olivia said. “But…I don’t trust my own feelings. Not after Garrett and Jeff.”

Amanda opened her mouth, shut it, then said, “Cody’s never…mistreated you. Has he?”

Emma straightened. “What do you mean by ‘mistreated’?”

Olivia looked at Isabelle, then Emma. They knew of Garrett and Jeff, her most serious boyfriends to date. Her sisters also knew that the men had turned out to be jerks and she’d ended the relationships. But they didn’t know the details.

Olivia took a deep breath. “Garrett stole about three thousand dollars from me over the course of several months. And Jeff was—” She swallowed hard. Amanda reached out to squeeze Olivia’s hand.

Olivia sniffed and gave her sister a smile. “Jeff was controlling and critical and cheated on me. Several times.”

Emma’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me more.”

She smiled. Not about her dysfunctional relationships, but about the murderous gleam in Emma’s eyes at even the hint of one of her sisters being unhappy.

Olivia hadn’t told Emma or Isabelle about what had happened. They were both so together, so independent, so confident—she hadn’t been able to admit to them that she had been none of the above. Amanda, however, had always been incredibly insightful and watched her sisters like a mother hen. She’d noticed something was wrong, and Olivia had finally confided in her.

“Jeff started off sweet and romantic and attentive. But over time, as I kept putting him off for sex, he started cheating. He always apologized profusely, made lots of great promises, but it kept happening.”

“But you kept forgiving him?” Isabelle asked.

She nodded. She wasn’t proud of it now, of course, but four years ago she’d thought she was in love with him and believed his cheating was partly her fault. “I wouldn’t have sex with him. It just didn’t feel right. I wanted to wait and I wanted a guy who thought I was worth waiting for. He said that’s why the other girls were so tempting—because he wanted me so badly.”

“Asshole,” Isabelle breathed, her eyes wide.

“I know that now,” Olivia said. “I know everything he said was a lie and he would have cheated anyway and I didn’t deserve it and it wasn’t my fault. But…it took me awhile to get there.”

“He still works at the bank downtown, right?” Emma asked, starting to stand.

“Sit down, Em,” Amanda told her. “Liv is fine now.”

Olivia nodded. She was definitely fine. Better than fine.

Isabelle looked equally pissed. “So Conner figured it out and helped you see what was going on?”

Olivia took another deep breath. “No. Not for a long time. Conner and I argued about it. Especially as I kept forgiving Jeff. But eventually Conner got sick of it, and he physically removed me from Jeff’s apartment one night. He made me listen and then, when I finally decided to break things off with Jeff, Conner made sure that he took it…well.”

Isabelle’s expression softened into a smile. “Oh, really?”

Olivia smiled too. “I was all ready for Jeff to fight me on it, but he accepted it all very graciously. Has never contacted me since.”

Emma’s shoulders relaxed a little at that. “Good. Though if I happen to run into him downtown sometime, I’m not responsible for my words—or actions.”

Isabelle patted her arm comfortingly, Amanda shook her head and Olivia grinned.