Page 111 of The Recovery Coach
“Okay,” she said.
“When we get home, we’re going to go on a date.A real date.We can pretend we’re strangers and do the awkward first-date small talk.I’ll take you home and kiss you goodnight and then wait three days before I text you again.That’s the rule, right?Wait three days so I don’t seem desperate.”
Olivia snorted.“That ship has sailed.”
Connor laughed with her.“No, no, no.We’re forgetting this ever happened, remember?”
“Oh, right!”Olivia put on a serious face.
“Three days.And then I’ll ask you for another date.And another.We’ll do every milestone your ideal relationship needs to have, okay?”
She pulled his hand from her chin and placed a soft kiss on his palm.
“Okay.”
Connor tapped the little blue box in Olivia’s other hand.“And when we’ve done all of those and you’re madly in love with me and you’re ready to say yes to any question I might ask you, you’re going to slip that cute little ring onto your finger, and we’ll get married at the next opportunity.You can have anything.Courthouse, Vegas elopement, or fancy five-hundred-person wedding where we serve steak and caviar.”
“What if we’re not...”
“Not what?”
“What if we go on one date, and it’s horrible, and we kiss and it’s like kissing your sister?”
“It won’t be.”
“But what if it is?”
“Trust me.It won’t be.”
“But it could be.”
Connor threw his head back and groaned.“For Christ’s sake, Livy.It won’t be.”
“I don’t want to ruin us.”
“You could never ruin us.If anyone is going to be doing the ruining, it’s me.”
“I don’t want you to ruin it either.”
“You need to stop worrying.This is going to be fun.”
Olivia grimaced.“I don’t know about this.Can I at least think about it?”
Connor covered his face with his hands and let out an exaggerated cry.“I thought this would go very differently.”
“Trust me, it’s not how I expected this evening to go either.”
They laughed, and Connor climbed off the bed.He grabbed Olivia’s hand and dragged her to her feet.
“Fine.Let me know what you decide.But you don’t get to think about it without all the information.”
On their feet he kept pulling on her hand, tugging her body flush against his.She held her hands out to steady herself, saying, “What informa—”
Connor freed her hand and slipped one of his onto her waist.The other tangled in the hair at her nape, his thumb hooked under her jaw to force her eyes to his.
“Oh,” she said, breathless.
Miles of her bare skin pressed against him.She ignored her instinct screaming to put some distance between them.He stared into her eyes, and she let herself admire the little flecks of gold in the warm, beautiful brown of his.
