Flashing him another smile, Olivia reached out to squeeze his arm. “You really like her, don’t you?”
Fortunately, Olivia went on before he had to admit or deny how he felt.
“I want what’s best for you, so I’m going to be just as glad to see you happy as you are to see me happy with Brandon. I hope you believe that.”
“I do.” Impulsively, he gave her a hug to make up for some of his surliness, which had very little to do with her and far more to do with her sister, and was reassured when it felt...normal. Not sleazy, as if he was using it as an excuse to get close to her. Or stiff and awkward like the occasional brief hug convention had foisted upon them at various family holidays. It simply felt sincere and respectful, as an embrace between a brother-and sister-in-law should, not encumbered with the residue of all they’d once been to each other, which had been so hard to escape.
“We may outdistance the past yet, you and I,” she murmured as she looked up at him.
Except that his relationship with Lourdes was a sham. And now, thanks to Noelle and her vengeful soul, Lourdes might have to pay for even the pretense of happiness.
17
“It’s about time I wrote some of these women, don’t you think?” That evening, Kyle sat at the breakfast bar, with his laptop open. “Or at least acknowledge the ones who’ve tried to contact me?”
Lourdes was moving around the kitchen across from him, baking a chocolate cake. She said she’d made up the recipe, and he was going to love it.
The house certainly smelled good. He was enjoying the hominess of having her around. More and more he looked forward to getting off work at night. But he was trying hard not to get too caught up in spending time with her. He was beginning to notice things he didn’t notice about his other female friends—the way her eyes lit up when she liked something, the infectious sound of her laugh, the warmth of her body when she leaned close to show him a picture on her phone. He could still smell her perfume from an hour earlier, when she’d put his plate down at dinner, for crying out loud. They were all classic signs of infatuation; he recognized that. So he was going to do his damnedest to make sure he didn’t get himself into another bad situation.
“You’re on Single Central?”
She sounded slightly startled, and he could see why. Neither of them had mentioned the online dating site since shortly after she created his profile. He’d wondered about that, since she’d been so gung ho at the start. “I thought I should follow up.”
After a slight pause, she said, “Why the sudden interest?”
“I figure there’s no need to waste the time you spent getting me on here.”
“On a site where you didn’t want to be in the first place?”
Feigning greater interest in Debbie Mayo’s profile than he actually felt, he said, “Maybe I was being too closed-minded.” He had to do something, didn’t he? After more than six years of carrying a torch for Olivia, and feeling guilty about it because of Brandon, he was grateful that those feelings were finally dissipating. But he couldn’t let another woman—a woman with whom he had no better chance—replace her. To avoid that, he’d been thinking he should make more of an effort on the dating front, try to meet someone else, someone who might be a real possibility.
Lourdes came over to see what he was looking at. “I can’t say she’s not attractive...”
The scent of her perfume reached him again. It smelled so good he almost closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Fortunately, that was a temptation he resisted. “But?”
“Is there any rush?”
There hadn’t been—until today. He’d thought he had his undying devotion to Olivia to keep him safe from the attraction he felt for Lourdes. But that shield seemed to be wearing thin. And with Lourdes so present and accessible, it suddenly seemed critical that he find another love interest.
“Not really,” he lied. “Why?”