Page 22 of Love in Fine Print

“Oh, Trevor. I didn’t know he set this up. I didn’t even know he was your assistant.”

She didn’t say anything just continued to stare at me when her phone buzzed again. Her eyes shut in a prolonged blink before she took it out, silenced it, and put it back in her pocket.

“You didn’t know he set this up?”

“No.” I could stand there and talk until I was blue in the face, but I had a feeling Olivia needed to be shown Exhibit A before she’d believe me. I pulled out my phone and showed it to her. “This was the email I got.”

The email had been sent from [email protected] and had not named the client for security reasons. After she scanned the message, her eyes lifted back up and met mine.

When she did, I saw her eyes were more open, vulnerable. And just like the first time I’d seen her, all of the oxygen in my lungs escaped and I felt like I’d just been sucker punched. This woman had quite an effect on me.

“You didn’t know that you were coming here to meet me?”

“No.” I shook my head as I lowered my phone. “I had no idea.”

Her phone buzzed again, and when she pulled it out, she didn’t silence it.

With a sigh, she said, “I need to take this.”

I nodded as she turned and left the room. On the way out, I heard her say, “This isn’t a good time, Mom.”

As I looked around, a single photo framed in oak sitting on the entryway table caught my eye. In the picture was Olivia, when she was probably five or six, standing next to a man doing some sort of carpentry. I picked it up to get a closer look and saw that Olivia was smiling as she gazed up at the man with love beaming from her eyes.

Seeing her at that age, looking so happy with no walls up, broke my heart a little. I wasn’t sure why but knowing that something had caused her to put up a protective shield made me incredibly sad.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said as she came back into the room.

“Is this your dad?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Are you two close?”

“He died when I was twelve.”

“I’m sorry. My mom died when I was thirteen.”

Her lips pursed for a moment before she said, “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. We weren’t close. I hadn’t seen her in almost ten years. She left when I was four.”

Her chin dipped in a nod of understanding as she repeated, “I’m sorry.”

Fuck.This meeting was not supposed to be about me. It was supposed to be about Olivia. The woman who had been occupying my mind for the past seventy-two hours.

I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Every second of every day, I thought about her. I wondered what she was doing. How she was doing. If she was thinking of me, too.

Clearly not if she’d hired a matchmaker.

That realization hit me like a punch in the gut. Actually, it felt like a blow to my balls. I’d been obsessing over this woman who didn’t even consider me a romantic option.

Fuck.My bruised ego and heart were not what I needed to be focusing on. I was here in a professional capacity, and I needed to get my shit together.

“Is there somewhere we can sit and talk?”

I can do this. I can speak to her and not let the fact that I have a serious crush on her cloud our professional relationship.

“No, actually. There’s been a mistake. I don’t need your services.”

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