Page 62 of Places I've Never Been

“She wasn’t a ball and chain.” Cooper glowered. “She was cool at first.”

“Sorry, man.” Adam held up his beer bottle.

Cooper clinked it with his own then took a long pull. “Me too. She was out of line today. How’d Mattie take it?” He stretched out on the lounge chair next to the couch and laid his head back on the cushion.

“She was worried about you, actually,” Adam said. “She said you’re a good man, and you don’t deserve that crap.”

Cooper raised his eyebrows. “That’s nice. She’s a good egg. So what’s the plan now?”

“You have to at least ask her out, man,” Flynn said. “That’s how it usually works.”

“Actually, he should have done that before the kiss,” Brandon pointed out. “He’s having an Adam moment. Totally backwards.”

“I did ask her out. This entire trip is one giant date.” Adam stared at the dense line of trees that separated his villa fromMattie’s. She was probably taking a shower. The very idea that she might be naked right now sent a shiver through his body.

“Not if you don’t tellherit’s a date,” Cooper said. “She thinks she’s on a work trip. It’s time for you to make a real move, bud.”

“That’s what I said,” LT muttered.

“Okay, so why don’t we arrange one of those sunset dinner cruises for them?” Brandon suggested. “We could say we’re all going, and then back out or just not show up.”

“Let me do the planning this time, okay?” Adam had to deflect the well-intentioned meddling in his love life before it really got out of hand.

“Okay, genius, what’s the plan?” Flynn asked. “So far all I’ve heard is you dodging the question.”

“You should take her on the picnic,” Cooper said.

“Hey, yeah!” Brandon said, excited. “Now that Coop’s ditched Tina, he doesn’t need his dreamy dinner for two. He can hang with us.”

“Thanks,” Cooper said with heavy sarcasm. “That’s exactly what I want to do now that my relationship has fallen apart.”

“A little bro time is perfect after a breakup,” Flynn said. “Everybody knows that.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” LT said. “I mean, you both need to eat, right? She can’t find fault with that.”

“She could,” Adam said, “since we’ve been doing the group thing for two weeks now. It’ll be a pretty obvious move in exactly the direction she said she didn’t want.”

“I think her feelings on that might have changed.” LT leaned forward to give Adam an intense look. “You said you wanted to handle this, so handle it. Ask her out.”

Flynn grabbed the house phone and handed it to Adam. “It’s a solid plan, dude.”

Adam thought about it. Cooper had planned that dinnerwith romance in mind, and since he’d done it to appease Tina it would be like something out of a movie set. Cooper always went all out where his women were concerned. It would be classy, sultry, and designed to create a lasting memory.

The guys were right. Time to put up or stop pretending he could ever get anywhere with the elusive woman.

“Okay. I’ll call her.” Adam took the phone out to the deck and dialed Mattie’s extension.

Chapter Fifteen

Mattie returned to her villa flushed from the sun, the kiss, and the ride with Adam. No matter how many times she told herself it was a mistake, her thoughts kept circling back to how right it felt to be in his arms.

Someone needed to talk sense to her, because her promise to behave was about to be broken. She went immediately into the bedroom, dug her cell phone out of purgatory, then did the time zone math. It was almost seven here in paradise, which made it eleven a.m. in New York. Perfect.

She dialed the first person she always turned to for advice.

The phone rang six times and went to voice mail.

“Hi. You’ve reached Lizzie Bellamy at Belhurst Castle. Please leave—”

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