Page 37 of Mr. Wrong Number

I set down the phone and watched about thirty seconds ofPaw Patrolbefore the boys wanted me to turn onFrozen IIand get them snacks. I popped some of the popcorn Dana had stuck in their diaper bag, and then the three of us shared it on Colin’s fancy leather couch.

Thank God he wasn’t home to seethat.

Colin

“I can’t believe our buildings are so close!”

I couldn’t, either. I just couldn’t believe it. I said, “Small world, right?”

“Ohmigod, we could totally walk to work together when it’s nice out.”

“I don’t think you’d like my hours.” We stopped in front of my door and I got out my key. “But who knows?”

I had no idea why I was bringing her home. I’d never really been the kind of guy to bring a girl home on the first date, definitely not since college, so it was a mystery why I was introducing Harper to my residence at this point. In the back of my brain alarm bells were going off, drawing arrows to the fact that Olivia was going to be in the condo, but my brain had been misfiring a lot lately, so what the hell did it know?

I unlocked the door, pushed it open, and immediately saw Olivia standing on the couch.

“Into the unkownnnnnnn!” She was scream-singing along to the animated movie on the TV while her two nephews ran around the living room, shrieking out the lyrics, as well. “Into the unknowwwwwnnnnn!”

The little one saw us and stopped running. Olivia, however, kept bouncing on top of my couch in her stupid Cookie Monster pajama top and green plaid flannel pants.

“Shit.” I hadn’t meant to mutter it out loud, but the damned top brought to mind Olivia’s ass in herEat the Richunderwear.

“Who is this?” Harper asked, smiling down at the kid.

“My unwanted houseguest’s nephew.”

Olivia heard that. Her head whipped around and she dropped to a sit before scrambling to her feet. I shut the front door and she gave us an embarrassed smile. “Um... don’t you just loveFrozen?”

Colin said, “More than life itself.”

She pushed her wild hair out of her face. “I thought you were out for the night.”

Harper, ignoring our exchange, walked into the living room and went straight for Olivia. “I love it. I used to listen to the soundtrack in my car all the time.”

“Shut up—me too!” Olivia gave my date a full-on grin before saying, “I’m Olivia, by the way. Colin’s unwanted houseguest.”

Harper gave me a bitchy glare before saying to Liv, “I don’t know, I think you seem like a delightful houseguest.”

I dropped my keys onto the counter and couldn’t believe it.Uptight, judgy Harper was smiling and chatting away with Olivia as if they were best friends. Shouldn’t she be jealous or have questions or just be generally irritated by Olivia’s presence?

“Anyone want a drink?” I asked as I walked over to the liquor cabinet, not really interested in their answers. I was done.

“I’d love a vodka cranberry,” Harper said, barely pausing her conversation with Olivia.

“Ooh, can I have a little bit of the smiley mustachioed-man tequila?” Olivia didn’t even look over but said to Harper, “I had it my first night here and it is surprisingly smooth.”

“Really?” Harper turned back to me and said, “Can I change my order?”

As they performed a damned infomercial script about the smooth tequila, my ears started roaring. Because—holy shit—was Olivia talking about—

“Are you talking about the Rey Sol?”

She looked over, clearly irritated that I’d interrupted. “I don’t remember what it was called.”

I reached for the bottle and sure enough, it was half-gone.

I turned around and said to her, “You opened a sealed bottle of someone else’s liquor?”

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