Page 58 of Call My Bluff
“Move your feet, lose your seat, I guess,” Noah said. Then he held his hand out in front of her in a clear invitation. “Want to dance instead?”
Olivia glanced down at his hand and then around the yard. The rest of her family was tied up with company, and there were other couples dancing close to the new gazebo. They wouldn’tbe the only ones, and it wasn’t as if she had anything better to do anyway. Why not have some fun?
“Sure,” she answered. She took his hand and let him lead her toward the far side of the yard. The fairy lights she’d strung earlier stretched above their heads like a spider’s web, and Noah found a vacant patch of grass beyond the edges of the crowd as “Hurt So Good” poured from a nearby speaker.
He raised her arm and spun her in a quick circle, and Olivia found herself laughing even before she came back to face him. Noah turned out to be a pretty good dancer, even if it mostly consisted of twirling her in and out until she was dizzy and breathless. John Mellencamp faded into Modern English, and by the third or fourth song, Olivia could feel her face trying to split open from the force of her smile.
“Stop! I need water,” she begged at last, but when she stepped back, his hand traveled down her arm and caught her by the wrist, as if he weren’t quite ready to let her leave. “I’ll be right back!” she assured him, reclaiming her hand. Then she made her way toward the house and the beverage table, though she barely felt her feet touch the ground. Instead, her entire body seemed to be buzzing—every cell alive with energy—and the places where Noah had touched her, however briefly, still felt like handprints on her skin.
But the thing was, she didn’t hate it.
Though shedidsort of hate the way she didn’t hate it.
The simple truth, if she was being honest with herself, was that like it or not, Noah had weaseled his way into her life, and he was growing on her.
Like a wart, maybe, but growing nonetheless.
She reached for an empty cup and held it under the tap of a fancy drink dispenser.
“So, how long have you been together?” someone asked from over her shoulder, and Olivia didn’t have to look to know it was Michael.
“Not long,” she answered, filling her cup and turning to her brother. A pang of guilt speared through her at the lie, but she tried to ignore it. Noah wouldn’t be around forever, and when he was gone, the exact details of their charade wouldn’t matter.
Another sharp sting hit somewhere in her chest.
“Really?” Michael asked, obviously surprised. “You just seem very comfortable with him. It doesn’tlooknew. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s half in love with you already.”
Olivia almost spit her drink in his face in surprise. “He’swhat?! No. I don’t think so.”
Michael smiled and raised his own cup toward where Noah was now standing with Issa, letting her use his arm as a support while she stood on one foot to fix her shoe. He had Aria balanced in the other arm, and the baby was diligently trying to chew on the collar of his shirt.
“You don’t think so?” her brother asked. “He could be literally anywhere else, but instead he’s here, wearing church clothes and pretending he likes spinach puffs, for no reason at all?”
“Maybe he actually likes spinach puffs,” Olivia supplied.
But Michael shook his head. “Nah. He may not know it yet, but it’s there. I’d put money on it.”
Olivia took another sip of her drink and watched as Noah bounced Aria in his arms, her young laughter piercing the air. Noah Campbell,inlove with her? No. The very idea was ridiculous! Noah didn’tdolove. He didn’tdorelationships. He didn’tdocomplicated.
And yet... wasn’t that exactly what they were? Complicated?
“No,” she repeated at last. “No, he’s just having a good time. It’s a good party,” she reasoned.
“Yeah, it’s a good party,” Michael agreed, “for a fifty-year-old woman he’s never met.”
Olivia considered this as her brother gave one last knowing smirk. Then he crossed the yard to his little family and took his daughter from Noah before tossing her easily into the air. Noah’s attention drifted from the little girl to where Olivia stood staring, and she raised her hand in a small wave, trying to ignore the stutter-step in her chest.
Would it be so bad?a small voice asked, and Olivia mentally dug in her heels. Michael simply didn’t know what he was talking about. She and Noah may have become friends despite her best efforts, but that was as far as it went.
Actually falling for him was out of the question.
16
Noah laid theSuper Soaker against Olivia’s windshield and tucked an index card beneath it. Then, he ducked behind the base of an oak tree several yards away and pressed his back against the bark. Voices drifted over from the social sciences building, and Noah tensed before peeking through a fork in the tree’s trunk. He had a clear view of Olivia’s Mustang, and he couldn’t let her strike first. Not like last time.
He didn’t have to wait long. Olivia came down the sidewalk chatting with a friend, and their goodbyes filtered through the leaves that hid him as the girls parted ways. Olivia’s footsteps came closer to his hiding place, but then they stopped abruptly.
“What the . . .” she said softly.
