Read Online Just Count on Me: Counting on Love Prequel by Erin Nicholas - Free Book Online

Everyone knew it. His friends were known as playboys and flirts, but Cody was known as the nice guy.
    The only person who didn’t think Cody was perfect was her brother.
    But Cody was the youngest Fire Chief in Omaha history. He saved lives for a living.
    Whatever he’d done in the past to make Conner wary had to be big.
    “Hey,” Cody greeted her.
    His deep voice and easy smile really did make her want to take her clothes off. Good thing fast food tacos put a bit of a damper on her sex drive.
    She cleared her throat and forced her eyes away from the navy cotton t-shirt that stretched over his shoulders and chest. The firefighter emblem and stitched “House Three” over the left breast reminded her he was taking a break from work to be here. “Hey.”
    He pulled out the yellow plastic chair next to her. Next to her. Not across from her. Then he angled it so he was facing her, their knees almost touching.
    “Last night was amazing,” he said.
    Well, that was one way to start the conversation.
    “The cookies turned out great,” she said lightly.
    “They did. Almost as great as the kissing. And the breasts.”
    She felt both eyebrows go up. “The…breasts?”
    “There were a couple of very nice breasts.”
    She could tell her cheeks were pink and hot. As was the rest of her body at the reminder of Cody’s hands on said breasts.
    She’d tingled in places she hadn’t even known she could tingle.
    Who knew her pinky finger could tingle?
    Maybe everyone. Maybe she’d just never been kissed like that before.
    That was possible.
    Again back to the bad taste in men thing.
    “We can’t do that again,” she said. Somehow.
    Cody gave her a long look, then settled back in the chair, resting his forearm on the table beside him.
    “Cody?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Yeah, you heard me or yeah, you know that’s true?”
    He sighed. “Both I guess.”
    “You agree, don’t you?” Maybe he’d talk her out of it. Maybe he had a bunch of great reasons why it could still work. Maybe he knew something she didn’t that would help Conner be okay with it. Maybe he’d already talked to Conner and…
    “Yeah.”
    Damn.
    At least he didn’t sound happy about it.
    “Conner will never be okay with us being together,” she said.
    “I know.”
    “And I can’t sneak around behind his back.”
    “I know.”
    “And if it can’t go anywhere, if there’s no future, then I think we should stop it before it starts.”
    “I know.”
    She blew out a frustrated breath. Which didn’t make any sense. She shouldn’t be frustrated. He was agreeing with her. And she was right.
    Still, would it kill him to argue a little? Or to at least say something like…
    “I’m sitting in a mall food court, smelling cheap crappy tacos and caramel corn and I still want to pull you onto my lap and touch you until you make those amazing little sounds you made last night.”
    Olivia felt her whole body flush. Yeah, something like that.
    “Co—”
    “And I can’t even watch you shredding that paper napkin without thinking about how it felt to have your hands on me.”
    Olivia quickly wadded the napkin up and pushed it away from her. “Co—”
    “And I can’t even watch you drink from that straw without remembering how your lips felt and how you taste and how much I want your mouth on other parts of me.”
    She also pushed her iced tea away and took a deep breath. “This is a problem.”
    He nodded. “It is. Because I’m pretty sure that even sitting here in this plastic chair in a food court with you, complete strangers walking by can tell that there is an electricity between us and I’m barely holding it together,” he said.
    She stared at him. Damn.
    There was a reason she couldn’t climb into his lap right this second, but she was having a hard time remembering what it was.
    “We, um…” She cleared her throat. “We can’t.”
    He looked sincerely sad when he nodded this time. “I know.”
    “Conner…” She trailed off.
    “Yeah,