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

Conner,” Cody said simply.
    “So I guess, we just have to play it cool if we see each other,” she said with a shrug, as if that would be a piece of cake.
    Cody spread his feet and leaned in, his forearms on his knees. “I don’t think so.”
    She blinked. “What?”
    “I’m feeling stirred up sitting in the least romantic or intimate place there is,” he said.
    She agreed with his assessment of their meeting place. Exactly why she’d chosen it. Though the stirred up thing was definitely happening to her too.
    “If we’re together at a barbecue or Conner’s birthday party or even at Trudy’s,” he said, naming the local hangout for the players on their football team and their friends and fans, not to mention most of the staff from St. Anthony’s hospital where Conner worked, “he’s gonna notice something’s going on with us.”
    In spite of knowing it was not wise, Olivia liked the sound of that. “You think so?”
    “Yes,” Cody said firmly, even as his mouth curled. “I think so.”
    “What do we do? Avoid each other?” she hated the sound of that.
    He reached out and took her hand. Heat shot from her fingers to her nipples just like that. Yep, Conner was going to be able to see this chemistry. It was like they’d opened Pandora’s box. “I don’t want to do that. For one, it will be nearly impossible. If we refuse to ever be in the same place at the same time he’ll notice that and want to know why.”
    She nodded. “I don’t want to do that either.” She shrugged. “I like you. I want to kiss you too, but I also just like you.”
    Something flickered in Cody’s eyes and she saw his attention drop to her mouth. “I think maybe we need to make some rules.”
    She wet her lips without thinking, then did it again when his pupils dilated.
    “Stop it.” His voice was rougher now.
    “Sorry.”
    His gaze returned to hers. “No flirting. I can’t take it.”
    Darn. She’d barely had time to enjoy flirting with him. But yeah, that was just throwing fuel on the fire. “Okay. I have an idea.”
    “I’m listening.”
    She took her hand out of his reluctantly. “We’ll be friends.”
    “We are friends. I still want to put you up on this table and—”
    “Really good friends,” she interrupted before he could finish that thought. And before she could say “oh, yes please.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, you know how they say that we become desensitized to violence because we see it on tv all the time?” she asked, coming up with the plan and explanation as she went. “We just need to become desensitized to each other. We need to spend more time together, not less. Maybe if we hang out, we’ll realize that the other one isn’t so hot or so great. Maybe you have some really irritating habits that I won’t be able to stand. Or maybe you’ll realize that I’m only interesting when there’s schnapps involved.”
    He grinned at that. “You’re only interesting when you’re drunk?”
    She shrugged. “Maybe. So what do you say? Be my friend. I’ve never had a really good guy friend. There could be some real advantages to that. And if we’re friends—like I’ll-never-do-anything-to-jeopardize-this-friendship friends—then we won’t act on our attraction. We won’t want to ruin the friendship just for sex.”
    He looked at her for a long time, seeming to ponder her suggestion. Finally he nodded. “Okay. What the hell? It’s worth a try. That way we won’t have to try to avoid each other.”
    “And you bake,” she said, looking for and finding a few positives. Though it was damned hard to find something that would make not kissing Cody worth it. “I’ve never had anyone who enjoyed baking like I do. And a guy who bakes? Very cool.”
    “You can be my beard,” he said.
    She laughed. “What?”
    “I love to bake, and I’m damned good at it, but the guys on the team and at the station will give me so much shit, I never do it. Now I can do it, and take it in to