Chapter 25
Olivia
Connor’s ridiculously adorable pep talk sent her reeling.
He’d given her similar silly speeches over the years, always her biggest hype man.
There was no doubt in her mind that he truly thought all those beautiful things about her.
The sentiment was mutual. She wished that translated to romantic feelings on his side.
Something about the way he looked at her lately made her feel like maybe, just maybe, things had changed. Maybe he could return her feelings.
Fuck. No. That’s the proximity talking.
Hazy would never be an option. Valentine was the sweetest man Olivia had met, possibly ever. And he was smoking hot. He treated her well and made her laugh. She resolved to give him a solid chance.
When Olivia and Connor emerged from her bedroom, Valentine greeted them in the living room. He gave Olivia a kiss on the cheek and handed yet another bouquet to Connor.
“These are for her, but can you put them in a vase?”
Connor glared at Valentine but took the offered daisies.
“You couldn’t have done that yourself?”
Valentine shrugged. “I could have, but you’ll do it so much better.” He winked at Olivia, a calculating glint in his eye.
To Connor’s credit, he didn’t take Valentine’s bait.
With Connor focused on floral arrangement, Valentine gave Olivia his full attention.
“You look incredible,” he said.
Olivia tucked a loose wave behind her ear, uncharacteristically shy toward this man she’d grown close with over the past couple of months. They had a silly, fun dynamic, but removing Connor from the equation made her nervous.
“Thank you. You don’t look bad yourself.”
He wore navy slacks and a white button-down with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled to reveal forearms that had no business being as alluring as they were. If Olivia could convince him to do something serious, she’d be snagging herself a ten.
He looped an arm around her shoulders. “Are you ready to go?”
“Ready, Freddy,” Olivia said. Then she cringed, because who says that? She sounded like a middle-aged dad.
When they pulled out of Connor’s driveway, she asked, “Can I know where you’re taking me yet?”
He didn’t tell her until they were pulling into a fancy hotel roundabout and a valet attendant took the keys from Valentine.
He circled his fancy-pants car and opened her door for her, giving her a hand. The angle accentuated his height. She had to crane her neck to meet his eyes.
A tall, elegant hostess greeted them as soon as they stepped inside.
“Do you have a reservation?” she asked.
“Two for Valentine.”
The woman led them to a table near the back of the glamorous, dimly lit restaurant. They sat angled toward a window boasting a view of the sound.
“This is gorgeous! How did you find this place?” Olivia asked when they were alone.
Valentine’s cheeks got pink.
“Don’t laugh, okay?”
Olivia curled her lips between her teeth in an attempt to maintain her composure. Any time someone asked her not to laugh, she couldn’t help but crack up. It had been a problem on many occasions. She nodded.
“This is where Hazy brings his hookups. I don’t date. I didn’t have a good spot of my own.”
She couldn’t contain her mirth, and Valentine giggled with her. She waved a hand in front of her face. “I’m so sorry. You said don’t laugh, and I automatically laugh if someone says not to.”
They pulled themselves together right as the waitress returned. After placing their orders, Valentine folded his hands and placed them on the table.
“I have something to say, and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.”
“Jeez, what a way to start a conversation.”
“You’ll like it once we get past the first part.”
Olivia took a sip of her water. “Okay, hit me,” she said.
“I don’t want to date you.”
She examined herself, then her surroundings. “Is this not a date?”
“It is,” he said. “But it’s fake.”
“If you needed help learning to date, you could have asked. You didn’t have to trick me into it,” Olivia said, frowning. Her self-esteem took a massive hit, but she did her best to shake it off.
His cheeks grew impossibly redder, and he rubbed his neck. “That’s not what this is.”
“You better spell out whatever it is you’re thinking, because I am not following.”
“I wanted Hazy to think we’re dating.”
His explanation gave Olivia absolutely zero additional context. “Uh, why?”
“Because he’s in love with you and lying to himself about it.”
A lump formed in Olivia’s throat, and the world around them faded to a pinprick of light while she worked to comprehend Valentine’s words. “You think,” she choked out, “Connor is in love with me.”
“I’m almost certain.” Valentine nodded.
“You’re delusional.”
“No.”
“You are. Connor is not in love with me. He has never been in love with me. Trust me.” She fell back in her seat and crossed her arms, her mood swinging from amused to cranky.
Valentine rubbed his jaw as he studied her. “How do you know?”
Olivia couldn’t answer. The memory of Connor’s rejection was seared so deeply into the fabric of her being that sharing it may as well have been baring her soul for Valentine to critique. She shook her head.
He sighed. “You know you’re in love with him, right?”
She was close to bursting into tears. Fucking Connor. Her crush should have faded away over time. And it had. When she had distance from him. Which didn’t work while she lived at his house.
She managed a nod and grabbed her glass of water, taking small sips.
“Listen,” Valentine said. “You guys could be obnoxiously happy together. But for that to happen, you’re both going to have to get a little uncomfortable with each other.”
As she considered his viewpoint, all her hopes and dreams for the future flew through her head.
She wanted a happy marriage and children.
She wanted a dog named after their favorite snack, and her kids’ friends being comfortable enough with her to call her mom.
She wanted to throw cheesy birthday parties and plan elaborate Christmas surprises.
For years she had forced herself to blur out the face of the man she wanted to do it all with.
She told herself it could be anyone. But with one off-the-wall statement, Valentine brought him into perfect, high-definition focus.
She groaned and let her forehead fall onto the table. Refusing to meet Valentine’s eyes during her admission, Olivia picked at a snag in her tights.
“I told him I loved him once.”
“What did he say?” Valentine asked.
Olivia forced herself to look at him. “Ew.”
“Oh my God. Fucking asshole.”
She pressed her lips into a flat line. “To be fair, I think I caught him off guard. It was his draft day, and we were both emotional knowing that everything would be changing soon. I offered to move with him. I thought he’d be happy.
We were both terrified of the distance. But I was wrong.
He ghosted me for six months after that, and then when we reconciled, he proceeded to refer to me as his sister for the next eight years, and now we’re here. ”
“That’s messed up.”
The waitress chose that moment to bring their food, and they ate in uncomfortable silence for a while.
Olivia had begun thinking he would let the topic go and they could enjoy a nice evening as friends when he said, “We can work with this.”
She sighed. Now that he knew her not-so-subtle secret, he would be like a dog with a bone.
“I won’t do anything to jeopardize our friendship. I already put myself out there for him, and he crushed me. Right now he’s all I have.”
“He’ll come to you.”
“If you have any ideas to magically make him fall in love with me, I’m all ears. But I want no part of any scheming.”
“Think of it as creative problem-solving. He already loves you; he only needs to realize it. You won’t have to do anything special.”
If what he suspected were true, the future she envisioned for herself might be within reach. She’d be stupid not to explore that possibility. Right? Valentine seemed so sure, but if he was wrong, she could lose everything. Again. “What makes you so sure he loves me?”
“He talks about you all the time.”
“He talks about you all the time, too.”
“Exactly. He adores me.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No, but it’s not only that. He also warned every single teammate away from you.” Valentine leaned back in his chair, looking pleased with himself.
“He warned me away from them, too.”
“Because he doesn’t want to share your attention.”
He might have a point there. “That’s one thing.”
“He has a multi-point game almost every time you come to cheer him on.”
“He’s always played well when I watch. I don’t think that’s related to feelings. More likely his superstition.”
“When he bought his house he got so excited about the tree in the backyard that he wanted to FaceTime you to show you the treehouse potential. He put together a whole binder of ideas and everything.”
Her mouth popped open. The one time she and Lance had visited Connor when they moved to Seattle, they sat out on his patio and ate Mexican food. Olivia had been in awe of the massive oak tree. “He’s literally never mentioned that to me.”
“That’s because when he called, you immediately started talking about the new guy you were dating.”
“Lance?” she asked.
Valentine shrugged. “When he hired the landscapers to design his backyard I asked him if he was going to get someone to build a treehouse. He said no because ‘it wouldn’t be the same without Livy.’”
Of all the data points Valentine mentioned, that one held the most merit. Their treehouse was sacred. As kids Jayden wanted Connor to make the treehouse in his backyard boys only. But the day Olivia’s mom left (and took Popcorn with her), Jayden hadn’t been home.