Her nerves jumped. “We do?”
“Yes.” He rubbed his palms over his thighs.
Don’t do that.Olivia tightly clasped her hands underneath her desk, forcing herself to look at his face and not his body. Unfortunately for her, that was perfect too.
“My mother is setting us up,” he blurted.
That was the last thing she expected him to say. “What do you mean?”
“She’s matchmaking. She hasn’t come right out and said so, but I’m sure that’s her plan.”
Olivia shut her laptop. “I’m confused.”
“Me too. I don’t know when or why she got it into her head that we should be a couple, but she has. You know how dogged she can be about something once she sets her mind to it.”
“You’re probably mistaken,” she said.
“Did she tell you I was going to be at supper on Saturday night?”
“No.”
He sighed. “That was intentional. She wants me to teach you ‘basic dance steps’ before supper,” he said, using air quotes.
“That’s what the ballroom lessons are for.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s just an excuse for us to spend time together. Alone.”
Olivia let his words sink in. She’d thought it strange when Karen stopped by midmorning and invited her over, something she hadn’t done since she and Anita were school-age. “I thought she was talking about a family dinner.”
“She was. I’m the family.”
“You explained that we’re just friends, right?”
He fidgeted in his chair. “I didn’t get the chance. Sunny showed up, and next thing I knew she and Mom were planning for a showcase at the end of the dance course.”
“What’s that?”
“A recital of sorts. She asked me to be her partner for the spotlight dance.”
Something pinched inside Olivia’s chest. “Are you going to?”
“I’m mulling it over. I probably will, though.”
There was no reason for him not to, and zero cause for her to feel... whatever that painful pinch was. “Good. You two dance well together.”
“Thank you.” He leaned forward. “What are we going to do about Saturday night, though? Telling Mom no won’t work, because she’ll find another way to get us together.”
The wordnowas exactly what Olivia was going tosuggest, but Kingston had a point. She’d spent enough time with the Bedfords that she knew he was right—Karen wouldn’t give up, at least not easily. “We have to convince her we’re not couple material,” she said.
“Exactly.”
He didn’t have to be so blunt about it. “What if we pretend to—”
“Hate each other?”
“‘Hate’ is a strong word,” she said.
Kingston sat back and nodded. “I couldn’t fake that anyway. Not with you.”
