The Wedding Engagement

Chapter Two

Finishing off the last flick of the curling iron, Liv paused to check out her efforts. Hair curled—check. Smoky eye and winged eyeliner—check. Little black skater-style dress with best lacy underwear hidden underneath—check.

She purposely hadn’t mentioned her blind date to Arran when she’d dropped Jayce off earlier on, feeling rather self-conscious about the whole thing. Luckily, he’d only asked what she was doing the next day, not that evening, so she hadn’t needed to make something up. She sucked at lying and loathed doing it.

At first she’d resisted the idea when her friend Maya had told her about the new blind-date app—BlindLove—but then her resolve had crumbled when she’d pondered how long it had been since she’d been on a date. It would be fun to find something casual again, and it didn’t need to progress to anything serious.

She’d admitted to Maya and their other best friend, Elise, that she was going on the date but had asked them not to mention it to anyone because she couldn’t be bothered with the inevitable pressure to pursue a serious relationship. People really were obsessed with converting single women’s relationship status to “coupled up.”

Her phone buzzed, signaling that her taxi was approaching, so she hurried down the stairs to put on her black heels and biker-style jacket before heading out to the waiting car.

On the way to the bar, she opened the BlindLove app again. The app’s algorithm wasn’t based on information such as job status or hobbies, but matched people anonymously using themes such as values, character traits, and life goals. Her date’s profile indicated that he liked physical/slapstick and wordplay-type humor (tick), liked kids (tick), and was just getting into dating again and not looking for anything serious (big tick). He valued honesty, integrity, family, and friends above any monetary or materialistic possessions. He also shared her dreams of taking some time to travel before coming back to Glenavie to settle down. Both felt that this town of theirs carried a central, special place in their hearts.

Her date’s handle was GlenavieTimelord and she wouldn’t discover his real name until they met in person.

Liv scanned the rest of their messages. Careful not to reveal any details that would unblind them, they’d discussed their mutual love of Doctor Who and eighties movies.

Liv popped the phone into her handbag, peering through the windshield to see if they were nearly there.

Once the taxi pulled up and she paid the driver, the nerves really set in. She glanced down at herself as she crossed the threshold, hoping that her date would like the way she looked. As she scanned the crowd, searching for a man also wearing a homemade badge with David Tennant’s face on it (they had decided to opt for this as their call sign, both being Whovians and in agreement that David was all-round awesome), she hoped that in addition she would like the way he looked. And then perhaps the lacy underwear wouldn’t have come out for nothing…

Her gaze landed on a badge sporting David Tennant’s smiling face, attached to a dark T-shirt stretching over an appealingly toned chest. And upon raising her eyes to her date’s face, she found herself staring straight into familiar honey-colored eyes.

—

Arran blinked again, assuming the action would wash away the hallucination of Liv standing there, wearing a David Tennant pin, and looking absolutely fucking gorgeous.

For a moment the shock of her appearing as his blind date faded into the background as he was taken over by a thunderbolt of desire. Her black dress ended at mid-thigh, showing off smooth legs that seemed to go on for days and were complemented by high heels that accentuated the shapely curves of her calves. The bodice hugged her breasts, closely tracing the mouthwatering outline that had caught his eye earlier that same day—when she’d removed her karate jacket and he’d inadvertently taken in an eyeful of her chest.

“ Fuck ,” he muttered under his breath. His heart hammered as she appeared to recover from the shock of seeing him, unfreezing and walking toward him. His eyes snagged on her shiny dark hair. An overwhelming temptation surfaced as he imagined lifting a hand and coiling his fingers into her ringlets while looking into the sultry spectacle of her eyes, then pulling her head back to bite the long line of her neck. He resisted the temptation—barely—as his fingers twitched at his side, dying to follow through on the idea.

“Well,” she told him, coming to stand in front of him. She was a lot taller in heels but still only came up to chin height on him. For a moment he fantasized that she might jump up into his arms and wrap those lovely legs around his waist.

“This is a surprise,” she continued, giving him a lopsided smile.

He cleared his throat because it felt like his own tongue was attempting to choke him. “You can say that again.”

She let out a laugh that was a little higher pitched than usual. His mind raced as he tried to come to terms with the last few mind- blowingly confusing seconds. His blind date was Liv, his best friend’s twin sister. The woman who helped him with childcare. The woman who would soon become his son’s nursery school teacher. The woman he’d known since they were about five years old and he hadn’t ever looked upon as anything other than a friend—until the last few months, when little snatches of heat began burning whenever she’d touched his hand, held his gaze, or took off her top layer to reveal tight-fitting clothing underneath.

Well, that heat was anything but a little snatch now. The sight of her this evening had been like pouring lighter fluid on a slowly burning barbecue. Boom.

Should he voice it?

“Come on,” she said, taking his elbow and pulling him toward the bar while he continued to stare at her. Her lips were painted cherry red. Would they taste like cherries if he kissed her?

Something hard smacked into his front and he realized it was the bar. Dazed, he watched Liv signal the barman (who was very quick to give her his attention, gracing her with an appreciative look—the fucking bastard), and she ordered them both a bottle of beer. His favorite one.

Arran tried desperately to kick-start his brain into action, but it seemed to have turned to mush, melted by the sight of Olivia Holland sporting sultry eye makeup, cherry-red lipstick, a sexy little black dress, and heels. He couldn’t remember seeing her dressed up before. He wished he’d been prepared so that he could at least have retained the power of speech in this situation.

Grasping the cold bottle of beer the barman presented, he didn’t even have the wherewithal to get his wallet out before Liv.

She lifted her bottle toward his, and he managed to interpret her actions through the lust fog in his brain and clink his bottle with hers. His mind raced. He should say something. Tell her how beautiful she looked and how his feelings had been evolving and that now that they were here tonight perhaps it was a sign that they should take their relationship further—out of the platonic and into the more…intimate. The issues of their friendship and her relationship with his son faded into the background as he stared hungrily at her mouth. With a start, he realized that her lips were moving.

“…so at least we’re on the same page,” she finished.

Fuck. What had she just said?

He gave his head a small shake in the hope that it might reboot his brain. “Sorry, mate.” Mate?! Wrong time to use that word! “It’s a bit loud in here and I didn’t quite catch what you said.”

She laughed. “You’re too old to hear in pubs now?”

“Hey,” he said, giving her arm a nudge. The touch of her bare skin sent a slug of lust through his veins, making the hairs on his arms stand on end. “We’re the same age.”

She gave him a wink, and his skin about set on fire.

Whatever she had been saying ended with “we’re on the same page.” So had she just said what he’d been thinking, that they should make a go of this? His stuttering brain sent a stream of consciousness right to his mouth and he started to speak at the same time as Liv. “I was thinking that we should—”

“I was saying that—” Liv stopped. “Sorry, what were you going to say?”

He shook his head, realizing his interruption. “No, sorry, you finish first, then I’ll go.”

She smiled, glancing down and brushing the toe of her stiletto over the floor. “I was saying that this is awkward. Neither of us was expecting to see the other tonight.” Her smile became a little fixed. “I saw you swear under your breath when you clocked me, and I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

Oh shit. “No, Liv, that’s not—”

She held up a hand. “It’s okay, Arran. I don’t mind. I also said that I feel the same way, so at least we’re on the same page.”

His mouth went dry. “You feel the same way, as in…”

“That this is a bit mortifying, and I wish it hadn’t happened.”

Arran’s heart thudded and sank like a stone. “Ah, I see.” All the potential sexy scenarios running through his mind swirled and faded away as if being flushed down the toilet. Damn it. At least he hadn’t run his mouth off and ended up embarrassing himself—and her. As the cold trickle of disappointment doused his emotions and his rational brain took over from his lust-driven one, he realized that even if Liv were interested in him in a romantic manner, there was no way he’d risk losing her friendship. He’d always been on friendly terms with Liv, but over the past several months, she had grown to become one of his closest friends. If he started something with her and it went south, like it had with Jess, then their relationship would be destroyed. And the idea of not having Liv in his life at all was too painful to contemplate. Plus it would drive a wedge between him and Sam.

She looked sad, her eyes down at her feet, and his protective instinct rose.

“Hey.” He gave her another little nudge. “Don’t sweat it. At least we get to hang out tonight, right?”

She lifted those beautiful big green eyes and gave him a smile. “Yeah. Good point.” She clinked her bottle with his again and they both took a drink. Liv sighed. “And to think I wore my sexy black underwear for nothing.”

Arran gripped his beer bottle so hard it was lucky the thing didn’t smash in his hand. She was wearing sexy black underwear underneath that hot little black dress? Was it lacy? Sheer? The kind that he could touch and suck the sensitive parts of her through? Scanning her body, he imagined with impressive clarity what she would look like standing in front of him in her underwear. Unfortunately, the process gave him a semi—standing in a public bar, in front of his best friend. He surreptitiously tugged at the front of his jeans.

Liv seemed oblivious. “Where’s Jayce, by the way?”

He took a deep breath. “With my parents.”

“Cool.” She shifted from one foot to the other.

He gave her a rueful smile. “In hindsight, I don’t know why we didn’t guess it was each other. The Doctor Who thing…the eighties-movies geeks thing.”

She smiled. “I’m sure there are other people in Glenavie who like that stuff.”

He pursed his lips, giving an exaggerated slow shake of his head. “Uh-uh. Those are our things.”

She let out a laugh that tinkled with pleasure at his sentiment. “Anyway, there’s no way I would’ve guessed it was you because I never thought you’d be on the app in a million years, Mr. I Don’t Want to Date Ever Again.”

He huffed out a breath. “Yeah, well. This just cements that sentiment.”

Her face fell, and he kicked himself for, yet again, inadvertently making her think that he was in any way disappointed with her company. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

She smiled again, but it contained a tinge of sadness, and he hated seeing her sad.

Arran grabbed his phone from his pocket, knowing what would cheer her up and make her more comfortable, plus take his mind off any more R-rated scenarios. “Wanna see some photos we took this afternoon of me and Jayce playing dress-up as Disney princesses?”

Her eyes widened. “Yes, please.”

He grinned, putting his arm around his friend’s shoulders and pulling her in to look at the screen, trying desperately to ignore the resulting temptation swamping him, which now seemed to be here to stay.