Along Came Mr. Right (14 page)

The belligerence in Paige’s face slowly faded.

“Olivia, I don’t even trust myself. How is this going to work at all?”

“You can start by trusting me.” Olivia reached up and lifted the girl’s chin.

“I do trust you.”

“Then tell me what happened with the tests today.”

Paige told her about her test anxiety and about how when she finally cleared her brain of the fog, there hadn’t been enough time to finish the test.

“I’m certain if we ask Mr. Right, he’ll give you more time to finish,” Olivia offered. “I’ve heard he’s a pretty fair guy.”

“But that’s cheating.”

“No it’s not. As Mr. Right told you from the start, everyone has a different learning style.” She shrugged. “So what if you need accommodation in math by taking more time for each test? If that’s what you need to succeed, no one will think anything of it, not the other students or the other teachers.”

“Really?” Paige asked, her voice tinged with hope.

Olivia nodded. For a second they just sat there, looking at each other. The mix of relief and fear in Paige’s eyes almost brought tears to Olivia’s own. Holding them back, she reached out and brushed the hair away from Paige’s hidden eye. They still had a long way to go, many more discussions to have, before Olivia could say everything she wanted to the teen. Today was at least a start in the right direction.

Paige released a ragged sigh. “I really have to try now, don’t I?”

Olivia felt a surge of pride. “Yes, Paige. That’s all you really control, how much you try.”

“I might fail.”

Olivia shrugged. “You might, but there’s just as good a chance you’ll succeed. And no matter what, I’ll be here for you. We all will.”

Paige smiled. “I want to try.”

“That’s all any of us can do,” Olivia replied as her thoughts moved beyond Paige to Max. Should she take a bit of her own advice and trust that Max would be honest with her?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Right at six o’clock, Max knocked on her door. Of course, the doorman had rung Olivia in advance, which gave her time to run her fingers through her hair and apply a little lip gloss. She tried to act casual as she opened the door. “Hi, Max.”

“Hiya,” he replied. “As promised, I brought dinner.”

His smile hit her like a blow to the solar plexus, as it always did. He’d changed into a long-sleeved, black T-shirt that hugged his broad shoulders, and he’d pulled the sleeves up to reveal his forearms. The effect on her pulse was instantaneous.

“May I come in?”

“Of course.” She waved him inside. As he strode past, she noticed he carried two large paper bags and his computer bag. “There are only two of us. It looks like you brought enough to feed a family of twelve.”

He laughed. “I knew you liked pie. Beyond that, I realized you and I know very little about each other. So I brought a variety.”

Olivia closed the door and followed him into the kitchen. Her place was easy to navigate. Aside from a bathroom and bedroom, it was really just one large room for the kitchen and dining table, the living room, and a nook off to the right for her computer. All of it designed to capitalize on the view. He stopped at the table and set his bags down, reached in, and pulled out three pies from one bag and two more pies and a salad from the second.

“We have chicken potpie, broccoli quiche, sweet potato pie, lemon chiffon, and chocolate cream.” He gave her a hesitant look. “And a salad.”

She laughed at his unexpected dinner menu. It felt good to laugh after a day so fraught with tension.

“Is Paige doing okay?” he asked.

“When I left her at the Millers’, she’d fallen asleep on the couch.”

“After the day she’s had, that kind of makes sense. Did she ever tell you why she stole that mascara?” Max asked, leaning casually against her counter. He made her kitchen look good.

“She was certain she failed her math test.”

He frowned. “I looked at her test. The three problems she did were perfect, but she never finished.”

“She has test anxiety,” Olivia said. “Paige panicked when you handed out the tests and only settled down in time to answer the three questions she did.”

“I would have given her more time had she asked.” Disbelief echoed in his tone.

“She knows that now. I’ll work with the school to see she gets time accommodations for testing in her classes.”

Compassion filled Max’s eyes. “I hope this is an eye-opener for her. She got a fresh start today.”

Olivia’s lips tipped up into a half smile. “I told her the same thing. Tomorrow she starts a different kind of group counseling. Let’s see where all this takes her. She may need an individual education program.”

“I could start the process for you—a number of children in her grade have them. Now, how can I help with dinner?” Max asked.

Olivia retrieved plates from a cabinet and set them beside the pies. She motioned him toward the silverware. When he was done collecting knives and forks, she handed him two glasses. He filled them with water and set them on the table. “What’s your favorite pie?” Olivia asked.

“Potpie.” Max said, using a knife to cut a big slice. “And yours?”

As if on cue, Olivia’s stomach grumbled. “The quiche looks great,” she replied with a sheepish grin. “It’s been a long day, and with all the chaos I forgot about lunch.” She helped herself to a thin slice and, with tongs, added some salad to her plate.

Max did the same before carrying their plates to the tall wooden table. She sat in one of the bar-stool-like chairs. He joined her. “Now, about Paige . . . what else can I do?”

Olivia picked up her fork and helped herself to a bite. When she’d finished the bite she replied, “For starters, offer to let her retake the test. Any chance you can contact her English teacher and see how she did on the Shakespeare test?”

“Consider it done.” He took a bite of his pie and chewed it thoughtfully. They ate in silence for a few minutes before he set his fork down. “You okay if we continue where we left off earlier?”

Olivia set her fork down, too, no longer hungry for anything but information about Max’s relationship with Annalise. “I’m listening.”

This time the smile that reached his eyes was sad. “Annalise and I go way back. Our families moved in the same circles. It seemed only natural that we would become high school sweethearts. She was the cheerleader, and I was the math geek, but somehow it seemed to work. I’m not sure either one of us had feelings stronger than friendship, even back then.”

Max pushed his plate away. “Annalise always seemed to need my help—with her homework, covering for her when she wanted to do things she knew she shouldn’t, and telling her father she was with me or my family. I covered for her once when she’d had an accident to make it look like I was driving.”

“You accepted the blame for her mistakes?”

He shrugged. “Still do.”

She arched a brow at him. “Does this have something to do with her pregnancy?”

“You know about that?” he asked, his words clipped.

“Someone named Ms. Pickles keeps sending things about you and Annalise to my Facebook feed. Her pregnancy was there yesterday.” Olivia hesitated. “Is the baby . . . ?”

“Mine? No, but she asked me to say it was so her father wouldn’t cut her out of the family fortune.”

Olivia took a deep breath and asked an even harder question. “Do you love her?”

Max reached out and curled his fingers around hers. “Isn’t it obvious who has my attention these days? It’s not Annalise.”

Olivia stared at their entwined fingers. She wanted so desperately to believe Max was telling her the truth and that he really did have feelings for her, not Annalise. “If you want out of this arrangement, then why are you still engaged to her?”

“This is why.” He released her fingers to bend down and retrieve his computer bag. Drawing out his laptop, he set it on the table before turning the machine on. “Matchmaker 2.0 needed funding.”

“Oh. How much are we talking about?”

“A million dollars. I had no other way of getting my hands on those kinds of funds. The banks didn’t want to talk to me. And I refused to go to my father for money.”

The confession wrapped around them, connected them. “I knew it was a bad business practice to borrow money from friends, but I believed in the math so strongly that I took that gamble.”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“App development is expensive, and taking it to market even more so,” Max explained. “I couldn’t do it alone. I needed the help of a design firm to help me make my product look great. When Annalise offered to help in exchange for me posing as her fiancé, I agreed.”

“It looks like you’re more than ‘posing’ as her fiancé. Annalise has hired my friend Ellie to coordinate the wedding.”

“We needed to make our arrangement look real.”

“What would her father do if he finds out this has all been a lie?”

“Annalise says he’ll become violent toward the baby’s father. I have my doubts about that. But I do believe he’ll force her to fend for herself and the child, making her daily life difficult.”

Olivia’s jaw went slack. “But the child is his grandchild, regardless of who the father is.”

Max shrugged. “The man holds a grudge.”

An awkward silence fell between them until Olivia asked, “What happens next? Will you break things off with her? Wait until your app is launched and sold, or until the baby’s born?”

His eyes darkened and he looked away. “I’m trying to end things now. But Annalise has other plans.”

Olivia went cold. Why was she doing this again? Max had the power to hurt her as much as Damien ever had. Damien betrayed her trust with his lies. Max could do the same thing. She’d given him that power because, regardless of the situation with Annalise, she could think of nothing she’d like more than to feel his arms holding her, to feel the warmth of his lips on hers.

He turned back to her. A painful look reflected in his eyes. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you—”

“Yes,” she replied before he could finish his sentence. He wanted her to wait for him to be free. She wasn’t sure how long she would wait for them to have a chance together . . . probably forever.

There was no denying the satisfaction that came over his face. “Since I’m on a roll, can I ask you something else?” At her nod he scooted his laptop her way. “Will you take the Matchmaker test again? I found the corruption and recoded everything.”

“Wow,” she replied with a smile. “You really are pushing your luck.” She pulled the laptop to her and started the test.

While she answered the questions, Max slid off his chair and gathered their plates, moving to the sink to wash them off. When she paused, Max turned to her. “Are you done already?”

She shook her head. “Taking the test just got me thinking. Have you ever considered using this application for other purposes?”

“Such as?”

She pursed her lips. “Something like this would be very helpful in trying to match kids with foster families. But so much of children’s information is protected that it might be too difficult.” He gave her a smile that brought out the hint of a dimple in his left cheek. How had she never noticed that before?

“Is that a challenge?”

She laughed. “Think of it any way you’d like. I know an app like that would make my job easier.”

His smile faded. “I’m hoping the damn thing will keep working after Annalise’s sabotage.”

“Why would she do something like that? She obviously knows how much this app means to you if you were willing to stake your future on its success.”

“Only Annalise would know the answer to that question.”

She saw the agony in Max’s eyes. She slid off her chair and stepped into his arms. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she drew him to her. Raw hunger reflected in the stormy depths of his eyes. The moment slowed to the space between a breath and a heartbeat. She tipped her face up to his. She knew she shouldn’t, but she suddenly couldn’t seem to stop herself.

A hint of oranges invaded her senses as she brought her hand up and laid it against the flat of his chest. His mouth came down until a thin sliver of air separated them. It was more than she could take. She lifted up on her toes a fraction more and touched her lips to his.

Max’s hands splayed against her back and hauled her tighter against his chest. Where thought once existed, longing took over. Passion curled through her as his lips firmed and he took command and changed the kiss. He skillfully parted her lips and invaded her mouth, laying claim, sending her senses soaring. Heat invaded her limbs, leaving tingling sensations in its wake as her body warmed. She could feel it in him, that same helpless reaction as he stole her breath and gave it back.

Olivia fought the urge to reach up, to tunnel her fingers through his hair, to hold him against her until the need she’d stripped bare could be satisfied. She had to hold back that one small piece of herself in order to survive. Until he was truly free, she could never give herself to him in that way again.

He must have sensed her hesitation. He broke the kiss and pulled back, staring into her face. “I’m not being fair to you, am I?”

“No,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I understand.”

“That’s more than I deserve.”

She gave him a hopeful smile. “How about I get back to that test of yours?”

With a final kiss on her forehead, he released her. While she answered the remaining questions, Max kept his hands at her waist, as though unwilling or unable to let her go. A fresh wave of sparks raced through her body at the intimacy of the touch until she came to the last question. “I’m done.”

Her heart in her throat, Olivia turned the computer screen back to him and waited for the results. She and Max would be a match this time. They had to be.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Max drove back to his house after leaving Olivia, damning his Matchmaker app the whole way. For the second time, his own invention had failed him. Instead of a 10 percent match, now he and Olivia were a 50 percent match. It wasn’t enough. With results like that, their relationship stood as much chance for failure as it did success.

And as if that news wasn’t bad enough, there were seven other profiles that matched Olivia with an 85 percent or higher score. Seven other men were more suited to her than he was. The thought rubbed him raw.

How could he and Olivia be a failure when he could still see her face in his mind’s eye, still feel the rightness of her touch and warmth of her kiss, smell the clean, fresh scent of her skin?

He’d never wanted a woman so badly in his whole life. He’d felt only the occasional stirrings for other women he’d dated. And he’d never had such feelings for Annalise.

What was it about Olivia that he craved so much? He knew so little about her except that she had a great sense of humor, forgave easily, and loved with her whole being. Maybe that was it. Olivia wasn’t afraid to risk her heart with the kids in her program, or with him. He’d made her no promises, and yet she’d agreed to wait for him until he was free of Annalise. They needed no contract between them to validate their promise.

Olivia.

Her name hovered in his mind, along with the image of her wide, brown eyes. His groin tightened instantly. He groaned at the deep-seated ache that burned through him as he pulled into his driveway. He turned off his car and got out. Slinging his computer bag over his shoulder, he entered the house.

He tossed his keys on the table in the foyer and paused. The house was completely silent. That silence had never bothered him before. With a curse, he flipped on a light, then headed back to his office and sat down at his desk. After removing his laptop out of the bag, he set it on the desk, turned it on, then opened the files containing the code for his Matchmaker app.

Before Olivia he’d never realized what was missing from his life. If he was ever going to get any of the things he wanted—all the things that made up a family—he needed to fix his app. In order to get the results he wanted with Olivia and to prove Matchmaker 2.0 was ready to go to market, he was going to have to go back two versions and reinstall all the upgrades he’d made, as well as reenter all the data he’d collected from applicants in the past month.

He had his work cut out for him. Max settled back in his computer chair. If he remained focused and caffeinated, he just might finish all that work before the weekend.

After school on Thursday, Olivia attended Paige’s group tutoring session with the teen. Max was as friendly to both of them as he was the other students, but he was distracted. And Olivia had never seen him look so tired. She tried not to read anything into his behavior, but it felt as if everything around them was starting to crumble more than it already had, leaving her shaken and angry and out in the cold.

On Friday, Olivia sat in a desk next to Paige during her private tutoring session while Paige and Max went over the teenager’s retaken math test. She’d received an A-minus, having missed part of one equation. Beyond the math test, Paige had completed all her reparations for her shoplifting, even sweeping the Walgreen’s parking lot as Mrs. Miller suggested. Finishing her counseling sessions were all that remained of her detention agreement. And, if she could keep her grades up, passing tenth grade looked possible as well.

“Great job, Paige,” Max said. “You’re back on track for a B in my class. Only one more test and the final remain for the quarter.”

Olivia was thrilled for her. She’d worked so hard for this success. “Do you know what this means, Paige?” Olivia asked.

The teenager’s smile reflected her pride, and amusement shone in her eyes. “That I’m not as dumb as I thought I was.”

Olivia enveloped the teenager in an exuberant hug since it was just the three of them present, and Paige wouldn’t be embarrassed by the show of affection. “You won the bet we made a couple weeks ago.”

Paige returned the embrace, then pulled back with a look of surprise. “I did, didn’t I?” She narrowed her gaze on Olivia. “What was that prize you promised me again?”

“The satisfaction of a job well done.”

Paige groaned. “I should have bargained for more.”

“How about a sleepover tonight?” Olivia replied with a laugh.

Paige nodded as she packed her books into her backpack, preparing to leave. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

Once they were alone, Max turned to Olivia and smiled. His smile was like a ray of sunshine, driving deep, warming all the places inside that had gone cold while he’d been . . . what? Distracted? Indifferent? Finding a way to tell her good-bye?

He didn’t
look
as if he wanted to break things off. The faraway look was gone from his eyes, replaced with satisfaction and a little heat. “I did it,” he said, moving out of his chair toward her.

“Did what?” she asked, rising to meet him.

He looked so pleased with himself, as if he were about to explode. “I fixed the Matchmaker app. I’m ready to take it to market.”

“That’s great,” Olivia said, not quite understanding the significance of his achievement.

“Don’t you understand? The sooner I sell the app, the sooner I can pay my investor back, the sooner I’ll be free.” He touched her, his warm hand molding to her cold cheek.

She heard the excitement in his voice. A tiny shaft of hope flared in her heart. Max was not Damien. His deception was in word only. “Will the app sell quickly?”

“I have two interested parties already. In the next few weeks, I’ll make the necessary arrangements, and we’ll see what happens.”

“Congratulations. I’m really happy for you.”

“Happy enough that you’d take the Matchmaker test for me one more time?”

Olivia looked up at him, saw tenderness in his expression but also a hint of unease. She felt as if everything was hanging, suspended between them. Her breath hitched. “I want to, but I don’t think I should.”

“Why?”

“If we don’t match, will you go back and work on the algorithm more?”

He hesitated, then admitted, “I would.”

“Then I can’t do that to you, to us. It’ll never end.”

He arched his brow in thought a moment before acceptance entered his eyes. It gave her strength, that look in his eyes—as if everything she’d imagined over the past weeks was truly all a bad dream.

“Can we go out and celebrate? Just you and me? It is Friday night.”

Olivia shook her head. “Paige and I are having a sleepover at my condominium. I’ll take her to her therapy appointment at nine from my place tomorrow.”

“Mind if I tag along to the therapy appointment?” he asked.

“This is something Paige has to do by herself. I’ll drop her off, then wait for her to finish.”

“I could wait with you?”

Olivia bit down on her lip, considering. “Is that wise for the two of us to be seen alone together again?”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “Probably not, but I don’t care.”

Olivia smiled back, no longer feeling a sense of desperation or pain. “All right,” she said with a catch in her voice. “Meet us at my place at eight thirty.”

“I’ll be there.” Max gave her another one of his smiles, the one that made her throat go dry and her heart patter in her chest as if she’d been running a race. Max would risk being seen in public with her, and he would help her with Paige.

If she looked past his engagement and the lies he protected for Annalise’s sake, Max was a decent man.

Olivia wanted desperately to believe that was true.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear. The scent of coffee filled the air. Olivia opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling of her condominium. Silence surrounded her. She knew from experience Paige was not a morning person. The teenager usually needed prompting to get out of bed on the weekend. So why did she smell coffee? Olivia got up and followed the aromatic scent into the kitchen.

“Breakfast’s ready,” Paige said as she put two plates of sliced fruit and scrambled eggs on the table. “I used what I could find. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I can’t believe you made me breakfast,” Olivia said, reaching for a coffee mug. “And coffee.” Olivia headed straight for the small Italian coffeepot on the stove. The metal lid clanged softly as the water bubbled up from the bottom well to the top. Puffs of fragrant steam coiled in the air, drawing her forward. Italian coffee. Her favorite. Careful not to spill a precious drop, she poured the dark and steamy brew into her cup. She took a sip and closed her eyes, savoring the bitter liquid as it warmed her. She opened her eyes and sighed with pleasure.

Paige smiled. “I wanted to do something to thank you for having me over last night. I never knew you were so competitive about card games.”

Olivia laughed. “I was the UNO champion at the student center in college. I held that title for four years despite challengers.”

Paige gave her an odd look. “UNO is a game of luck, not skill.”

“I guess I was lucky back then.” Olivia slid into a chair at the table.

Paige joined her in the chair across from her. “I think you’re lucky still. A lot of the teachers at the high school would die for Mr. R. to look at them the way he looks at you.”

Olivia choked on her coffee. “How do you know how he looks at me?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “I’m not blind.”

Paige really was far more aware than Olivia ever gave her credit for. Talking about men and boys, a thought suddenly occurred to Olivia. “Is there a special boy in your life?” She’d never considered that fact before.

“No,” Paige replied, lifting her fork and scooping up a bite of eggs. “All the boys my age either have egos bigger than their brains, or they’re so awkward they can’t talk to a girl.”

“You’re right,” Olivia agreed, comforted by Paige’s response. There would be a day when boys were no longer egotistical or awkward to the teenager. Hopefully that day was a long time from now.

They ate in companionable silence. Then Olivia asked, “Are you ready for today?”

“Do I really have to go meet with that counselor?” Paige asked with a frown.

Olivia set down her fork. “Seeing Dr. Fisher was one of the conditions of your release from detention. We talked about this, Paige.”

Paige stared at her as if she’d grown horns out of the sides of her head. “I don’t want to go. You’re my mentor. Can’t you make this go away?”

“No, Paige. I can’t.” Olivia straightened. Here it was—the tough part of being Paige’s mentor and an authority figure. “It’s group counseling, and if you don’t go, I’ll have to report you to your social worker.”

Paige gaped at her. “They’d take me back to the juvenile rehabilitation center and lock me up.”

Olivia wanted to shake some reason into Paige, but she made herself shrug. “Life is full of tough choices. It’s Echo Glen or counseling.”

“You’d let them take me back there? You don’t know what it’s like.” Tears welled in the teenager’s eyes.

“Follow the rules or suffer the consequences,” Olivia said with a calmness she did not feel.

Paige fisted her hands at her sides, her body quivering with anger. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’m your friend, Paige, but it’s also my job to help you understand the reality of what happened to you,” Olivia said matter-of-factly. This wouldn’t be the first specially trained counselor Paige had had to talk to in her young life.

“I hate you.” Paige jumped down from her chair and stomped down the hallway into the bedroom she’d slept in last night. The door slammed shut a moment later, the sound reverberating throughout the condominium.

Olivia took in a breath and let it out slowly as she reached for her coffee mug once more. Paige didn’t really hate her, Olivia knew, but the words stung anyway.