Going for Four: Counting on Love, Book 4 by Erin Nicholas Page B

let himself be the most vulnerable with her. If anyone could get Conner to open up, it would be Amanda.
    And if that didn’t work, Emma could wear him down and trick him into telling her.
    But that was plan B. Because Olivia needed Emma here.
    “What do we do?” Isabelle asked.
    “I need you to help me get Cody over here.”
    “You can’t call him?” Isabelle asked.
    “I know this man,” Olivia told her. “He will not want to come to my house and spend time alone the day after that kiss.”
    “Afraid he won’t be able to control himself?” Emma asked.
    “Exactly,” Olivia confirmed.
    They all grinned at that.
    “You want me to call him?” Isabelle asked.
    “I’ll have Emma call him.” She turned to Emma. “Tell him I’ve got my hands full in the kitchen with a baking project we’re trying out for your baby shower, and I need his help.”
    “I thought we were doing vanilla and lemon cupcakes with…” Emma trailed off as she caught on. “Oh, right. It’s just a way to get him over here.”
    Olivia smiled. “Right.”
    “And he’ll drop everything and come right over to help you?” Emma asked.
    “He’ll ask if you’re going to be here too,” Olivia said, knowing that Cody wouldn’t trust himself—or her—if they were alone. Which gave her a funny thrill.
    “And I should tell him yes?” Emma asked.
    “Yes. You won’t be lying. You’ll be here when he first shows up,” Olivia told her. “Then you’ll leave.”
    “What can I do?” Isabelle asked.
    Olivia grinned at her. “You can borrow a set of Shane’s handcuffs.”

Chapter Four
    Cody let himself into Olivia’s house an hour later.
    Olivia had the hand mixer running, clearly too busy to do more than greet him with a “hi” when he stepped into the kitchen. Which was a relief. Because even dressed down in a pair of old yoga pants and a T-shirt with an apron over her, she looked gorgeous. And he immediately flashed back to the night before.
    Thank goodness her sisters were here. He had to keep his hands to himself and get Olivia firmly back on the best-friends-only track, and his only hope for the first few times seeing her after that kiss was to have other people around.
    Eventually, he’d get his control back.
    Probably.
    Then she turned and dipped a finger into the bowl she held and lifted the glob of cupcake batter toward his mouth. “Here. See what I have so far.”
    He wanted to strip her down, dump that bowl all over her and lick every drop of it off.
    He was absolutely sure, however, that it would taste perfect when eaten that way.
    Cody dipped his own finger into the bowl instead of licking it from her finger. He was at least that smart. She gave him a knowing look but didn’t say anything. He tasted the batter. “What’s the problem?” It tasted like really good dark chocolate cake batter.
    “If we want chocolate, banana and coconut cupcakes do you think we should do banana frosting and put the coconut in the batter or the other way around?”
    He completely lost his train of thought when she put her finger in her own mouth and sucked the batter from it.
    That mouth. He’d felt it, tasted it, dreamed about it.
    Damn.
    “Uh,” was the best he could do.
    He heard a soft laugh and felt two hands push him gently backward until he was sitting in one of Olivia’s kitchen chairs.
    Olivia stepped close, her knee bumping his. “Coconut in the batter or the icing?”
    He cleared his throat and gripped the edge of the chair seat. “Icing.”
    “Then bananas or banana extract in the batter?”
    Cody watched her dip another glob of batter from the bowl with her finger. Before she could lick it off, some of the chocolate slipped down the length of her finger, and when she did follow it with her tongue it required a longer swipe.
    He had to fight not to groan as he was vaguely aware that her sisters were still in the room with them. Not that he should be groaning out loud even if he was alone with Olivia. But she knew