Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)(39)

He had to admit it to himself: he was falling for her, and the more time he spent with her and the more he thought about her, the harder and faster he fell. And no, that wasn’t taking it slow, but you know what—fuck taking it slow. Slow was a waste of time; he was thirty-nine years old, he knew his own mind, he knew what he wanted. He’d known Olivia for two whole months now. That was plenty of time for him to know how he felt about her.

Was that enough time for her, though? He hoped to find out.

Olivia got to his house at two on Saturday afternoon, and he threw open his door and pulled her inside.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked as she walked in. “You know I’m still not sure about this whole hiking thing.” She was wearing leggings, sneakers, a black T-shirt, and a very doubtful look on her face.

God, he’d missed her.

Before she could step farther into his house, he wrapped his arms around her.

“You are a sight for sore eyes,” he said as he pulled her against him.

“Why, you’re tired of all of the suits in Washington and you’re thrilled to see some yoga pants?” she said as she snuggled against him.

He ran his hands up and down her body and grinned at her.

“I’m thrilled to see you, full stop, but the yoga pants are a bonus, I’m not going to lie.”

He leaned down to kiss her, just as she slid her hands into his hair and pulled him to her. He kissed her hard, like he’d been dreaming about doing all week. She kissed him back just as hard, he hoped for the same reason. They stood there for a while, kissing, touching, not saying anything, but he felt—he hoped—they communicated a lot all the same.

“If you still want to go on that hike, we should probably go at some point,” she said in his ear. “Though, if you’d rather go on a nice, civilized, I don’t know, winery tour or something, I’d be happy to be spontaneous for once.”

He laughed and pulled away.

“If you really don’t want to go on a hike, we can totally change our plans,” he said. “But I did get that cheese you liked so much last week.”

She walked ahead of him into his kitchen.

“Then, by all means, let’s hike.”

He picked up the backpack full of food, water, and ice packs, and gestured toward the door.

“All ready,” he said. “And I can’t wait to admire that new car of yours. Do you want to take it, instead of mine?” He didn’t say this to her, but he had a feeling a few local reporters recognized his car, and the last thing he wanted was to get photographed while out with her.

She slung her backpack over one shoulder.

“Sure, but can you drive? I’m getting used to the car, and I think I even like it, but driving in hilly areas and places where I don’t know where I’m going stresses me out. And I know it’ll make me even more stressed if you’re there in the car, judging my driving.”

“I won’t be judging your driving!” he said with a laugh.

She unlocked the car and got into the passenger side.

“I’m sure you’re telling the truth, but I would still feel like you were judging me, no matter what.”

He tossed his backpack in the back seat and got in the driver’s side. After a comically long amount of time, they figured out how to adjust the driver’s seat for his longer legs, and he drove them in the direction of Griffith Observatory.

When they got there, they pulled into the back corner of the almost full parking lot.

“I guess this whole ‘hiking’ thing is very popular here in L.A.,” Olivia said.

He strapped his backpack on and adjusted his hat so it shaded—and mostly covered—his face.

“It just means that if you faint from exposure, there will be plenty of people around to carry you to safety.”

She glared at him.

“Is that your idea of a joke?”

He grinned at her.

“Oh, you know it was funny.”

She finally let a smile break through.

“Fine, it was a little funny.”

He leaned down to kiss her, but took a step back before he did. Right, they were in public. He’d almost forgotten.

Olivia pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and put a black baseball cap on.

They hiked along the easy version of the trail for a few miles. He slowed his stride to match her shorter one, and let himself relax, for the first time in weeks. They walked side by side, and didn’t hold hands, but were so close they may as well have been. Their fingers brushed from time to time as they walked along, and it felt so good to be this close to her, after a whole week of being away. Every so often, he would turn to look at her, and just marvel that he’d found someone like her. Sometimes she would catch him and smile at him, and he would smile back. They didn’t talk about anything hard, just the perfect spring weather, her adventures at the community center this week, and the guy who’d gotten incredibly drunk on his flight on the way home and had been escorted off the plane when they’d landed. Once they could see it, they stopped to take pictures of the Hollywood sign. And the whole way, he was so happy to be here, in one of his favorite places, with her.

After a while, he pointed to a big tree up ahead.

“Want to dive into these snacks?”

Olivia grinned.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She looked out at the view and shook her head. “I have to acknowledge that this hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. Even kind of . . . nice.”