“I’m sure he’s trustworthy,” Riley added. “But if Sunny is interested in him, she needs to know she’s wasting her time.”
Olivia blinked. Of all the things she hadn’t foreseen—andshe was sure there would be more—her friends’ concern was one of them. “It’s just a dance,” she said. But even as the words came out of her mouth, an ugly feeling spread across her chest. “Sunny’s a professional.”
“She’s also human.”
Olivia turned to Anita. If his own sister was uneasy... She shook her head. “I don’t see the problem.”
Her friends exchanged baffled glances. Harper leaned forward. “Sweetie, if you can’t see the problem, then you have an even bigger one.”
“When Tanner and I were dating, I wanted to spend every moment with him.” Anita sipped her water.
“Same with Hayden,” Riley said. “I almost lost him because of my stupidity—”
“You had extenuating circumstances,” Harper said, referring to Riley’s wayward mother. Her eyes filled with compassion. “Tracey had your head spinning.”
“Yeah, let’s not bring her up.” Riley waved her hand. “Anyway, once we started our relationship, we couldn’t wait until the end of the day to see each other.” She let out a rare swoony sigh. Unlike Harper and Anita, she kept her emotions close. “Those were the days. Before mayoral campaigns—”
“And babies,” Anita and Harper said at the same time.
“There’s nothing sweeter than the first blushes of love.” Riley grinned.
“Wow, that’s really poetic,” Anita said. “And very true.”
Harper got up from the table and went to Olivia. She picked up her fried-rice container and folded the top.
“What are you doing?” Olivia grabbed at the container, but Harper held it out of reach.
“Helping you. Riley, hand me that bag. Oh, and two of those fortune cookies.”
Riley gave her one of the white plastic bags that had held their takeout. Harper put the food in the bag and gave it to Olivia. “Go.”
“Go where?”
“To the dance studio.” Anita made a shooing motion with her fingers. “Tell Sunny you want to cut the lesson short so you can spend time with your man.”
“But—”
“Out!” They all pointed to the kitchen exit.
Olivia frowned, gave each of them a bewildered look, and pushed back from the table. “I—”
They kept pointing at the doorway.
Lifting her hand in a baffled wave, she left the kitchen and went to her car. Now what? Her friends were being ridiculous, but then again, they didn’t know the truth about her and Kingston. If they really were together, her friends’ actions would make sense. But there was no need to “stake her claim” or to be worried about Sunny Abernathy.
She also didn’t need to be jealous. They were just two people dancing a tango for a few minutes. Two beautiful people, not that it mattered. And whatever the sour ache emerging in her heart was, it wasn’t jealousy. Probably heartburn from slamming down the fried rice.
Kingston and Sunny? Not a big deal.
Olivia got into her car and set the takeout on the passenger seat. She needed to go home and work on her paper. She still hadn’t finished it, and it was due tomorrow. She had only two more pages left, but every time she thought aboutwriting them, she found another distraction. Putting off an assignment had always been anathema to her, and now she was too close for comfort to the deadline.
She turned on the engine and was about to back out when her phone rang. She took it out of her purse and glanced at the screen. Surprised, she answered it. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, Olivia.”
“Is something wrong? Is Dad okay?” She shifted the car back to Park. She had just talked to her mother last week, and they never spoke to each other two weeks in a row.
“Your father is fine. There’s nothing wrong.”
