Make Time For Me

Ellie had brought buttermilk biscuits that she had baked herself. Now there was a surprise of a woman! Ellie had come roaring on her Harley, with Olivia sitting behind her, and it had been a sight. Ellie was a biscuit baking, bubbly, biker doctor. There was a combination you didn’t often see.

Jason watched as Paul said something to Olivia and made her laugh again, and he frowned. Paul was getting far too close to Olivia for his tastes. Olivia was far more comfortable with Paul than she was with him. Maybe that was a good thing. You didn’t want a woman you were interested in to be that comfortable. The kind of interest he felt in her was not a comfortable thing.

She claimed not to be naturally good at getting along with people, but did she see how she had become such an important part of that group in the weeks she’d been on the island? Ellie and she were almost like sisters. Angela was beginning to open up more and get a little less drunk, and seemed to gravitate towards Olivia, too. As for him, well, he was besotted with her. He wanted her. There was no hiding that fact.

He wanted to get Olivia alone. But there didn’t seem to be much of a chance of doing that. For somebody who claimed not to be popular, she was rarely alone. Every time he tried to ask her out, she either changed the subject, or somebody else turned up. It was beginning to get infuriating.

But he had a plan.

Summer tourist season would start in a few days. That meant that the sleepy island would become a lot less sleepy and get a lot more life. He had been to this island before – information he hadn’t shared with the rest of them. He hadn’t shared much of himself with them, to be honest. Only Olivia had noticed that and been interested enough to bring it up with him.

He knew where they could get the best crab cakes on the island. He also knew that Olivia was particularly fond of crab cakes. He didn’t think that an evening out with the additional lure of crab cakes was something even Olivia could resist.

Besides, he knew that she was interested in him. It was obvious that she was. She might have decided that she wanted to pretend that those kisses hadn’t happened, but he knew they had, and he knew how he’d felt.

He also knew how it had felt when she had called him when she needed help. He had wanted to protect her. And he had been ready to do whatever it took to protect her.

No, he was not going to let this one go. Olivia might have underestimated him because he’d stopped trying to be alone with him for the last few days, but he hadn’t. He was just waiting for the right time.

And he saw the right time presenting itself when Olivia headed out to the terrace, alone, unnoticed by everybody except him.

Finally – finally, he could have a moment alone with her! And this time, she wasn’t going to say no. He was sure of that.

Olivia felt his presence even before she heard or saw him. It was hard not to. She was so aware of him whenever he was around. It was, to be quite honest, annoying. She was beginning to feel like a tuning fork that would start humming in his presence.

She didn’t like it.

She didn’t want to like it.

“There you are.”

She didn’t turn around, even if she wanted to turn and drink him in, just look at him. Did he have any idea how good he looked that day? Just in jeans and a dark blue shirt, he looked like he could walk onto set and get a photo shoot done. Did he know that almost every nurse at the hospital had her eye on him? He probably did. He was not oblivious.

“Where else would I be?”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I have not.”

“All right,” conceded Jason. “You’ve been avoiding being alone with me.”

Olivia shrugged.

“There’s no reason to be alone with you.”

“Isn’t there, Olivia?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Dinner. Have dinner with me.”

“I am having dinner with you, in a few minutes,” she pointed out.

“Not that way. You know what I mean. Go out with me. Yes, like a date, Olivia. Go out with me, and I’ll take you to the place that sells the best crab cakes on the island.”

Olivia hated knowing that even without the bait of crab cakes, she would have wanted to say yes. She’d been avoiding him, true. She had also been waiting for him to ask her out.

What a bundle of contradictions she was being!

“No, don’t come up with excuses. If you don’t want to go out with me, say so, and I will leave you alone. I won’t ask again. We’ll be friends and that’s all. I promise. But if you want to, then give it a chance.”

Finally, Olivia let herself turn around and look at him – really look at him. He was sincere about it, of course. And she did want to say yes. She did want to go out with him. She wanted to spend time alone with him, get to know him.

There was no denying that.

“All right. Next week.”

Jason smiled.

“I was about to suggest that. See? Same wavelength. I’ll let you know when.”

Before she could say anything more, he turned around and left, as quickly as he had come out there and found her alone.

She smiled to herself.

So, it was a date.

That smile on Olivia’s face – well, it was a lovely smile, of course. Olivia had a lovely smile. But why was it there?

It was a different smile. Learning everything about Olivia’s expressions and mannerisms had become a hobby.

All right, it was more than a hobby. It was a bit of an obsession. What was wrong with admitting that? There was nothing to be ashamed of. Olivia was special.

Mine.