Just One Thing (The Alexanders 6)

“It has to be. The changing weather patterns have really messed with our crops in recent years. We need soil that’s robust enough to gain us maximum yield this coming summer.”

Talking to Liv was always so easy. Even though she wasn’t a scientist, she was remarkably clever. She understood the basis of his research and was an excellent sounding board when he needed to bounce ideas around. She also understood when he tended to zone out in the middle of conversations. Something he was grateful for when he realized he’d done it again.

“Bennett? Hey!”

“Sorry. I’m still here.”

“Your mom said you’ve been nominated for a Mentor Science award! That’s awesome.”

He glanced behind him at the invitation on the floor and bit back a curse. “Yes, I just got the invitation to the awards ceremony. Wait, you talked to my mom?”

Her warm laugh carried over the line. “Well, you weren’t answering your phone as usual. So I figured Julia could at least make sure you were still breathing!”

He wiped a hand over his face. It was a running joke with his friends and family that he could get so lost in his research that they often weren’t sure if he was dead or alive sometimes.

“Great. So that’s why she put the invitation out for me to see. I was wondering why she bothered. Social gatherings have never been my favorite thing.”

“Um, well she did that because I asked her to. I was hoping that you’d take me as your date.”

His mouth fell open. Was Olivia asking him on a date?

“I was just thinking that we don’t get to spend nearly enough time together these days, you know? And I can talk to everyone for you when you get nervous.”

His heart was beating so hard that it was difficult to hear himself think. Olivia had always been there for him and she’d covered for him in social situations more times than he could count. Her parents and his ran in some of the same social circles so they’d grown up attending a lot of the same events. It had seemed natural for them to attend those events together since they would have both been there anyway. This, however, was different. Bennett couldn’t even put his finger on exactly why other than it just felt different.

“That’s true,” he said finally. “I’m no good at this kind of stuff but you always cover for me.”

“I don’t mind covering for you, you know that. So, it’s a date! I’ll call you later. Bye!”

Before he could even respond, he heard the soft click and dead air. He slipped his phone in his pocket as he considered the strange conversation. People were always a mystery to him but this behavior was strange, especially for Olivia. She’d seemed in a terrible hurry to get off the phone, like she didn’t want to talk to him any longer but that didn’t make sense because she was the one who’d called him. Why would you call a person if you didn’t feel like talking to them?

He sighed. There was something that he was missing, a puzzle piece that he knew the shape of but not what it looked like or what it meant. Much of his life was like a puzzle, different parts fitting together in ways that he couldn’t understand or replicate.

He wasn’t good with words and his awkwardness was a weakness that he constantly had to compensate for. Olivia was the only one who’d ever seen past all that and treated him like a person instead of an oddity. She was the only one outside of his family that he was truly comfortable with. Almost like a girlfriend.

Bennett stilled at the thought. It was impossible of course. He was just thinking that way because of the scene he’d witnessed outside earlier. Normally his solitude didn’t bother him but after watching his brothers fall in love one by one over the past few years, he’d have to be made of stone not to feel a little lonely. Since Olivia was his closest friend and also happened to be a beautiful woman, of course he’d start to wonder.

But the more he wondered, the less ridiculous it seemed. Until finally he had to ask himself, why couldn’t Olivia be his girlfriend? Given how many years they’d known each other, she knew him better than anyone else. She was used to all of his strange silences and social mishaps. All things cons

idered, she was the woman most suited to him there probably was.

The longer he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. They would go to the ceremony together and then afterward they could spend some time alone. They would talk and she could see all the ways he’d changed since high school. He was a different man now.

He just had to make her see that.

CHAPTER TWO

?

The door to the laboratory opened and Bennett smiled as his sister-in-law Ridley walked in. Or he should say, waddled in. He knew better than to comment on it though after seeing the way she’d pinched his brother when he’d mentioned it.

“Hi, am I interrupting anything? Nothing is going to blow up if I come in, right?” She glanced around warily.

Bennett chuckled. She’d interrupted him once before while he was mixing something and there’d been a minor chemical reaction. It had scared Ridley though. For her to venture out here there had to be a good reason.

“No, nothing is going to blow up. Here have a seat.”

He stood and pushed his stool to the other end of the worktable so she could sit down. Although pregnancy wasn’t a foreign concept by any means (he did have three younger siblings and a slew of cousins), it still made Bennett exceptionally nervous. Pregnant women just seemed so delicate, like there were a million factors waiting to go wrong at any moment. Which made being around pregnant women nerve wracking on any given day but especially when it was Ridley.