Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Olivia
M ac and Rosie spent the afternoon out on the pond fishing again. It was becoming their habit. I decided it was their time to bond and turned down the invite Mac issued and promised to make them a late picnic.
Knowing Mac was a big old softy had me smiling as I spread the blanket out in the grass near the small dock.
My mom called as I got things organized. I’d been trying to connect with her for a couple of days. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hello, dear, it’s good to finally hear your voice.”
“I know, yours too. How’s Dad?”
“Well, Dad has settled in well in his new place. He’s been a little confused but seems to be accepting it. I still feel guilty that I can’t take care of him here, but I’m not strong enough to physically help him. Plus, you know how he loves to chitchat, and there are plenty of people to talk to every day. ”
“I’m sorry I’m not there to help.” It grated that to chase my dream to make him proud, meant that I couldn’t be there while they went through this.
“Stop, dear. You know your father is proud of you. You are following your dream, and that’s what he always wanted for you.”
“I know. I just miss you guys and feel like I’m missing so much,” I admitted.
“Hush now. Fill me in on how things are for you and Rosa Nell.” Just like she always had, Mom quieted my fears.
I talked her through all that had happened over the last month. How Rosie was doing in school, our new place, my job. Eventually, I got the nerve to break the news of Mac to her.
“So… we had a thing happen,” I started.
“What kind of thing? A good thing? A bad thing? Quit being vague and spit it out. I know whatever it is, it’s important.”
“Mom, Rosie’s dad is here.”
“What?” she exclaimed. “Tim followed you? I thought you left to start over?”
“Not Tim, Mom. Her real father.”
“You mean the guy you had the fling with?”
“Yeah, that guy.”
Silence descended for a moment. “Well?”
“He’s still just as great as he was then,” I marveled, watching him paddle the boat from the far side of the pond. He splashed the paddle, a spray of water arcing over Rosie. She laughed, the sound vibrant and light, echoing through my heart.
“You sound happy, sweetheart. How’d you find him?”
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. It felt huge and right. “It’s a long story, but Rosie actually found him through social media. And yeah, I am.” My smile fell. “But I’m also… hesitant. I guess having a failed marriage did a number on me. I just want to be smart. And try to keep things in check for Rosie in the process. Although, she’s pretty much already head over heels for him.”
I wanted to be all-in with Mac. He was a great guy. But Tim had also been great when we started, not that there was any comparison between the men. Mac was Rosie’s dad, and despite what happened between us, he wanted to be in her life. Tim had left Rosie, just as he’d left me in the end. I didn’t want to put my girl through that again. I needed to take a step back and reevaluate.
“You deserve it, sweetheart. Things have definitely taken a turn for the good for you and Rosie, then.” Mom’s voice was gentle and loving, and hearing it made my heart ache that we weren’t closer.
“I guess. We’ve been through our share of hard times. It’s nice to enjoy the sweet for a bit.” I lay back in the sun, enjoying hearing their voices carry on a low hum across the water. His deep chuckle and her high-pitched giggle providing the most delightful background music.
“He’s good to Rosie? They are getting along?”
“Actually, they are two peas in a pod. They are just coming in from fishing right now. I’ve got a picnic ready for them.”
Mom didn’t answer, so I continued, “I think you’d really like him, Mom.”
More silence.
“Mom?”
A sniffle caught me by surprise. “I’m here, sweetheart. I’m just glad to hear you happy, even if it’s guarded.” Her voice quavered, and I imagined the tears welling in her eyes. Then she cleared her throat and said, “Well, I’m going to let you go. I’ve got to get some cookies out of the oven and run them to your dad.”
We hung up, and the bittersweetness of hearing her voice, yet being so far away, was hard. But she was right—Rosie and I were where we needed to be. I closed my eyes and waited for my two favorite people to get off the water, soaking up the stillness of the moment. They were rare and cherished.
Sometime later, a soft finger brushed my cheek. “Wake up, sleeping beauty.” Mac’s voice was low and for my ears only.
Earlier that morning, we’d decided we’d have to come clean to our daughter about the change in our relationship. We’d argued over the best way to handle it. Mac wanted to come right out and admit that we’d slept together, but I preferred to approach things a little more conservatively. That didn’t go over as well and added to whatever had been haunting his gaze when he’d finally come to bed. I would’ve thought he’d been right behind me after I took Buster out. Instead, he went out to the porch with the excuse that Buster needed some “front porch time.” As best I could tell, he’d just sat on the front porch rocking for a while. And when he’d come to bed, he’d been so focused on me, I let it go.
I opened my eyes to find a thoughtful Mac gazing down at me. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me for having reservations or if there was something else on his mind.
I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss away whatever was bothering him or demand that he spill. Guess we had some more trust issues to deal with.
Giving him grace, I rose on an elbow. Maybe if I showed him I was here, now, with him, he’d open up. “Where is she?” I whispered .
“I sent her to the shop to wash her hands.”
“What about yours?”
A wicked gleam lit his eyes, and the corner of his mouth tilted up. “I washed at the spigot by the dock.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Because I didn’t tell her about it so I could have a minute to do this…” His hand slid along my jaw, his thumb brushing my cheek before he pulled me closer and laid the hottest, deepest, most soul-cleansing kiss on me that I’d ever experienced.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” he growled against my lips, then went back for more.
Helpless to do anything else, I draped my arm over his shoulder and pulled him closer. He deepened the kiss, exploring my mouth like we’d never kissed before. Like he couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t get enough.
“Uh, you guys know I can see you, right?” Rosie called from a few feet away.
My eyes popped open, and Mac and I both froze, lips still pressed together. “Jeez, Buster, give them two seconds alone and they are eating each other’s faces. You’re not a very good chaperone.”
Mac kissed me once more, a punctuation on the situation. Making his statement that he and I were… something more than we’d been. He shifted onto a hip beside me, braced on an arm, with one knee raised. The ultimate cool.
I, however, was embarrassed and fidgety while trying to find the words I needed to explain to my impressionable teenager that I was starting a relationship with him.
“Okay, squirt, here’s the deal. I like your mom, she likes me. It’s a thing, and it’s happening.”
Rosie dropped to her knees on the blanket across from us. “Squirt? ”
“Yeah.”
Her nose wrinkled as she pondered. “You can’t do better than that? It’s so… basic.”
Beside me, Mac’s deep chuckle reverberated in his chest. “I’ll see if I can come up with something more appropriate.”
My head swiveled between them while I still searched for the ability to make words.
She plucked at the petals of a yellow flower. “I’ve been thinking. I kinda like princess. Or…”
“Buttercup?” Mac added.
Her face lit up. “Yeah, Princess Buttercup, like from the movie.”
“What movie?” Mac asked.
Rosie and I both spun toward him in shock. “You’ve never seen The Princess Bride ?” we asked in unison.
Mac shook his head and reached for the ball Buster had dropped on the blanket. After tossing it, he said, “Looks like I know what we’re doing on date night with my girls tonight.”
I was staring at him; I couldn’t help myself.
“So, you guys…?”
I turned to find Rosie addressing her question at me. I couldn’t tell if she was happy or concerned or nonchalant, or even what her question was. But now was when she needed my honesty. “Yes. Mac and I are…” Hooking up wasn’t the right word, nor was trying things out, because we’d been there and done that, and she was the result. Continuing wasn’t the right word either because we’d never been together before. “We’re… becoming. We’re starting out, figuring it out as we go.”
It was clunky. But it was real.
Mac’s hand landed on mine, giving it a squeeze. I turned to find him gazing at me with the softest, sweetest look in his eyes and leaned forward for a kiss.
“Okay, but bleh. Don’t, like, be kissing all the time, please.” Rosie snagged the ball from Buster and tossed it again. “Can we eat now? I’m starving.”
And just like that, the issue was settled. Mac and I were becoming an us . And Rosie was fine with it, supported us.
We enjoyed lunch, and then the inquisition started.
“So, MacDa?—”
“Don’t call him that.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Mac and I warned at the same time, although I could feel the heat of my blush and was positive that Rosie saw it too.
“Bleh—again. I don’t even wanna know.” She shuddered with her eyes squished closed. Wait. Had she been in my books again? “Anyways,” she continued like she hadn’t just smacked me across the face. “What I wanted to ask is… how did you guys meet? I mean, I know you had a vacation hookup, but I don’t know your story. Mom always said she’d tell me when I got older, so I want to know your story.”
She gazed at me first, waiting.
At the rate this day was going, my cheeks were going to be permanently red. Maybe I could claim a sunburn. Regardless, I cleared my throat and kept my promise to my daughter. “It was after college. I had just graduated from the fire academy, and I treated myself to an island vacation as a reward before I began my career. I walked into this cute little bar-hut on the beach. I got there later in the afternoon; the sun was high, and the sky was so blue it almost hurt. The little bar was tucked up in the shade of some palm trees.”
Unsure of which details she’d want, I babbled on. “I walked in and saw Mac sitting there hunched over a beer, looking sexy and brooding and kind of lonely, with his back to the ocean, and I thought, ‘What a shame. A man like that should be enjoying the ocean.’”
I plucked at the blanket as I spoke; it was hard being this open about my feelings. But I wanted to keep my promise, and Mac also deserved to know, because I’d never told him about the moment I first laid eyes on him.
“I wanted to know him instantly, but I was nervous. It took me a few minutes, but finally, I gathered the courage to approach him. Just as I was headed his way, he turned, and our eyes met, and it was like my soul recognized his. And then he smiled at me…” I swallowed thickly and blinked the moisture away. Meeting Mac had had a profound effect on my life, but reliving the moment of meeting him was still one of my most beautiful memories.
He lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles, where his lips lingered, his eyes closed as if my words had moved him.
“Aw, Mom, that’s the sweetest,” Rosie gushed before turning to Mac. “Okay, your turn, big da?—”
“Nope.”
“Not that either.”
Mac and I spoke in unison again.
He cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter, letting go of my hand. I crisscrossed my legs in front of me and waited. His long leg was still stretched out, his knee still raised, but now he draped an arm around it, clasping his wrist. His posture almost closed off.
“My story isn’t quite as happy,” he started. “I wasn’t on vacation—or I was, but I wasn’t supposed to be alone. I was supposed to be on my honeymoon. ”
Rosie gasped and I blanched. I’d known he was sad when I met him, but not that.
“It’s for the best, really. Worked out in the end.” He winked at me.
“Anyway”—he looked out over the water—“my fiancée left me, stood me up, rather, at the altar. Turned out, she liked the idea of being married but couldn’t deal with the stress of being married to someone who might potentially put his life on the line. I decided to take the trip anyway. I’d been there less than twenty-four hours and was starting to feel like the worst kind of loser, sitting at the bar, drowning my sorrows and heartache. I couldn’t bring myself to find anything beautiful about the place and was considering leaving early. When I turned and saw this pretty young brunette in a yellow dress.”
I sat up. “I didn’t have on a dress.”
The corners of his eye crinkled as he shot me a grin. “Oh, that’s right, it was the tiniest yellow bikini I’d ever seen. So bright and full of sunshine… the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.” He looked back at Rosie and winked. “She’s still the most beautiful, but her daughter gives her a run for the money.”
Rosie blushed, her shoulders inching toward her ears in embarrassment.
“Anyway, I’d gone there to get over the heartache of losing a woman I thought I’d spend my life with. I came home having gotten over her, but the one who blasted her memory stayed with me. We tried to be smart about it, so we thought. No last names, no personal information. Just a week of having fun together, sailing, laying out in the cabanas. Late-night dinners, long walks while talking about the dreams we had. All future talk. And it helped pull me out of that funk and focus on moving forward. ”
I leaned forward and ran my palm down his arm, needing to touch him.
“You guys are so mushy,” Rosie cooed. “And also, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Not having a way to stay in touch. Anyways, so it was supposed to be a casual, fun fling. But both of you got more than you bargained for.” She paused, considering. “I guess that’s the truth of the saying hindsight is twenty-twenty.”
The wisdom and ease of the teenage mind.
“And now you’ve got me, and each other. And what happens next?”
I bit into my sandwich and considered. And once again, Mac beat me to the punch. “Well, I’m hoping that instead of moving back to the townhouse, that you and Liv will stay here. And we can take things slow. And learn each other.”
The bite nearly stuck in my throat as I swallowed. But finally, after a drink, I managed to choke out, “Would that be okay with you, sweetheart?”
Her head tilted side to side as if she were weighing her options.
“So… go back to that loud place, where I didn’t know anyone and spent my afternoons inside alone. Or stay here, where I can hang out with Buster and fish?” She looked at us like we were both ridiculous for not knowing her immediate answer. “What do you think?”
Buster, who’d been oddly still, jumped up and dashed right through the middle of the blanket to chase a squirrel. Rosie and I squealed as the wet dog splashed by us.
“Ew, he stepped in the food,” she cried.
The rich timber of Mac’s laughter rang through the afternoon. The sound was so foreign, it held me frozen while Rosie jumped up, shaking to get yucky lake-water dog hair from the remains of her lunch .
He laughed until tears formed in his eyes and he was doubled over. That sound touching a sweet spot in my soul. Finally, he stood, offering us a hand. “Come on, how about we go get an ice cream instead.”
And just like that, we moved into something that looked an awful lot like being a family. And I was terrified.