Chapter 51
CHAPTER 51
OLIVIA
I could not believe that I’d just seen Todd. The audacity he’d had to show up uninvited and then to insist that he wanted to speak to me—and in private too—was flabbergasting. He had no right to demand a conversation with me at all, let alone that I leave the conference to go somewhere with him right away to have it.
When I’d first found out that he’d been cheating on me with someone a decade younger, there had been a moment when I’d thought that maybe, it’d just been a mistake. I’d thought that he’d been lonely because I’d been working so hard and I’d even felt guilty about it.
Back then, I would’ve given anything for a conversation with him. All I’d wanted was to talk, perhaps try to understand, and figure out if there was a way for us to move past it. Together. Whether I ever would’ve been able to move on with him despite that knowledge, I didn’t know, but I’d been willing to have that conversation.
It was always easy for people to say that if someone did something like that, the aggrieved party should simply kick that person out on their asses. In reality, when it had happened to me, it hadn’t been that easy. I had been so emotionally involved with him, so invested in the future I’d dreamed up for us, that I hadn’t immediately been able to just switch it all off and let it go.
Instead of a conversation, however, all I’d gotten was a smug grin when he’d told me he was moving in with her. That had been it.
Seeing him again tonight had brought right back to the surface all that old pain, and hurt, and the sense that my world was crashing down around me. The only difference was this time, Charlie had been there to protect me. I loved how he’d stepped in. I even loved that he’d hung back at first, trying to gauge my reaction before he’d made his move.
It’d felt like my heart was being broken and healed all at the same time, and that had been crazy for me. Especially because he’d even stood steadfast by my side while I’d fallen apart outside, letting me hurl my anger all over him before pulling me into his arms and putting me back together again.
Many of the guys I’d known would’ve run, either unwilling to deal with that kind of reaction or too hot-headed to realize that I wasn’t ranting because I was still in love with him. Charlie hadn’t been like that. There had been no jealousy or insecurity from him, only steady support and even understanding.
As we left the hotel, I slipped my hand into his and tugged him closer, smiling up at him under the colorful lights of Broadway. “Thank you for stepping in with him.”
“Anytime.” Charlie wrapped his fingers around my own before he lifted our joined hands to sling his arm around my neck. “So, uh, just checking, but is it normal for people in eveningwear to walk on the streets around here?”
I chuckled. “I wouldn’t say it’s normal, but it’s not unusual either. Trust me, people see much stranger things on these streets than a group wearing fancy clothes.”
“Fair enough.”
Ahead of us, London had flagged down a group of women who had joined the scores of people who seemed to be streaming toward Madison Square Garden. She spoke to them for a few seconds before she grinned and darted back to Abigail and Lacey.
After excitedly sharing whatever she’d learned with them, she raced over to us, grabbing Liam, Dallas, and Colt who had been walking between them and us. She seemed giddy as she nodded at her new friends.
“Kelsea Ballerini is at the Garden tonight,” she said as soon as we were all gathered. “It’s going to be a huge concert and those girls only bought their tickets this afternoon. They’re sure we’d be able to get some too.”
I glanced up at Charlie. “A country artist at Madison Square Garden? That sounds like an experience you need to have.”
“I’m in,” he said without skipping a beat. “Just not while wearing a suit.”
London squealed with excitement as she looked around the group and everyone was nodding their agreement. “We can run back to our rooms and change before we go. I’ll get online and buy our tickets.”
“I’m already on it,” Colt said, his phone in his hands and his head bent toward the screen. “We only need tickets for ourselves, right? There’s no one else coming?”
“No one else,” I confirmed. We turned and headed back in the direction we’d come from. Thankfully, we hadn’t made it very far just yet.
Colt bought our tickets on the way, whistling under his breath as he slid his phone into his back pocket. “Would you look at that? We’re going to see a country artist. The big city even found a way to make us feel at home. Is there anything they can’t do here?”
I laughed. “Not much, actually. Except camping and river rafting. You’d have to leave the city for that.”
Abi narrowed her eyes in thought, then perked up and winked. “You also can’t climb an actual mountain.”
“Or…” London trailed off, then laughed. “Well, actually, you can do that. Never mind. Come to think of it, as long as you don’t need nature to do it, you can pretty much do it all right here in the city.”
Bantering back and forth with my sisters and the others, I felt the shock and stress of the unexpected Todd-sighting recede. My mood continued lifting when we went back to our rooms to change, throwing on jeans and in my case, my cowboy boots, before meeting at the front doors once more.
By the time the girls and I arrived, the guys were already waiting and had cabs ready to take us. London marched right up to Liam and frowned. “We could’ve just walked it.”
“What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t have a steed waiting for the ladies?” he joked, pressing his hat to his chest and giving her a little bow. “Your chariot awaits, milady.”
“I’m not your anything, let alone your lady.” Yet as she breezed past him, I noticed a faint pinkish hue on her cheeks and she definitely seemed to be fighting a smile.
Liam sighed and shook his head as he stared after her, and I could’ve sworn I saw his gaze dart to her ass for a moment before he raced through the doors to follow her out. Dallas offered Lacey his arm, and my friend took it with a grateful smile, the pair of them joining Liam and London in the first cab.
Colt glanced up with a huge grin on his face. “Shotgun!”
The word wasn’t even all the way out yet when he spun around and loped outside, laughing as he made a beeline for the passenger seat of the waiting cab. Abi chuckled softly. “He does have a certain joie de vivre , doesn’t he?”
“Absolutely,” I agreed, threading my fingers around Charlie’s again and winding up in the backseat between him and Abi.
As the driver waited for a gap in the traffic, my sister turned to look at me. “Are you okay? You seemed a little pissed off earlier when we left and you were definitely pale.”
I shook my head at her, a smile creeping onto my lips. “You really don’t miss anything, do you?”
She chuckled. “Not when it comes to you guys, so what happened? You seem better again now.”
“I am.” I motioned at Charlie. “Thanks to him. If he hadn’t been there, I might’ve been on my way to jail right now for assault.”
“ Assault ? What on earth happened?”
“Todd.” I grimaced. “He showed up at the dinner out of the blue and tried to get me to talk to him. I really think I would’ve punched him if Charlie hadn’t intervened.”
Abigail’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Todd was there ?”
“Yeah, it was so awkward.”
Charlie put his arm on my leg and rubbed my knee with his thumb, as if assuring me that he would always intervene on my behalf if I wanted him to. I shot him a smile and felt Abigail nudge my other side with her elbow.
When I glanced at her, she gave Charlie’s hand on my leg a pointed look and I giggled, cuddling deeper into his side. My sister smiled and looked at him across the cab. “Thank you for protecting her from a possible arrest. How’d Todd take it?”
“Not well.” Charlie scoffed down a laugh. “I doubt he was very happy with me, but he can go jump off the bridge after his stuff for all I care. He’s an ass.”
“That, he is,” Abi agreed. “What do you mean jump off a bridge after his stuff, though? I feel like I’m missing something here.”
I finally told my sister and Charlie the whole story of that day and they were in stitches as the cab pulled into the drop-off zone at the arena. The others piled out of their cab in front of ours, waiting for us before we all made our way inside together.
There was quite a crowd already present outside, snaking lines moving quickly to get inside. Kelsea’s music was blasting from speakers all around, with some even listening to it on their phones as they waited to get in. Most people seemed to be positively buzzing, dancing where they stood and buying up tons of merch once we got to the store. I soaked up the joyful excitement in the air and felt the rest of the tension dissipate from my muscles.
“First stop: beer,” Dallas said, his voice slightly hushed with awe as he looked around. “You know, this place is even bigger in person that I thought.”
“Everything is in New York,” Colt agreed, then pointed down the hall. “We can get beer there. It looks like they might even have cocktails.”
He turned to me with his eyebrows raised. “Who drinks cocktails at an arena like this?”
I chuckled. “Me. Sometimes, but I’m good with beer tonight.”
“Thank the lord,” he muttered, laughing quietly as if he couldn’t believe anyone would want to drink something else. Then he led the charge in pursuit of alcohol.
We bought two drinks each and took them with us to our seats. I gaped at Colt when I realized he’d managed to get us tickets in the best section of them all. “How did you do this?”
He winked at me. “My credit card isn’t shy.”
I laughed. “Neither is mine, but I’ve rarely had such good luck when buying tickets at the last minute.”
“What can I say?” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Lady Luck adores me.”
“It looks like she adores us all tonight.” I grinned and sat down, determined not to let the Todd sighting take up any more of my mental real estate.
As we all settled in, London and Liam were bicker-flirting again and I glanced at Abi, who was sitting on my one side with Charlie on the other. She rolled her eyes at them, but I saw the smile she was fighting.
At this point, I really wished our baby sister would just open her eyes and see what was right in front of her, but both she and Liam seemed stubbornly intent on fighting it. I reached for Charlie’s hand, bringing it back to my leg with our fingers twined together.
If only London knew how incredibly satisfying it was to be able to do that and how happy it made my heart, then maybe she’d stop fighting so hard. I was starting to think that she and Liam were inevitable, but I had no clue how long it was going to take them to realize it.