Chapter Twenty-Five
Olivia
Why is he being weird right now? He just helped me pick out a cock ring, for crying out loud. There was enough sexually charged energy between us a moment ago to power an electrical plant and now he doesn’t want me to sit on his lap?
I moved around on Jace’s leg, trying to get comfortable and make sure that he wasn’t any more uncomfortable than he already seemed.
Just then, Carl walked between the couch and the chair where Jace and I were sitting to get to my mom on the other side of the room.
As he passed, he bumped into me, and I shot a hand out to steady myself, gripping something extremely firm in Jace’s lap.
I gasped. “Oh,” I said.
Well at least I didn’t imagine the sexual charge.
Jace leaned forward and brushed my hair over my shoulder as he whispered in my ear. “I’m sorry, Liv. We were…” He sighed. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
“Right,” I said, still gripping his dick as I turned to face him. “But it does mean something, doesn’t it?”
He smirked and whispered again. “You can let go of it, Liv, or it’s certainly going to mean something.”
“Oh my God,” I said, pulling my hand back and putting it in my own lap.
I turned my attention to Carl and my mother who were explaining the game. Apparently, one partner would answer questions about themselves on a dry erase board and then the other partner would have to guess what their partner had written down.
It seemed simple enough, and I tried to focus on the game and not the erection five inches to my right as my mother passed us each a card with four questions on it.
I picked up a small whiteboard and quickly wrote my answers.
When the time was up, my mother called on each couple and read the questions on our cards one by one.
Each pair got one or two correct. Even Carl only got three right.
Clearly this game is harder than it sounds.
“Okay, Jace,” Mom said, grinning. “You ready?”
I turned my whiteboard around for the room to see, keeping it turned away from Jace. “I am,” he said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. Fuck, I like this game of pretend. Is it still pretend?
“What is Olivia’s favorite TV show?” Mom asked.
Jace laughed. “Easy. Love in the Wild, even though it’s the definition of trash TV.”
My mother squealed in excitement. Not only had Jace gotten it correct, but I’d written (he’s going to call it trash) next to my answer.
“Okay, next,” she said. “What is Olivia’s ideal date night?”
Jace chuckled and shook his head at me like it was my fault the questions were so easy for him. “Wine and pizza on the couch, with a fuzzy blanket and a rom-com.”
A few of the other couples cheered and whooped.
“Did I get it right?” Jace asked, grinning at me.
“Every word,” I said smiling at his smugness.
“Come on, Val. Give me a hard one,” Jace said, clearly getting into this game now. “I know Liv way too well to lose.”
“Does Olivia have any tattoos?” Mom asked.
“No,” Jace said confidently. “She’s terrified of needles.”
“Are you sure he didn’t see the board?” Carl asked, narrowing his eyes at my drawing of a needle with a slash through it.
“Of course he didn’t, Carl,” Mom said, swatting his shoulder. “He’s in love with Olivia and this is adorable.”
I blushed and glanced at Jace who smiled at me contentedly. “Just ask the last question, Mom.”
“Okay, for the lead, Jace. No pressure,” she teased. “When was the moment Olivia fell in love with you?”
Jace slowly turned toward me, and we locked eyes.
I could hear his heart beating rapidly, like he was afraid to answer this one.
I wasn’t sure if it was because he thought he knew the answer and didn’t want to admit it, or because he thought I wasn’t in love with him and had no idea what I wound have written.
“No cheating you two,” Carl said, shaking a finger at us as we remained locked into one another.
Jace opened his mouth and hesitated before running a hand through his hair.
His eyes bore a hole into mine as he took my hand and answered the question.
“Kaylee got sick with a stomach bug when she was six months old. Val was out of town and Olivia was scared because she was starting to feel sick too. She called me in the middle of the night, and I went to her place and stayed up with Kaylee while Liv got some rest. The next day, she woke up with the same bug, and I took care of her and watched Kaylee until they were both feeling better again.”
My eyes stung and I blinked back the emotion as I turned the board around to Jace to show him. I’d written the stomach bug debacle.
Mom cheered, but the sounds of laughter and fun as everyone got ready for the next round faded into the background as I stared at Jace, heart beating just as loudly as his.
His hand rubbed my waist lightly, as if he was trying to sooth my discomfort.
I had no idea how he’d known that was my answer, and I had a dozen questions I wanted to ask.
If he knew, and he’s never asked me out, does that mean he doesn’t feel the same way about me?
Because he’s looking at me like he really does.
I tore my eyes from his and wiped off the whiteboard, handing it to him as Carl passed out cards for the second round.
I didn’t need to wait to hear the other couples’ answers to know that Jace and I were about to win this game.
The questions on the card were way too easy, and I knew Jace just as well as he knew me.
What’s your partner’s favorite food?
Samosas from Curry Palace.
What would your partner do if they won the lottery?
Give it all away to charity, like he does with half of his wealth now.
What is your partner’s biggest pet peeve?
When people litter because it’s a sign of disrespect and Jace doesn’t have a disrespectful bone in his body.
Who is your partner’s best friend?
Me. Unless Leo asks, then of course Leo.
To my mother’s great excitement, I got every single one correct, right down to the Leo addendum. After one of my cousins announced that playing with me and Jace again wouldn’t be fun for the rest of them, the game broke up and everybody went back to mingling.
Jace and I made the rounds before politely excusing ourselves, as if we had an unspoken agreement to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
When we got into his car to leave, my eyes welled with tears. I turned toward him from the passenger seat.
“How long have you known how I felt about you?” I asked.
“I didn’t know, Liv,” he said, gripping the steering wheel and staring straight ahead. “I wondered, I hoped, but I didn’t know anything.”
“Then how did you get that answer right?” I yelled, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “If you didn’t know how I felt about you, how could you possibly have guessed the moment I fell in love with you?”
“Because that’s the moment I fell in love with you!
” he shouted, voice dripping with desperation as he whipped his head around to face me.
“I’ll never forget that night. You were so sick, you were barely awake every time I checked on you, and the only thing you asked each time was how’s Kaylee.
You were so singularly focused on taking care of your little girl and I was already half in love with you.
But that night, I was just gone for you, Liv. I’ve been gone ever since.”
“Why haven’t you ever said anything?” I asked, voice small and weak.
“Because losing you and Kaylee would destroy me. I was too afraid to take that gamble. Even if I thought I might win, the cost was too high if I lost.”
I nodded. That was at least something I could understand. The fear of losing him when my daughter loved him so much had always been my greatest barrier to confessing my own feelings too.
He sighed and cupped my face gently with both hands.
“Olivia Riley, I am so in love with you.” I closed my eyes, relishing in the words I’d wanted to hear for so long and wondering why it sounded like a big, giant but was coming next.
I opened my eyes and Jace continued, “I have been in love with you for years and I’m not going anywhere.
I want to talk about this. I want to figure out what this means. ”
“But?” I asked, tears falling faster. But Kayden?
“No but, Olivia.” He took another deep breath.
“Two weeks ago, the father of your child showed up and you know I’m committed to him too.
I don’t know what that means for all of us, but I do know the man I’m falling in love with wants a relationship with his daughter.
And the woman I’m already desperately in love with needs her best friend as she navigates letting someone else into her daughter’s life. ”
His eyes filled with tears as he struggled to keep it together.
“At the end of the day, Liv, there’s a little girl who I love as if she were my own who is going to need all of us to be strong and steady for her.
I’m going to keep loving you, because I don’t know how not to.
And when you’re ready, we’ll talk about this.
I don’t think you’re ready tonight, sweetheart, and you don’t have to be. ”
I nodded, feeling relieved and sad at the same time.
I’d wanted this moment for years, so why did it feel like the timing was all off?
Once again, Jace knew what I needed better than I ever could have articulated.
He was right. I wasn’t ready to talk about this tonight, not with everything else going on.
“I love you too, Jace,” I said. He closed his eyes, seeming to relish my confession as much as I had his.
“You’re right. This situation is complicated.
I have no idea what any of it means and I’m not ready to figure that out tonight.
But you shouldn’t have to wait until we figure it out to know that I’m in love with you.
I’ve waited years to tell you that too.”
He cupped my face and pressed his forehead to mine. The moment of silence that passed as we held each other felt like the most honest conversation we’d ever had. Eventually, he let me go, we wiped our tears, and he turned the car on. We drove silently to his moms’.
“I’m going to leave this here,” I said setting the paper bag with our takeaway from the party on his front seat as I got out of the car. “If it’s supposed to be for my next partner, then I might as well leave it with him.”
Jace smiled sadly at me. “Okay.”
He got out of the car and took my hand as we walked to the condo building. When we got inside, he dropped my hand and called the elevator for us. Again, we rode up in silence.
“Jace?” I asked quietly as we stood outside his moms’ condo. “You don’t have to keep anything from Kayden for me. I want you to be honest with him.”
He pulled me into a hug. “Thank you. He already knows how I feel about you. That’s why he made that comment the other day.
” Jace kissed the top of my head and lingered with his lips against my hair.
His grip tightened and I snaked my arms around his waist. “I love you so much, Olivia, and I should have told you that a long time ago.”
“It’s okay, Jace,” I said, squeezing him tighter. “I should have told you too.”
He kissed my temple as I turned my head to rest my cheek against his chest. “I promise I won’t ask you to talk about us, but I need you to tell me as soon as you’re ready.”
I nodded against him and held on for a few more seconds before we let go of each other and knocked on the door.
I was pretty sure everything between us had shifted forever whether or not we were going to talk about it.
We’d crossed lines, our secrets were out in the open, and we couldn’t possibly go back to how we were yesterday.