23. Olivia
CHAPTER 23
Olivia
I pull into the parking lot of the restaurant where I’m meeting my mom and find a spot to park, turning off my car once I straighten out the wheel. Letting out a tired breath, I flip down my visor and frown at my reflection. The past forty-eight hours have caught up with me, and I look as exhausted as I feel.
Yesterday, it took me hours to clean up my bedroom and Kourtney’s office while she was outside with two companies giving her quotes for a security system. And after cleaning, it took me even longer to get through all the laundry I had to do because I had to inspect every item.
Despite wanting to just burn everything, that isn’t an option. Replacing my bras and underwear alone will cost me a few hundred dollars, so there's no way I can afford to replace my entire wardrobe.
Then today, I had back-to-back clients all day without a break since Julie decided to move all of my appointments from yesterday to today, on top of the clients I already had scheduled. And although normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, it was too much after yesterday.
All I really wanted to do this evening when I left the spa was go to Bax’s, change into my pj’s, and lie on the couch with him. But I knew I couldn’t cancel on my mom. She’s already worried about me for numerous reasons; I don’t need to give her another one.
After adding some lip gloss to my lips, I get out of my car, taking my bag with me, and walk toward the restaurant. The moment I pull open the door and step inside, I regret my decision to not go home and change out of my scrubs from work.
The restaurant is obviously upscale and not what I was expecting at all. I’m greeted with oak tables, dark walls, dim lighting mostly hanging over the paintings on the walls around the room, and white tablecloths, with the tables already set and napkins folded into a design on top of each plate.
“Hi.” The young woman behind the podium smiles at me. “Do you have a reservation?”
“I’m actually meeting someone who’s already here.”
“Would you like me to help you find them?”
“I think I can manage.” I move past her as I scan the interior of the restaurant, searching for my mom, who sent me a text about ten minutes ago letting me know she already had a table for us. It takes me just a couple of seconds to spot her, and when I do, anger curls in the pit of my stomach.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whisper.
“Pardon?” the hostess asks, and I glance over at her.
“Sorry.” I force a smile. “I was just talking to myself.”
“Oh.” She laughs. “I do that sometimes, too. Enjoy dinner.”
“Thanks,” I tell her before I begin to move through the dimly lit interior of the room toward my mom and her guest.
As I get closer, Lincoln looks up from his menu, and the moment his eyes meet mine, he gives me an apologetic smile as he stands. Mom turns to look over her shoulder after noticing Lincoln standing, and she smiles happily, getting out of her chair when she sees me.
“Hi, honey.” She touches her lips to my cheek.
“Mom.” My hands ball into fists so I don’t shake her.
“Did you just get off work?” She frowns as her eyes wander over my face and over my scrubs.
“Yeah,” I grit out, and then add, “You didn’t tell me that other people would be joining us.”
“Are you sure? I swear I mentioned it.” Her smile doesn’t even falter as she lies. Taking my hand, she turns us toward the table. “You remember Annmarie, Lincoln’s mom, right?”
“I do. Hi, Mrs. Brooks. Nice to see you.”
“Please, call me Ann.” She wraps her hand around Lincoln’s arm. “And, of course, you remember my son.”
“Of course.” I look at Lincoln, and he grimaces. Yeah, he didn’t know what this was, either.
“Sit,” Mom orders, seeming flustered now.
Taking my seat, I pull out my cell phone before I set my bag on the floor next to my chair. “Sorry.” I look at Lincoln and his mom before focusing on my mother. “I just need to call Bax really quick, so he knows that I made it.”
“Olivia—”
Ignoring her, I press call on Bax’s number and put my phone to my ear while dropping my eyes to the top of the table.
“Hey, baby,” he answers on the first ring.
“Hey.” I feel my muscles relax despite still being wildly pissed off. “I just wanted to let you know that I made it to dinner with my mom and that Lincoln and his mom are also here if you want to join us too.”
“Olivia,” Mom hisses, just as Bax whispers, “Pardon?”
“I know. I was surprised too,” I say, swearing I hear Lincoln laugh across from me, but I don’t look up to confirm that I’m right.
“I see,” Bax grumbles. “Where are you?”
“Madison’s. The Italian restaurant going toward Nashville.”
“I’ll try to make it over there. I’m just getting off work now.”
“Okay, if you can’t make it, I’ll see you at home,” I add—admittedly out of spite.
“You will.” His tone is soft. “Later, baby.”
“Bye.” I hang up with him and ignore my mother, who I can feel staring daggers at me.
I’m so angry with her right now that I feel myself vibrating with it. I can understand her concern when it comes to me dating Bax, but I can’t believe that she’d go out of her way to invite Lincoln to dinner and do it in order to play a game of matchmaker with his mom. And I know that’s exactly what this is.
You lose, Mom.
“Has the server been by to take drink orders?” I ask Lincoln, who looks like he’s trying really hard not to laugh.
“Not yet.”
“Good, I need wine.” I take my napkin off my plate and drape it over my lap, smoothing it out.
“I need to go to the ladies’ room,” Mom announces, pushing back from the table. “Olivia, would you like to come with me?”
“No, I’m good. Thank you.” I pick up my menu.
“Olivia,” she snaps.
“Fine.” I sigh, looking at Lincoln once more. “If the server comes by, will you please order me a glass of Pino?”
“Of course,” he mutters through a smirk.
I push back from the table and place my napkin next to my plate, then follow my mom across the restaurant to the restroom. As soon as we step through the door and it closes behind us, she spins around to face me.
“I can’t believe you’d embarrass me like that!” she cries.
“What did I do?” I cross my arms over my chest.
“You know exactly what you did.”
“Are you talking about me calling my boyfriend to let him know I arrived at the restaurant safely and that he could join us since it’s obvious this is not just a mother-daughter date, as you had me believe?”
“Olivia—”
“I know what you’re doing, Mom, and it’s not happening. I’m not interested in Lincoln.”
“Honey—”
“No, that’s messed up.” I wave a hand toward the bathroom door. “Especially when you know that Bax and I are together.”
“He’s no good for you.” She actually stomps her foot.
“Why?”
“Do you want the list of reasons?” she asks, exasperated.
“It’s obvious you have one, so let's hear it.” I lean back against the sink.
“He sleeps around.”
“Correction—he slept around. What else?”
“He…” She shakes her head, and I can see she's trying to come up with more reasons. But she doesn’t have any because there are none.
“You have one reason he’s no good for me, and I have dozens for why he is ,” I tell her softly, hoping that this sinks in because I want her to understand how much he means to me. “He looked out for me when the delivery drivers were trying to extort me for more money, and he didn’t back down until the cops came, even when he had a gun shoved in his face. Then he ran over to Kourtney's in just his boxers to check on me the night someone threw a brick through the window, not knowing if he could be in danger.”
Her eyes widen in surprise, but I ignore the look and continue. “He carries me to bed if I fall asleep when we are watching TV on the couch. He sent me flowers at work just to say that he was thinking about me. He makes sure I eat and that I’m taken care of. And he refused to sleep with me until you guys knew about us so that there were no secrets .”
“Honey,” she whispers as her eyes begin to water.
“I think I’m falling in love with him.” The words tumble out, and I know I’m not just saying them for my mom's benefit. I’m falling in love with Bax, and even if that realization scares the crap out of me, there is no way I’d change things between us, even if I could. “And if things end up working out between us, I have no doubt he’s going to continue to give me everything he already has been every day for the rest of his life.”
“And what happens if things don’t work out?” She blinks away the tears in her eyes, and they track down her cheeks.
“I don’t want to think about that, but if they don’t, I’ll have the experience of dating a really fricking good man, and whoever I end up dating next will have to give me everything I have now and more because there is no way I’ll ever settle for less again.”
She stares at me for a long time, then her shoulders droop, and her eyes drop to the floor. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay, I… I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt. But you’re right. All I have is one reason you and him shouldn’t be together, and it’s obvious that reason doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t,” I agree.
“I just love you.” She wipes the tears from her cheeks as she looks up at me.
“I know, and I love you too.” I uncross my arms and let my hands fall to my sides. “And I know you just want the best for me. I get that, which is the only reason I didn’t leave the restaurant the minute I spotted Lincoln.”
“He’s a good guy.”
“He is, but he’s not for me,” I tell her firmly, and she nods.
“Can I have a hug?” she asks pitifully.
“Yeah.” I step toward her with my arms open, and she wraps me in a tight embrace.
“Please don’t tell your dad I did this,” she whispers, and a laugh I can’t control bubbles up the back of my throat. “He told me that if I did, he would be angry with me, he loves that you and Bax found each other.” My chest warms. It’s good to know Bax and I have my father’s approval.
“I won’t tell him,” I promise as I lean back to look at her face. “Are you ready to go eat, Cupid?”
“Yes.” She laughs, shoving my shoulder. “I just need to fix my face.”
“Okay. You do that while I go reassure Lincoln and Ann that we’re okay.”
“All right, I’ll be out in a minute.” She goes to the sink while I open the door.
When I get back to the table, a glass of wine is waiting for me.
“Everything all right?” Lincoln asks as I take my seat.
“Better now.” I pick up my glass, taking a sip of wine, and he smiles while his mom sighs, obviously disappointed that her and Mom’s game didn’t go as planned. Like my mom, she’ll get over it, and I have no doubt that, eventually, Lincoln will find the right woman, but that woman is not me.
* * *
“Be quiet, Olivia, or Kourtney’s going to hear you from across the house,” Bax growls against my ear, covering my mouth with his hand.
I would be quiet, but in this position, with him behind me and his big body pressing mine into the mattress each time he sinks inside me, he hits that part of me that makes me whimper, and my breath catches.
“I love this pussy. Have I told you that?” he asks, and I shake my head, my face pressed to the bed, my fingers wrapped around the edge of the mattress above my head. “I do. I would live inside you if you let me, and I’d keep you filled with my cum.”
Oh my God.
My insides tighten around him as the scruff on his jaw scrapes against my skin.
“You like that?” He laughs, but it sounds wicked as it slides down my spine. “You like the idea of feeling me between your legs, even when I’m not inside you, don’t you?”
“Bax,” I moan against his hand, goosebumps spreading across my shoulder and down my back.
He slides his hand between me and the mattress, cupping my pussy. “Look at how wet that makes you.” He circles his hips. “One day, I’m going to fuck you with nothing between us, fill you with my cum, and breed you. You’ll have all my babies, won’t you?” He rolls his fingers across my clit, and instantly, I start to come. His words, his fingers, and his cock send me over the edge before I even know what’s happening.
“Christ,” he groans against my ear, never losing his rhythm as he rides me through my orgasm.
His hips press into mine, and his hand moves from my pussy, sliding to my hip, then down my thigh to the back of my knee, gripping me there. His other hand leaves my mouth and skims up my arm, his hand covering mine, still wrapped over the end of the bed. Using the mattress for leverage, he pulls himself up, sending him impossibly deeper, and all I can do is hold on as he fucks me, his hand on my thigh squeezing so tight I know I’ll have bruises from his fingertips, while his warm breath brushes against my ear.
I should not be able to crest again so soon after just coming, but being at his mercy triggers another orgasm, and as I fall over the edge, I hear him curse and growl my name before his thrusts become jerky, and he plants himself deep, losing himself. Breathing heavily, he drops his forehead to my shoulder, and his fingers tangle with mine above my head.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Sleepy,” I whisper, and I feel him smile against my skin before he presses his lips to my shoulder. When he starts to roll us, I latch onto his fingers. “No, not yet.”
“I’m heavy, baby.”
“I like it,” I mumble, and he settles back on top of me, flipping his hand over, then linking our fingers back together.
“Sorry I wasn’t able to make it to dinner,” he says quietly, fiddling with my fingers, and my lashes flutter open. “That happens sometimes with work.”
That something that happened with work was Liam calling him and letting him know that he needed help at the house he was at, while Bax was on his way to the restaurant to meet me. I immediately questioned if my mom and brother had planned it that way, but Bax assured me they didn’t.
The house Liam was working on got the flooring installed today, and with the painters coming in tomorrow, he needed help putting the paper down to protect the new wood floors. He was going to go meet Liam after dinner, but I told him it was okay and that I would explain everything that happened when I got home, which I did.
Obviously, he was frustrated with my mom, but he did think it was funny that I called him with her right there to prove a point. He was also happy to hear that Lincoln didn’t take the opportunity our mothers presented and run with it.
Not that I thought Lincoln would. I think, after our coffee meetup, he got how into Bax I am.
“It’s okay. I understand, and it’s not like it was a planned dinner.”
“I just don’t want you to think that you’re not a priority.”
“I don’t think that at all.”
“Good,” he whispers, then I feel him look toward the bedroom door when there is a noise in the hall. “Sorry, baby, I gotta get Gemma before she wakes Kourtney up.”
“It’s okay.” My eyes slide closed, and a mewl of disappointment climbs up the back of my throat when he nips my ear as he slides out of me.
Getting to his feet at the side of the bed, he tosses the blanket over me and walks to the bathroom. I hear the sink turn on and roll to my side, then watch him walk out of the bathroom with a wash rag.
When he gets back to me, he uses it to clean me up, and I bite my lip. There is something so intimate about the act, maybe even more intimate than what we just did.
As soon as he’s done, he presses a kiss to my mouth, then passes me one of his shirts after he puts on his boxers. Sitting up, I slip the shirt on over my head and watch him open the bedroom door. The hall is dark, and the moment the door is open, Gemma rushes into the room and jumps onto the bed.
“We didn’t leave you.” I laugh as she rolls to her back in front of me so I can rub her belly.
“What time is Kourtney leaving tomorrow?”
Lifting my head, I look across the room as the overhead light is flipped off, leaving just the soft glow from the bedside lamp on his side.
“She has to leave here by four to catch her flight, but she’s driving herself and parking in the long-term lot, so she’ll have her car when she gets back from LA,” I say as he walks around to the opposite side of the bed.
“When will that be?”
“I think two weeks, which is good since the security company isn’t able to install a system until the week after next.”
“She mentioned that yesterday.” He drags me across the mattress to him as Gemma settles at the end of the bed. “I have my cameras until then, and two of them face her house. If anyone comes around, hopefully, we’ll be able to catch them on video and figure out who they are.”
“I hope so,” I whisper, resting my hand on his stomach as a chill slides down my spine. “I hate not knowing who’s doing these things.”
His hand on my hip tightens while his fingers move to my jaw, and he tips my head back his way. “We’ll figure it out.” The statement and the look in his eyes are firm and unyielding, making me believe him. “Do you want to read, or are you ready to sleep?”
“Sleep,” I mumble, and he dips his chin, touching his mouth to mine before he lets me go and leans over to shut off the light. When he lays back down, I crook my leg over his hip, and he grabs my wrist, holding it hostage against his chest.
“Night, baby.”
“Night.” I cuddle closer and close my eyes as I feel his lips press against the top of my head.
Despite being exhausted, I lie there awake for a long time, just listening to him breathe and the sound of his heart beating steadily against my ear, thinking about how right it feels being with him. It makes me wonder if I hadn’t decided to move home, would we have bumped into each other at some point and been drawn to each other enough to want to explore things? Or did we need everything that’s happened in order to push us past our reservations?
I’d like to think we would have wanted to explore things even without the situations that kept pushing us together, but I think there was something bigger than the two of us at work. And whatever that was, it knew we needed a reason to spend time together, to get to know each other, and to realize that we actually liked each other—or more-than-liked each other.