17. Leo
LEO
Leo hadn’t taken a day off in years — apart from attending his brother’s funeral and flying to Nevada to scatter his ashes. And he wasn’t sure he’d ever taken a day off just because he wanted to. But today, he had no regrets at all. In fact, he didn’t want the day to end.
As he’d shown Olivia around, he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
She’d been so full of wonder at everything — not just the aerial view of the city or the trip on the yacht, but the little things, too, like seeing hot-dog vendors on the sidewalk or kids playing in the park.
It had made Leo see his city through new eyes. Her eyes.
He was seeing her in a new way, too. He’d quickly forgotten that he was supposed to be keeping her at arm’s length.
Especially when she’d told him that lots of things were more important to her than money.
It had made Leo think about the things that were more important to him than money.
Like Kyle. Like the essence of his company.
Like the way he felt when he was talking and laughing with Olivia.
It was silly. They barely knew each other. Yet Leo couldn’t help feeling a connection with her, the kind of connection he couldn’t deny or ignore.
“Oh, wow,” Olivia said softly beside him.
They’d just stepped off the elevator and into his favorite rooftop restaurant.
A waiter came over to lead them to his usual table overlooking the city, where the sun was just sinking beneath the buildings.
The sky was tinged pink and orange, and the glass of the skyscrapers was, too.
Even the Hudson River gleamed like a colored ribbon far below.
“Do you see why I like this place?” Leo asked as he pulled a chair out for her.
“I do,” Olivia nodded, sinking into the chair.
“I really do.” She turned to look at the view, and one hand absently tucked a strand of her curls behind her ear.
Her hair had been braided at the beginning of the day, but now curls were escaping in loose tendrils that framed her face. She looked even lovelier now.
“Should we risk some champagne?” Leo asked.
“Maybe just one glass.” Olivia met his eyes again and smiled, “We should celebrate today, after all.”
“We should.” Leo held up a hand, and a waiter came over. He placed their order. “Do you want anything to eat, too?” he asked Olivia.
“Maybe in a little while.”
Their champagne arrived, and Leo lifted his glass in a toast. “To a wonderful day with my beautiful wife.”
“You say that a lot,” Olivia said as they clinked their glasses and each took a cautious sip. The memory of what champagne had done last time was still fresh in Leo’s mind.
“What do I say a lot?”
“Wife,” Olivia said.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Does it bother you when I call you my wife?”
“I suppose not.” She frowned slightly. “I am your wife, after all. At least, I am right now. And you’re my husband. It’s just strange to think about.”
“It’s strange for me, too. I guess that’s why I say it so much — to remind myself.”
“That makes sense.” Olivia paused thoughtfully. “Did you expect to get married? Not to me, I mean, but in general.”
“No,” Leo admitted. “I never did. I always thought work would be the most important thing to me. What about you?”
“I’ve always wanted to get married someday, but I never thought I was close to a wedding,” Olivia said. “I don’t date much.” She blushed.
“It’s hard to date when you’re busy,” Leo replied.
“True. But…” Olivia shook her head. “Never mind.”
“No, tell me.”
“It’s silly.”
“Please.” Leo made exaggerated puppy eyes, and Olivia laughed.
“Well, I don’t think the reason I don’t date is because I’m busy. I mean, maybe part of it is, because I definitely am busy, but I also feel like…”
“Like what?” Leo prompted.
“I probably read too many romance novels. But I guess I always thought that, when I met the right person, it would just feel right, you know? And I never felt that way before.” Their eyes met, and warmth bloomed in Leo’s chest. He remembered their kiss again, and in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to lean across the small glass table and capture Olivia’s soft pink lips in another kiss.
If they hadn’t been seated in a crowded rooftop restaurant, he might have done it.
“I know,” he said, his eyes not leaving hers. Olivia blushed again and looked away, and Leo knew it was time to change the subject. Otherwise, that adorable blush was going to drive him mad with desire. “Tell me about your sister’s kids. You said she has two, right?”
“Right.” If Olivia was surprised by the change in topic, she didn’t show it. “There’s a little girl, Lily, who just turned nine. That’s my niece. And then there’s my nephew, Tommy, who’s two years old.”
“That’s nice.”
Olivia laughed. “Let me guess — you were asking to be polite, but you don’t know much about kids, so you don’t really know what follow-up questions to ask?”
Leo chuckled, too. “You got me — sorry. I want to say, ‘That’s such a good age,’ but I don’t really know if it is. I haven’t spent much time with kids.”
“Those are both good ages,” Olivia said.
“Nine is fun, because Lily is old enough to have a conversation with but young enough to still believe in magic and dress up like a princess and that kind of thing. Two is fun, too, because Tommy is really starting to talk and run and dance and do so many adorable things. It’s also hard because there are lots of tantrums. Still, I always miss both of them when I have to go back to Seattle.
They grow up fast. I suppose you don’t have nieces or nephews? ”
“I don’t.” Leo didn’t want to talk about Kyle, not right now, so he searched for another question. “Do your sister and her kids live in Coeur d’Alene?”
“They do. And I was actually at my niece’s birthday party there when I was called to Vegas for the conference.”
“Right. I have to ask — what exactly happened at that conference? Because you told me you were looking for jobs.”
“I am. I quit.” Olivia took a breath. “My boss was terrible.”
“What did your boss do?”
“He never thought anything I did was good enough. At the conference, I got a couple of great leads, but he wouldn’t let me come to the client dinner. He invited my male coworkers instead.”
“What a jerk.”
“Thank you,” Olivia smiled. “He did stuff like that all the time. At the conference, he made me come early to set up, and let them sleep in, even though he knew I’d arrived in the middle of the night.
He always said I was doing things wrong, no matter how hard I tried.
I hope you aren’t like that with your employees. ”
“I’m not.” Leo raised his eyebrows. “I hope.”
“I’m sure you’re not. You don’t seem like that kind of guy.”
“Well, it was just a little while ago that I was running the company with my brother,” Leo said. “I guess I remember those days and feel grateful that we have any help at all.”
“What was that like?”
“When it was just me and Kyle?” Leo smiled. “Hard. Fun. We had a tiny office over an Ethiopian restaurant, and we had a lot of late nights. It was so much work, but we were in it together.”
“That must have been nice.” Olivia smiled, too, and it made her eyes look somehow even greener, her lips even pinker. “Do you at least like Ethiopian food?”
“It’s not bad,” Leo said, and they both laughed, even though it wasn’t really funny. “Do you?”
“I’ve never had it.”
“You should, sometime.”
The conversation trailed off, and Olivia sighed, her gaze back on the view. “You’re so lucky to have this place right on your doorstep. Do you come here often?”
“Yes,” Leo said. Then he hesitated and shook his head. “No. Maybe I used to, but nowadays, I rarely see anything outside of my office and my condo.”
“Why’s that?” asked Olivia.
“I…” Leo sighed. “Well, I’ve always been a workaholic. Ever since I was a young adult. Even when I came to places like this, it was usually with clients, not for fun.”
“Why is work so important to you?” Olivia asked. “I understand prioritizing your career — I’ve tried to do that, too — but it seems like it’s more than that.”
Leo didn’t usually talk about… well, anything personal like this, but he felt so comfortable with Olivia.
He sighed. “My parents always instilled in my brother and me the idea that we needed to make money. To leave a legacy. To be a success. They bragged about us to their friends from the time we could walk. When I was very young, I loved it. But as I got older, I started to worry that I wouldn’t live up to their expectations.
What if I didn’t get good grades? What if I didn’t go to a great college?
What if I started a company and it didn’t work out?
So, I worked hard. Really hard. I studied, I put in the hours, I thought through everything that could go wrong and tried to fix it before it did. ”
“I see.” Olivia bit her lip. “That can’t have been easy. Are your parents proud of you now? You’re clearly successful.”
“I think they are. But the unintended consequence of all that pressure is that I’m not very close with them anymore, so we don’t talk a lot.”
“What about your brother?” Olivia asked. “Are you close with him?”
Leo looked at her. It was hard to believe that Olivia didn’t know about Kyle — it seemed news of his brother’s death had reached everyone in his circle. Now that Kyle was gone, the people he knew looked at him with pity. He didn’t want Olivia to look at him with pity.
But he didn’t want to lie to her, either. He felt comfortable with her in a way he’d never felt comfortable with anyone but his brother, and he knew that honesty was important if he wanted to maintain that comfort.
“Kyle passed away a few months ago.”
Olivia’s expression changed — but it wasn’t pity he saw on her lovely features. It was understanding. Empathy.
“I’m so sorry,” she said kindly. She reached across the table and took his hand in hers. Her thumb smoothed across the ridge of his knuckles, as gentle as a whisper, before she threaded her fingers between his and squeezed. He squeezed her hand back.
Usually, when people said they were sorry, Leo struggled to know what to say back. It’s okay would have felt terribly callous, not to mention untrue. Thank you didn’t sound right either. It’s been hard would have been true, but Leo wasn’t comfortable admitting that to anyone.
With Olivia, though, he knew he didn’t need to reply. He just nodded.
“That’s actually why I was in Vegas,” he explained.
“Kyle’s funeral was several months ago, but I’d had his ashes since then.
I wanted to scatter them somewhere meaningful, and it was so hard to find the right place.
Kyle and I spent a lot of time together, but most of it was in boardrooms or in our office or working, in one way or another.
And part of it was that I just wanted to delay the inevitable.
It felt like scattering his ashes would mean I was finally saying goodbye. For real. If that makes sense.”
“It does,” Olivia said, squeezing his hand again.
Leo smiled at her before his expression grew serious again.
“Then, a few days ago, I found a picture of my brother and me in this beautiful spot in Nevada overlooking a canyon. We went there together on a road trip as teenagers, and we had so much fun together. Those are some of my best memories of him. So, I went back there and scattered his ashes. And then, I found myself alone in Nevada in a place that had meant so much to both of us, without my brother, and I was worried I’d let the sadness win if I stayed there any longer.
Or if I went straight back to work. And Kyle would never have wanted me to be sad and alone.
So, I went to Vegas to forget everything for a little while. ”
“I see.” Olivia nodded slowly. “I was wondering why you were there.”
“I’m never usually that reckless.” Leo smiled absently. “I still can’t believe I bet that much money on a random number. I can hardly believe I gambled at all! I never do stuff like that. I’m always careful with my money.”
“But grief makes everyone act differently,” Olivia filled in.
“Exactly. I wanted to forget, just for a little while. And then, I met you.”
“And then, you met me.” Her green eyes met his. “Do you want to tell me about Kyle?”
“Do you want to hear about him?”
“Yes, please.”
“Well, Kyle was the most wonderful big brother.” Leo smiled, genuinely this time. “I always wanted to follow in his footsteps, and in many ways, I did. But I know that, whether I’d studied computer science, like I did, or became a street mime, he would have loved me just the same. You see…”
And Leo told her all about Kyle. How he’d always been supportive of Leo, even when their parents had unreachably high standards.
How he’d stayed up late helping Leo study for a calculus test in high school, even though he’d had a college interview the next day.
How he’d loved to run and hike and be outside, even it if was pouring with rain or over a hundred degrees.
How he’d always encouraged Leo to try his best and do what he loved.
How he’d always made time to talk to Leo, no matter what the topic was.
It was the first time Leo had really talked about his brother since the funeral.
As Leo spoke, Olivia listened. She nodded slightly, smiled, laughed at the funny stories, squeezed his hand at the sad ones.
Leo was all too aware that he was opening up, more than he’d opened up to anyone in a long time.
He’d never been comfortable sharing his feelings, not even with Kyle, but with Olivia, it was easy.
Maybe it was her bright, open expression, as though she’d never judge him for anything.
Maybe it was her calm, warm presence. Or maybe it was something incalculable, something even she was unaware of.
Whatever it was, Leo knew she wouldn’t judge him or look at him differently, and in that moment, that meant everything.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a while.
“What for?”
“I’ve been doing all the talking. It’s hardly polite.”
“Don’t say that.” Olivia looked right into his eyes. “I appreciate you sharing all this with me. I know it can’t have been easy, and it means a lot to me that you trusted me.”
Leo didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just nodded.
“Thank you for listening. Now, should we order some food? I’m starting to get hungry.”
“Me too. What’s good here?”
They both scanned their menus, the deep conversation let go for now.
Leo couldn’t help feeling a weight off his shoulders at having shared his memories with Olivia.
It no longer felt like he was the only one in the world who’d known Kyle.
And it no longer felt like Kyle had been the only one in the world who knew Leo.