Chapter 22 #3
Carl Junior used the quiet to throw up on Jessie, and Olivia’s face morphed to sheer horror. I almost wanted to laugh, and that urge only intensified when Jessie wiped his mouth up and handed him to Olivia.
“Shoot, do you mind holding him for a second while I clean up? Carl, grab me a wipe.”
Olivia stared at the baby like he was an invading alien species.
“He won’t do it again. I promise. I guess I didn’t burp him well enough.” She pushed little Carl closer, and Olivia continued to stare. I could have stepped in, but the interaction was too fascinating.
I bumped her shoulder, and she jumped, sputtering something about not being good with kids.
“Oh, that can’t be true,” Jessie said.
Hands rose like one of those robot toys, stiff and almost motorized.
“Thank you.” She shoved the baby into Olivia’s hands. Carl was staring at Olivia like I was.
“Carl. Wipe.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry, sweetheart.” He shuffled in the diaper bag while I continued to watch Olivia, miffed by her behavior. The baby hung in the air at arm's length, kicking his legs and giggling while she gaped at him.
“You’re a natural,” I said, unable to stop my snicker.
She frowned at me, the annoyance in it palpable.
“I’m guessing you don’t have any experience with kids,” Carl said, his head tilted as he continued to study her reaction.
“I have a nephew,” she said, her voice like one of those phone systems that take you through menus and never let you talk to a human.
“Oh, yeah?” he asked, his brow quirking. “See him often?”
“Unfortunately. But he…” She blinked, moving her hands just slightly, like she was evaluating the bundle in them. “…does more. Lots of babbling about video games and cars.”
Now, both of them were gawking at her.
“Well, that’s just… Here, let me take him.” Carl reached out and took the baby, leaving Olivia’s arms still outstretched.
“How old is your nephew?” Jessie asked, wiping her jacket.
“Four…no, five. His birthday is next week, so I guess he’ll be six.”
“Guess that’s an event you won’t be attending,” I said, still suppressing my laughter.
She relaxed her arms, studying her hands as if she might need to remove them to stop the spread of a virus.
“They're going to visit my sister-in-law’s parents in Connecticut for it this year, and they said something about taking him to the zoo before that.”
“With you?”
She pulled her gaze to Jessie, whose eyes wore the familiar crease that told me she wanted to give Olivia a hug.
A bad idea because it would only cause her to retreat like a cornered cat, but Jessie had always been a softy.
She’d adopted more stray pets than I could count in the years I’d known her.
Probably the reason she had any interest in me, thinking I needed saving when there was only one woman who could save me.
The same one who would drown me again in a matter of days.
“No, that’s their thing.” Olivia rubbed her ear, and I could see the wheels turning, the dive into her head while she considered Jessie’s words. “I don’t know when I’ll see him. Maybe I’ll just give his gift to Gabe. It’s better that way.”
“Sure,” Carl said, raising his eyes from her to me and giving me a puzzled look. Likely thinking I was nuts to want her back. If he’d voiced the thought, I would have punched him, but he was smart enough to keep it to himself.
“We’re going to look around, maybe take a ride on the Ferris wheel,” I said, taking her elbow. “Olivia’s never been on one.”
“Never?”
She shook her head. “No, these kinds of things were not in my childhood.”
And Carl’s features shifted. “Take her on the hayride, Hudson. Got a great setup this year.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks, Carl.”
They said their goodbyes, and I took Olivia’s hand again, leading her through the crowd.
“So, I’m guessing babies aren’t your thing?” I asked her while we stood in line for cotton candy. Another thing she’d never had, and I was curious to see what she was like on a sugar high. Tonight was going to be even more fun than I had expected.
“I don’t do babies or kids. I’m not good with them.” She lifted her eyes from where she’d been staring at the boots of the man in front of us. “Does that bother you?”
“Nah. I’m too old and stuck in my ways to bother with kids.”
“But we used to talk about having them.”
“People change. You did.”
“No, I never really wanted them. That was what you wanted.” She covered her mouth like she’d let out a devastating secret. I’d known back then, heard the hesitation every time we talked about kids, suggested we’d have dogs instead, and seen how she’d relaxed.
The line moved, and I bought us a pink pile of the sticky, sugary stuff, handing it to her as I paid. She tipped it back and forth while we walked away, and I pulled a wad off and stuffed it into her mouth, receiving a grumble of muffled complaints.
“I did,” I admitted. “Thought it would be fun to have a little girl who looked just like her mom, with those same stunning eyes and thick curls. Maybe a little boy I could play catch with in the yard of our farmhouse.”
“This stuff is nasty,” she said, pulling another piece off and eating it.
I flashed her a grin before I continued, “But I knew you didn’t, and there was only one thing I wanted more than that dream, Olivia.”
“What was that?” she asked, licking her fingers before catching herself and scrunching her nose in disgust.
“You.”
Her eyes flew to mine, all thoughts of her unsanitary habits forgotten. I pulled her over to the corner of a game booth and wiped a puff of cotton candy from the corner of her mouth.
“I didn’t need anything but you in my life to be happy. Sure, kids would have added to that happiness, but you were all I needed.”
“You can still have that dream,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes, her mouth turning downward. “There are—”
“Stop.” I placed a finger on her lips and forced her to look at me. “There are no other women that I want, and there is no other life I want but one that has you in it. Besides, I’m too grumpy to have kids.”
“You are kind of grumpy.”
“I am, unless I’m with you.” I kissed her nose before moving to her cheek and feeling the warmth growing in them despite the chill in the air.
“And now whenever I’m grumpy, all I have to do is picture you holding Carl Junior like he was a feral vampire kid about to rip your throat out to change my mood.
” She swatted my arm, and I pulled her closer.
“That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. ”
“That was not funny. It was horrifying.”
“What are you going to do if your brother has more children?”
I slung my arm over her shoulder and directed her back into the crowd.
“Avoid him. Maybe disown him. I don’t even want to think about it. Knowing Tori, she’ll have me babysit the thing while Reid talks my ear off the whole time.”
“And you’d love every minute.”
She rolled her eyes at me and stuffed another piece of cotton candy in her mouth.
“This stuff is addictive,” she mumbled. “I’m going to need to do cardio to make up for this, and I hate cardio.”
“I’ll put you to work on the ranch tomorrow. Couple that with the way I’m planning to make your body work tonight and you’ll burn it right off.”
“You’re just dirty-minded.”
“Yup, and I’m all yours.”
She leaned her head against my shoulder, chomping on the cotton candy as we made our way to the hayride. By the time the night ended, her tongue was bright pink, and she was high on sugary sweets and smiling like she’d just had the best orgasm of her life…which she did when we got home.