Chapter 7
Olivia
Valentine and Beanie shuffled out of Connor’s room, leaving Olivia alone with him for the first time since his injury. She’d forced herself to keep her distance throughout her workday.
Olivia waited for the door to shut behind the other Connors before she took a seat next to his bed.
“Why was that nurse so fucking mean to you last night?”
Based on the texting she’d been doing with his mom that day, that was not the question she’d expected to come out of his mouth.
Olivia hesitated. Connor had a protective streak a mile long.
If he found out how shitty her coworkers were being to her after her split with Lance, he would insist on helping.
If he fussed about their poor treatment, it could backfire. Olivia had overheard all about how she’d been cheating on Lance with Connor. She assumed that’s how he turned people against her and didn’t need to give the gossipy bitches anything else to run with.
“Amanda and I don’t get along.” There. The vague answer should suffice. He would understand workplace tiffs.
“But why? She forced you out when I needed you.”
Olivia’s stomach flipped, and she scolded herself. He was upset and wanted something—anything—familiar. She wasn’t special. “It’s not you. Amanda did what she thought was best for your care,” she fibbed.
Amanda had a right to kick her out, but it was Connor. Amanda could be a bitch, but she was never cold to normal patients. She had a chip on her shoulder about Olivia’s supposed infidelity toward Lance. Oh, the irony.
Connor leaned his head back against his pillows, staring at the ceiling while he spoke, a telltale sign of his annoyance. “She was too mean to you.”
“She was doing her job.”
Connor jutted his bottom lip out like a petulant child before turning his pout into a brilliant grin and meeting her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here now, though. You’re way nicer.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “You’re a little biased.”
“Oh, I’m a lot biased. But I am entitled to my opinion.”
Standing and gathering the coffee cups and burrito wrappers that had accumulated during the Connors’ visit, she said, “I’m glad you ate something.”
“I’m still starving.” As if on cue, his stomach grumbled.
She chuckled. “I’m done for the day. I can bring you dinner if you want something specific.”
Olivia didn’t want to spend her off hours in the hospital, but for him, she would.
With the Freeze leaving on their road trip he might be without visitors.
The thought of him spending the night alone hurt her heart.
Usually, for a broken bone, he’d be released same-day, but with such extensive surgery—and the concussion—the doctors wanted to keep him overnight out of an abundance of caution.
“Are you sure? You should go home and get some rest. Looks like you’ve had a long day.”
“Gee, thanks. Glad to know I look like garbage.”
He gasped and placed a hand over his heart. “I would never say that,” Connor said, mock outrage in his tone.
“You have said those exact words to me before,” Olivia said with a raised eyebrow.
“Wow, what an asshole. You should have punched me.”
“I probably did.”
The conversation lapsed, and someone knocked on the door. Amanda stuck her head in, her cheery smile fading to a scowl when she saw Olivia.
She quickly covered the scowl with a fake-ass expression of adoration. “Aww,” she said to Connor. “You must be so happy your girlfriend works in this building. So easy for her to visit you.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” Olivia corrected her before Connor could.
Connor’s eyes narrowed in confusion. He looked between Amanda and Olivia as if he were watching a sparring match and didn’t know who to root for.
Amanda put on a sickly sweet tone when she said, “Oh, sorry. You’ve been here holding his hand all hours of the day and night. Even abandoned your work to be here. I just assumed...”
Amanda didn’t assume shit. She had an ulterior motive for whatever show she was putting on, and Olivia didn’t know what it was.
Her heart rate ratcheted up, her palms going sweaty, regardless of her innocence.
“It’s called being friends,” Olivia said, molars gnashing together in irritation.
“Not that you would know,” she added under her breath.
The nurse took Connor’s vitals and made some notes in his chart. “It’s not only me who’s noticed. Lance seemed pretty angry about you spending so much time in here, too. He looked for you at lunch, you know?”
“That fuckwad can kiss mine and Livy’s asses,” Connor said.
Olivia groaned and hid her face in her hands, knowing that his comment was well-intentioned in defense of her, but that it would also make her life so much harder.
“So something is going on between you then?” Amanda asked, her tone conversational and innocent when speaking to Connor.
“That’s not what I said.”
“Lance thinks you’re lying. He was really hurt when Olivia walked out. The least she could do is talk to him.”
Olivia’s eyebrows climbed her forehead. Why the fuck did Amanda care so much? With Olivia out of the way Amanda was free to entertain Lance as much as she wanted. And talking about her like she weren’t standing right there was a step too far. “His feelings aren’t my responsibility.”
“Preach!” Connor supported her. “My girl dodged a fucking bullet.”
“I think Lance would argue that Olivia is his girl. He’d be pissed that you claimed her.”
Connor wrinkled his nose in disgust. “If you care so much what he thinks, maybe you should date him.”
He didn’t know how close he was to hitting the nail on the head, and Olivia needed to walk away. If she stayed any longer, she’d either have a meltdown or deck Amanda right in the nose.
“I’ll grab dinner and be right back,” she said, leaving the room.
Olivia picked up burgers from a greasy little diner a few blocks from the hospital that she liked to indulge in most Friday nights. By the time she returned to Connor’s room, Amanda was long gone.
He greeted her with a warm smile, melting some of her stress away. She returned his grin, handed him his food, and sat next to him, unwrapping her own dinner.
“I heard you talked to your mom,” she said.
“Yeah, she worries too much.”
Olivia’s lips relaxed from her manic grin into a soft smile. Christina Hale was the sweetest mother in the universe. She’d texted Olivia all day trying to offer any assistance she could from afar since apparently Olivia had agreed to help Connor out until he could get around independently again.
“Anything you need to tell me?” she asked.
“Fuck,” Connor said around a mouthful of cheeseburger.
She loved that he’d assumed she would help. But she was going to make him spell it out. And hold it over his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Mom threatened to fly out to take care of me, and I panicked. I figured I could convince you. Or pay you. I could totally pay you. And then you could quit your job. This place is fucked up.”
“I like my job.”
The softness in Connor’s features turned hard and unyielding.
“They treat you like shit.”
“No, they don’t. Everyone is nice.” As she said it, she realized it was a lie.
Until the previous week everyone had been nice.
She had friends. Colleagues who would cover for her.
She’d spent some workdays with a real possibility of seeing her boyfriend.
Everything had been perfect. But since the breakup, most of her coworkers had taken sides. Work was turning into a nightmare.
“That nurse warned me to steer clear of you. Lectured me about how you manipulate people,” he said.
Connor was getting heated, and Olivia held her hands up to soothe him, like she would a startled horse. “I’m sorry she was weird. I swear it’s not that bad.”
“It’s not that bad? You work with your asshole ex! Why would you want to stay here?” His voice rose with every word, his frustration showing.
Olivia put a lid on her simmering temper. “She and Lance are close. That’s all. And I don’t really want to stay here forever, but I can’t just leave. This is my job.”
“What the fuck is her deal about Lance? She’s weirdly invested for a random coworker,” Connor said at a lower volume.
She waved away his concern. “Amanda has it in her head that Lance and I broke up because of my relationship with you.”
Connor stared at her. Blinked. Frowned. Blinked again, bewilderment and frustration cycling over his face. He opened his mouth to respond. Closed it. “Why the fuck does she care?”
She didn’t want to answer. If Connor found out that Amanda was the nurse Lance had cheated with, she would never hear the end of it. He’d be pissed off about Olivia being nice. She chewed on her thumbnail, trying to figure out how to answer his question without lying.
He didn’t wait for her explanation. “You should quit. Nobody should have to work like this,” he said, turning his attention back to his dinner.
Olivia sighed. “I can’t quit.”
“Yes, you can. I’ll pay you to be my live-in nurse. Assistant. Bestie. Literally for existing.”
For a second, Olivia considered the offer.
Not having to deal with the increasing toxicity sounded nice.
Avoiding Amanda and Lance would be a huge win.
She planned to find a new job, anyway. But that would be putting all her financial eggs in the basket of a man again.
She still hadn’t gained access to any funds since the last time she’d made that mistake.
Instead of admitting her hesitation, she leaned on humor. “Maybe that’s a good idea. You could introduce me to all your friends. I would be like a live-in puck bunny,” she baited him, needing him to focus his energy on something other than convincing her to abandon her job.
It was the exact wrong thing to say. Instead of laughing, he got angry. She rolled her lips between her teeth, suppressing her own laughter at his outrage.
“You better be fucking joking. I’ll kick some asses.” He flung his blankets off and moved to get up, paying no mind to his obvious inability to walk.
Olivia stood, placing a hand on his shoulder as she fought the giggles threatening to escape.
“Okay, okay. Settle down. I’m not sleeping with your teammates.”
“Good. Fucking keep it that way.”
She adjusted his covers and sank back into the chair next to his bed. Resting her elbows on her knees, she covered her face with her hands.
“Ugh,” she said. “I’ve ruined my life.”
Connor reached out and pulled one hand away from her face, trapping her fingers in his own. He brought her hand to his mouth, kissing it.
“You and me both. Everything is fucked.”
“Your life isn’t fucked,” Olivia said. “You’re taking a mandatory break. Aren’t you tired? You never slow down.”
“Slow isn’t part of my vocabulary.”
“You better learn it pretty damn fast.” She laughed at her own joke. “See what I did there?”
Connor rolled his eyes. “You need to work on your sense of humor.”
“Hey! I’m running on two hours of sleep in an unfamiliar bed, sludgy black coffee, and half a peanut butter sandwich I scarfed down between meetings seven hours ago.
You’re lucky I’m capable of cracking a joke right now.
” She stuffed a bite of her abandoned burger into her mouth, at least addressing one problem.
He squeezed her knuckles. “You should quit your job.”
“I have these things—you know—bills. They are required to keep living. I’m already mooching off you. If I quit my job, I’d have to move home and live with Jayden.”
“Mooch off me for as long as you want. My house sits empty half the time, anyway.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
She could in the short term. But being around Connor for too long was dangerous. Olivia could handle him for short periods of time. Any longer than a few weeks and she would start confusing their relationship. Distance kept her crush at bay.
Staying with Connor would be disastrous for her self-esteem and long-standing infatuation, but she didn’t have many other options. Especially while he needed her.