Chapter 40
Olivia
Olivia and Dylan were left alone while they waited for Connor and Cassie to change.
She expected him to ignore her, but he surprised her by saying, “Hazy is different with you.”
She grinned. “Yeah. We’re best friends. You’re different with Cassie, right?”
The boy’s voice cracked when he said, “Me and Cassie don’t like each other.”
Olivia shrugged. “Connor and I didn’t like each other until like a month ago.”
“No way,” Dylan said.
“Way.”
His eyes widened, and a flush climbed his neck. He turned his attention to his phone.
Connor joined them a few minutes later and asked, “Waiting on Cassie?”
“Yeah,” Dylan said, still engrossed in his phone.
They waited and waited. Ten minutes passed. Twenty.
“I’m going to check on her,” Olivia said.
The locker room seemed empty. Cassie’s gear had been loaded into her pink hockey bag. Olivia almost missed the sniffles coming from the farthest bathroom stall from the door. She panicked, unsure what to do until she asked herself: What would Christina do? She knocked lightly.
“Honey, are you okay?”
Silence stretched, and Olivia could almost hear the girl thinking.
“No,” she whispered.
“Anything I can help with?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
Olivia chewed her lower lip. “What’s going on, hon?” She kept her voice soft and gentle.
Cassie hesitated again.
“I promise, whatever it is, we can fix it. It can be between you and me.”
“My stomach hurts so bad. It’s like stabbing. And I’m bleeding.”
“That sucks,” Olivia said.
Cassie let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah.”
“Is this the first time?”
“Yeah.”
“I can walk you through it. Has your mom explained your period to you?” She dug around in her purse for a pad, which she handed to Cassie under the door.
“No. I learned what it is in school. So I know I’m not like. Dying. But my mom isn’t around.”
“That’s okay. Do you want a nurse explanation or a mom explanation?”
Olivia had received a nurse explanation that made no sense at the time.
“A mom one, please,” Cassie whispered.
Olivia talked Cassie through how to use a pad and a tampon. She explained the medical aspect but laced it with love and care, how she would have liked to have been told.
When Cassie opened the door, she celebrated with her, “Yay! You’re alive!”
Cassie laughed and wiped snot on the back of her arm. “There’s blood on my shorts.”
“Oh, yeah, that happens.”
While Cassie washed her hands, Olivia explained how to get the blood out of her clothes and that she should keep some panties as period panties because some are bound to get ruined.
And then she explained that a lot of pain and heavy bleeding weren’t normal.
Because she would be damned if a girl even adjacently under her care had to suffer the way she did.
She stripped out of Connor’s sweatshirt and handed it to Cassie, who put it on.
It hung past Cassie’s knees, more than enough to cover the stain on her pants.
They sat on the bench in the empty locker room while Olivia told Cassie everything a young woman might need to know.
Olivia rooted around in her purse again and handed Cassie some ibuprofen.
She found a pen and wrote her phone number on Cassie’s arm since it would need to be approved before Cassie could put it in her phone.
She delivered her last piece of advice. “If I’m not around, or your friends aren’t around, you can ask Hazy for help. He will always help. He keeps products in his gym bag and in his car. He won’t laugh at you. Not about this.”
Cassie grimaced. “Why?”
Olivia smiled as she remembered the most traumatic experience of her life.
She wouldn’t have been able to get through that first endo-related hospital visit without him.
Being fifteen and certain you were about to die while an old man did a pelvic exam was not for the weak of heart.
Connor and Christina made sure she stayed safe throughout the whole ordeal.
“Because he has loved me for a long time, and there was a time I needed his help.”
When they rejoined the boys, Connor asked, “All good?”
“Yep. All good. I need to stop at the store on the way home, though.” She raised her eyebrows at him.
Connor took in Cassie wearing his hoodie, her face puffy and red. His eyes widened in understanding, and he nodded.
They got to the store, and Olivia held her hand out to Connor.
“Give me your credit card.”
He handed it over without asking questions, and when Dylan moved to get out of the car, he said, “Dylan, buddy. How about we let the girls go in? I want to talk to you about something.”
Olivia smiled. Connor was about to bestow a critical life lesson on Dylan. And she knew he’d do it without giving Cassie away.
Olivia and Cassie bought every period product the store sold, and Olivia reminded her to call if she needed help again. They also did some serious damage in the candy and chip aisles.
They tied the bags closed and tossed them in the car next to Cassie’s hockey gear.
Connor stopped at a drive-thru on the way to drop the kids off. She didn’t even have to ask, and she wondered if he was thinking about that terrifying night in the emergency room too. They’d gotten DQ that night as well.
As they all ate Blizzards in the Dairy Queen parking lot and talked about Cassie’s game and their plans for the week, Olivia realized she was living in a moment she’d always dreamed about. This beautiful, funny, supportive man caring for her and two kids could be her future. It would be her future.
“I love you,” she said.
Connor’s smile set her aflame. He swiped his thumb over her lip, wiping away something sticky. He stuck his thumb in his mouth, then leaned in and kissed her.
“I love you, too, Livy,” he whispered against her mouth.
“Ew. Get a room,” Dylan said.
His comment was met with a loud slap, and Cassie said, “Let them be happy.”
Olivia was coming out of her skin by the time they got home. They took off their shoes, and Connor dropped his keys and wallet in their designated place.
“Sooo,” he said.
“Sooo, what?”
“You said that counted as a date, right?”
Olivia’s mouth went dry. She swallowed and licked her lips. “Yeah.”
“Even though it kind of took a turn there at the end?”
Just when she thought she couldn’t love him any more, he proved her wrong.
She didn’t know how she hadn’t realized he loved her sooner, even if he didn’t see it himself.
Without any explanation from her, he recognized a situation might be triggering for her, did his best to help her (and Cassie) without calling attention to it, paid (over a hundred dollars) to make the situation the tiniest bit more manageable, and then, when he’d been promised sex, triple-checked she felt okay about the whole thing instead of jumping right in to collect his prize.
Emotion overwhelmed her, and tears formed in her eyes. He hugged her.
“Hey, it’s okay. We don’t have to do anything.”
She looped her arms around his neck, crushed her lips to his, and hopped, wrapping her legs around his waist. He caught her, his hands spanning the curve of her ass. He squeezed and kneaded.
Connor carried her straight to his bedroom and plopped her on his bed. She stripped her shirt over her head and reached around to unclip her bra while he shucked off his pants.
Mostly undressed, Olivia crawled backwards on his bed. He stalked toward her, covering her body with his, every bit the predator. She didn’t mind being his prey. The skin-to-skin contact set butterflies off in her belly. Fuck, he was warm. Hard and soft all at once.
His lips locked with hers again, and she got lost in every lick, nip, and suck he offered her.
His erection pressed against her clit and she squirmed against him as he kissed his way down her neck.
Her hands found his ass, and she pulled his hips tighter against her own, cursing the two layers of fabric between them.
“Fuck, Connor. Please,” she moaned, her head tossed back and eyes closed in pleasure.
“Please what, love?”
She couldn’t name the exact thing she wanted.
“More.”
His hands found her nipples, and he ran his thumbs over the hard, achy tips.
He bit the soft skin of her cleavage, one hand still toying with a nipple while his mouth found the other.
He swirled his tongue around it. The attention to her chest sent waves of pleasure straight to her core. Her panties were soaked through.
“Connor,” she said, breathy.
She ran a hand up his back and tangled her fingers in the hair at his nape, holding him in place, not wanting him to stop but needing more. He pressed his hips harder against her, his ass flexing in her palm.
“Fuck. Livy.”
“Yes, that. Please. More. Fuck me.”
He repeated the motion with another groan, and his teeth clamped ever so lightly on her nipple. Her hips moved with his. She climbed higher with every thrust.
And then he pulled away, taking his body heat with him, and she let out an outraged cry.
She opened her eyes to glare at him and found him smirking at her.
“You’re kinda greedy, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.”
“I knew you were planning on it, but thanks for the reassurance.”
He looped his fingers in the waistband of her panties and tugged them down while she lifted her legs so he could pull them all the way off. She spread her legs as he tossed the scrap of lace to the side. He skimmed his hands along the insides of her thighs.
“You’re so fucking pretty.”
“I’m pretty when I come, too,” Olivia said. “How about you find out?”
Connor laughed, but her attitude earned her exactly what she wanted.
He plunged two fingers inside her, finding her G-spot while simultaneously drawing circles around her clit with his thumb.
Olivia balled her hands in the sheets, writhing under his attention.
The pressure in her center built fast, and she came all over his hand faster than she thought possible.
“You lied,” he said before she’d caught her breath.
“What?”