24. Olivia
CHAPTER 24
Olivia
W ith rain suddenly splashing against my windshield, I flip on my wipers and wait for a huge truck to pass me before I turn onto the two-lane road that leads to town. This morning, I left Bax’s house later than I should have, after he and I had a shower that left me with no choice but to blow out my hair that had gotten wet.
Not that I regret that shower. I might have gotten my hair wet, but the two orgasms I had were worth it.
Noticing a figure dressed in black walking on the side of the road, I cringe when I see the side mirror of the truck in front of me come within inches of hitting them. With no sidewalk and barely a shoulder, I wonder if the person walking realizes they are risking their life. This road is dangerous on the best of days, and today is not one of those days.
As I start to pass them, I go to my left as far as I can without going into the other lane, then glance over, noting that it’s an older woman wearing an apron for the grocery store down the street from the spa. She looks soaked through with rain and absolutely miserable.
Glancing up at my rearview mirror, I check behind me to make sure there isn’t another car coming, then slow and pull over as far as the narrow shoulder allows while still giving her room. As the woman approaches, I watch her in my side mirror. She looks nervous, but I’d probably be nervous too if a car pulled up next to me on the side of the road and I didn’t know the driver.
Hitting the button to roll down the passenger window, I wait for her to get close, then call out, “Hey, are you heading to Publix?”
“I am.” She peers through the window, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m a woman, but she visibly relaxes.
“Awesome, I’m going that way. Do you want a ride?”
“Are you sure?” She looks up when a car going in the opposite direction speeds past.
“Yeah.” I hit the unlock button, and she opens the door, sliding into the seat.
“Thank you so much.” She shivers, holding her hands close to one of the vents as I pull back onto the road. “My car broke down, so I’ve been walking to work for the past few weeks. It hasn’t been so bad, but this rain came out of nowhere.”
“I don’t think the weather guys actually know what the weather is going to be on any given day,” I say, and she laughs. “Do you know when you’ll get your car back?”
“I don’t. I’m staying with my elderly parents, and most of the money I make goes into helping take care of them. But hopefully soon.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I have it better than a lot of people. Plus, this leaves me no excuse to avoid getting in my steps every day.” She laughs, and I smile at her positive outlook—something that most people in her situation wouldn’t have.
“I’m Olivia, by the way.” I glance over at her as I turn into the parking lot for the grocery store, and she smiles brightly.
“Sarah, but everyone calls me Star.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Star. Do you want me to drop you off out front, or...?”
“Out front is fine.” She unhooks her seat belt. “I really do appreciate you stopping for me.”
“You’re welcome, and if I see you walking again, I’ll be happy to give you a lift,” I tell her, pulling to a stop in front of the store.
Once she’s out, she starts to close her door but stops to bend and look in at me. “Olivia?”
“Yeah?” I ask, still smiling.
“I know you might think I’m kooky, but sometimes I get…” She wiggles her head from side to side like she’s searching for the right word. “Vibes.”
“Okay.” I laugh, but the look on her face says there is nothing funny about it. In fact, she looks dead-serious.
“Be careful,” she whispers.
“What?” I whisper back, the hairs on the nape of my neck standing on end.
“I don’t know, but just be careful, especially when you’re driving.”
“All right,” I agree quietly, and her smile is wonky before the look on her face shifts, filling with that same happy light from earlier.
“Take care, Olivia, and if you ever want some cookies or something, come to the bakery and ask for me. I’ll hook you up.”
“I’ll do that.” I watch her push the door shut, then continue watching her as she walks through the automatic doors and into the store.
As I drive off, I try to shake off what she said, but the words play over and over in my head as I drive to work. And they are still in my head when I pull open the door to the spa, which means it takes me a moment to register the sight that greets me inside the reception area.
The entire space has been emptied out. All the art is missing from the walls, and the loveseat that we had for clients to sit on while they waited is gone. Even the shelves that once held all of our products are missing, and all the boxes and containers are on the floor with Holly—who is sitting with her legs crossed on the tile in front of the computer right in front of her because her chair and the reception desk are both gone.
“Umm.” I glance around the empty space. “What’s going on?”
“Eva bought Julie out,” Holly whispers, leaning forward so she can look around the corner and down the hall to where the offices are. When she sees that the coast is clear, she meets my gaze once more and continues whispering. “And apparently, Julie decorated the office with furniture and stuff from her parents’ staging business. So, last night, she came by and took everything. We didn’t know until about five minutes ago when we came in to open up.”
“Seriously?” My nose scrunches in disgust. I mean, I can understand Julie wanting her things back, but to just take everything without giving anyone a heads-up is beyond gross. Especially knowing that Eva would have no idea what she was walking into today.
“Yep, Eva is pissed.”
“As she should be,” I mutter.
“She went to go make a call, but I wonder if I should cancel all the appointments scheduled for toda—” She cuts herself off, snapping her mouth shut when a door slams, and a moment later, Eva comes around the corner with a look of rage on her face.
“Hey, Olivia.” She smiles at me—or tries to—before she looks at Holly on the floor. “Can you do me a favor and start calling everyone who is booked for today and reschedule them for tomorrow or later this week?” She rubs her lips together. “Maybe offer them ten percent off their treatment for the inconvenience.”
“Of course,” Holly says softly, and Eva turns my way.
“I’m so sorry, Olivia. I know you had clients coming in today. Holly will get them rescheduled, and you can take the day off. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have things sorted out and?—”
“I’m not leaving you and Holly to deal with this alone,” I cut her off, and her shoulders droop in relief. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”
“I don’t even know where to start.” She glances around. “I obviously need to get new furniture, but I also need to call the phone company and the electric company because Julie dealt with that stuff, and I don’t know if she’s going to have it all shut off.”
“All right. While you make those calls, I’ll call around and see if there are any furniture stores that can deliver by the end of today. And if not, my boyfriend has a truck. I can probably borrow it for a couple of hours, and we can take a trip to HomeGoods. They always have stuff available for pickup.”
I look around, then meet her gaze. “I know this all seems overwhelming, but it’s not really that big of a deal. I mean, no, you don’t want clients walking into an empty office, but at the end of the day, all they really care about is the quality of our work, and I know that you and I do an amazing job.”
“You’re right.” She lifts her chin and straightens her shoulders. “Okay.” She lets out a breath. “I’m going to make some calls, and I’ll check in with you when I’m done.”
“Sure.” I watch her walk away, then look at Holly, who just hung up the phone. “Are you okay?”
“Yep.” She grins. “And I know this sucks, but I’m thrilled I don’t have to deal with Julie anymore.”
“Same.” I laugh. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Calling your boyfriend?” she asks, still grinning, and I roll my eyes as I walk away. “You can’t deny it anymore. I heard it right out of your mouth.” Her voice follows me down the hall, which means I’m smiling when I open the door to my office. I half expect to find my office empty, but it’s exactly as I left it.
Walking to my desk, I take a seat, pull out my computer, and start looking up furniture stores.
* * *
Hearing someone tap on the glass door for the spa, I look that way and smile from where I’m standing on a ladder when I see who it is standing outside, holding a drink carrier with three white cups with a distinct green emblem on the front of them.
“I got it,” Holly says, going to the door and unlocking it. As it opens, a cold gust of air sweeps into the room along with Bax, who looks as beautiful as he always does, dressed in jeans, a black hoodie with his business logo on the front, a puffy vest over it, and his work boots.
“Hey, just one second.” I turn back to the wall and finish hammering the picture hook in place before I get down off the ladder.
“I got this,” Eva says, lifting the large, framed painting we picked up today off the ground. Ignoring her, I take the other side and help her hook the metal string thing on the back over the picture hook. When it’s in place, I step back to look at it, and she does too. It’s perfect, with the black wood frame and the colorful scrapes of paint that are not exactly a design but still look floral in some abstract way.
“I love it,” I tell her.
“Me too.” She smiles, and I grin back before turning toward my guy.
“Hey.”
“Hey, baby.” He bends to press his lips to mine, and I swear I hear Holly sigh.
“You brought us coffee?” I ask, falling to my flat feet and taking the drink holder from him.
“Hot cocoa. It’s late, and I didn’t know what everyone’s order would be.”
“Thanks, I love hot chocolate,” Holly tells him with a huge smile as I pass her a cup, and I bet that even if she hated hot cocoa, she’d still drink it just because he brought it.
“Thank you for this,” Eva calls over to him as I give her one of the cups. “And thank you for letting Olivia borrow your truck today.”
“It’s no big deal.” He touches his hand to my lower back, and I lean into his warm palm.
This afternoon, after calling about a dozen stores to see if they did same-day delivery and getting nos from all of them, I called Bax and asked if I could use his truck. He was reluctant at first—not because he didn’t want me driving his vehicle, but because he didn’t like the idea of me trying to put furniture into the back without him there to help. It took me a while to convince him that I would be fine and that us girls could handle the job without him.
So I drove over to the house he was working on and left my rental car with him, then Eva, Holly, and I piled into the extended cab and went shopping. It took us four different stops, but by the time we drove back to town, we had everything we needed.
“How's it going here?” he asks as I take a sip of my cocoa. It hits the spot. We’ve been going all day, and none of us have taken the time to stop and eat more than the pastries we picked up when we got coffee this afternoon, and that was hours ago.
“We just need to put up the product shelves and move the furniture around. I’d say we have another hour or so.”
“Do you want some help?”
“You don’t have to do that. I know you just got off work,” I say, and he gives me a look that says, and? “Okay, then yes, that would be awesome, if you don’t mind.”
“Let me just grab my tool bag out of the truck.”
“We have tools. Holly brought them from her house.” I point at her pink tool bag that is open on the floor, along with all its matching accessories, including a bright-pink drill.
“I’m going to go get my tool bag,” he repeats, and I smirk at him over the rim of my cup.
“Afraid you might combust?”
“A little.” He smiles at me, patting my bottom before turning and heading out the door.
“God, Julie is such an idiot,” Eva mutters, her eyes on the door and Bax’s retreating back.
“Thank God,” I mutter back, and she laughs while I look over at Holly. “You okay?” I ask, and she looks up at me.
“Do you think you can ask him to take off his shirt while he works?”
“Holly!” Eva hisses, but it sounds like she’s trying not to laugh.
“I’m not asking him to take off his shirt.” I roll my eyes at her, which I do a lot.
“You’re right. That would be weird. I should just turn the heat up so that things progress more naturally.”
“You’re ridiculous.” I laugh, then turn toward the door when he comes in with his work bag in hand. While I show him the shelves we picked up, Holly and Eva start to drag the furniture we got from out of the hallway, where we were keeping it so we could hang stuff on the walls and use the ladder without having to move things around.
Not surprisingly, it takes him no time at all to hang the floating shelves, so after the girls and I finish getting Holly’s new desk in place, I switch to putting the products that we have for sale up on the shelves with his help. Then, while Eva works on the seating area, Holly sets up her computer and makes sure everything works for tomorrow.
When we are all mostly done, I quickly run the vacuum while Bax takes his tools back out to his truck, and then I roll out the new floor mat we got for in front of the door for people to wipe their feet on if it rains. When I’m done, I look at Eva, who is stopped in the middle of the room with her arms wrapped around her middle.
“What do you think?” I ask her.
“It’s perfect,” she says quietly.
“I love it!” Holly sings, twirling in her new chair.
“Me too,” I agree, looking around.
Before, the space had an almost surgical, sterile feel to it, but not anymore. The reception desk is curved with slat wood panels that have a black backing, and the art on the walls is all dark with pops of color. The chairs that replaced the couch are a burnt-orange leather with wide seats and cool-shaped backs, and the magazine table between them looks like a piece of driftwood that was lacquered.
The space is modern but not stuffy, and if Eva goes forward with designing a black panel wall behind the reception desk, it will tie everything together even more. It’s just not something we could pull off today with all the running around we had to do. Also, none of us know how to do that kind of thing—not that I doubt we could have figured it out if we had the time.
“I’m still pissed at Julie for doing what she did, but maybe she did me a favor,” Eva murmurs. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, hugging her into my side, and she hugs me back with one arm. “Thank you both for all your help today. I couldn’t have done this without you two.”
“I’m glad we could help.” I look behind us when Bax steps back inside.
“What do you think?” I ask him, letting Eva go.
“It looks great.” He wraps his arm around me when I curl into his side. “You girls did a good job choosing pieces that all flow together.”
“He would know.” I pat his stomach as I look between Eva and Holly. “He decorated his house like he paid someone to do it.” I tip my head back his way. “Or did you pay someone to decorate for you?”
“My house doesn’t look like I paid someone to decorate.” He chuckles.
“Yes, it does,” I disagree. “Even the pumpkin stacks you put on the porch for Halloween were perfect and looked like they could’ve been on the front page of a magazine.”
“Babe,” he mutters, shaking his head.
“I have to go with Olivia on this one,” Holly cuts in. “I mean, I haven’t been in your house, but the outside is awesome. And my grandma’s always going on about all the flowers you plant in the summer and how she’d swear you have a gardener, but she knows you do it all yourself.”
“You plant your own flowers?” I look up at him. I don’t know why this shocks me. I’m sure lots of guys like gardening, but I just can’t picture him doing it.
“Yeah.”
“Of course.” I smile, and he gives my waist a squeeze.
“Are you done here, or are you going to stick around for a little longer?” he asks, obviously done with this conversation.
“We’re done,” Eva answers for me. “You and Holly take off. I’m just going to grab my bag and lock up.”
“We’ll wait for you,” I tell her, walking over to where my bag sits on top of the client fridge—one of the only things Julie didn’t take with her.
“You don’t need to wait for me.”
“We know, but we still will,” Holly tells her, moving from her chair to open the cabinet at the side of her desk, where she keeps her bag.
With a shake of her head that says we’re being ridiculous, Eva heads down the hall to her office while I put on my coat, and she comes back a couple of minutes later with her jacket on, shutting off lights as she walks toward the front of the spa. I hit the light switch next to the front door, and then we all wait on the sidewalk while she locks up.
“All right.” She turns to face us, lifting her keys with a grin. “All done. I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
“See you in the morning.” I smile at her, then accept a tight hug from Holly before they head to their cars, and I walk hand in hand with Bax to mine.
I hit the unlock button on my key fob halfway across the parking lot, and as my lights flash, a tingle slides down my spine, and I glance around. I don’t see anyone lurking in the shadows, but I would swear someone is watching us.
“You okay?” Bax asks, and I look up at him, finding concern etched into his handsome features.
“Yeah.” I shake off the feeling and smile, not wanting him to worry. “I’m just starving.”
“When we get home, I’ll feed you.” He dips his chin and touches his mouth to mine, then opens my door. When I’m in my seat, he waits until I’m buckled in, then orders, “Lock the doors.”
“Yes, sir.” I salute him, and he smiles before shutting my door.
Hitting the lock button, I start the engine, then wait for him to back out of his spot before I do the same, taking one more look around as I pull out of the lot with him right behind me. As I start down the dark two-lane street toward our neighborhood, I make sure to drive the speed limit. With an open field on one side and a forested area on the other, this road is known to have deer that regularly cross it, and the last thing I need is to hit one.
I’m so focused on the road that the sound of someone honking startles me, and my eyes fly to my rearview mirror just in time to see a small white car speed past Bax’s truck as another car coming from the opposite direction is close to passing me. At the very last moment, the white car swings between Bax and me, barely avoiding running head-on into the car in the other lane, which honks wildly at them as they pass by.
“Are you insane?” I yell at the top of my lungs even though they can’t hear me.
With their brights on, they speed up, getting right up on my bumper while honking their horn, slow down, and then speed back up again, coming close to hitting me. I hear my cell phone ring in my bag, and even though I’m pretty sure it’s Bax calling me, I can’t answer. Not without taking my eyes off the road or the driver behind me. And I would have to since I didn’t hook my phone up to the stereo system for this car.
With my heart racing, I start to slow, hoping they will go around me. It’s obvious they have no regard for my life or even their own.
After what feels like forever, they swing their car around mine and speed past. I try to get a glimpse of the person behind the wheel, but they are going so fast that I can’t make out any details about the driver except for the fact that they look white. With my heart firmly in my throat, I turn into our neighborhood and slowly drive toward Bax’s house.
My hands are shaking as I pull into his driveway, and I feel like I might vomit as I put my car in park, shut off the engine, and unhook my seat belt. As I’m opening my door, it’s ripped from my grasp, and I let out a squeak as I’m tugged out of my seat and wrapped firmly in Bax’s arms. His hold is so tight it’s difficult to even take a breath.
“Are you okay?” He leans away from me, grabbing my face in his hands, and all I can do is shake my head. “Fuck.” He lets my face go and pulls me back against his chest. “I should have fucking gone after them.”
That’s the last thing he should have done, so I’m glad he didn’t.
“I’m okay,” I finally get out, and I’m not sure if the words are for his benefit or mine. Probably both.
“Let's get you inside.” He lets me go, only to wrap his arm around me, and then he begins leading me toward the garage door that he must have opened without me noticing.
“I need to get my bag.”
“I’ll come back out for it in a minute.” He urges me through the garage, past my stuff, and then up the step to the door. The moment he opens the door, Gemma greets us with her tail wagging. I give her some love, then let him take my coat and usher me down the hall to the kitchen. He pulls out one of the stools at the island, tugs me over to take a seat, then goes to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of wine. Making quick work of opening it, he pours me a glass.
“Drink this.” He hands it to me. “I’m going to run out to get your stuff and my cell, so I can call the non-emergency line and tell them what happened.”
“Did you get a license plate number?”
“There was no license plate, but the cops might be able to track them down or at least be on the lookout for the car.”
“I hope so. They could have really hurt someone,” I say quietly as he stops at my side, touching his fingers to my cheek. When my eyes meet his, the rage I see in his gaze is terrifying.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Sure.” My eyes slide closed when he presses his lips to the top of my head, and by the time they open, he’s gone. Picking up my glass, I take a sip of wine, and as I’m swallowing, Star’s forgotten words from early this morning come back to me, and a shiver slides down my spine.
It could just be a coincidence that the same day she told me to be careful when I’m driving is the same day I’d have an incident with some lunatic driver on the road.
But what if it’s not?