AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My pride is wounded like I’ve been stabbed. Hell, I think I’d take a stabbing over the way Reese’s words make me feel. Instead, I go do what Reese is paying me to do.
Mind his daughter’s business.
* * *
One day passes.
Then another.
And another.
The whole week goes by at a snail’s pace. Reese barely acknowledges that I’m there, if he’s even at the house at all. Usually, he’s not. His time is divided between practice and staying out late, and on the rare occasions he’s home, he stays cooped up in his bedroom.
I can guess where he goes when he’s away by the heaviness of the scent of alcohol that trails him. The disinfectant-like tang of whiskey, like he’s trying to scrub away any trace of me or his daughter. Every time, it sends a sharp ache in my chest.
Is he hooking up with people?
Is he being safe?
Should I step in?
These thoughts prove to me one thing beyond the shadow of a doubt: that I’ve gotten myself in way too deep, way too fast. Reese didn’t commit to me—and I have to remind myself that I never made commitments to him, either. I don’t have to care about his whereabouts or his safety, and I shouldn’t be hurt at the idea that he’s moved on from me, bored with my existence.
Yet I am.
What adds to the impossible sting of this unexpected, unplanned rejection, is that it’s not just me; it’s Violet, too. After all that work to crack his shell and get him to embrace his daughter, we’re back at square one.
It’s agonizing.
Even my weekend home doesn’t release me from the dark clouds that blacken my thoughts. I worry about whether or not Reese is spending any time at all with Violet, or if he’s just arranged for some other hired nobody to look after her.
“My God, Olivia, get a grip!” I groan to myself.
I slam my hands on my kitchen counter. My attempt at a lunch sandwich lies discarded, nothing but an open face of bread and an unsealed package of ham that I suspect may have gone bad at some point in the not-so-recent past.
I abandon it all and go with Plan B: liquid lunch. A bottle of wine that I bought to celebrate getting the job with Reese awaits me in the fridge. It’s not even half-gone, and since it’s celebration wine, I should save it for something that’s actually uplifting, but who knows when another one of those is coming around the corner?
The first sip relaxes me. But it doesn’t quiet the scolding voice in my head. What are you even doing, Olivia? Getting so bent out of shape over some guy you’re not even dating…
“Shush,” I snap at myself. “Just drink your damn wine in silence.”
My phone begins to buzz on the counter. I mosey on over, though part of me wants to ignore it. Maybe it’s Reese, and I can give him a taste of his own medicine.
Only, it’s not Reese who’s on the caller ID.
It’s the hospital.
I nearly shatter the wine glass setting onto the counter before I grab my phone. “Hello?” Trepidation drips in my voice.
An overly professional and gentle woman asks, “Is this Olivia Carter?”
I gulp. “This is she.”
“We’re calling on behalf of your mother, Lisa. We’re sorry to inform you that we’re keeping her in the intensive care unit.”
“Wh—How—What happened?”
“A cold seems to have turned into an aggressive case of pneumonia.”
