“You said some pretty ugly things about her when they started dating, even though your divorce was already final.” Olivia sighed, and then winced because her mother probably heard it over the line. “And her daughter has nothing to do with anything.”
She already knew that diplomacy wouldn’t work. As far as her mother was concerned, there was Team Adam and Team Deb, and then there was Olivia, who was the tug-of-war rope between them. And Deb’s dismissive snort proved her right.
“Okay, Mom,” she said in a firm voice, because this was ridiculous and she wanted to eat her pizza. “Imagine if I could land an important client, but I didn’t get the contract because he was a friend of Marge and she doesn’t like you any more than you like her.”
“That’s different.”
“It’s not. It’s punishing a child for the decisions the parent made.”Not that they did anything wrong.But she wasn’t saying that out loud. It didn’t matter that the divorce was in their rearview mirror. Her father’s ex-wife and his current wife would go to their graves hating each other.
Olivia wanted nothing more than to hang up on her mother at that moment. She’d been dealing with the emotional fallout from the divorce and ensuing passive-aggressive warfare for years, but it was different now.
She was dating a man with an ex-wife and children. The thought of being the Marge to Amber’s Deborah made her mouth go dry, and her stomach soured.
He hadn’t said a bad word about his ex-wife yet, she reminded herself. And they’d found a way to work with Village Hearts amicably enough. But the thought that the animosity might be there, under the surface and waiting for a trigger—like Derek bringing another woman into the mix—before blowing up in their faces was a real fear.
“If you don’t want to put in a good word for her, then don’t,” she told Deb, wanting desperately to get off the phone now. “But don’t try to block her. If Camilla mentions her, simply say you don’t know her at all, which is the truth. You’re better than this, Mom.”
“Fine. But I don’t like it. And I don’t like the fact your father seems to think he can ask me for a favor.”
“Thatisa little surprising. But it’s for his stepdaughter and he obviously cares about her. Now, I really have to run. I’m going to be late for a meeting.”
Since punctuality was something Deb prized above all else, it worked. “Thank you for listening, honey. I’ll talk to you soon.”
When she’d tucked her phone away, Olivia leaned back against the bench and took another bite of her pizza. She’d earned this slice and she was going to enjoy it.
She also wasn’t going to worry about Derek’s ex-wife...too much. Yet. She was still getting to know him. He hadn’t even hinted around about her meeting his kids, so he wasn’t there yet, either. Borrowing trouble was a waste of mental and emotional energy.
And she wasn’t going to let any of it ruin their date on Saturday. The pizza was an excellent treat, but she had no doubt great-in-block-letters sex with Derek was going to be so much better. She wasn’t letting doubts or anything else spoil it.
Chapter Eight
Derek’s small andveryused car looked out of place in the line of luxury sedans and SUVs in the guest parking lot of the very tall and very shiny building Olivia lived in. He didn’t bother looking for a silver Audi, since she’d told him residents parked in a private underground garage. But the woman at the front desk was friendly enough and gave him directions to the elevator after checking his name in her computer.
He stood outside her door without knocking for a moment, though. This was all very much out of his league, as Scott had said, and it was making him jumpy no matter how much he told himself it didn’t matter. The address, the concierge, the view from the floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the hall when he stepped out of the elevator. All of that was juststuff,but it was very expensive stuff.
And it was the kind of expensive stuff Olivia was used to. She didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t, but maybe she hadn’t realized yet just how much he wasn’t used to it. She liked him and he liked her, and that’s what he needed to remember, but seeing this world she lived in made it hard.
He was lifting his hand to knock when the door opened, and he belatedly realized the woman downstairs had probably told Olivia he was on his way up.
“Hi,” was all he said, because she looked so damn pretty, and then he looked down and realized she was wearing jeans with high heels and his brain stopped functioning.
“I was worried you got lost,” she said, stepping back to let him in.
“I was looking out that window,” he lied, not wanting her to know he’d been working up the courage to knock. “Nice view.”
“The view’s why I pay too much to live here,” she said. “I have the same view in the living room and from my bedroom. Come on in.”
The click of those black high heels across her floor made his dick so hard, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to follow, but he managed. And she was right. The view of the water from her living room was worth the suffering.
“This is quite a place.” He’d pictured something warmer, with a lot of decorations and throw pillows and color. But he supposed a woman whose job was efficiency would probably keep clutter in her life to a minimum. And it still suited her. Simple and elegant, and you could host a formal dinner party—albeit a small one—or curl up in sweatpants and watch a movie.
“Thank you. It’s in a good location for me, and Kelsey and I use the second bedroom as an office, so I don’t need to lease space that I’d rarely be in.”
He nodded, but he didn’t care about office space or Kelsey or any other damn thing right now. All he cared about right now was Olivia.
“You know,” he said, closing the space between them, “this is the first time you and I have been alone together behind closed doors.”
“I was beginning to wonder if you have a thing for sidewalks.”
