It was a habit left over from the pre-divorce family dynamic, though one they thankfully saw a lot less often these days. Their little girl had taken on the role of mediator in an attempt to fend off parental bickering. Derek and Amber had rarely fought. Neither of them had been emotionally invested enough in the marriage to care enough to really fight. But the sniping at each other and constant minor arguments had worn them all down.
“Dad! Don’t mess up my hair,” she squealed, but then she laughed when he did it again. And so did Isaac and Amber.
So now, whenever he felt shitty because he wasn’t there to kiss them goodnight every night or he’d missed the moment his little tomboy suddenly cared about her hair, he clung to these moments. Those two smiling faces that lit up when they saw him, and the woman he could honestly call one of his best friends again. Hell, he even liked Jason, the guy Amber had married two months after their divorce was finalized.
“I wanted to remind you about the Village Hearts meeting next week,” Amber said. “And I was talking to myself out loud and reminded myself to remindyou. Isaac heard me and suggested we stop by instead of sending you a text.”
Village Hearts was a charity near and dear to both their hearts, and when they’d split, they’d both been adamant about staying involved. Derek did more of the behind-the-scenes volunteering, while Amber volunteered directly with the kids. Since that was how they’d generally done it in the past anyway, they were both happy with the arrangement. Amber had always been the calendar keeper who reminded him about things, though, and that was a harder habit to break.
“Did you put a reminder in my app thing?” he told her, holding up his phone.
She gave him an exasperated look. “The app thing is called a calendar. And I showed you how to add reminders.”
And he’d tried to pay attention, but she talked fast and he wasn’t as tech-savvy as she was. “Show me one more time.”
He pulled up the app on his phone and Amber walked him through setting a reminder for the meeting. She’d hooked their apps together shortly after the split, and everything to do with the kids went into the shared calendar. And when it came to the kids’ stuff, she’d set it to remind Derek when anything fell on him. Sometimes she’d even set multiple reminders that started going off several days and then hours in advance. But she refused to managehisdigital calendar for him, no matter how much he tried to sweet-talk her into it.
“Got it?” Amber asked, jerking his attention back to her.
“I think so.” Nope.
“If you’d use it more often, you’d get better at it,” she said. “You don’t have anything in there other than the kids’ calendars and your Tuesday and Friday tours.”
He shrugged. “That’s all I’ve really got going on. I mean, I hang out at Kincaid’s sometimes, but grabbing a beer with the guys isn’t something I need to schedule.”
And he did have a paper calendar at home. He was pretty sure it was under a stack of mail he needed to go through. The problem with the paper calendar was that it didn’t have a built-in reminder. If you didn’t look at it, the appointments didn’t exist.
The alarm sounded, making Isaac jump. Derek had just enough time to kiss them both quickly and then Amber was pulling them out of the way as the guys ran for the trucks.
“Don’t forget that meeting!” she yelled at him as he stepped into his gear.
He gave her a wave and then winked at his daughter as Ladder 37 started to roll. He wouldn’t forget the meeting. Village Hearts was too important to him, although it wouldn’t hurt to have his phone remind him.
That brought his thoughts right back to Olivia of the elevator. He still wasn’t sure exactly what she did, but it sounded like scheduling and calendars and reminders might be something she was very good at it.
It was a damn good thing kicking himself for not asking for her business card was only a figure of speech or he’d be covered in bruises.
Chapter Three
Olivia pulled open the frosted glass door of Broussard Financial Services at precisely 5:50 in the evening. Ten minutes wasn’t early enough to be rude to the hosts of the meeting, but would ensure she was on time and prepared for the scheduled six o’clock start.
Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked to the receptionist’s desk, where a woman was on her feet. It looked as if she was preparing to leave for the day, but she paused when Olivia entered.
“Hi, are you here for the Village Hearts meeting?” When Olivia confirmed she was, the woman smiled. “It’s in the boardroom, which is down that hall and on your right. You can’t miss it. Jess is already in there.”
“Thank you.” Olivia wasn’t sure exactly who Jess was, but she took a deep breath and concentrated on her posture as she followed the receptionist’s directions.
She wasn’t usually nervous going into meetings, but she wasn’t here to sell McGovern Consulting’s services, which she had complete confidence in. While volunteering with a charity was work-adjacent, as it was an excellent venue for professional networking, it was new to Olivia and new things triggered a low-level buzz of anxiety.
There were several people in the boardroom, but it was a blonde woman about her age or a little older in an elegant pantsuit who stepped forward to greet her.
“You must be Olivia McGovern.” She offered her hand, which Olivia shook. “I’m Jessica Broussard Gullotti, but please call me Jess.”
Broussard Gullotti.She’d seen one of those names written in bold letters on the frosted glass on the way in. But the second...it sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. “Pleased to meet you. I’m excited to be here.”
“And we’re excited to have you. It tends to be a little thin around here when it comes to the so-called boring stuff, but I guess as long as everybody shows up when it’s time to donate or help out the kids, I won’t complain.”
Jess gave her a brief rundown on Village Hearts, a lot of which Olivia already knew from the overview Kelsey had put together for her. They offered support for families with children suffering long-term health crises—whether due to injury or illness—by helping take care of the children’s siblings. Whether it was helping with school pickups and transportation, babysitting or just setting up some fun playdates, Village Hearts would help.
