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“Then there you go. You’re grieving and overwhelmed here.” Jade drained her glass of greens and sat it back down as she let out a sigh. “Okay, that was easy. So fill us in about Jax. Please, tell me you didn’t act weird this morning.”
Olivia shot her a glare.
“Oh, well, aside from the fact you left without shoes,” Jade amended. “You didn’t act like you regretted it, did you?”
Shoving her hair away from her face, Olivia smoothed it over her shoulder and concentrated on the ends. Perhaps she should get a trim while she was here. Surely there was someplace that wouldn’t botch up her cut too much.
“Your silence is telling,” Jade grumbled. “Why the regrets?”
Olivia glanced to Melanie, who seemed to be offering a sympathetic smile, but at the same time waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know what I feel,” Olivia answered honestly. “I mean, I’m glad that tension isn’t there anymore, but at the same time that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do if we’re going to be working together.”
“What did he say this morning?” Mel asked, leaning across the island on her forearms.
“Well, we only had a minute to talk because he was sneaking me out of the house while Piper wasn’t looking.”
Jade made some humming sound under her breath as she and Melanie exchanged a look.
“What?” Olivia demanded. “You guys can’t do that secret code thing with me in the room.”
“Did he try to rush you out?” Melanie asked.
“No. He tried to get me to tell him what I was thinking, but I had no clue.” She released her hair and rubbed her forehead. “I still don’t know.”
“I’d say he cares for you.”
Olivia stared across the scarred island to Melanie. Her friend merely shrugged. “I’m just telling you how I see it,” Mel defended.
There was no doubt Jax cared. She knew by the way he’d treated her, from the little he’d told her about his past. He wasn’t the type of guy to have a track record of sneaking women out before his daughter woke. Jax was a man of integrity, he was honest and loyal . . . and damn it, she was liking him more than she had right to.
She wasn’t going to be in Haven forever, so why was she allowing her mind to get swept up into this fairy tale she’d just recently realized she wanted?
“I need a shower.” She came to her feet, taking her glass with her. “Then I’m going to call and give some veiled, lame excuse to my boss and hope it’s not a black mark against me for the promotion or this new client he’s trusting me with.”
She only hoped he remembered that he’d been grieving recently too. She had to play on that aspect.
“When you’re done, we have a few things we need to run by you,” Melanie stated. “I started the process for a grant for the airport. We just need some information from you.”
Olivia nodded as she headed from the room. “Later,” she called back, waving her hand in the air. “Much later.”
Right now, she couldn’t think about grants or anything related to the airport because that would inevitably circle back to Jax. And right now, she needed to think about work. That was the only constant in her life. Whatever she had with Jax was temporary, so there was no room for a man and a promotion.
Chapter Fifteen
She wasn’t answering her texts. Not that he expected her to, but he also didn’t like being brushed off, either.
Jax pulled into her drive and stared up at the big, two-story house. Paul Daniels would love knowing Livie was living here again, even if it was temporary. He’d wanted her to come home for so long, and here she was.
“Do you think they’re going to like these cookies?” Piper asked from the passenger seat. She held the tin of homemade snickerdoodles in her lap and looked at him with wide eyes.
“Of course they will,” he assured her as he turned off the truck. “I bet nobody has made them cookies since they’ve been here.”
“Then it’s a good thing you thought about it.”
He may have had ulterior motives when it came to the treats. One, Piper loved baking so that was some bonding time they got in. Two, he could thank the women for taking his daughter shopping. But the main reason was to see Livie and force her to stop hiding. When she’d left his house the other morning, he’d never dreamed he’d miss her, but he had. That in itself was a major warning sign he was getting in deep here.
“Can I ring the doorbell?” Piper asked.
