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"Coming," I announce as I walk to the front. I could have sworn he said he would be back for dinner but maybe I'm mistaken. Or maybe he forgot something.
But when I pull open the door, it's not Oliver standing there.
It's a tall, statuesque brunette woman with dark exotic eyes that are a direct contrast to her pale skin. She smiles and says, "Hey. Is Ollie home?"
Ollie?
"Um...no," I say, giving her a friendly smile back. "He went to work. Do you want me to take a message?"
"Oh, no, don't worry about it." She waves it off. "I'll just call him. Are you the new cleaner?"
"No," I tell her and confusion furrows in her eyebrows.
"Then who are you?" she asks.
"Um..." I don't know how to describe our relationship. "I'm actually...I mean, I'm taking care of the place."
"Oh." Her smile returns to full kilowatt. "A caretaker, that's cool." She holds out her hand. "I'm Ollie's girlfriend. So, we'll probably be seeing each other often."
"Girlfriend," I manage to croak out through the sinking feeling in my chest.
"Yeah," she says just as chirpily and in such a friendly way that I can't even hate her for it. It would be so much easier if I could. "Anyway, I'll just come back later. I just live a few miles down and I always take a jog here at night anyway."
"Oh...that's...that's great," I smile, but I can feel it pinch at the corners. A part of me really wants to throw up but I hold it in.
Instead, I wait for her to go before I shut the door gently and lean against it.
He has a girlfriend.
Repeating it to myself somehow makes the news worse.
I have no idea what’s happening or why I’m even reacting like this.
I need to calm down, because he’s just a man doing me a favor, so there’s no reason for me to be mad just because I’m attracted to him.
I’m just cooking for him, that’s all,I reason. He offered me the place to stay for a while in exchange for a clean house and some food on the table, it’s not like he promised me anything or that we even shared a moment, so I have absolutely no reason to feel any jealousy or anything at all toward him or her.
So what if he is attractive? It’s not like he’ll ever notice me. Not when he can haveher.
I return to the living room and glance out the window just in time to see his truck rolling up. And true enough, the woman is somehow right around the corner, running up to him. She goes around the car and kisses him.
On the lips.
He catches her arm, smiles, and then nods. Then she flounces off in her admittedly cute gym outfit.
Well, that settles it. He is officially off-limits.
Chapter Six
Oliver
I’mnotexpectinganythingto have changed the next time I walk through the cottage door.
I'm exhausted by the time I do, both from work and the ambush from Jane. Weirdest thing is I didn’t even see her coming. One second, I was getting out of the car, then in the next second, she was kissing me and then running off before I could say much more than a greeting.
She was gone before I could even tell her not to keep doing that. Then again, Jane has always marched to the sound of her own drum, and not in a good way.
But, as far as exes go, she's not a complete pain to be around, so I try not to treat her like the bastard I am. But I really want her to stop kissing me as if we are together when we have been done for a while now.
