by Natalie Ann
“Then I guess I surprised you.”
Sophia nodded. “If you don’t mind, would you keep an eye on them while I go change quick?”
“Sure thing.”
Olivia watched Sophia walk out of the room on her pumps, her curves looking just as toned as they did before she had two children, and every part of her still gorgeous and sophisticated. Another thing they shared with their mother…they always looked perfect. Never wrinkled, nothing out of place, and always classy.
Fake it till you make it—that was how Olivia always felt. But she seriously doubted Sophia ever felt that way. It all seemed too natural to her.
While Sophia was changing, Olivia set Ian down and watched him walk over to his blocks on the floor, where he would quietly sit and play while Sophia made dinner, as he did every night. Then she walked closer to Addison and looked at her.
Addison looked like a Harper. Of course, so did Ian. Both kids had black hair and more olive-colored skin, nothing like the fair skin both Sophia and Olivia shared. Addison even had the dark brown Harper eyes.
And those dark eyes were staring back at her curiously. Did she want to be picked up? Olivia wasn’t chancing it. Ian she could handle. He was bigger and didn’t depend on her as much. Addison—at just three months old—terrified her. Too tiny, too fragile, and too much responsibility.
“Thanks,” Sophia said, walking back into the kitchen. “How was your day? Get anything completed?”
“It was good, thanks. Nothing finished today, but several things started. It’s coming along.” Olivia watched as Sophia started to chop the potatoes she’d been peeling before she changed. “Don’t you find it funny that you and I both cook and enjoy it, yet Mom never learned how?”
Sophia laughed low and throaty. “Not really. Mom was good at being pampered and having people wait on her. She liked it. We didn’t, did we?”
Olivia wasn’t so sure about that. She liked it, liked it enough that she’d started to rely on it. “Do you miss it? Having everyone do things for you?”
“What, you don’t like my glamorous life here on the lake?” Olivia didn’t miss the sparkle in Sophia’s eyes. “Seriously, Olivia, I never cared for it. Besides, I haven’t lived at home since I was eighteen. That was years ago. After college, I was on my own and I did it all myself. I’ve never had a housekeeper or cook, nothing like that.”
“How do you do it all? How do you work full time, have a toddler and a baby, and a clean house, and make it all seem so easy?”
Olivia was trying not to sound envious, but she was. She’d never managed to do it all right like Sophia did, no matter how hard she tried. So she’d stopped trying and decided to be the person everyone expected her to be. The spoiled princess who was waited on hand and foot and demanded it, if not expected it.
“I don’t do it alone, you know? Phil does a lot. I could get a cleaning service or a maid if I wanted, but I don’t. I don’t want someone going through my things. I can manage it.”
Olivia did always hate the invasion of her privacy that way, but it was the price she had paid, and one she was used to.
Even at boarding school, they had a cleaning service for most things. She never had to do her laundry, make a bed, or cook a meal. She only learned those things because she saw how Sophia did them when she visited and she’d always looked up to Sophia.
“Yeah, you can. You’ve always been able to.”
“Everything okay?” Sophia asked, eying her suspiciously.
“Sure, why do you ask?”
“Just curious. You’ve made a lot of changes in your life lately, and I’m wondering what is going on.”
“Don’t you want me here?” Olivia asked, smiling, teasing her sister but holding her breath at the same time. If she thought Sophia didn’t want her here, she’d leave, even if she didn’t want to.
“You know I love having you here. We’ve never had that much time together, but I still worry about you.”
“I’m fine. Just trying to find my way.”
Sophia nodded in understanding. “Okay. Don’t forget I’m here if you need to talk.”
“I know. But I’m doing this on my own.” She needed to—to prove to herself she could. She turned her head when Addison started to fuss. “Here, let me do that while you do what you need to with the baby.”
“She’s fine, just hungry. Why don’t you feed her for me?”
“What?” Olivia tried not to look panicked, but she was pretty sure it was written all over her face. “I’ll take over for dinner.”
Sophia shook her head and passed the knife over, then went to get a bottle out of the fridge. “I know you’re nervous around Addison, but it’s fine, Olivia.”
“She’s still too little for me yet. Weren’t you scared when you first had Ian?”
“Of course I was. But then again, I’d been handling Kaitlin’s twins by then, and when it’s your own child, it’s different.”
“If you say so.”
It was time to change the subject. The talk of responsibilities and babies was making her uneasy, even if she always did secretly fantasize about that life.
The life with a mother and father at home every night cooking and eating dinner as a family, laughing about their day. A normal life. “So, I got another custom order today.”
“You did, for who? Another celebrity you can’t tell me about?”
“Don’t pout. It doesn’t look good on you.”
“I still don’t understand why you can’t tell me who the hammered necklace and bracelet are for. It’s not as if I’m going to run and tell the press. You know, that press that just hangs around Saratoga,” she said dryly.
“Because it’s client confidentiality.”
“I own part of the business,” Sophia argued.
It was true; Sophia owned twenty percent of Hartman Designs. “This isn’t for the store. The store hasn’t opened yet. We had an agreement that anything prior to the store was still mine.”
“I don’t want the percentage of revenue from it, I want a name. I want some of the fun stuff. The exciting part of it. You know, to spice up this boring life in the slow lane you keep reminding me I have.”
Olivia knew Sophia was just picking on her. Something she never did until recently. Sophia always said and did the right things, the proper things. Nothing like Olivia.
“Sorry, can’t give it to you. But after the premiere, I’ll gladly tell you. Especially if she is asked who the designer is and it brings in more business.”
“I understand, but I still don’t think it’s fair.”
“Pouting doesn’t become you. And I’m still not going to give you a name, no matter how cute you look doing it.”
Sophia huffed out a snort. “It was worth a try.”
Olivia smiled softly at Sophia, thrilled at how well they got along now. Something she always wanted with her sister when she was younger, but never had the opportunity to have.
“If I haven’t thanked you before, I’ll do it again for giving me the cash for the construction. I had enough cash to swing the inventory, but not for the rehab of the storefront.”
Sophia walked over and ran her free hand along Olivia’s while she fed Addison with the other. “You didn’t need the cash. You needed my name for your line of credit. I know that.”
She should have known that Sophia would have figured that out. “How did you know?”
“I do this for a living, Olivia. You’re young, with not a lot of stability. You have money, you have clients, but you don’t have a history of staying put. You’ve never owned a home, and you move all the time. Without my name and stability, my credibility and history, you would have had to float cash all the time for inventory. They didn’t want to take the chance with you, did they?”
“No, they didn’t.”
Olivia hated that. She hated that the vendor she’d wanted so desperately wasn’t willing to give her a chance.
It didn’t matter she had a great reputation, it didn’t ma
tter the amount of money she was willing to put up, she was still too big of a risk to them. They wanted someone more responsible—their words exactly. Or they wanted another partner to cushion things. So Olivia did the only thing she could think of—she called Sophia.
“You could have asked Mom, but you asked me. Why?”
“You really need to ask that? Sure, Mom is ‘stable’ but I don’t need her swooping in and telling me what to do, who to hire, how many hours to work, and what pieces to make. You won’t do that.”
“You’re right, I won’t. Silent partnership works well for me. You know, Kaitlin is still annoyed you wouldn’t let her put up some money for a small percentage of ownership. Her name and creditability would have helped too, probably more than mine, to be honest.”
Kaitlin Mathews, Phil Harper’s younger sister, was Sophia’s best friend, and now her sister-in-law. Being a partner in her father’s investment firm, not to mention their family ties, or her husband’s legal ties would have gone a long way.
“If I need something down the road and can’t do it on my own, I’ll consider it. But I wanted to keep it in the family, and I didn’t want to give up that much of the ownership.”
“Totally understand. Kaitlin’s still family, though. She just wanted ten percent and she’d do it in a heartbeat if you’d let her. She thinks it’s a good investment.”
“I know the store is.”
“No, you are. You’re the investment, Olivia. This isn’t about the store; it’s about you and what you can do and what you’ve made of yourself so far.”
It felt good to hear Sophia say that. To have someone believe in her, to have faith in her, and someone to make her feel she really could do this.
A Team
Finn looked around the store watching everyone working, staying quiet and minding their own business, for which he was thankful. Olivia hadn’t shown up today and he hoped if she did, the boys would be on their best behavior.
At least he prayed for their sake they were on their best behavior because he wasn’t in the best of moods. Cranky was probably a better description. He was exhausted and had no one to blame but himself.
Last night at dinner, he placed the bowl of elbow macaroni mixed with butter in front of Trey, and a meatball cut up on the side. Just the way Trey liked it.
Trey was a picky eater, but then again, so were all four-year-olds. Or so everyone assured him. “Eat up, scout. How was school?”
Trey looked down at his plate and moved the macaroni around, but didn’t pick up a piece to eat. As shy and quiet as Trey was, he usually talked about school a little. And if he wasn’t talking about school, then he was talking about how much he loved having his favorite foods. Since there were very few things Trey would eat for dinner, Finn heard about them almost every night.
But tonight, Trey was quiet and just shrugged and pushed the food around some more.
“Not hungry?” Finn asked.
Finn’s mother repeatedly told him, “He won’t starve. He’ll eat when he is hungry. The worst thing you can do is force it down him.” So he listened to his mother’s words, however much he might have disagreed with her. It wasn’t as if he had anyone else he could ask for advice. It was all him. Him and Trey, from pretty much day one.
He watched as Trey picked up the fork with a piece of meatball and put it in his mouth, then chewed and swallowed. Okay, maybe his mom was right. So he tried another tactic. “Do anything fun today?”
Another shrug of the shoulders and another bite of food. This single parenting was some tough shit. Finn gave up, went back to his own pasta with sauce and meatballs, and started to eat.
Trey would talk when he was ready, just like he ate when he was ready.
“We’re doing a special project, but I’m not supposed to say.”
The words were almost whispered, as if Trey was afraid by voicing them he might get in trouble.
“What project is that? You can tell me. It can be our secret.”
Trey looked around the kitchen nervously, which almost had Finn laughing since it was just the two of them in the house. “I don’t want to do the project, though.”
What could this be about? It was Trey’s first year of preschool. It was almost over with, just another two months to go, and this was the first time Trey had said he didn’t want to participate. “How come?”
“Because I don’t have one.”
“Have one what?”
“A mother,” Trey whispered. “We’re making flower pots for our mothers for Mother’s Day.”
Finn sighed deeply. He knew these things would come up, he expected them, but not now, not this early; maybe later on when he could figure out what to say.
It wasn’t a secret that Trey’s mother wasn’t around. But how do you tell your child that his mother didn’t want him? That she didn’t want to be a mother at all, and just picked up and left with no explanation.
He refused to think about the few short messages he’d gotten over the years. No explanation there either, more like threats. Threats that he’d put a stop to, that had forced him to prepare for the future.
So instead, Finn usually hedged when Trey brought it up, saying things like, “You’ve got me, and we make a good team, don’t we?” or “What, you think I can’t take care of a little pipsqueak like you?” Then he’d toss him in the air until Trey forgot. Only now there was no way around it, not that he even knew how to address this.
“I don’t have to do it, right?”
Finn wanted to say no, that he didn’t, but he wouldn’t. Life wasn’t made that way. There were lots of kids who didn’t have mothers or fathers, or both. That didn’t give them a free pass to get out of assignments, either. He’d talk to the school about it tomorrow when he dropped Trey off.
“How about you make it for me? I do everything a mother does, right?”
“Everyone is talking about putting flowers on it because it’s a flower pot. You don’t want flowers. You’re a guy,” Trey argued, scrunching his little nose and looking so serious.
“I like flowers just fine. There’s nothing wrong with flowers. But you know what would be really cool?”
“What?” Trey asked, picking up another bite of food and eating.
Okay, this was working, this talk was relaxing Trey and he was back to eating and chewing faster, shoveling in another bite.
“If you put a fire helmet on it and then filled that with flowers.”
“That would be so cool. I bet no one else thinks to do that,” Trey said, some excitement showing on his round face. The face Finn’s mother said was almost the spitting image of his as a child. Only Trey had his mother’s hazel eyes, light brown hair, and a dimple in his chin when he smiled.
“You’re probably right, and that would make it even more special, don’t you think?”
Another huge mouthful of food, some more fast chewing, and then a big gulp. “I do. I’m going to make the best helmet ever.”
Finn felt better when he tucked Trey in for the night, read him his story, and kissed him on the head. He was leaving the room when Trey said, “I only need you, Daddy. We make a great team.”
Finn had walked back downstairs to watch TV and relax, trying to push thoughts of the conversation with Trey out of his head. But in doing that, his thoughts turned to Olivia.
Olivia of the long lean legs, the bright green eyes, the stylish clothing, and the flashy car. All the things he’d said he didn’t want or need in his life. All the things he had before and had learned his lesson. Don’t go there again, he tried to remind himself. Yet he couldn’t push her out of his mind.
“Hey, everyone, happy to see me?” Drew Palmer said, causing Finn to turn and bringing him back to the present. “Not working too hard, are you?”
Finn didn’t want to say he was jealous of Drew, not really. Always happy, always carefree. Then again, Drew didn’t have a crew of men laying their life on the line for him, or a child that needed him either.
“The place
just lit right up when you walked in, sunshine,” Finn said back, making the crew laugh.
“Hey, Finn cracked a joke,” Bob said, snickering at his buddies. “Guess your grouchy mood is gone now. Maybe we should have Drew on site more.”
Finn looked over at the crew, saw them eying him, and he laughed. It was a funny comment, even if he didn’t appreciate it. No use getting on the crew’s bad side.
He’d felt bad about giving them a hard time yesterday with their behavior, even if he was justified. It was tough to be the dad at home and at work at times, but someone had to do it. Someone had to be responsible and mature. Life wasn’t all about having fun and goofing off and not accounting for anything. And those thoughts were the last thing he needed right now. It was in his past and it had to stay there.
“You guys would be lost without me and you know it.”
A few more comments were thrown around, and then everyone got to work. Drew was only there because the wiring was going to be routed and set today. As the electrician, nothing was started or finished without him on site.
They had been working in silence for the most part, everyone doing their job, when he heard the sound of heels on the floor. He wasn’t sure if Olivia was coming in today and tried to tell himself he wasn’t disappointed she hadn’t shown up until now.
“Well, if it isn’t the woman holding the purse strings. Come to grace us with your presence?”
Finn struggled not to let his jaw drop when Drew said those words. It was the last thing he expected Drew to say. Ever. Drew was like him, sort of. Drew might be happier, even friendlier, but he was respectful of the clients. Drew’s own father, Andy, worked for Harper’s too and oversaw all the rehabs.
Before Finn could get his wits about him, Drew was striding toward Olivia, picking her up in a bear hug, and spinning her around. Olivia was laughing along with Drew and then kissed him on the cheek.
Finn shouldn’t be surprised she was overly friendly with some men. He’d seen her type before—the flirty one that all the guys gravitated toward. Even him, knowing how stupid it was to fall for it. Just more warning signs he should adhere to and stop thinking of her.
