by Debbie Mason
She quickly scrubbed the tears from her face as Finn’s and Georgina’s voices came closer. Olivia turned with a smile. “Did you guys have a good time?” she asked, making sure she sounded warm and welcoming.
“Yeah, yeah, we did,” Finn said, his smile more of a grimace.
When he began rubbing his hand over his stubbled jaw, Olivia nervously asked, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s not that big a deal, is it, George?”
Stanley glanced from Finn to Olivia. “Why don’t I just go get her luggage?”
“Uh, Stan my man, might be better if you hold off on that.”
“No, it’s okay, Finn. Everything’s good. Georgina’s going to stay with me. You’re going to live in a castle, sweetheart. Isn’t that exciting?” she said to the little girl in that same warm and welcoming voice.
“My name’s George, and I have bugs,” she said in her husky little voice. It sounded like she was introducing herself at an AA meeting.
“Bugs? You mean bug bites?” Olivia looked to Finn for confirmation.
“No, head lice. Like I said, no big deal.” He grinned at Stanley, who’d started scratching his head. “I’ll go pick up a couple of nit combs and some almond oil.”
“What about the suitcases and my car?”
“I’ll take George’s clothes to the Laundromat. As for your car, you can either leave it in the lot for two days or vacuum wherever George sat. I’ll put the suitcases and booster seat in garbage bags and stick them in my dad’s freezer.”
“You don’t have to worry about a booster seat. I don’t have one. What?” Stanley said defensively when both she and Finn looked at him. “How was I supposed to know?”
“I’ll pick up a booster seat, and you better call the airport and let them know, Stan.”
“Finn, you don’t have to run around doing this for us. I’ll pick up what I need later.”
“Relax, I’ve got it covered.” He glanced at the path leading to the manor. It sounded like a stampede was headed their way. “Hey, George, remember the little girl I was telling you about, Mia?”
George nodded, her shoes lighting up as she shifted from one foot to the other.
“Don’t be nervous. Everyone’s excited to meet you.” He lifted his chin. “Here they come now.”
The little girl sidled up to Finn. He smiled and rubbed her shoulder. “I promise, you’re goin’ to love it here, kiddo.”
Finn’s family came over to introduce themselves. While everyone got acquainted, Stanley excused himself to take care of his car. It wasn’t long before Mia coaxed a giggle out of George and the two little girls skipped after the rest of the family for the promised welcome-to-the-manor tea.
“Liam,” Finn called to his brother, who was bringing up the rear. Liam looked over his shoulder, and Finn scratched his head.
Liam chuckled, his hand going to his head. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Is it just me or was that weird?” Olivia asked as she and Finn were left alone. “No one pulled me aside to ask who George was or where she came—”
Finn cut her off, looking uncomfortable. “Yeah, about that, I texted Griff and laid out the situation for him. I told him to tell the rest of the family.”
“How much of the situation did you lay out?”
“Everything you told me. Look, I know you’re a private person, and the last thing you want is word of this getting out. I Googled you, so I know it hasn’t. But you know as well as I do that you can trust each and every one of them. They’ll have your back. And from where I’m standing, you haven’t had someone in your corner for a while. Besides, it saves you from laying it out for them later. You want to tell them more, that’s up to you.”
“You’re right, and it does make it easier. Thank you, Finn. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“You would have been fine.”
“Hardly. I wouldn’t have noticed that George had head lice before it was too late. You saved the manor from an infestation.” She shuddered at the thought. “You were great with her, by the way.”
“She’s a sweet kid. A bit of an old soul.” He paused for a minute before saying, “It’s not going to be easy, Liv. For either of you. Did you know she’s never been outside of the village in Kenya? Between that and losing her mom so soon after losing her dad…She’s going to need a lot of TLC.”
“You don’t think I’m up for it, do you?” That made two of them.
“I never said that. I just don’t want you to get discouraged. Give it time. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. The family will be happy to lend a hand.”
He was probably trying to make her feel better but he seemed as concerned about her ability to do this as she was. She thought of something that would help her combat the fear. That something was tall, dark, and ridiculously handsome. Which made her think she was being ridiculous for even considering the idea, but…
She smiled and nodded while saying, “You know, George really took a shine to you. So I was thinking, you should move into the manor.” She’d read somewhere that if you nodded during a conversation or negotiation the person would automatically agree with you. In Finn’s case, it didn’t have the desired effect.
He emphatically shook his head. “No. No way.”
“You don’t have to be so cross.”
He ducked to look her in the eyes. “Seriously? How old are you? You sound like you’re sixty-five when you say that.”
She gasped, offended. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
“I can’t believe I’m the only one who ever has. Some friends you’ve got.”
“I have very good friends, thank you very much. And maybe they don’t say anything because, first, it’s unbelievably rude, and second, you are probably the only person I’ve said it to because you are the only person who ever gets cross…ticked at me.”
“Really? That surprises me. Because, Sweet Cheeks, you can be annoying.” He grinned, tapped her nose, and then headed for Stanley’s Audi.
Her cheeks heated, but as she watched him walk away, she got a little panicked about facing George without him by her side. “Finn, if I promise not to annoy you, would you please stay at the manor?”
“Nuh-uh. No way.”
“What if I pay you?”
He turned and walked backward. “How about that? You just proved my earlier point. Rich girls really do think they can buy everything. Sorry to disappoint you, Sweet Cheeks, but I’m not for sale.”
Chapter Nine
Colleen sat in the window seat of the study, anxiously waiting for the meeting to start. There was big news in the making for the manor, but from the woebegone expressions on Sophie’s, Ava’s, and Lexi’s faces, it wasn’t of the positive kind. “Go on, get on with it. If it’s like the past three days, Olivia will be another hour—”
The door swung open. “Where is she? Have you seen her?”
The women stared at Olivia. The only reason Colleen could be sure it was Olivia was because of her voice and the color of her hair. Her eyes and nose were peeking through the electrified strands. It looked like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket.
Colleen wondered if that was what the god-awful shriek she’d heard earlier had been about. Ever since the wild child had arrived, the racket started up like clockwork at the butt crack of dawn.
Who needed a rooster or an alarm clock when they had the wild child? As Colleen understood it, George didn’t like to get the nits picked out of her hair. Colleen supposed it was a kindness Lexi had done for the guests when she’d insisted Olivia and the wild child move into Colleen’s suite of rooms in the tower. At least the bone-chilling screams were muffled.
“Olivia, come and sit down. You look like you’re about to collapse. I’ll go find the demon spawn,” Lexi said, and got up from her chair. She lifted a shoulder at Ava’s and Sophie’s horrified looks. “What can I say? I got cancer and lost my filter.”
“You never had a filter, hardass. But
she’s a little girl who lost her mama and papa. Show some compassion,” Ava said.
“No, don’t. It makes me feel better knowing it’s not just me,” Olivia said, limping to the wingback chair near the window. She had one pink high heel on, the other off. Though she supposed the one dangling from Olivia’s fingertip no longer qualified as a high heel because it was missing its heel. The way her sundress was slipping down her shoulder, it appeared to be missing something too. Maybe a button. The usually put-together Olivia was a hot mess.
“Here, let me get you a coffee,” Ava said, half standing to reach the tray Jasper always prepared for their meetings. “Cream and one sugar?”
“Make it four sugars, thanks, and if there’s whiskey anywhere in this room, add a shot or two.” She pushed her hair from her face. It stood up like a rooster’s tail. “Make it three.”
“Umm, Olivia, you’re not serious about the whiskey, are you? Because Finn—” Ava broke off as she glanced at Olivia and did a double take. “You have a black cross on your forehead.”
“A black cross on my forehead.” Olivia nodded and kept nodding. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. She must have done it while I was sleeping. Around the same time she put this goop in my hair and sawed into my heel just deep enough that it didn’t break off until I started walking and fell and nearly broke my neck. She’s diabolically devious. I think she’s possessed.”
“What did I tell you? Total demon spawn. And no judgment on my part—she’d drive me to drink too—but just how drunk were you that you slept through her pranks?” Lexi asked, standing by the door.
Olivia covered her face. “Oh God, I wish it was because I was drunk. I can’t…”
Lexi cleared her throat and coughed. It was an odd cough. It almost sounded like she was saying Olivia’s…Colleen cast a glance in Lexi’s direction and grimaced. This wasn’t good. Where was Simon when she needed him? From where she sat in the window seat behind Olivia, Colleen tried to tap the back of her head with her foot to get her attention. It went through it.
Olivia kept digging her hole deeper. “…tell you how much I wanted a drink. A lovely glass of wine or two or three…”
Ava and Sophie fake-laughed. “Olivia, you’re so funny. Ha! Ha! You, the responsible one. You would never drink when you—” Ava sighed when Olivia talked right over her.
“I’m like that woman from the Christmas Jammies family video. Did you see the one they made for Thanksgiving last year?” she asked, and then started singing something about wanting a Chard-a-nay-nay.
“Hey, wino, you got a visitor.” Lexi shook her head, obviously not impressed that Olivia hadn’t clued in at their attempts to warn her they had company.
Colleen’s great-grandson looked about as unhappy with Olivia as Lexi was.
Finn leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed, an eyebrow raised at Olivia.
She straightened, glanced his way, and rolled her eyes. “It’s not what you think, so take a chill pill.”
“Great, now instead of talking like a sixty-five-year-old, you’re talking like you’re twelve.” He pushed off the door frame and walked across the room to take the coffee from Ava.
“Eight,” Sophie said. “It’s Mia’s new favorite expression.”
“I wouldn’t want a drink if George was like Mia. Mia’s an angel. I wish a little of Mia would rub off on George.”
Finn sniffed the coffee and handed it to Olivia. He angled his head. “Nice do. The cross is a good look on you too. So, where is Picasso?”
“I don’t know. Probably up in a tree eating her nits.”
Lexi guffawed, and Ava showered the desk with a mouthful of coffee.
Finn tried to keep a straight face, but Colleen caught the glint of amusement in his eyes. “That’s not nice.”
Olivia’s face fell, and her bottom lip quivered. “I know. I’m a horrible person. But I’m trying so hard and she hates me and says mean things and does even meaner things to me.” She lifted her gaze to Finn. “And it’s hard because I’ll turn around, and for one minute, I think it’s Cooper and I forget he’s gone and it hurts so bad when I realize it’s George that I can’t breathe. And then she’ll give me a look like Nathan used to or she’ll use one of his expressions and I…” Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know why I thought I could do this.”
Colleen reached over to pat Olivia’s shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself now. Your grief was so big and all-consuming it terrified you, girlie. So bit by bit, piece by piece, you buried it. But until you’ve faced it head-on, you can’t heal, you can’t become whole and move on. You’ll not say out loud what you’re feeling in your heart, and I can’t say I blame you.” In Olivia’s shoes, Colleen would have felt much the same. The child was as difficult as the situation.
“But as much as the child doesn’t like you, you don’t like her. She senses how you feel, you know. Once you’re honest with yourself, you’ll come to terms with your hurt and anger. Until you do, no good will come from keeping it buried. And mark my words, there is good to come from it. For the both of you. And for the man crouched at your side right now.”
Colleen turned a fond eye on Finn. “Oh yes, laddie, you judge Olivia for not dealing with her grief when you’ve done the same. Just like your brothers.”
Colleen watched as the girls joined Finn in comforting Olivia and lifting her spirits. That’s what life was all about, friends and family looking out for…
A streak of movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned to look out the window. If her heart were still beating, it would have stopped. “For the love of all that’s holy, you little hoyden, get out of the gardens!” she yelled at George. She flapped her arms in hopes of drawing Finn’s or the girls’ attention before the wild child picked every flower from the garden. Olivia had spent the better part of yesterday planting the beds with pink and white tulips for the weekend’s wedding.
Lexi rubbed her arms. “Anyone else feel a draft?”
“Maybe the window’s…” Sophie’s jaw dropped, and she started making choking sounds while stabbing her finger at the glass.
“Soph, what’s…Oh, hell. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” Finn sprinted for the door. “Just keep Liv away from the Chard-a-nay-nay.”
Olivia felt reasonably human again when she returned to the study three hours later. A thorough scrub in a hot shower had taken care of the goop in her hair and the black marker on her face. George hadn’t had enough time to damage Olivia’s entire collection of shoes or wardrobe, so she was now attired in a bubble-gum-pink sleeveless dress and heels. She probably should have chosen another dress. It was the exact color of half the tulips George had beheaded. Tulips that Olivia had sweated and toiled over when she planted them in their perfect patterns the day before.
She wasn’t buying George’s excuse, which Finn had relayed to Olivia with a flicker of amusement in his warm, blue eyes, that the flowers were too pretty to be sitting in the dirt. But nor was she about to call out a five-year-old for lying, especially after the horrible things Olivia had said earlier.
Sophie looked up from where she sat behind her desk in the study and pushed her glasses on top of her head. “You look better, but how are you really feeling?”
“If you mean have I recovered from my meltdown, the answer is yes. I’m good, thanks. I’m just sorry you guys had to witness it.”
“Olivia, come on. We’re your friends. We know how tough this has been on you. The last thing you need is to be worrying…Sorry,” Sophie apologized when her cell phone rang and she picked it up.
Olivia had a fairly good idea what her friend had been about to say. But it didn’t change the fact that Olivia had lost control, and she simply did not lose control in public. Ever. Well, apparently, this was the new version of herself because she’d publicly lost control several times in the past ten days. Though the public part of it was mostly limited to an audience of one—Finn.
She could only imagine what he
thought of her ode to Chardonnay. It seemed she couldn’t be within six feet of the man without making a complete and utter fool of herself. Which led to the question: Why did she ask him…? All right, so she had pleaded with him—again—to move into the manor. She knew why, of course. George actually liked and listened to Finn. Come to think of it, George liked and listened to quite a few people. She was the only one the little girl couldn’t stand. The only human, that is. Olivia had noticed she wasn’t overly fond of Simon either.
She glanced to where the black cat lay curled on the window seat soaking up the sun and walked over to check on the garden. Finn, with the help of his brothers and father, saved what flowers they could and planted the flats of tulips that In Bloom, the local floral shop and nursery, had delivered two hours before. George, according to Finn, had supervised. It was also his opinion that George hadn’t maliciously murdered the flowers; she was bored and should be in school.
Maybe he was right. Her late father’s favorite quote had been “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.” Olivia thought the devil had had quite enough fun in George’s mind today. There she was doing it again, thinking the worst of the child. It was as if she did it on purpose. Focusing on all the reasons the little girl was unlovable so George didn’t find a way into Olivia’s heart.
Olivia pushed the thought aside to lean across the window seat and check out the newly planted tulips, shivering when a cold sensation crawled up her spine, goose bumps rising on her arms and neck. She rubbed her arms. It was like the sunshine didn’t penetrate the glass on this side of the window, leaving it surprisingly cold.
“That was Liam,” Sophie said as she hung up the phone. “He wanted you to know everything’s fine and that George seems to be enjoying herself. She’s caught four fish. With her bare hands.”
Olivia laughed, positive Liam was teasing. “Your husband’s a godsend. George actually stopped snarling at me when I told her Liam was taking her fishing.”
Sophie grinned. “Then you’ll be happy to know he plans on taking her fishing twice a week. He’s signing her up as his partner for the fishing competition in June.”
