Primrose Lane

by Debbie Mason

  She’d made the appointments, each and every one, because she had legitimate concerns for George’s well-being. Her husky voice for one. It was not unheard of for children to develop tumors on their vocal cords. Olivia had done extensive research into all her complaints. Like the way George stared off into space sometimes. It could have been a sign she had epilepsy. The same with the amount of water she’d been drinking. It could have been a sign George was diabetic, not just thirsty as Sherry had sniped.

  Olivia had no intention of going to the Harmony Harbor Clinic ever again. Though she couldn’t avoid Finn now that she’d agreed to be his pretend girlfriend. Pretend or not, she needed to call herself something other than his girlfriend. For goodness’ sake, she was thirty-eight. If she hadn’t felt guilty about how much of his time she’d taken up, she would have told him to find someone else.

  She glanced at Jasper and Sophie, who were looking at her oddly. She wondered if she’d said any of what she’d been thinking out loud. Then she realized it was probably because she’d just said an abrupt no, so she added, “Thank you,” and smiled.

  Kitty held up her phone. “I’ve called Kyle. He’s on his way.”

  Well, there wasn’t much she could do about that. Dr. Bishop would be better than facing Finn anyway. Obviously, Jasper didn’t think so. He gave a disapproving sniff. If Olivia wasn’t mistaken, the older man was jealous of Kitty’s relationship with Dr. Bishop.

  “It’s okay, Kitty. You can let Dr. Bishop know Finn is on his way. He dropped everything when he heard his Liv had been hurt. In case you guys didn’t know, they’re an item, a thing, she’s his plus one, he’s her boy toy, they’re—”

  “Boyfriend and girlfriend,” George said, giving Olivia a little wink.

  Olivia gave Lexi a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look. She’d thrown Olivia under the bus to ensure Jasper stopped trying to fix her up with Finn. It was a good thing Olivia had taken the precaution of telling George the truth. The little girl was fond of Finn, and Olivia didn’t want her disappointed when their charade inevitably ended.

  Olivia ignored the voice in her head that said she was protecting herself as much as George. With George around to keep her feet firmly rooted in reality, Olivia would be less likely to get caught up in the fantasy that was Finn. Not that she wanted to get caught up in the fantasy, she assured herself. It was going to be embarrassing enough having people refer to him as her boy toy like Lexi had just done.

  Kitty beamed. “I’m so pleased to have the rumor confirmed. I’ll let Ida know. Poor thing will be disappointed. She was so hoping Finn and Brie would be a match. Oh well, there’s always Aidan. He’s moving back to town, you know. That reminds me, I have to talk to Chief Benson and see if I can get him to retire too,” Kitty said, her head already bent over her phone.

  Sophie and Jasper carefully guided Olivia to the side of the canopied bed. “Can I get you anything, Miss Olivia?” Jasper asked.

  “Maybe just a glass of water and two aspirin, if you don’t mind, Jasper. Thank you.”

  “Certainly, miss.” Just as Jasper took a step away, a bottle of ibuprofen rolled out of the closet.

  George gasped, and her eyes rounded. She tore across the room, picked up the bottle, and ran into the bathroom. The toilet flushed. Everyone looked at Olivia for an explanation. “We had a visit from Casper the not-so-friendly ghost,” she whispered. “George said he, or she, lives in the closet. So I gather she thought the ibuprofen was contaminated by bad juju.”

  They heard a husky “Uh-oh,” from the bathroom, and then the sound of water splashing onto the floor.

  Jasper sighed. “I’ll call the plumber.”

  “Are you going to let me check you over now?” Finn asked once he’d gotten rid of their audience hours later. Since George was getting ready for bed, he thought the time was right. He’d have to lift Liv’s shirt to examine her.

  “No, I told you I’m fine. You shouldn’t have rushed over and left your patients. Patients who actually have something wrong with them. I hope you told Sherry it wasn’t me who asked you to come.”

  “Okay, I get that you’re ticked. But I only said that to Lex because she scared the hell out of me. I thought you were seriously hurt, Liv.”

  “Just FYI, some people would consider broken ribs serious. And I can tell you from very personal experience, they’re painful. But that’s fine. I’ll be okay. You can leave now.”

  “I’m not leaving until you let me check you over. Come on, how would it look if I don’t take care of my girlfriend?” he teased.

  “I’m pretty sure everyone thinks I should dump you after how you behaved.”

  “I’ve never seen you pout before. It’s kind of cute.”

  Lips pressed together, she refused to look at him as she undid the bottom three buttons of her white blouse. And then, probably because she was ticked, she opened the shirt with a little too much force. The rest of the buttons popped off, leaving him with a perfect view of her lacy white bra cupping what looked to be exceptional breasts and a long length of sun-kissed skin. Except for the fist-sized bruise on her right side. “No,” he said when she went to cover up. “You took a good hit, Liv. Let me have a look.” He shifted on the bed and, as gently as possible, checked to see if her ribs were…

  “Holy Fig Newton, don’t do that…Oh,” she half laughed, half gasped.

  He tried to keep a straight face. “Holy Fig Newton? Now that’s one I haven’t heard before. I’m almost done. Are you always this ticklish?” he asked, doing his best to keep his eyes off her breasts.

  “Yes, oh, ha-ha! Oh, stop, stop now.”

  George walked over to the bed wearing a pair of pink Hello Kitty pajamas. “Can you make it better?” she asked, her eyes glued to the bruise.

  “It’s not serious…” Liv glared at him, holding her shirt together. “What I meant to say is Liv’s ribs are bruised, so she’ll be a little sore. But nothing’s broken, and I’ll give her something for the pain.”

  “You should kiss it better,” George said.

  “You want me to kiss it better?” He looked at Liv’s stomach. Her skin had been warm and silky beneath his fingers and definitely kissable.

  George nodded.

  Liv shook her head. “It’s quite all right. I feel better already. Thank you, and thank you for coming. Good night.”

  “He can’t go.”

  “Why not?” he asked at almost the same time as Liv.

  “There’s a ghost in the closet,” George whispered.

  “Oh, right. Okay, how about Finn gets us a vacuum, and then we’ll suck the ghost up?”

  George shook her head and crawled into the bed. “It walks through walls. It’ll get out of the canister. But Finn can stay and protect us.” She patted a spot on the mattress between her and Liv.

  “I can protect us.”

  “No, you can’t, Livy. You’re sore, and I’m little. We need Finn.”

  “I think George is right. You need me to stay.” He toed off his shoes and held out his hand. “You need help getting ready for bed?”

  Liv gave him a look and then reluctantly took his hand. “No, I think I can manage.” She lowered her voice so only he could hear. “You’re leaving once she falls asleep.”

  “Finn, wake up.” Someone shook him. Someone who wore satin shorts and a skimpy top and had warm, silky skin and smelled like hothouse flowers. He buried his face in her soft hair and smoothed his palm over…“Dammit, woman, what was that for?” he said when he got an elbow in the gut.

  “Shush. Your hands were where they shouldn’t be.”

  He recognized that voice. “Liv, sorry. I forgot where I was. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  She shook her head, pressed a finger to his lips, and then pointed across the room to the door. He carefully lifted up on his elbow. He saw shadows under the door and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I don’t think it’s a ghost.”

  She curved her hand around his neck to bring his ear to her mouth. “Of
course it’s not a ghost, but I could have sworn I heard the door open. That’s what woke me up.”

  He grinned at her, enjoying the intimacy of their late-night chat. Which made him realize just how comfortable he’d grown around Liv. He enjoyed being with her, and he thought that should make him more nervous than it did. “I thought I woke you up.” He walked his fingers along her bare arm.

  She closed her hand over his. “Don’t you dare. You’ll wake up George.” She nudged her head at the door. “Would you mind taking a look?”

  He eased off the bed so as not to wake George and padded to the door. Carefully opening it, he looked out in the hall. Simon ran between his legs and into the closet. He closed the door, put on the security lock, and returned to the bed.

  “It looks like Simon stays in the closet. Could that be what George saw?”

  “Going by where she was aiming the ball, I’d say her ghost is bigger than Simon. You know, she doesn’t like him much either. I’ll have to shoo him out of the closet before she sees him in the morning.”

  “How are your ribs? Do you need another pain pill?”

  She glanced at him. “You’re not worried I’ll become addicted?”

  Beneath the sarcasm, he thought he heard a hint of hurt. There was something more than bruised ribs going on with her. He wondered if it had anything to do with the favor he’d asked of her. First things first. “Liv, you know as well as I do how careful you have to be with opioids, but I’m not worried you have a drug problem or a problem with alcohol. You already know that though, so what’s up with the ’tude? You were pretty prickly with me earlier.”

  She plucked at the sheet. “After what Sherry said to me yesterday, it hurt when you told Lexi you couldn’t just drop everything for something as benign as a sore stomach.”

  “I didn’t say that. But I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.” He slid his arm around her and gently tucked her in beside him. “You weren’t the only one Sherry got to yesterday. I should have put a stop to the parade of singles. In my defense, I couldn’t write them all off as marriage obsessed. And the thing was, the patients with legitimate complaints…Let’s just say they’re not what I’m used to. In the Congo I was dealing with life-and-death decisions every day. Not—”

  “Neurotic women dragging their stepdaughters to the clinic at the first sign of the sniffles?”

  He angled his head to look at her. “I don’t think you ever brought her in for the sniffles.”

  She made a face. “In my defense, I did research her symptoms.”

  “Remind me to disable Google on your computer,” he teased at the same time feeling a rush of tenderness for her. He knew why she overreacted and jumped to the worst-case scenarios. It was natural and no doubt incredibly stressful for her. Was it a little stressful for him too? Even a bit annoying? Sure it was. But despite his teasing, she needed to know that all she had to do was pick up the phone and call him. “Liv—”

  She cut him off before he had a chance to tell her. “Don’t worry. I won’t bother you anymore. Julia put aside a stack of self-help books for me. I don’t want to turn George into a hypochondriac.” She looked up him. “You don’t think I already have, do you?”

  “You don’t have to worry about George. The kid’s resilient. But Liv, for your sake, it might be a good idea if you talked to someone. They could help you—”

  “I’ve been to a therapist before. He wasn’t helpful. He—” She gave her head a slight shake and blinked up at the canopy.

  “Tell me.” She was quiet for so long that he didn’t think she was going to answer him.

  “He thought, they all thought actually, that my fight to keep Cooper alive had turned into an obsession. That I was doing more harm than good. Nathan and his parents told me I was being selfish to put Cooper through another clinical trial. But even if there was only a small chance it could save his life, I had to take it. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I just let him go without a fight. Do you think I was wrong? Do you think I was a horrible mother?”

  If Nathan Sutherland wasn’t already dead…“No, I think they were wrong. You loved your son. You did what you thought was best, and that’s all that matters.”

  She nodded and then told him about the different trials Cooper had been involved with—everything she’d done to keep her son alive, all the nights she’d spent on the phone talking to doctors and researchers, searching for answers—as though she still needed to defend herself against her in-laws’ and husband’s accusations.

  Finn took her hand. “Liv, look at me. You have nothing to feel guilty about. If Cooper was my son, I would have put him in the clinical trials too.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. And I’m not just saying that to make you feel better. You did everything you possibly could for your son.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Olivia stood with George in the lane watching as Julia pulled her red Chevrolet Sonic up to the front of the buttercup-yellow Cape Cod on Primrose Lane. With her inky black curls escaping from beneath a red hood that framed her heart-shaped face, Julia gave them an excited wave. George cautiously returned Julia’s wave with a small pucker at the bridge of her upturned nose.

  “Julia owns Books and Beans and dresses up for children’s story hour. It looks like she’s Little Red Riding Hood today. We’ll stop by this week and buy you some books,” Olivia said, while Julia practically skipped toward them with a big wicker basket on her arm.

  “Good morning, George and Olivia! You have an absolutely gorgeous day for the big move. Are you excited?” she asked, looking from George to Olivia with a sweetly infectious grin.

  “So excited!” Olivia said with fake enthusiasm. She didn’t want to dampen Julia’s obvious pleasure. She’d worked hard to make this deal happen. The older woman who’d owned the home hadn’t planned on selling for another couple of years. Because of that, Olivia estimated that she’d paid twenty thousand dollars above market value. But she couldn’t blame Julia for making what Olivia’s father would have seen as an unwise investment.

  Two weeks before, Olivia would have done whatever it took to seal the deal. Over the past few days with some deep soul searching and a plethora of self-help books, she’d come to realize Finn had turned into her drug of choice. He was her antianxiety pill, a glass of Chardonnay, and a box of chocolates all rolled into one ridiculously gorgeous package.

  Just being in his presence soothed her, calmed her. It’s why she would run to the clinic at any excuse. She needed him to tell her everything would be okay, and she believed him. Just like she had the night he’d told her he would have made the same choices for Cooper’s treatments as she had. He had no idea how much that meant to her. Still, this wasn’t healthy for any of them. It was a lot of pressure to put on Finn and, despite his reassurances, she didn’t want to turn George into a hypochondriac.

  So, for a woman who was doing her best to wean herself off her drug of choice, living next to the clinic was not the ideal situation. It was like a reformed chocoholic living next door to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Obviously, she was a glutton for punishment because she still hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell him he couldn’t be her fake boy toy anymore.

  Even harder than that was to know that she should have zero contact with the man for this to work. It was probably a symptom of withdrawal, but the thought made her sad. Because when she wasn’t using him as her security blanket, she really liked to be with him, and not only because he was pretty to look at.

  “Are you okay?” Julia asked.

  “Yes, of course. It’s just that I didn’t expect to settle in Harmony Harbor.” It was true. She’d been hiding out here. She’d never given any thought to what she’d do once the truth came out.

  George must have picked up on something because she said, “I like it here. I like this house best. Your other house is too big, and the ghost lives at the manor.”

  Olivia ruffled George’s hair and smiled. “I do too. It’s perfect for the
two of us.”

  George gave her the gap-toothed smile she saw more frequently with each passing day. “Three when you and Finn get married.”

  Olivia waited for the conspiratorial wink. There wasn’t one. Fig Newton, George had been spending time with Kitty and the Widows Club. Had she caught matchmakingitis?

  “Maybe it’s a good thing there’s three bedrooms just in case a little Davenport-Gallagher comes along.”

  Olivia stared at Julia. What was wrong with the woman? She knew that Olivia and Finn were in a fake relationship. They’d been spending a lot of time together during house negotiations, and Olivia had spilled the beans. She trusted Julia. Well, she had up until now.

  “I’m thinking of turning the third bedroom into an office.” Noting the disappointed expressions on both George’s and Julia’s faces, she said, “I’m thirty-eight. I’m too old to have a baby.” In case there was room for George to take that the wrong way, she added, “Besides, I have George. I don’t need any more children.”

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Olivia worried that she’d overstepped. Isabella hadn’t been gone long. She didn’t want George to think she was trying to take her mother’s place. But she seemed fine and was soon distracted by the sounds of a disturbance on the other side of the lane.

  George stepped through a bed of yellow primroses to peek through a knot in the white fence. She drew back, her blue eyes wide. “Sophie’s granny and the old doctor are kissing.”

  Julia and Olivia exchanged a look. From the way Kitty had been talking, she and Dr. Bishop were an item. Olivia joined George at the fence and peeked through the knothole. Julia found one beside them and did the same. The older couple were kissing all right.

  Julia sighed and then whispered, “I haven’t been kissed like that in forever. I really need to get out more.”

  Not long ago, Finn had kissed Olivia like that. She should have let herself enjoy it more. There would be no kissing in her future if she followed through with her plan. She took George by the hand and together they jumped over the border of flowers.