Grounded

by A. E. Radley

  “You’re the best.” Emily gave Lucy another quick hug before looking towards the hallway. “Where is he? I can’t wait to see him.”

  “The second you came in the front door, he ran out the back, around the house, and across the garden to see Olivia,” Lucy said, pointing out the window. “I watched him, obviously.”

  * * *

  “I think you should live in a house with eighty-eight bedrooms,” Henry told Olivia as he hugged Tiny to his chest. Apparently the cuddly toy was his one concession to not wearing anything giraffe-related.

  “Why?” Olivia frowned.

  “Because then you could have people to stay,” Henry told her.

  “I could have people to stay with three bedrooms,” Olivia pointed out sensibly.

  “Will you have a swimming pool?” Henry asked.

  “Do you like to swim?”

  “Mommy does. I’m not very good.”

  “Well, one of the apartment buildings I looked at does have a swimming pool,” Olivia admitted.

  “Then you should pick that one,” Henry told her. “As long as it has eighty-eight bedrooms. When will you move?”

  “I don’t know.” Olivia shrugged. “I haven’t started to look properly yet.”

  Henry bounced excitedly in his seat as a thought came into his head. “You should build an island in the ocean,” he told her seriously.

  “Why?”

  “Then you could be halfway between London and New York.”

  “But how would I get to either?” she asked. “I’d need to build a runway on the island too.”

  “You could use magic instead,” Henry said as he strained his neck to look out the window and up into the branches of the tree Olivia was parked beneath.

  Olivia was about to reply when she saw Emily approaching with Henry’s car seat in her hand. Emily opened the front passenger door and smiled at Henry.

  “Wow, Henry, you look amazing,” she enthused.

  “My hair is hard,” Henry told her with a smile as he angled his head toward her.

  Emily gently touched the hardened gel. “Wow, very cool!”

  “Olivia’s going to build an island and live there,” Henry said.

  “I’m not,” Olivia clarified.

  Emily chuckled. “Right, well, let’s get you set up in the back seat, Henry.”

  Olivia watched as Henry slid out of the front passenger door and waited while his mother fitted his car seat in the back. As soon as she had, he handed Tiny to her and climbed in. He settled himself and reached for Tiny again. Emily clipped his safety belts into place and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

  Henry held Tiny up towards her face. “And Tiny,” he ordered.

  Emily smiled and gave Tiny a quick peck on the head before closing the back door and getting into the front seat.

  “So, where are we heading?” Emily asked.

  “I did have an idea,” Olivia said mysteriously, grinning widely.

  * * *

  Emily frowned and held Henry’s hand tightly as Olivia walked them into an exclusive-looking but bustling bar. As soon as they entered, a man with a scruffy beard came rushing over from behind the bar and held out his arms.

  “Olivia!”

  “William.” Olivia smiled and they hugged. “This is Emily.”

  Emily shook the man’s hand, trying to smile despite her worry as to why Olivia thought it might be appropriate to bring them to a bar.

  “And who is this well-dressed gentleman?” William knelt down beside Henry with a wide grin.

  “Henry,” Henry said quietly, frowning at William’s enthusiastic manner.

  “Henry. Well, Henry, I’m very glad you came. We need more dapper bow ties in this place.”

  Henry attempted to look down at his red-and-white-spotted bow tie, and then looked up at Emily with confusion as he gripped her hand a little tighter.

  “Right.” William stood up and rubbed his hands together. “Follow me.”

  William walked across the busy bar towards a large metal spiral staircase that led down. Emily followed Olivia despite her reservations about the surroundings. They slowly made their way down the steps, Olivia taking Henry’s other hand to ensure he was safe on the tight stairwell.

  Henry bit his lip in concentration as he looked at each step. When they got to the last one, he looked up to see where he was.

  “Bowling!” Henry jumped up and down and turned to his mother, wide-eyed.

  Emily looked around the downstairs room with surprise. The hectic and ultra-modern bar upstairs was a stark contrast to where she now found herself. A handful of antique-style sofas and armchairs were scattered throughout the space. At the end of the room were two bowling lanes. A couple of formal dining tables were set up on either side of the lanes, and a private bar filled one wall.

  William turned to Olivia. “If you need anything at all, just give me a yell. A waiter will be down with menus in a couple of minutes.” With a look to Henry and then Emily, he continued, “Please, make yourself at home,” before he turned and made his way back up the stairs.

  “Can I bowl, Mommy?” Henry asked with excitement. He’d never seen a bowling lane in person before.

  “Maybe in a little while,” Emily said as she tried to catch up. “Is this all for us?”

  Olivia seemed confused by the question. “This is a private hire venue; we have it for as long as we wish this evening.”

  Emily leaned closer to Olivia’s ear and whispered, “So, he’s allowed to bowl?”

  “Yes,” Olivia replied quickly. “That’s why we’re here. Well, that and the food. They do amazing food here.”

  Henry was already down by the bowling lanes and looking at the brightly coloured bowling balls with interest, his excitement palpable as he tested the slippery floor in his best shoes and giggled as he slid a little.

  “This is amazing, I thought we’d just go to a diner or something.” Emily smiled.

  “Is it okay?” Olivia asked, obviously worried that she had overstepped some invisible line again.

  “Perfect. It’s perfect. Look, he’s beside himself,” Emily said with a nod towards Henry.

  Behind the bar, a door opened, and a well-dressed waiter appeared.

  “Good evening, ladies.”

  Olivia turned and smiled at him. He guided them to a dining table near the bowling lanes, pulling out a seat for each of them and then handing them both menus.

  “Mommy, can I bowl now?” Henry asked, his hand hovering over a bowling ball anxiously.

  The waiter smiled at Henry’s obvious excitement and addressed Emily. “Would you like me to get the bowling ramp and show him how it works?”

  Emily looked from him to Henry and nodded. “That would be great, if you don’t mind?”

  A few moments later, Henry was lifting the lightest of the bowling balls up onto the bowling ramp with the assistance of his new friend. He let it go and jumped up and down with delight as the ball rolled its way towards the pins.

  Emily and Olivia watched as the waiter showed Henry how everything worked and then allowed him to run amok on both bowling lanes at once.

  “He’ll sleep well tonight,” Emily commented with a fond smile.

  Olivia grinned as she studied the menu, occasionally glancing over at Henry.

  “By the way.” Emily leant forward. “The next time I leave your car with your lipstick all over my mouth, could you tell me?”

  Olivia bit her lip, her gaze firmly on the menu. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, you do.” Emily chuckled. “I’m beginning to realise you’re not as innocent as you might seem.”

  “I never claimed to be innocent,” Olivia flirted, peering over the top of her menu to make eye contact.

  With a glance at Henry and a thick swallow, Emily steered the conversation back towards appropriate topics. Before long, the two women had ordered food and drinks and were letting Henry pull them to the bowling lanes.

  Emily’s med
iocre bowling skills were still superior to Olivia’s paltry and Henry’s over excited attempts, so she quickly took the lead, causing Henry to resort to underhand tactics to stop her winning streak. At one point, Emily tried to bowl with Henry clamped to her leg like a koala bear—and still managed to knock half the pins down.

  When Henry’s excitement began to reach fever pitch, Emily deliberately started to throw poorly to give him a chance to catch up and calm him down a little. Over a few frames, Emily bestowed her strategy to Henry, then gave him some time to practice while she took a breather with Olivia.

  “So…” Emily swirled the wine in her glass. “You clearly don’t know about this place because of your bowling skills.”

  Olivia attempted to look affronted, but the laughter she tried to conceal easily spilled over. “No, I know the owner.”

  “Oh.” Emily tried to act casual. “The tall, dark, and scruffy one?”

  “Yes, we went to school together.”

  “Oh, he went to boarding school too?” Emily asked.

  “Yes. Clearly we took different paths.”

  “Clearly you’re both successful.” Emily was impressed. She turned around and called over her shoulder, “Henry, you’re going to boarding school.”

  Henry robotically nodded his agreement, poking his tongue out in concentration while angling his bowling ramp.

  “Emily, you can’t—” Olivia began, obviously horrified that Emily was considering sending her son away.

  “It’s a joke.” Emily grinned.

  “But you told him—”

  “He doesn’t know what boarding school is, and he isn’t listening to a word I’m saying anyway. I could tell him we’re going to the moon and he would just nod at me.” Emily reached across the table and took Olivia’s hand softly.

  “So…” Emily said, trying to be casual. “You and William…”

  “Yes?” Olivia asked.

  “Yes?” Emily wavered.

  “Yes,” Olivia repeated with a frown.

  Emily blinked. She removed her hand from Olivia’s and sat back. “Oh.” She paused. “So, you and he were, well, more than friends?”

  “Oh! No.” Olivia shook her head. “No, I’ve always been interested in women.”

  “So he’s…”

  “Just a friend,” Olivia clarified.

  Emily let out a sigh of relief. She noticed that Olivia was smirking and chuckled at her own jealous behaviour.

  “So, new topic,” Emily announced. “I hate to bring this up, but, has Simon told you about Marcus’s plan?”

  “He did.” Olivia watched as Henry continued to run around the bowling lanes.

  “And?” Emily pressed.

  Olivia shrugged. “There’s more to life.”

  Emily looked at her in shock. “He is trying to destroy you and your business.”

  “I know. I have a meeting scheduled with him tomorrow. If I can reason with him, wonderful. If I can’t, then I can’t.”

  “Are you laid-back or depressed?” Emily chuckled.

  Olivia looked at her seriously and smiled. “Certainly not depressed.” She sipped some wine. “My little collapse helped put things into perspective. There’s more to life.”

  Emily examined Olivia, trying to ascertain whether or not she truly meant the words. To her surprise, she couldn’t detect any hint of untruth.

  When their meals arrived, Emily called Henry over. She pulled a wet wipe from her bag and cleaned his hands before allowing him to eat his dinner.

  As he ate, Henry explained more about Olivia’s island in the middle of the ocean. Olivia played along happily, and Emily smiled as she watched the two of them. Emily’s previous dates had made the mistake of either ignoring or talking down to Henry. Olivia spoke to him as she would anyone else and treated him like a valuable third person in the conversation. Even when Henry forced the discussion into extraordinary and bizarre directions, Olivia would honestly consider the points he made and answer seriously.

  After dinner, dessert, and a suitable amount of digestion time, they bowled again and Emily returned her game to full strength, easily beating both of them combined.

  As they were leaving, William appeared with a T-shirt for Henry, declaring him the overall winner.

  Henry looked to Emily with confusion. “But I didn’t win,” he whispered.

  “Bowling has a really weird scoring system,” William explained. He pointed to the screen above the lanes to where Henry’s name was listed. “I think that’s the highest score we’ve ever had.”

  Emily noticed that all of the practice games and playing alone had indeed given Henry an enormous overall score.

  “Look at that, Henry,” she said in awe. She knelt down and read out the numbers, emphasising her own score being higher than Olivia’s before reading out Henry’s. Olivia snorted with laughter behind them.

  Henry gratefully accepted the T-shirt from William. “Mommy, help me,” he demanded as he started to put it on over his shirt, tie, and vest. As Emily helped get his arms through the T-shirt holes, Henry looked at her seriously. “Maybe if we come back again, you might win a T-shirt.”

  “Maybe I will, if you show me your tricks of the trade,” she told him, kissing his forehead.

  * * *

  When they pulled up outside the house, Emily asked Olivia if she wanted to come in. Olivia declined, saying that she had an early start the next morning.

  From the back seat, Henry looked from one to the other and grinned as he giggled. “Are you two going to kiss?”

  Olivia looked at Emily and chuckled when she started to blush.

  “Henry, close your eyes,” Emily announced.

  “But—” Henry argued.

  “Henry, I mean it,” Emily said, turning to regard him.

  He closed his eyes, and Emily quickly leaned forward and kissed Olivia, their tongues swiftly meeting before she pulled away again. Her intention to leave Olivia breathless and wanting more appeared to be working.

  “Tonight was wonderful,” Emily said sincerely. She looked deep into Olivia’s eyes, her hand softly stroking her cheek. “Thank you for everything.”

  “You’re most welcome.” Olivia coughed to return her voice to normal. “I really enjoyed it.”

  Emily smiled shyly as she undid her seat belt. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  Emily heard the click on Henry’s safety belt, and a moment later he’d pulled himself through the gap between the chairs and was pressing a sloppy kiss on Olivia’s cheek.

  “Night, Olivia,” he said sadly.

  “I’ll see you again soon, Henry,” Olivia assured him.

  Emily got out of the car, opened the back door, and helped him out.

  “Why did I have to close my eyes?” Henry asked tiredly.

  She lifted him up and balanced his weight on her hip, grabbing his car seat with her free hand. “Because,” Emily replied as she smiled at Olivia.

  “Did you kiss her?” Henry grinned.

  “Wave goodnight to Olivia,” Emily told him, and he turned and waved.

  Olivia waved back.

  “I think you did kiss her,” Henry said matter-of-factly.

  CHAPTER 36

  Olivia looked up and watched as Marcus paused just outside the entrance to the bar. He looked quickly in both directions, presumably checking that no one would see him entering the building. Also probably wondering if it was the right location. It wasn’t the sort of place that Olivia, or anyone, would usually choose for a business meeting. But she needed to make Marcus feel uncomfortable and out of place. And a Mexican bar where she was now something of a legend was just the place.

  She was pleased that he had agreed to meet her. Of course, she’d been particularly vague about the reason for wanting to see him face-to-face. She assumed he was hoping she’d given up on the idea of saving Applewood and was negotiating some kind of corporate sell-off. He’d be in for a shock.

  He finally stepped into the heavily themed bar, grimacing while bein
g careful not to make contact with the stained wall. He took a deep breath and looked around the room, spotting Olivia in the booth and heading towards her.

  “Olivia,” he greeted neutrally.

  “Marcus.” She smiled and gestured to the bench opposite. “Please, sit down. Have you eaten?”

  Olivia could tell that her pleasant behaviour was putting Marcus further on edge. She could almost see the cogs of his brain whirring as he tried to figure out why she could possibly be happy.

  “Marcus?” she pressed at his prolonged silence.

  He sat down and shook his head. “I’ve eaten already.”

  “A drink, then? They do marvellous cocktails, some alcohol-free if you have further meetings this afternoon?”

  “Whatever you’re having.”

  Olivia picked up the laminated drinks menu and pondered the available choices for a moment. When a waiter came to the table, she ordered two Tequila Sunrises, knowing that Marcus would think she had cracked. It was all part of the game.

  She hummed softly to herself as she plucked two napkins out of the metal dispenser and started to clean a sticky liquid from the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Marcus shifting uncomfortably, presumably thinking he was watching a broken woman, slumming it in a strange bar, drinking cocktails in the afternoon, wondering what had gone wrong with her life.

  Satisfied that the table was clean, and Marcus was suitably unnerved by her behaviour, she placed a folder on the table. He made no move to take it, so she pushed it towards him and opened it to reveal its contents.

  “Here is the anonymous complaint that you and Sebastian Brennan attempted to file with the authorities. As well as the additional paperwork that you supplied in order to validate your claims of financial mismanagement.”

  The waiter returned with two brightly coloured cocktails and placed them on the table.

  “Thank you,” Olivia said.

  She watched as Marcus looked at the papers in horror, clearly wondering how Olivia had managed to get them. She arranged the tall cocktail glass to ensure that it sat exactly in the middle of her coaster, which was shaped like a sombrero.

  “Where was I?” She looked back at the paperwork. “Oh yes. Your anonymous complaint.” She let out a small sigh and shook her head lightly. “This isn’t like you, Marcus. This isn’t like you at all. Of course, it’s all irrelevant now because I have it.”