by Renee Ryan
“Once I get this room cleaned up—” she looked around, noted that the job was nearly complete “—I’ll head home. Unless you need me to do something before I go.”
“Nothing I can think of.”
“Okay.” She turned to face him fully.
An inexplicable urge drew her a step closer.
His smile deepened.
“I enjoyed coming home and seeing my daughters having so much fun. Girl fun.” He reached for her hand and linked their fingers together with a casualness that spoke of easy camaraderie. Just two old friends reconnecting. “Thank you, Olivia.”
“You’re welcome.”
Silence hung between them, turning slightly awkward. Connor’s smile disappeared. And yet he didn’t release her hand. The connection felt real, a step toward something new and profound.
Though Olivia knew it was dangerous to do so, she smiled at Connor.
His smile returned.
As if time itself paused just for them, for this moment, they continued staring at each other.
He leaned toward her.
She leaned toward him.
Then... He let go of her hand and took a step back.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” He attempted to smile again, didn’t quite pull it off. “Same time, same place?”
She couldn’t think of anything to say to the obvious dismissal. Should she address what had just happened between them?
What would she say? She had no idea what had just happened between them.
“Okay, sure.” She gathered her things as quickly as possible, then clipped Baloo’s leash into his collar and led the dog into the hallway.
“See you tomorrow, Connor,” she said over her shoulder. “Same time, same place.”
As far as parting shots went, she could have done worse. Then again, she could have done better.
* * *
Olivia had been gone less than five minutes when Connor accepted the truth gnawing at him. He regretted sending her away so abruptly. He’d acted on impulse. The atmosphere between them had been tense, but not that tense.
He’d overreacted and dismissed her with a callousness he hadn’t felt.
He needed to apologize.
He had no idea how to broach the subject.
Thankfully, he remembered his promise from the night before, the one he’d inadvertently squelched on by arriving home late. It was the perfect excuse to contact her.
Trying not to think too hard about what he was doing—or why—he pulled out his cell phone, searched through his contacts and punched in her name.
She answered on the fourth ring, sounding breathless and slightly flustered, as if she’d been fumbling to get to her phone before the call went to voice mail.
“Olivia. It’s me. Connor.”
“Connor?” Her voice took on a worried note. “Is everything all right with the girls?”
“They’re fine.”
“Okay. Okay, good.” Still sounding breathless, she asked, “So. What’s up?”
Feeling oddly out of breath himself, he cleared his throat once, twice. Then forged ahead. “I just remembered that I...”
He let his words trail off, unsure why he couldn’t continue. This was Olivia. His best friend’s kid sister.
Who wasn’t a kid anymore.
And that, he realized, was the source of his hesitation. The moment she’d left his house he’d suffered a bout of yearning. For something that went beyond words, beyond logic. And was solely between them.
Guilt roiled in his gut. The sensation was complicated and multilayered on too many levels to explore at the moment. Maybe never.
“Connor? You still there?”
“Still here,” he said, gripping the phone tighter. “I just remembered I never gave you your tour.”
“What tour?” She sounded bewildered.
He knew the feeling.
“I promised to show you the top two floors of my house.”
“Of course. How could I have forgotten?” She laughed, a sweet, feminine sound that spread warmth all the way to the outer edges of his soul. “Guess it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
He wanted to show her around now, right now. After all, they shared a mutual love of Charity House and its colorful history. He’d also like to get her opinion on what to do with some of the rooms upstairs.
All of which could wait until morning, should wait until morning. Yet here he was, trying to persuade Olivia to turn around and come back to him. To the house, he corrected in his mind.
“I hate making you wait.”
“Oh, you know what the Bible says.” She sounded overly pleasant, the cheer in voice almost forced. “Blessed are those who wait.”
That was a Bible verse? Possibly.
He hadn’t explored the Scriptures since Sheila’s death. He hadn’t stepped inside a church, either.
“Tell you what.” He switched the phone to his other ear, as if the move alone could shift his focus. “If you get here earlier than usual in the morning, I’ll show you around before I head to the office.”
“How early?”
He had her. He could hear it in her voice, in the eagerness she didn’t try to hide. Once again, they were in sync, as they’d been when they folded blankets together. “A half hour, maybe forty-five minutes should do it.”
“I could make that work.”
“Great. It’s a date.”
Why had he said that? Just an expression, he told himself, relaxing his grip around the phone in his hand. Nothing more than a common saying used by millions of people every day.
“Okay, Connor.” She pronounced his name inside a shaky whisper. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to it.”
“Me, too.”
And, he really was.
Chapter Eight
A half hour after Olivia left for the night, Connor sat in a chair beside Molly’s bed and chose a book in the twins’ favorite series of historical novels, Meet Samantha, An American Girl, about an orphan being raised by her wealthy grandmother in the early 1900s.
After pulling out the bookmark, Connor picked up reading where he’d left off, just after Samantha had met a new friend, Nellie.
There was no other sound in the house except his voice and Samson’s soft, slightly wheezing snore. The dog had curled himself into a ball at the foot of Megan’s bed.
Connor never allowed the puppy to sleep in the girls’ room overnight, but he didn’t mind letting the little guy hang with them before lights out. Samson was, after all, a part of the family.
Family.
For four years that word had included only Connor and the girls. Now they had Samson, too. The addition had brought unexpected chaos and additional chores for Connor. The puppy also brought the girls’ joy. Connor kind of liked him, too. When he was asleep.
Smiling, he reached out and patted the little dog’s round belly. Samson snorted in his sleep but didn’t awaken. A night breeze fluttered the curtains, bringing fresh air into the room.
Connor continued reading.
He made it through another page before Molly interrupted him. “I really like Miss Olivia.”
“Me, too,” Megan agreed.
“Do you like her, too, Daddy?”
He looked up from the book and found both girls watching him closely. He tried not to read too much into those wide, eager gazes, even though he knew exactly what they were up to.
“Of course I like her.” Something tugged at his heart as he said the words. “She’s been a friend of our family for years.”
Molly scowled at him. “That’s not what I meant.”
As he held his daughter’s gaze, a rueful affection filled him. He knew Molly was m
atchmaking, Not very subtly, either. And not for the first time.
“Daddy, you didn’t answer Molly’s question.”
He turned to smile at Megan. “Yes, I did.”
“No, you didn’t. Not really.” Megan let out a very female sigh of frustration. “Do you like Miss Olivia or not?”
It was Connor’s turn to sigh. “Yes, I like her.”
No use pretending otherwise. Still, discomfort spread through him. Olivia was only with them on a temporary basis. She would leave Village Green eventually. Even if she stayed, he wouldn’t pursue her. Not in the way the girls wanted.
Olivia was a career woman.
Sheila had been one, too, or rather, had planned to be before the twins came along. Connor had been in his third year in medical school when they were born, and unable to dedicate much time to their care.
Sheila had been forced to give up her dream job as a cosmetics buyer for a large department store. Over time, she’d grown to resent him for that. Not at first, only when his new practice had taken him away from home for even longer hours than when he’d been in medical school.
Counseling had gotten them past the rift. When they were finally happy again, she’d gotten sick. It had been a terrible blow.
If Connor married again, and that was a big if, it would be to a woman who wouldn’t have to make sacrifices to be with him and the girls.
“It doesn’t matter if I like her or not. Olivia will be leaving us at the end of the summer.”
His declaration didn’t stop Molly from pinning him down on the Olivia issue. “She’s really pretty. Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, very.” He blew out a slow breath, remembering the way her hair had shone like black silk under the moonlight last evening, and again tonight, with the lights glowing softly in the living room.
There’d been a moment when he caught her looking at him and the girls with a vulnerable expression in her blue, fathomless eyes. Something about that look had urged him to take her hand when they were finally alone. He’d wanted to comfort her, somehow soothe away that look of pain in her eyes. He’d even considered kissing her. For a full nanosecond.
Then he’d come to his senses and stepped back.
“Do you think, maybe, you might ask Miss Olivia out on a date sometime?”
Connor shook his head, only just realizing Molly had been speaking the entire time he’d been remembering Olivia’s many fine features in his mind. “No, sweetheart, I won’t be asking her out on a date.”
“But...” Molly’s bottom lip poked out. “Why not?”
“Because she’s your nanny.”
“So?” Molly held his stare, mutiny in her eyes. She wanted answers. And she wanted them now.
He tried not to sigh again. “No, I’m not going to ask her out on a date while she’s taking care of you and your sister. It’s not appropriate.”
“But—”
“End of discussion.”
“But, Daddy.” Megan picked up the argument where her sister had left off. “Olivia is also your friend, and Dr. Ethan’s sister, and she’s—”
Having read a passage several times, Connor recited the words from memory instead of from the book on his lap.
The girls got the message and stopped interrupting him, but not before they gave each other a long look, communicating silently in their own secret-twin way. He knew what that meant. They weren’t through pushing Olivia on him.
This wasn’t the first time they’d attempted to set him up with a woman. They’d made no secret about wanting him to find them a new mother. He didn’t blame them for that. They barely remembered Sheila, and probably only because he showed them pictures of her periodically.
He still missed her, would always miss her, he knew. But her features were beginning to blur in his mind, often disappearing completely without the help of old photos to refresh his memory.
Connor closed his eyes, struggling to bring forth her image now. He didn’t want to forget her face, but feared he would eventually.
“Daddy? Did you lose your place in the story?”
“What? Oh. No.” He shook his head and focused on the open page. The words danced in a black haze before him.
He recited the next section from memory, glancing up at the girls briefly. Megan’s lids were drooping. But Molly stared hard at him. He could practically hear her little mind working overtime, trying to figure out how best to put him and Olivia together.
Molly’s tenacity would serve her well in life, though Connor would prefer her to focus on something more age-appropriate than matchmaking him with women.
She’d introduced him to her teacher a few months ago, with the express purpose of presenting the woman as a potential girlfriend. Then, a few weeks later, she’d suggested he ask out Keely O’Toole.
Connor hadn’t felt a single spark for either woman. Or any woman the girls had thrown his way. Not one had captured his attention. Until Olivia. He felt something for her. Something strong. Something he immediately shut down.
He found his place in the story and read the next paragraph. Finally, Molly’s lids began to droop.
Connor read until both girls drifted off to sleep, which was less than ten minutes later.
Setting the book quietly on the nightstand, he picked up Samson and went in search of the photo album he kept in the dining-room credenza, the one with pictures of Sheila.
* * *
The lecture Olivia had given herself on the drive over to Connor’s house the next morning was designed to steel her heart against the man’s many attractive qualities. So he loved his daughters, and worked hard to put them first in his life. That was not a reason to fall for the man. In fact, it was further reason to keep her distance.
She wouldn’t settle for a man who only saw her as nothing more valuable than his daughters’ glorified nanny.
You are his daughters’ nanny.
Right. And she had her own plans for the future. She’d spent an hour earlier this morning on her business proposal, determined to remember where her priorities needed to be. Yet Connor’s parting words on the phone last night made her pause, consider, wonder. “It’s a date.”
Just an expression, she reminded herself, nothing to take too seriously. She would be gone from his home soon, anyway.
She put the car in park and there he stood, waiting for her on the front porch. Smiling. At her.
Oh, boy.
Olivia hopped out of her car and forced one foot in front of the other. Somehow she managed to let Baloo out of the car and walk up the steps without tripping. “Hi.”
Warmth filled his gaze. “Hi.”
She waited a beat, but he didn’t say anything more.
In the ensuing silence, her heart tumbled to her toes, right along with her composure. It took several quick snatches of air to regain her equilibrium.
Baloo trotted past her, looking around the porch for his little friend.
Connor patted the dog’s head. “He’s waiting for you in the foyer.”
One more pat on the head and he let the black Lab inside the house, then shut the door behind him with a soft click.
Silence fell over them, broken only by the sound of the dogs greeting each other.
“I...um...” Olivia pulled in a tight breath. “I’m ready for my tour.”
“Then come with me.” He took her hand and guided her back down the steps to the gravel drive.
Hand resting lightly in his, she glanced around. “Where are the girls?”
“Avery took them out to breakfast.”
“Oh.” She and Connor were alone? Just the two of them.
It’s not a date.
Right. She drew her hand free of his. “Speaking of your sister, she told me she’s heading to medical school in August. Isn’t
she a little behind schedule?”
Avery was only a year younger than Olivia, at least six years older than most first-year med students.
“Technically, yes. She already has a degree in secondary science education, but teaching high school wasn’t her thing. So she took the MCATs, aced them and is now going back to medical school.” The sound of pride on Connor’s voice told its own story.
“Smart, determined girl. I knew I liked her for a reason.”
They shared a laugh.
“She’s working in the office with me this summer. Today’s her first day on the job, hence the celebratory breakfast with the girls.”
“What a nice gesture, Connor, very big brotherly of you.”
He shrugged. “Family comes first.”
Three little words. They said so much about the man.
Something inside Olivia shifted, softened.
“So, about that tour...?”
“Come with me.” He led her along the side of the house, steering her around the scaffolding, and then stopped just shy of the back stoop. “We’ll start here.”
Seeing nothing of interest besides an exterior wall, she angled her head in confusion. “Why here?”
“That spot. Right there. Behind you.” He pointed to an area of the house over her right shoulder. “That’s where the traveling preacher slammed my ancestor up against the wall.”
Intrigued, Olivia peered over her shoulder at the brick and mortar, glanced back at Connor. “I’m not familiar with that story.”
“U.S. Marshal Logan Mitchell, my great-great-grandfather, was in love with Megan Goodwin and—”
“The preacher was in love with her, too?”
Connor laughed, the sound easy and relaxed. “No. That particular man of God married a famous stage actress.”
“Scandalous.”
“At the time, very.” He placed his palm on the building beside her head, his gaze lost in the past. “As the story goes, Logan was several years older than Megan, which caused her guardian all sorts of distress.”
“How many years are we talking about?”
“Five.”
