by Sarah Clay
“Charlie, on your bed” I rustle him awake quietly, he slowly rises from his spot and shifts out of the way.
Moving in closer to her, I tuck some of her loose hair behind her ear.
“Olivia” I gently call her name. “Olivia.” Her eyes slowly drift open and closed a couple of times before she gains her focus.
“Sorry” she mumbles. I can’t help but smile down at her.
“Why don’t you head up to bed, your obviously tired. I’ll just shut everything off down here and get some sleep myself.”
I’d remembered Coop saying she wasn’t sleeping well and felt bad for waking her, but the bed upstairs would be much more comfortable than the floor. Taking her hands, I gently pull her to stand up with me. She offers me a shy smile
“I think your employees got it wrong, you’re not an arsehole at all.” I laugh at her honesty.
“I can be. Not to you though Olivia” I watch as a blush spreads over her cheeks.
“I’ll just have to try harder to piss you off,” she winks before stepping past me and over to the stairs.
“Night Jacky” she calls before ascending them.
I fight back the smirk that comes over me. She’s getting under my skin and she’s not even trying.
That’s how natural being around her feels.
∞
I wake to the smell of bacon and eggs, confused for a second how; when I remember Olivia is here. Rising up from my bed and pulling on the same pants I’d worn yesterday. Leaving my shirt off. I glance over at my alarm and notice that it’s only 5.30.
I usually sleep for another hour before I start my day. Exhaling loudly, before standing up and walking downstairs.
When I get to the landing I freeze.
The sight in front of me is not one I’m used to.
Olivia is in the kitchen, standing in front of the stove; scrapping eggs from the pan on to a plate.
She’s singing softly to herself as she sways her hips, but it’s quiet enough out here that I can hear her. She’s got an amazing voice. Charlie is laying at her feet, just as mesmerized by her as I am.
I stand there for a few more minutes, taking it all in.
All too soon she turns around and notices me, stopping in her tracks.
I kick off the wall and walk into the kitchen but she still doesn’t move. Instead, her eyes are roaming all over my chest. I smile at the thought of her checking me out.
Reaching around her and taking one of the plates that’s piled up with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, and mushrooms. I take it with me over to the counter and take a seat.
“You’ve got a good voice.” She jumps a little before meeting my eyes.
But I notice she’s struggling to keep them there, every few seconds they drop back down.
“Enjoying the view?” I joke.
She grins back, flipping off the gas; before taking her plate and joining me at the bench.
“Just want to make sure I get the description just right to share with your admirers back at your office.” I stop, mid-bite.
“What?” I choke out.
She laughs at me before taking a mouthful from her plate.
“Oh yeah, the ladies in the office are all constantly hoping your shirt will pop open so they can take a peek at all that.” She admits while motioning her fork up and down my body.
I’m still staring at her, not sure if she’s kidding or not.
“So I just want to make sure I’ve got the vital information, it’s necessary” she offers with a shrug of her shoulders as she continues eating.
I shake my head at her, laughing a little.
“Well, if that’s the case. Just let me know if you need me to walk around without a shirt more often, you know in case your memory slips.”
She nods along with me.
“I definitely think that rule should be implemented, no shirts around the house” She taps her finger to her mouth “Mmm… yep, I like the sound of that one.”
I laugh around a mouthful of this delicious food.
“Does that go for you too?” I jest, causing her to laugh.
“It’s only fair” she agrees but makes no move to take her top off.
I don’t know what I want more, for her to take it off so I can see more of her body or for her to keep it on so I don’t do something stupid.
“Thanks for cooking, I don’t know the last time I had someone cook me a meal” I offer, I really don’t.
“No mom living around the corner bringing over home-cooked meals?” She jokes.
“Nah no family” she freezes, peering over at me. “Grew up in the system, no family to speak of.”
She nods along, most people offer an apology when they hear about my childhood.
It has always annoyed me, what are they sorry for; they didn’t do anything.
But Olivia surprises me.
“I killed my Mum” she mutters in a sad, broken voice.
I choke on the mouthful of food I’d just taken. She quickly offers me a glass of orange juice and rubs my back until I get myself in check. When I look over at her, she drops her hand and turns back to her plate.
“Not like that, I mean, Mum died giving birth to me. I guess she lost a lot of blood and there were some complications.” She trails off.
All I can think is, this poor beautiful girl.
I know what it’s like to grow up without a Mum. But I didn’t grow up feeling that way, as well as feeling like I’d killed her. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it. I don’t offer her any words just now; I just hold on to her hand.
“Coop says I look like her, well from what he remembers” I smile over at her. Her Mum must have been beautiful I think to myself, but I don’t tell her that.
We’d finished up breakfast, then stood side by side clearing up our mess and doing the dishes. It was all very domesticated while talking about our childhoods with each other while we worked. It didn’t take us long and when I looked at the clock I realized I’d have to skip my morning run, and hit the shower.
“Right, well, I better go get ready for the office,” I notice Olivia gnawing at her bottom lip.
Damn how I wish that was my teeth doing that.
“What’s wrong, you don’t want to come?” She laughs at my question.
“To have a shower with you, sure let’s go” She starts walking off in the direction of the shower before I catch up with her, grabbing hold of her hand and pulling her to a stop.
She turns around and sighs, but I don’t drop her hand. Liking the feel of her soft skin against my own. “I didn’t get much sleep last night and I just wanted to stay here, this place is amazing.”
I hear what she’s saying, but I don’t know that I should leave her here, Cooper wanted me to keep an eye on her.
“No one knows that I’m here and if even if Dad or even Alec did come to town, they wouldn’t even know where to look for me out here.” She tries persuading me.
She’s right, no one would even think to come out here and if she stays, she might at least get some sleep. I tighten my grip on her hand pulling her in closer. Her chest is against mine now and she huffs up at me, obviously thinking I’m about to say no to her request.
“Fine, you can stay out here, but you keep your phone on you,” I demand.
She lets out a little squeal of happiness before throwing her arms around my neck.
“Thank you, thank you.” I laugh, wrapping my arms around her too. Taking advantage of having her tight little body up against me.
“You’re the best Jacky.”
The nerve on this one; she giggles as I tighten my arms around her, squeezing her into me.
“And no more Jacky remarks.”
I feel her nodding against me. “Deal.”
∞
The days in the office were starting to drag. Possibly because I knew what was at home waiting for me when I returned.
Olivia had taken to sending me texts every day last week. She’d continued it this week after I’
d told her over the weekend that I enjoyed getting them. She kept me up to date on what she was getting up to, with pictures of Charlie and her outside playing with his favorite ball, sharing her lunch with him, and the most recent one was just an hour or so ago. A picture of them both soaking wet after she’d bathed him.
Charlie would be loving all the attention, and I won’t lie, I was feeling pretty damn jealous of my dog with each new picture that came in.
My phone chimes with another message causing me to smile, wondering what she’d be sending me now. But my smile fades when I see it’s not her. It’s Victoria, asking me to go to dinner with her; Again.
I shoot off a quick reply saying that I wouldn’t be able to tonight and we’d need to reschedule, but I wasn’t even sure I wanted to reschedule.
She was becoming increasingly needy and on top of that, my interests seemed to have drifted to someone else completely.
∞
I’d ended up leaving work by 5, wanting to be home instead.
I’d brought some work home with me though. It felt wrong leaving so early, it was only fair that I made up for it. But I’d much rather do it from home, where I had a sexy little house guest to check out while I did.
When I pull in to the drive I can’t help but smile, the house is lit up downstairs and there’s smoke coming from the chimney. I make my way in and for the first time since adopting Charlie, I’m not greeted at the door by him. I drop my stuff on the hall table and go in search of both of them.
There’s no sign of them in the kitchen or lounge, so I make my way up the stairs taking two at a time. I still don’t see them anywhere up here either.
“Olivia?” I call out as I knock on her door and swing it open.
I notice it’s dark in her room, but there’s enough light shining in from behind me to make out her figure under the blanket. Charlie’s curled up beside her, only raising his head when I enter the room.
“Charlie, off the bed” I condemn him half-heartedly, greeting him with his usual pats behind his ear.
Leaning down beside her I smile at that same piece of hair that was always falling over her face. Tucking it behind her ear, before standing back up and moving towards the door. I stop when I hear her groggy voice.
“How was work?”
Turning slightly, I smile over my shoulder at her. “Not nearly as fun as your day by the looks of it.”
She laughs while stretching out on the bed. “This past week has been unlike anything else,” her mouth curves into a small smile.
And damn, if I don’t want to keep that smile on her face permanently.
“I’m glad to hear it. I spoke to your brother today.”
She laughs again, “so did I, three times.”
Sitting up on the bed now, she swings her legs over the side. Causing me to turn around completely now so I can take in what she’s wearing.
Tight black leggings and my old university hoody. Damn. She looks fucking hot in my clothes. She must notice where my attention is because she blushes.
“Sorry, it was with a pile of towels I used to mop up Charlie's destruction, I didn’t think you would mind, and I was freezing until I managed to get the fireplace going.”
Shit, I should have done that for her before I left this morning.
I’d been doing it all week, but completely forgotten about it this morning. I didn’t normally have to think about that type of thing, and it was an extra cold winters day today.
“It’s fine, it suits you.”
She pulls at the jumper, it’s much too big for her little frame, but I wasn’t lying it does suit her.
“You thought about that?” I throw my head in her direction, and she raises a brow in question.
“University?” when I nod she just shrugs her shoulders.
Seemingly not wanting to talk about it, so I drop the subject until she does.
Olivia has been with me for two weeks now and when I’d come home from work tonight, I headed straight to my office after offering a quick hello.
I needed to put some distance between us before I tried to do something stupid.
I’d found myself looking forward to the time we shared, we didn’t even have to be doing anything important. Just lounging on the sofa watching movies together or taking Charlie for walks along the trails, even tidying the kitchen together; they were now some of my favorite things to do.
But we were tempting fate with all of our innocent touches and both of us had been caught a time or two just staring at the other, I don’t know what she was thinking about, but if it was anything alike to my own thoughts, we were skimming to close to that line.
Having her in my space was messing with me, I enjoyed it more than I should. I was used to sharing space with others, growing up in the system; it often had me lodging with more people than not.
But it was different with her, her vanilla scent had taken over every room, and after that first day when she cooked me breakfast and then dinner, she had continued to do it every day since.
I’d been getting up earlier just to spend some time with her, still opting to take a run; before I’d head off to the office.
She’d been staying back at the house more often than not, occasionally she’d come into the office, but if she didn’t, she would still find things to text me about throughout the day; which I found myself looking forward to.
My dog seemed to have lost all interest in me too, opting to follow her around everywhere instead. Not that I could blame the big sook.
“Umm, he’s trying to finish up on some work” I hear Olivia’s voice drift down the hall before my office door swings open.
I glance up and see Victoria sauntering through the space as if she owns it.
When I look behind her I see Olivia standing in the doorway with a worried expression on her face, gnawing on that bottom lip again.
“Jacky” Victoria breathes as she comes to stand beside me, pecking me on the cheek.
I shift back a little and glance over at her, she’s dressed in the tightest little black dress and all dolled up.
“What are you doing here Victoria?”
She looks back to Olivia who hadn’t moved from the doorway.
“Thanks for letting me in Lola, you can go now though” she dismisses her as if she was a just one of the help.
Olivia rolls her eyes in our direction before pulling the door closed behind her.
Victoria pushes my chair out of my desk and shimmies in between my legs.
“Her name is Olivia,” I growl out before I can stop myself. But all she manages is a tight smile while seamlessly shrugging off my comment.
“I thought maybe I could come over and help entertain you, I’ve noticed you leaving work earlier because you’ve got to come back and look after her.”
She was right, I was leaving work earlier than normal.
But I wasn’t looking after her, quite the opposite. She’d been feeding me and keeping Charlie company.
I’d simply been leaving earlier because I wanted to see her.
“That’s not the case at all, she’s nineteen; she can take care of herself.” I huff out in frustration.
“So why is she staying with you then and not at Cooper's apartment?”
I’m sure I can hear the disdain in her voice before she tries covering it, rubbing her hands up and down my thighs to distract me.
“Cooper didn’t want her to be alone, her father is trying to get a hold of her… it’s a long story.”
I pull her up by her arms when she tries kneeling down in front of me. Her brows rising in silent question.
I’m not normally one to stop her from getting on her knees in front of me, but I’m not feeling it tonight, at least not with her.
“Not tonight Vic, if you had of called before showing up, I would have told you I had a lot to get done.”
She mumbles something under her breath before she turns to walk back out the door she’d just waltzed through.
“Well w
hen will your house guest be gone?” she asks, the hurt in her voice evident.
I sigh, wiping my hand down my face. Trying to wipe the annoyance this conversation is causing me, off of it too.
“I don’t know Victoria. Until she resolves some things and Coopers back.”
I turn back to my laptop, effectively disregarding her presence.
Chapter Nine
Olivia
“Sorry about earlier…”
I hear Jackson's deep hesitant voice cut into the silence of the room.
I’d been laying in front of the fire, sketching out a picture of Charlie; who was currently curled up beside me.
I’d been surprised when Victoria showed up earlier in the night, but not more than when she stormed out of the house not long after.
“No problems, I’m sorry I seem to be spoiling your time with her” I throw over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off of the sketchbook.
He grumbles something I can’t quite make out before walking further into the room, coming to sit down beside us on the floor.
