by Risk, Mona
Olivia pursed her lips without answering.
“Can I see her driver’s license, ma’am?”
Olivia threw an apprehensive gaze at Luc. He swallowed, hoping Melissa hadn’t forgotten to take her permit with her. As Olivia fumbled in the purse, a forlorn grimace replaced her previous angst. “She must have left it at home.”
“I see.”
“We can send it to you as soon as we go home,” Luc said, hating the police officer for adding to Olivia’s troubles.
“Please do that. I’ll have to suspend her anyway for driving without having a license with her.”
At the moment, it was the least of their worries. Olivia shrugged.
“Of course, the smash wasn’t your daughter’s fault,” the man added as if he regretted his previous rudeness.
“What do you mean? Do you know what caused the accident?” Luc asked, seizing the opportunity to divert the conversation.
“A deer. He must have run in front of her. Your daughter probably swerved the car to avoid it, hit a tree and ended in a ditch.”
Olivia’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. The first thing she said in the ambulance was ‘eyes’. That’s what scared her in the dark.”
“A deer?” Luc’s breath caught in his throat. Melissa was lucky to have escaped with her life. Deer accidents could cause very serious injuries.
“My men found the dying deer not too far from the vehicle. Ma’am, I’ll send you my report and the fine for driving without a license. If I were you, I’d keep a closer eye on my teenagers.” He stood and left.
“What a lout,” Luc muttered as the man disappeared in the corridor.
“Poor Melissa. It’s not even her fault. It’s all mine.” Olivia pulled out her cell phone, a resolute expression on her face. “I’m calling information.” She waited a few seconds. “May I have the number for Mr. Thomas Rutherford?”
Olivia scribbled the number on a piece of paper Luc handed her. Clasping her cell phone in her hand, she glanced at him, hesitating. “Maybe it would be better to wait until Melissa completely recovers from her surgery before asking Rutherford to meet her.”
“Definitely, wait a day or two. I have the feeling that the accident may have temporarily erased some of her short term memory.”
“Even if she’s forgotten our conversation, I want her to meet her great-grandfather.”
“Of course.”
Luc sucked in a deep breath and gritted his teeth. No, it wasn’t Melissa’s fault. And it wasn’t Olivia’s either. He was the one responsible for starting this mess with his lack of understanding and his inflexibility. His throat constricted.
A deer accident. Olivia’s daughter could have died. Because of him.
When would he stop making a parallel between his experience with Brigitte and Olivia’s painful past? He’d thought and acted like a shrink. And maybe like a resentful father.
He couldn’t continue to interfere in Olivia’s life as if he had all the answers. But he loved her and couldn’t turn his back now just because guilt nagged his conscience. Definitely not now when both Olivia and Melissa needed him.
He would give Olivia the emotional space she’d asked for and act the perfect friend rather than the eager lover. Meanwhile he’d spend more time with Melissa, who could use a decent paternal figure after losing her childhood illusions about an honorable father and a normal family.
Oh, yes, he’d stick around in spite of Olivia’s efforts to push him away. He was convinced that Olivia loved him and would come to him as soon as she regained full control of her emotions and Melissa’s health improved.
Be patient, Lucien. He mumbled the mantra he’d been repeating to himself since he arrived in Cincinnati. Patient.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Are we ready?” Melissa was going home after two painful weeks in a hospital room.
Two weeks during which Olivia’s heart had thumped at an uneven rate, skipped a beat each time Melissa woke up screaming from a nightmare, slowed when Melissa cried from pain, and raced with anticipation at every little progress. In parallel with her daughter’s health, Olivia’s poor heart badly needed a calm atmosphere to recuperate.
Olivia signed the last discharge form, collected the prescriptions and signaled to the orderly rolling the wheelchair to come in.
“No more dizziness, ma petite chérie?” Luc tenderly asked. He had spoiled Melissa rotten, showering her with flowers and gifts.
“Not at all. I feel just fine. Don’t worry, Papa Luc,” Melissa said with a dazzling smile.
Olivia rolled her eyes. Why had Melissa taken to calling Luc ‘Papa’ as if she were a French girl talking to her father? There was no doubt her daughter was starved for a father figure.
What a father. Hmm, what a lover.
Navy corduroy pants and matching turtleneck enhanced the blue of his eyes and his sculpted chest. After spending last night at the hospital, stubble darkened his chiseled cheeks, and his finger-combed hair fell on his forehead. Darn, but he looked every bit the dashing French aristocrat.
Her favorite Frenchman. The only man she’d ever wanted.
Melissa had been smart enough to appreciate him from the start. The Papa Luc appellation had started the day after Luc had spent his first night at Melissa’s bedside to give Olivia a break and good night’s rest. Then Melissa had insisted she wanted Luc to alternate the night shift with Olivia, and he’d gladly indulged her.
Olivia considered her daughter with concern. Since the accident, the girl hadn’t broached the subject of her birth or their last altercation. Maybe the surgeon was right about a temporary amnesia. Or maybe Melissa had blanked out the nightmarish events of that night.
“I’m not sitting in that.” Melissa pointed to the wheelchair. “Take it away,” she ordered the orderly with a stubborn tilt to her chin.
Here we go. Trouble starting. Melissa felt better, all right. Her combative nature had come back full strength.
“No problem, ma petite. May I be your escort?” Luc bowed in front of her daughter with a flourish and offered her his arm.
Melissa giggled and hooked her arm in his elbow.
“Lean on me. I don’t want you to collapse before we get out of this place. We have been here long enough.” He turned to the orderly. “Can you roll the wheelchair beside us, please? In case we may need it.”
Spoiled rotten. How was Olivia to handle her daughter after that? She shrugged. For the moment, she was just as happy to get out of hospital confinement.
On the cart pushed by a hospital volunteer, she arranged the dozen vases and baskets of flowers that had transformed Melissa’s hospital room into a fragrant little garden. Then she followed Luc and Melissa down the hallway and into the elevator.
Outside, Luc gave a ticket to the valet. When Olivia’s van stopped at the curb, Luc helped Melissa into the back seat and arranged a blanket on her lap. “You had better stretch your legs on the seat to feel more comfortable.”
“Okay.”
Okay? Wow. Amazing how Luc’s orders were received with a smile or an okay, while Olivia had to repeat her requests at least two or three times to get a reaction.
Had she been wanting on motherly skills?
Forget it. That was part of Luc’s killer charm and the power he had over every female crossing his path. He smiled. They melted. Disgusting. And yet Olivia knew deep down that she loved his smile more than any other woman ever had.
“Do you mind if I drive, Olivia?”
“Not at all.”
Somehow he felt compelled to ask permission whenever they rode in her car, although he never really waited for her answer as he held the passenger door open for her.
The car rolled smoothly out of the hospital grounds. Olivia’s sigh of relief echoed Melissa. “Dr. Sloane told me I’d be well enough to dance in a couple of weeks. We’d better plan something.”
“Of course, we will,” Luc answered with a wink in the rear-view mirror. Olivia stopped listening as they chatte
d, more worried by the minute at the girl’s lack of concern for her accident, surgery and post-operative health.
Short term memory loss? How long would it last? In a way she’d rather see Melissa with a temporary amnesia that would heal soon rather than watch her deny the truth the way Olivia had for years.
Luc continued along the narrow road where they’d found the white Cadillac the night of the accident.
“It was here.” Melissa’s scream prickled the skin of Olivia’s nape. “The eyes. A deer. Oh God. I tried to avoid it.”
“Honey, calm down. It’s over. It’s okay.” Olivia spoke with the calm voice she used with her patients. “Luc, can you stop for a second? I need to go in the back and hold her.”
Rather than stopping, Luc stomped on the accelerator and raced the car down the country road. “I prefer to get out of here.”
Olivia sighed, praying that Melissa would stop shaking. Ten minutes later Luc activated the garage door opener and parked the van inside the garage. He climbed out of his seat, opened the rear door and scooped Melissa into his arms. “I can walk,” she said her voice surprisingly calm after her outburst.
“I know,” Luc said with a charming smile. “But you wanted to dance. We will dance all the way upstairs.”
Melissa chuckled. “You’re so funny, Papa Luc.”
Olivia stared as her daughter laced her hands behind Luc’s neck and let him waltz her through the kitchen, the hallway and up the stairs, all the while whispering something.
A perfect picture of a loving family.
This was what she’d missed for years. To think she’d pushed Luc away—again—to dedicate herself exclusively to Melissa.
Would Melissa appreciate her mother’s sacrifice?
Her daughter’s chuckle chimed in response as she nestled cozily in Luc’s arms. The very spot where Olivia had thought she’d spend the rest of her life.
Gosh, was she jealous of Melissa’s affection toward Luc?
Life’s irony. Melissa might one day throw in her face that Olivia had deprived her of her self-adopted Papa Luc.
Olivia’s mind spun in a whirlpool of contradictory emotions as she slowly followed them to Melissa’s room.
Luc gently laid his charge in the middle of the bed. “Anything else I can do for my princess?”
Melissa sighed. “You’ve done a lot. I wish you could really be...” Her eyes darkened. “Tell me, did you ever meet Mom’s first...boyfriend?”
“What?” Olivia swallowed a gasp. Her chest squeezed as Melissa’s question boomeranged in her brain. And the way she referred to her natural father as Mom’s first boyfriend. What was going on in her daughter’s head?
Luc’s smiling face turned serious as he focused his gaze on Melissa. Olivia took a step forward, intending to protect her daughter one more time from the specter of the past. But Luc raised his hand in a calming gesture. After a quick glance at Olivia, he crouched in front of the bed, his eyes at Melissa’s level.
“Yes. I met him recently. He is my patient.”
“Your patient? Is he...sick?”
“In a way. I am a psychiatrist. Like your maman. We treat patients with mental disorders.”
Melissa cringed, her eyes narrowed. “Bad disorders?”
“I am sorry Melissa. I can’t disclose patients’ information.”
“I see.” She closed her eyes.
“Darling,” Olivia started forward.
“I’d like to rest.”
“Of course. Please, Luc, come.”
He preceded her out of the room. As she was about to close the door behind them, Melissa called, “Mom, you’re the best mother in the world.”
Olivia darted to the bed.
“Thank you for giving me a heroic dead father for sixteen years.”
Tears streaming down her face, Olivia enfolded her beautiful daughter in her arms.
****
A glass of wine in hand, Luc paced the living room in slow methodical steps, from the window to the hallway and back to the window. He paused and glanced at his watch, then toward the upper landing. He wanted to give Olivia as much time as she needed to bond with her daughter again and to knock down the wall of silence that had separated her from Melissa in the past two weeks.
During the post-operative recovery, he had studied Melissa carefully. Far from suffering temporary amnesia as they had feared, Melissa had been painfully aware of every word exchanged around her while she’d lain in her hospital bed, eyes closed. She’d turned to Luc for support, and he’d done the only decent thing a family friend and doctor could do. He’d listened to her complaints and frustrations, offered comfort and advice, and mostly convinced her that her mother loved her deeply.
He’d also returned her confidence by telling her about his little son. He groaned, embarrassed by the tears that had tickled his eyes when she’d thrown her arms around his neck and asked if she could call him Papa in memory of his little boy.
Regardless, he couldn’t stand to see Olivia’s resigned glances as she watched them chat while she stayed away, feeling unwanted by Melissa. She should be in his arms. Before her daughter or any woman in the world. If only she’d allow him...
Her slippers shuffled on the carpeted steps. Luc raised his head. Her eyes were moist, but a lovely smile brightened her face. Her first smile in ages.
Had the stubborn wall crumbled between mother and daughter? Was the nightmare of the past weeks finally subsiding?
He let his gaze feast on her perfect figure. She came straight to him, linked her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. He hooked his hands around her. Slowly. He wouldn’t move too fast. He wouldn’t invade her peaceful space and see her squirm away.
Standing still, he breathed a wisp of the lemon and vanilla cologne she’d used after her bath and waited for words of love to tumble out of her lovely mouth. Words he’d been eagerly, or rather anxiously, waiting for since the day they’d revealed the truth to Melissa, the day Olivia had collapsed in despair.
“I don’t know how to thank you. I told her about...my first boyfriend as she now calls Jeremy. I told her everything. And she listened.” Olivia raised her head, eyes still glimmering with happy tears. “Oh Luc, she listened without interrupting.”
He smoothed her hair away from her forehead and gravely looked at her. “I am so glad she did.”
“I owe you so much, Luc.”
An iron grip closed around his heart. Words of gratitude were acceptable, but they were not the words he wanted to hear.
“You owe me nothing, Olivia. I caused a commotion, a huge mess. I had to fix it.”
“I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you,” she breathed in a sigh.
The iron grip tightened, squeezing air out of his lungs. Merde, stop thanking me. Tell me you love me.
He gently pushed her away and raked his fingers through his hair. “No more thanks. We should be productive and plan the next step.”
“The next step?” Her eyes widened with a hopeful shine.
“Yes, we need to bring her great-grandfather to meet her.”
“Her great-grandfather?” she mumbled as if she didn’t understand his words.
He crossed his arms to avoid touching her. To avoid kissing her and rolling on the sofa or the floor. Or any other place he could find to make love to her. One last time before he rushed out of here with a quiet conscience and a broken heart.
But he still had one more task to accomplish. “I suggest you stay with Melissa now. If you don’t mind, I will call Rutherford, meet him at the Crisis Center, and gently break the news that he has a great-granddaughter. We don’t want the old man to die on us from a heart attack. You know the impact of strong emotions.”
“You’re right. I’m so happy I can’t think straight.” She touched his shoulder and leaned against him. “Will you tell him everything?”
Luc inched back, his jaws tightening. He couldn’t afford to play with fire now. Even a careless boy learned from being b
urned too many times. “Just the bare minimum about his lousy grandson. You can fill him in later with the sordid details.”
“I’d rather close the subject once and for all.”
“I understand.”
“Then I should prepare Melissa for her old relative’s visit.” She frowned and paced for a moment. “You know what? I really want to make it a celebration, a happy event. How about if you tell him the whole thing about his great-granddaughter without mentioning her name?”
“You mean you want to make it a surprise for him? Let him discover after he arrives here that she is the lovely girl he met before?”
“Exactly, I want to see his expression when he meets her. Could that harm his heart?”
Luc shook his head. “It’s good news, and I will go about it gently. Do you want to let him tell her he is her great-grandfather?”
“Yeah, great idea. I’ll just tell Melissa that Mr. Rutherford heard about her accident and wants to visit her. She won’t have time to put the puzzle together.”
“Perfect. Since it’s all settled, I will be on my way. There is so much work at the Crisis Center.”
“I know. You’ve been covering for me in addition to your own work. I don’t know how I’ll be able to thank you for everything you’ve done, Luc.”
Stop it. Nom de diable. Stop it. I don’t want you to come to me in gratitude.
He scowled, cracked his knuckles and nodded. “I told McMillan about the accident. He said he will return next week from California. We will be fine. See you later.”
He walked straight to the door without waiting for a response that didn’t come. As he turned to close the door behind him, he spotted her in the middle of the living room, her arms hanging down her sides, a stricken expression on her face.
Something was bothering her. He paused. Had he been too harsh? Should he go back, tell her he was sorry for leaving in a rush?
What would he accomplish? He exhaled loudly and shrugged. The truth was out, and she’d made peace with her daughter and her conscience. She was finally content.
But Olivia would never change.
Now, she would dedicate herself to Melissa as she’d clearly specified. There was no place for love in her life.