Starting Over (Paradise Place Book 3)

by Natalie Ann

  “I think we can do that. Livi loves going out to dinner. Just text me when you get back. I know you can get held up at work.”

  They both turned when they saw Livi trying to climb the tree where the cat had just run up. “She’s a piece of work.”

  “I better go make sure she doesn’t scratch her palms and knees up before tonight. I can already tell she’s going to need a bath.”

  She watched Philip walk away, then turned when Brina joined her again. “Get everything you needed?”

  “I did. I left you money on the table.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” she argued. She didn’t like to make a profit off of her family.

  “You never let me pay but I happened to overhear you are going to dinner tonight. My treat.” She handed her some bills—way more than what the lotions and candles cost.

  “Brina!”

  “You never let me pay. So consider it a night out with your beau.”

  She giggled. “Beau?”

  “Whatever you two kids call it nowadays.”

  “You are so jaded it’s not even funny,” she told her cousin.

  “I’m just realistic is all.”

  “Want me to tell you about a dream I had with you?” she asked, testing the waters.

  “Do I really want to know? Unless he’s a hot guy with a big…organ, then no.”

  Blair smirked. “He was a hot guy. I’m not sure if he has a big heart or not, but he sure did have some big hands and feet on him.”

  “I said organ,” she said laughing. “Not heart.”

  “It’s an organ,” Blair argued.

  “I’m not sure if you are joking or serious.”

  “I’m dead serious. I dreamed it two nights ago, but I know how you get when I tell you those things. I just figured I’d sit back and watch to see what happens.”

  “I’ll keep you posted if anything does,” Brina said, laughing, and then left.

  Blair went back to her gardening so she could finish up and get to the store. She had a date tonight and she didn’t want to be late!

  “I like going out to eat,” Livi said from the backseat. “Do you like going out, Blair?”

  “I love going out to eat. Anytime I don’t have to cook is good for me.”

  Philip smiled as he listened to his daughter and Blair talking back and forth as he drove to an Italian restaurant that he’d been dying to try. He kind of felt bad now that he hadn’t asked Blair out once, just the two of them always cooking for the other.

  A family dinner. Kind of like this one, only different.

  Maybe it was time to have the talk with Livi about his and Blair’s relationship.

  And maybe that time was tonight at dinner. Hadn’t he thought that at the picnic? That it wasn’t right he wasn’t saying a word? That he wanted to reach for her and pull her in?

  There was no maybe about it anymore. It was time.

  They parked and got out, the three of them being led to a booth in the back. Instead of Livi sitting next to him, she climbed in next to Blair.

  “Do you like spaghetti and meatballs?” Livi asked Blair.

  “I do. I like making sauce too but don’t do it often in the summer. I think I’ll make a big pot next weekend.”

  “I like lasagna,” Philip said. “Do you make that too?”

  “I do. Not often as it’s a lot for one person.”

  “I like it,” Livi said. “If you make it for the three of us is it still too much?”

  Philip laughed, caught the grin in Blair’s eyes and the love too. “No, sweetie, I’d love to make it for the three of us.”

  This was the perfect opening in his eyes. “Livi, what would you think if Blair and I were more than friends?”

  Blair looked up sharply at him. There seemed to be a hesitation in her eyes and he was questioning things now. He lifted his hands to her in a shrug, wondering if he should continue, but she nodded her head and grinned.

  “More how?”

  He was trying to figure out the best way to say this so his daughter would understand. He and Blair had only said they loved each other that one time and though he knew how she felt, he didn’t want to use the love word with Livi right yet. Probably best to keep it simple.

  “Like boyfriend and girlfriend,” he said and felt kind of silly when Blair laughed. But the grin said she was okay with it too.

  “I’d like that.” Livi laid her head against Blair’s arm. “I like it when you are at our house for dinner. Can we go to your house sometime too? I like your house a lot better than ours.”

  That was news to Philip. “Why is that?”

  “Blair’s house smells better and she always has cookies. I like playing in the gardens and picking vegetables and going in the shop.”

  “I like having you over too,” Blair said. “But I don’t have a swing set in my yard like you do.”

  “No, but I can run between the yards and play with both. And you have room to put one in if you ever wanted to,” Livi said. “You’ve got more land than us. You could even put a pool in if you wanted.”

  “I don’t think so,” Blair said. “That’s a lot of work. I enjoy my gardens though.”

  “Daddy,” Livi said. “Do we have room for a pool?”

  He shook his head. “Barely, but it’s not something I want to care for either. I’ve got my hands full with you.”

  Livi laughed and the rest of the meal seemed to go fairly smoothly.

  When they were pulling into the garage, Blair said, “Make sure you check your tires.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Your tires. One might be low.”

  “My sensors would have gone off if one was low. I’m sure it’s fine. Why would you say that?”

  Livi climbed out of the SUV and went into the house, Blair and Philip following. “I just had a dream that you had a flat tire. I thought I’d save you the hassle.”

  She was smiling when she said it and he thought she was kidding. “Like I said, my sensors will alert me if there is anything wrong. You and those dreams.”

  “Hey, they work,” she said. She was holding that smile of hers, but he had a feeling she wanted to let it drop.

  “So does modern technology,” he said back, bumping her shoulder.

  They went in the house, and he got Livi in her jammies while Blair was making popcorn. They decided to have a movie night and he told Livi she could stay up a little longer if she wanted.

  Blair was all on board for it and it just reminded him of the nights he always thought he’d have with Livi and her mother.

  And though he loved Mandy dearly and still missed her, he knew he had to move on with life. He had to put Livi first and having a woman in Livi’s life was important too.

  But wasn’t he allowed to have a significant other in his life too? Wasn’t he allowed to start over?

  21

  Believe Her

  Philip was running around trying to get Livi ready for school and get out the door for his own classes when his phone rang.

  He looked over and saw that it was Blair calling and picked up. “Hey, good morning.”

  “Morning,” she said. “Are you getting ready for the day?”

  “I am. How was your night?” It’d been over a week since they’d gone out to dinner and told Livi of their relationship. Blair even made lasagna for them a few days ago at her house. He hadn’t really seen much of her house prior, but this time she’d given them the full tour.

  Livi was right, the whole house smelled fabulous. Not overpowering at all, just nice and pleasant.

  Blair’s house was actually more modern than his when it came to the kitchen. Not that his was anything to sneeze at, but his was darker, hers was light and bright with lots of white and gray.

  Not the rest of her house though. That was colorful. Cheerful. Pops of colors everywhere and he understood why Livi like coming here.

  “My night was good. I mean it started out good, but then I woke up from a horrible dream.”r />
  He rolled his eyes knowing she wasn’t there to see it. He loved her tender caring nature but sometimes didn’t always want to hear about dreams when his whole career focused around science. He could acknowledge the following though. “We all have bad dreams now and again.”

  “I know. I get it. I try to brush most of them off, but this one I couldn’t. It was about Livi.”

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Livi is just fine,” he said.

  “I know she is, but don’t send her to school today.”

  “What?” He couldn’t keep his daughter home from school because Blair had a bad dream. That was ridiculous. Not only that, he had no one to watch her and he had classes to teach. “Blair. There is nothing wrong with Livi. She’s fine. She’s not sick and there is no reason to keep her home.”

  “I know. But in my dream she was crying on the playground. I think she was hurt. I don’t want her to get hurt.”

  “Kids cry on the playground all the time. She is always tripping and skinning her knees and shedding tears. I can’t keep her home because she might do it again. I can’t keep her locked in a bubble.”

  “I’m not telling you to do that. Just don’t send her today.”

  He was slowly losing his patience over this. “Livi is going to school just like I’m going to work. I appreciate your concern, but there is no reason for her to not go. Because you woke up from a dream that she was crying?” He shook his head even though she couldn’t see him. “No. We have to finish getting ready now.”

  “What about the tire on her bike?” Blair asked.

  “What about it?”

  “Livi said she had a flat tire on her bike last week.”

  “So?”

  “I told you to check your tires,” she reminded him. “That came true.”

  He couldn’t believe her. That she was pushing this. Why, when she never had before?

  “You told me to check the tires on my car and I said there was nothing wrong with them. Which there wasn’t. You said nothing about Livi’s bike. You’re reaching. It’s a coincidence.”

  “I’m telling you, Philip, please don’t send her to school today. I’ll watch her. She can stay with me.”

  “No. She’s going to school and we all need to finish getting ready. Is that all or was there something else you needed to tell me?” It was on the tip of his tongue to make some wiseass comment about what football game he should bet on this weekend. That would just start a fight that he didn’t want though.

  “No,” she said quietly. “Go about your day. Sorry to bother you.”

  She hung up before he could say another word and he just put it from his mind.

  “Was that Blair?” Livi asked when she walked downstairs with purple jeans on and a black and red shirt. She looked ridiculous. Now if Blair told him to not send Livi to school because of her fashion sense then maybe he’d listen.

  “It was. You don’t plan on wearing that to school, do you?”

  “I like this shirt and jeans,” Livi said.

  “I like them too, but I’m not sure they really go together.”

  “Why not?” Livi asked. “Rainbows have all the colors in them and that goes.”

  The logic of kids. “But you aren’t a rainbow. Why don’t we see what other shirts you might have that will go with those jeans.”

  “But my white shirt is dirty,” she said.

  “You have more than one white shirt,” he pointed out to her and turned her around to nudge her up the stairs, wondering if they were going to get out of the house on time or not today.

  Blair stared at the phone in her hand, thinking what a fool she was. She should have figured he wouldn’t believe her and wondered why she placed the call to begin with.

  But it felt so real to her. That had never happened before. Not quite like that.

  The more she thought of it though, the more she realized how silly she sounded. Didn’t everyone in her life tell her to not do that? To not share those dreams she had.

  She just wanted to cry right now. Instead she called her grandmother.

  “Blair, what are you doing calling so early? Is everything okay?”

  She didn’t even think of the time since she was always up so early working in the shop. The responsibility of owning her own business had her working more than the average person.

  “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

  “Of course not. You sound off. Did you get into a fight with Philip?”

  Funny how her grandmother knew her well enough by the sound of her voice. “Not really. Though I think he’s not happy with me right now.”

  “What happened?”

  “I had a bad dream last night.”

  “Blair,” Nana said with a sigh. “How many times have we told you about this? And to be careful what you say and to whom.”

  “I know. But it felt so real. And it was about Livi. I couldn’t in good conscience not tell him.”

  “You’re too soft sometimes. What did you tell him?”

  “I told him I had a dream that Livi was crying on the playground. That she was hurt. I asked him—almost begged him—to not send her to school. He laughed it off at first and then told me he had no reason to keep her home.”

  “And he’s right. You can’t rely on your dreams or expect other people to either. For as many times as you dream something and it comes true, how many times do you dream something and it doesn’t? Or that you look around trying to find something to fit into that dream?”

  She hated when her grandmother brought her back to reality. “A lot. I mean it’s not like every dream I have means anything or even comes true. Not even bits and pieces of it.”

  “You know that and you experience it. Why do you think other people are just going to jump when you tell them about a dream?”

  “I don’t know. I feel like an idiot. I should have known better.”

  “You should have, but I understand where you are coming from too. You love him, don’t you?”

  “I do. You know how hard it’s been for me to find someone and I did. Or I have. And we finally told Livi about our relationship and she was so happy. It just felt like everything was falling into place.”

  “It is and it will. But some things never will and you have to understand that. Even your family kind of humors you at times on your dreams. You tell us and we listen and sometimes we keep an eye out, but other times there is no controlling it. If it happens we can say, ‘wow guess Blair knew,’ but that still never stopped anything from happening.”

  “I didn’t think of it that way.”

  “You should. You can’t control everything even though I know you want to. Does this have to do with your mother?”

  “What?” Blair asked, shocked she was being asked this question. “Of course not. Why would you say that?”

  “Because in the past you’d made comments about how if someone had warned your mother about how crazy her client’s ex was she’d still be alive. We always told you that wouldn’t be the case.”

  She hadn’t brought up her mother in years. Not since she was a teen. It’d hurt her father’s feelings, making him think she didn’t want to be with him. Once she realized that, she’d kept it all to herself.

  “I think that was just wishful thinking on a young girl’s part. The guy was nuts. He would have found a way to get to my mother one way or another. To get to his ex.”

  “Exactly,” Nana said. “Whether you have dreams that come true or not doesn’t change things from happening. Just remember that.”

  “No. It just drives me a little bit crazy wondering why I can see it and not do anything about it.”

  “Because maybe what you are really seeing are fears you’ve got or wishes and your brain is trying to make them come true for you.”

  “I guess so,” she said though she really didn’t believe that. She hung up a few minutes later and decided it was time to go back to work.

  She noticed Philip pulling out of the driveway when she went ou
tside to get some herbs. He didn’t notice her, not that he’d be looking up into the backyard as he pulled down the street.

  It was probably for the best. She’d have to call and apologize to him tonight too. No reason to start a fight when she was wrong.

  22

  More Than She Could Stand

  Philip had just gotten done teaching his last class of the morning and was going to get some lunch and figure out the rest of his day.

  He liked Tuesdays because his afternoon was his to do what he wanted. Office hours for his students or working on his lesson plans, even meeting with the other staff.

  He opened the fridge in his office and grabbed the container of leftover lasagna from Blair’s dinner on Sunday and walked down to the small kitchen to warm it up.

  Chelsea was standing there waiting for the microwave to stop. He’d been good at avoiding her. Or at least avoiding her when it was just the two of them.

  “Hi, Philip,” she said, leaning her hip against the counter. “How have you been?”

  “Good,” he said.

  “I’ve been meaning to seek you out and see if you wanted to get a drink sometime.”

  Donna had warned him Chelsea would continue to pursue him. He could say all sorts of things about how inappropriate it would be since he was her boss, but he went with the truth.

  “Thanks, but I’m in a relationship.”

  “It’s just a drink,” she argued with a laugh. “Doesn’t your girlfriend let you go out with coworkers?”

  Wow, guess Donna was right. “She wouldn’t care if I wanted to, but in this case I’m not interested. Sorry.”

  Chelsea grabbed her lunch when the microwave dinged, flung her hair over her shoulder in a childish move, then walked off. He stuck the lasagna in there and hit a few buttons at random.

  Hadn’t Blair told him she dreamed about this? That a woman was kissing him? Well, she’d been wrong. Chelsea never kissed him. Never even came close.

  All she did was flirt and tease and now invite him to have a drink. Nothing for Blair to get worked up about. Nothing bad enough for her to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. To make her go to her shop and work to tire herself.