Best Laid Plans

by Tamie Dearen

  “Olivia.” Josh tried to control his ire, even as he felt the blood pulsing in his head. “I think we’re going to be quite busy. Perhaps you’ve forgotten about... about our appointments.” His voice took on a pleading tone. “We are still in this together, aren’t we?”

  Olivia patted his hand and gave him a sweet smile. “Don’t fret so much. You’ve got to learn to trust me.”

  Charlie and Emily exchanged a bewildered look. But Spencer rose up from the table, saying, “Well, it’s time to get Olivia home so she can get some rest.”

  “Why me? Why aren’t you worried about Hannah getting rest?”

  “Do you really want me to answer that?” asked Spencer.

  “Yes, I do.” As Olivia spoke, she crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “You’ve been acting so weird. What on earth is wrong with you? And since when do you think you have a say in what I drink or what time I go to bed at night. You’re worse than Grace.”

  “Well, you don’t seem to know how to take care of yourself.”

  “Spencer,” Emily warned.

  “What? She should know better. There’s no excuse. She was drinking alcohol tonight.”

  “I can legally drink alcohol, and I only had one rum and coke,” Olivia retorted. “And I’m not on call tonight, and I’m not driving.”

  “That’s fine for you,” declared Spencer, as the muscles in his jaw clenched and unclenched. “But what about the baby?”

  The silence was deafening.

  Chapter Five

  CHARLIE WANTED TO CRAWL under the table. Olivia rose from her chair with her cheeks blooming bright red. She regarded her brother with eyes squeezed to narrow slits. She broke the silence, speaking slowly, with barely controlled anger. “What did you say?”

  “Josh told me about the baby,” said Spencer, jutting out his jaw.

  “He what?” Olivia whipped her head around to spear Josh with a vicious glare. “You told him I was pregnant? That’s how you explained it?”

  “I did not! That’s not what I said.” Josh jumped to his feet and leaned threateningly across the table toward Spencer. “I never said that—you tell her the truth.”

  “You didn’t say it outright, but... but you implied it,” argued Spencer, the certainty having left his voice.

  “I did not.” Turning a pleading face to Olivia, Josh said, “I didn’t. I promise I didn’t.” His cell phone made a noise, and he paused to check it, letting an expletive slip though his lips. “I have to go to the hospital. Olivia, you’re probably going to get called in as well.” He started for the door.

  “But, I’m not on call.”

  “It’s a bad accident. Over twenty patients brought in already. They’re going to need you.” He tossed the words over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

  As Josh predicted, her cell phone vibrated, and she groaned when she read her message. “Josh, wait up!” she called, following quickly behind him. “I’m not pregnant!” she yelled back at the table before she disappeared.

  Spencer sank into his chair, and a stunned silence fell on the table.

  Hannah’s laugh rang out, breaking into the quiet. “Oh, Spencer. You are in so much hot water. You’d better not turn your back on Olivia tomorrow night.” She laughed even harder when Spencer’s face turned red.

  “But... but I thought that’s what Josh said...” Spencer sputtered.

  “Good grief, Spencer! Really? You’ve got to be kidding. They’re like siblings.” Hannah’s face was incredulous.

  “But he asked her to marry him,” Emily argued.

  “I know, but that’s some kind of a joke or something. It can’t be for real,” Hannah insisted. “Even if she really had been pregnant, Spencer shouldn’t have said it out loud in front of everybody.” She shook her head with a doleful expression. “I’m just sayin’.”

  Charlie’s head was reeling. She couldn’t help the leap of joy in her heart knowing Olivia wasn’t carrying Josh’s baby. But it didn’t explain why Josh was trying to get her to marry him. Maybe he was using Olivia as an excuse to avoid Charlie. The timing was awfully coincidental with her return to New York City. But he seemed really determined to marry Olivia, even though Hannah insisted they were like brother and sister. He might dislike Charlie now, but he wouldn’t marry Olivia out of spite. Would he? No, the only explanation was they had much deeper feelings for each other than anyone realized. Although, it still didn’t explain what Emily had said about a custody battle.

  “So...” Derek said, with a rise of color to his face, “Can I see you again?”

  “See me?” Charlie asked, startled out of her contemplation.

  “Yes. You know. As in, go out on a date?”

  “A date?”

  “Charlie, you sound like a parrot,” said Emily. “Derek, you’ll have to excuse my sister. This is her first night out in a long while.”

  “Where’s she been hiding?” he joked.

  “We usually keep her locked up tight.”

  Charlie slugged her sister on the arm. “I was caught off-guard when you asked about dating. I figured no one in law school had time to date.”

  “We’ve got three weeks of freedom,” Lance chimed in. “We have to squeeze in all the action we can get in a short amount of time.” He casually put his arm around Hannah’s shoulder.

  “How old are you, anyway?” Spencer asked Lance, staring at his arm until he removed it.

  “I’m twenty-nine. Why do you ask?”

  “Because I think you’re too old for my sister.” Spencer’s gaze was unrelenting.

  “That’s none of your business,” said Hannah, arching her brow. “You’re already in trouble with Olivia. Do you want me on your case, too?”

  “Eight years difference,” Spencer insisted. “That’s a lot.”

  “We’re not getting married, Spencer. We’re just going for pizza.”

  As they continued to bicker, Derek spoke in a soft voice. “So can we go out on a date? I promise I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t planning to deal with dating while I was in law school.”

  “Lucky for me you haven’t started school yet.” He winked.

  Charlie groaned, but she couldn’t keep a straight face. “Okay. What did you have in mind?”

  “Wednesday night? Nice dinner somewhere?”

  “No, because I’m going to insist on paying half, and that’s not in my budget.”

  “I don’t mind paying. I’m the one who’s asking you out.”

  “It’s a long story, but trust me, I can’t let you pay. And no kissing, either.”

  Derek pushed his lower lip out in an exaggerated pout. “But I’m suffering after a long, hard semester of studying in law school. Not even one little, tiny kiss?”

  “Nope,” said Charlie. “I’m up for Chinese takeout and a rented movie, with no kissing. Take it or leave it.”

  “I’m taking it. And just to get a jump on things, I have tickets to a musical on Saturday night. Can you go?”

  “Sorry, I’m going skiing next weekend. We’ll be gone a week.”

  “All of us are going,” said Hannah, almost bouncing with excitement. “On Steven’s jet! And he’s paying for the whole thing!”

  “Steven?” asked Derek. “Your rich stepfather?”

  “Yes,” said Charlie. “He’s taking our family and Spencer’s sisters, too.”

  “Sounds like a great guy,” said Derek. “What did you say his last name was?”

  Hannah started to respond, “Gher—”

  “I didn’t say his last name,” Charlie said, cutting Hannah off.

  Derek squinted at Charlie again. “Steven Gherring?”

  Charlie moaned and hid her face in her hands.

  “That’s it! I knew I’d seen you in a magazine. Your picture was in an article about Steven Gherring with his twin sons.” A self-satisfied smile emerged on his face. “Why didn’t you want me to know?”

  “I don’t like attention.” Charlie tw
isted her mouth sideways. “I didn’t want anyone at Columbia to know.”

  “We won’t tell anyone,” said Lance. “And New Yorkers are cool about celebrities, anyway. No one will bother you about it.”

  “Seriously, no one will know or care,” said Derek. “It was just driving me crazy. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where I’d seen your picture.”

  “Usually my hair is in a ponytail,” said Charlie. “I don’t normally look like this.”

  “No, it’s usually inside a hat,” Emily said.

  “It’s getting so long I can’t get it all inside anymore,” complained Charlie. “I need to cut it.”

  “No, don’t cut it! It’s beautiful.” Derek eyebrows twisted in a stricken expression.

  She can’t cut it now,” Emily declared. “I bet her she couldn’t go without cutting it before she graduated from law school. Charlie took the bet, and she’s too competitive to lose.”

  “So obviously, your stepfather doesn’t share his money with you, since your budget only allows for Chinese takeout,” said Derek.

  “It’s not that he won’t share his money,” Emily explained. “He’s very generous. But, we were both raised with too much pride to feel comfortable taking handouts, so we try to be independent.”

  Spencer squeezed Emily’s shoulder and chuckled. “Yes, between the Best Dating Rules and the Best family pride, we almost didn’t get together.”

  “Best Dating Rules?” asked Derrick.

  “We don’t need to get into that.” Charlie sent Spencer a warning glance, but he ignored her.

  “Best—that’s Charlie’s last name, Emily’s maiden name. And their dating rules are extensive and complicated.”

  “Spencer,” Charlie growled, “that’s enough.”

  “But I think it’s only fair I know the rules,” said Derek.

  “I know them,” said Hannah. “My sisters and I learned them when Spencer got engaged to Emily.”

  “Not now, Hannah,” said Charlie. “The number one rule is a guy has to earn the right to learn the dating rules.”

  “Okay. We’ll keep them a secret for now.”

  “You’ll tell me over pizza, right?” Lance whispered to Hannah.

  “I heard that,” said Charlie.

  But Hannah giggled, giving him a little nod, at which Lance winked at Derek.

  Evidently,” Charlie remarked, “no one in Spencer’s family can keep a secret.”

  IT WAS FIVE A.M. BEFORE Josh got an opportunity to talk with Olivia at the hospital. He handed her a cup of coffee as they sank into adjacent chairs in the break-room, bleary-eyed and exhausted.

  “One of those kids...” His voice cracked, and he couldn’t continue.

  “I know.” Her voice was soft and full of sympathy. “He was only nine. Same as Jace. It was so sad.”

  He heaved a shaky breath. “Sometimes I think I can’t keep doing this job. It’s great when you can save a life, but I hate when I feel powerless.” He realized his fears extended beyond the emergency room. He would soon be responsible for two lives, and he wouldn’t be able to protect them from every possible danger.

  “I know what you mean.” They sat quietly for a few moments, staring at the bare white wall across from them.

  “About tonight,” he said. “I promise I didn’t tell Spencer you were pregnant.”

  “I know. And right now, all of that seems unimportant. This kind of puts everything in perspective.” Her voice dropped off. Only their breathing made a sound until she broke the silence with a chuckle. “But Spencer is gonna pay for making that comment in the restaurant, and he knows it. I bet he’s scared to death to go to dinner at the house tonight.”

  “I almost feel sorry for him.”

  “So... You get the kids today? And it’s okay if I don’t see them until Monday night?”

  “Yes. I want a chance to spend time alone with them, anyway. I’m off work until Tuesday. Although, I could always get called in for something like this. I guess I’m going to need some backup.”

  “You know, Josh,” she spoke in an earnest tone, laying her hand on his arm. “When you finally come clean about all this, your family will help you.”

  He started to object. “I don’t have—”

  “We’re your family. All of us. Spencer, Emily, Mom and Papa, my sisters, Brad. And you know Anne and Steven would do anything for you, as well. So don’t say you don’t have family.”

  “Thanks Olivia.” He swallowed a huge lump. “Your family has been really great to me. And the Gherrings, as well. But I hate to be a burden.”

  “But that’s just it. You’re family. You’re not a burden.”

  “So you’re finally agreeing to marry me?” He bit back a grin, and she sent a pleading look to the heavens.

  “Seriously, I want to help you, but I don’t want to get married. Could we just pretend to be married until after you get custody?”

  “No, it has to be legal. I could risk losing them for good if someone found out we lied.”

  “Then Josh, do me a favor. Go home and be honest with yourself—really honest. I saw how you looked at Charlie tonight. And how she looked at you.”

  “She wasn’t looking at me like that—she doesn’t have any feelings for me.”

  “So you aren’t denying you’re still in love with her?”

  “It doesn’t matter how I feel about her. The kids are all that matter. I can’t waste time chasing after Charlie. I’ve pined over her for two years, and I’m totally out of time.” He sat forward and took her hand between his. “I promise I will be totally faithful to you the whole time we’re married. You don’t have to worry about me having feelings for Charlie or any other woman.”

  She pulled her hand away. “Josh. You’re missing my point. You’re right. You really are running out of time. What did you do to pursue Charlie for the past two years?”

  “Nothing! She wanted me to leave her alone, so I did.” He collapsed back in his chair. “You don’t understand. I hurt her when I was pushing her to give me a chance. I even made her cry. So I left her alone and waited to see if she’d come to me. But she never came. I told her I’d be waiting, but she never came.”

  “And what if she loved you, but she didn’t know how to tell you?”

  “She could have said something any time. She had two years.”

  “Maybe she was afraid.”

  He shook his head. Somewhere during the two year hiatus he’d given up making excuses for Charlie’s lack of communication. “No way. Charlie’s not afraid of anything.”

  “Except opening herself up to being hurt. That’s the one thing she’s afraid of. You can’t understand it, because you’ve never been rejected. You just walked right up to her and proclaimed your feelings. But she’s not like that.”

  “But I did get rejected. Charlie rejected me.”

  “And how did it feel? Did it hurt? Now that you’ve been rejected once, aren’t you a little bit afraid of being rejected again?”

  “It’ll never happen again. I don’t intend to let myself fall in love again.”

  “There, you see... You do understand her. She’d been hurt before and made the same promise to herself, before she ever met you. But I talked to her last night, and I think she’s in love with you.”

  Josh’s chest compressed at her words. No. He couldn’t get his hopes up again. “Look, Olivia. Even if you were right—and I’m not saying you are—Charlie is so skittish. I haven’t got another two years to talk her into marrying me. I need to get married next month. That’s why it needs to be you.”

  “But you’re admitting you’d like to marry her? And not just for a year?”

  He scowled. How had he let Olivia twist his words around? “I’m not admitting anything.”

  “Oh, yes you are.” Olivia laughed.

  “I am not!”

  “You could just ask her,” Olivia suggested. “I mean, just ask her to get married to help you out. The same way you asked me.”

&nbs
p; “She wouldn’t do it.”

  “How do you know? Granted, it isn’t a very flattering proposal. But she might say yes. What do you have to lose? Then you’d have a year to convince her to stay married.”

  It was true Charlie still responded to him physically. He’d sensed it holding her in his arms on the dance floor. But it was only a physical reaction. If there were emotions behind it, she would have said something long ago. After all, he’d told her he’d be waiting for her. And he had waited. And waited. The time for waiting had passed.

  “No. I won’t do it.” Josh ground his teeth.

  Olivia stood up with her hands on her hips. “Then you can consider our engagement-to-be-engaged officially off. If you won’t even try when there’s a perfectly good alternative, I’m not going to try either.”

  “You can’t do that—the kids are coming today.”

  “I’ll still come and spend time with them after work this week, just like I promised. But I’m not getting married in January. So lucky you—now you don’t have to explain our engagement, because there isn’t one.”

  “But I’ll lose the kids for sure.” He struggled to control his rising panic. “You can’t do this.”

  “I certainly can. If you can be too stubborn to even approach Charlie about this, then I can be stubborn enough to flat-out turn you down.” She marched away with stiff shoulders.

  “Olivia!”

  She disappeared around the corner, without a single glance in his direction. Josh sank into his chair. Olivia was his last hope, and now she’d turned him down. He would lose the kids for sure. He’d felt certain she’d agree to the marriage if he could only convince her there was no other option. But that seemed to be impossible. She’d made up her mind Charlie would accept his proposition without any basis in fact. It was hopeless.

  Unless... An idea formed in his head. What if Olivia sees for herself Charlie and I are like oil and water. Surely she won’t be able to deny how impossible a relationship would be between Charlie and me when she watches how we clash every time we’re together. And then she’ll agree to marry me. Maybe during the ski trip...

  CHARLIE COULD FEEL the tension in the room. Spencer was extremely solicitous with Olivia, asking her multiple times if she liked her meal or if she needed a refill on her drink. She regarded her brother with an inscrutable expression, responding politely with monosyllabic words. Their parents were oblivious to the tautness of the atmosphere, chatting mostly about the latest pictures Grace and Brad had posted online. Hannah had obviously given Claire a report of the previous night’s events, because both were barely stifling their giggles as they watched Spencer squirming.