by Tamie Dearen
“Steven!” she shrieked, as she retreated a step, holding her hands out in front of her for protection.
“I love it when you say my name like that.” He swooped in to grab her legs and throw her over his shoulder, struggling and giggling. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you on this bed and have my way with you.”
From her upside-down angle, Anne chuckled. “Sorry. I can’t think of a single one.”
Chapter Eleven
JOSH WAS DETERMINED when he got out of bed the next morning. Determined to make his relationship with Olivia work. Determined to court her and spend quality time with her. Determined to show her what a good husband he could be. Determined to build a relationship that would last through the years, rather than a temporary marriage for the purpose of gaining custody of the children. Steven was right. If he and Olivia didn’t love each other, someone would definitely be hurt, probably Jace. And the last thing Jace needed was more pain.
He was also determined to get Charlie out of his system. In fact, it would be best if she were unavailable. So Charlie and Derek needed to be together. That way Charlie wouldn’t be a temptation any longer. But he knew he needed help to accomplish his task. And there was only one person he knew who’d be willing to help him—Brad.
“Now tell me again why I’m helping Charlie and Derek get together?” asked Brad, his face a mask of confusion.
“Because it will help Olivia be certain I’m not interested in Charlie.”
“Why would that help?”
“Because, if Charlie and Derek are together all the time, Charlie and I won’t have any time alone together.”
“I see.” He nodded a few times before shaking his head. “No, I don’t see. Why can’t you and Charlie just not spend time alone together? Why does Derek have to be involved at all?”
“We can do that, of course. We can purposefully not spend time together, but if she’s with Derek, she won’t be an enticement.”
“So let me get this straight... You are madly in love with Olivia. And you’re going to prove it to her by pushing Charlie into a relationship with another man so she won’t tempt you anymore. Does that about cover it?”
“It doesn’t sound right when you say it.”
“Buddy, you are one messed up dude.”
“Brad, you’re my best friend. You have to help me—I don’t have anyone else.”
“Josh, I’ll try. But I suspect my wife may be working against you. She’s purposefully left me out of things, but I’ve overheard some stuff. If she catches me, I’ll have to stop. I’m not risking my wife’s wrath for your scheming.”
“But it’s not scheming. It’s a matter of life and death.”
“Yeah buddy, I know you’re desperate. You’ve never asked for my help with anything before—that’s the only reason I’m doing it. I’m just saying I’ll have to be subtle.”
“Thanks man,” Josh sighed with relief. “I’ll have Jace all afternoon, so I’m going to try to ski alone with Olivia this morning. Here’s my plan. We’ll all start off together on this run,” he pointed to the trail map he pulled from his pocket. “But then I’m going to talk her into hanging back with me while I adjust my boots. And when we get to this point, you guys take any route to the left, and we’ll go over to the Mountaintop Express. We’ll stay on this mountain the whole morning and then meet you guys at the bottom for lunch.”
“You got it. Although, it may not work if the girls pull out their cell phones to find each other. But I’ll give it my best shot.”
“GRACE, YOU’VE GOT TO help me ski alone with Derek this morning,” said Olivia.
“Get Hannah and Claire to help you,” said Grace. “They’re dying to get in on the action.”
“Good idea.” Olivia bounded downstairs to find her younger sisters at the breakfast table. “Good morning. I like your sweater,” she told Hannah.
Hannah smirked at Claire. “Either she wants help or she wants to borrow my sweater.” She turned back to Olivia. “Which do you want?”
“I’m insulted,” Olivia huffed. “I was planning to offer you a chance to get in on the conspiracy. But if you’re not interested...”
“No,” said Hannah. “We’re interested. What can we do?”
“I’m not entirely sure. You’ll have to think on your feet. You need to distract Josh and help me get Derek by himself. Josh will have Jace all afternoon. So with any luck, I should be able to spend the entire day with Derek.”
“But I feel bad for Charlie,” said Claire. “After all, Derek’s her boyfriend.”
“Yes, but it’s for her own good,” said Olivia. “She belongs with Josh, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”
“What if Derek prefers Charlie instead of you?” Hannah asked. “You know, he came on this trip to be with her.”
“Yes, but we made eye contact last night, and it was sizzling. I’m telling you, we’ve got sparks. Anyway, the important thing is to keep him away from Charlie so she’ll be available for Josh.”
“I don’t know. I had a lot of fun being in Grace’s wedding. I was looking forward to being in yours next month,” Hannah teased.
“Not happening,” said Olivia. “But if you help me, you can be in Charlie’s wedding.”
“Charlie’s wedding?” said a voice behind Olivia. “What on earth are you talking about?” asked Spencer emerging through the breakfast room door.
“You know... even Charlie’s going to get married eventually,” Olivia covered quickly.
“Okay, but why were you asking for Hannah’s help?”
“Uhmm...”
“She wants to make sure we don’t say anything about Josh asking her to marry him around Charlie. She’s afraid it will hurt her feelings,” said Claire.
“I don’t know about that, but I don’t think you should be marrying Josh.” Spencer crossed his arms and looked down his nose with a pronounced frown.
Olivia gave her brother a hug. “I’m glad you’re on my side, big brother. I feel the same way.”
“But I thought you’d already agreed to get married.” Spencer scratched his head.
“Not really. He’s still trying to talk me into it.”
“Well, don’t do it,” he said. “Not if he only wants to marry you for a year. He’s only using you.”
Josh burst into the breakfast room. “That would be true if I only wanted to marry her for a year. But I’m hoping she’ll marry me forever. Or at least until death do us part.” He pulled her into his arms, kissing her cheek. He stood in front of her with his arms locking her in place.
Olivia froze in shock. Things were going horribly wrong. Yesterday she was certain his attraction for Charlie was growing stronger.
Spencer regarded Josh with suspicion. “I thought this was all about getting custody of the kids, and you’d even bribed her to stay married for a year. You said you’d pay for medical school.”
“Well, she’d be my wife. Of course I’d pay for medical school,” Josh reasoned, planting another kiss in her hair. “And yes I did kind of bribe her, but that’s because I was in a rush. I mean, if it weren’t for the kids, I would’ve probably courted her for another six months before I asked her to marry me. But one way or another, I want her to be Mrs. Josh Branson.” He gave her another squeeze.
Olivia was dumbfounded. Unprepared for this line of assault, her only thought was escape. She peeled herself out of Josh’s arms in the direction of the breakfast room door, noting the stunned expressions on her sisters’ faces. Slipping through the door, she almost flattened Charlie, who was frozen in place with a Pop Tart in her hands.
“Charlie!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I almost knocked you down. Are you okay?”
Charlie’s face blanched, and she turned to walk the other direction out of the kitchen.
“Aren’t you going to eat breakfast?” Olivia asked.
But Charlie set her Pop Tart on the dining room table as she moved up the stairs without speaking.
�
�Darn it!” Olivia exclaimed to no one in particular as she buried her face in her hands. Obviously, Charlie had overheard Josh’s declaration. What was she supposed to do now? She ran up the stairs. “Graaaaace!”
EMILY HEARD A KNOCK on the door. “Come in,” she answered in a garbled voice. “I’m brushing my teeth.”
Charlie appeared in the bathroom mirror with red eyes and wet cheeks.
“Charlie! You’re crying! What’s wrong?” Emily quickly rinsed her mouth and pulled her sister over to sit on the bed beside her. “What happened?”
“I love him,” she said, with tears pouring down her face.
“Derek?” asked Emily, as her own eyes watered in sympathy.
“No. Josh.”
“Oh... Oh no. I was afraid of that. Did you just now figure it out? I asked you before, and you denied it.”
“No, I knew before. But I only wanted him to be happy. So I thought, if Olivia was going to make him happy, I wanted them to get married. But...”
“But what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I kind of secretly hoped I was wrong and he loved me instead. But just now...” Her voice broke and the tears started a fresh fountain. “He said it—exactly what I thought. He loves her, and he wants to be married forever, not for a year. It’s not just about the custody battle. He really loves her.”
“Oh sweetie,” said Emily, hugging her sister as salty drops wet her sweater. “I’m so sorry. What can I do?”
Charlie sobbed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Do you want me to kill him for you?”
The suggestion elicited a chuckle. “Yes! And make it painful. Preferably poison.”
“Done! Let’s see... where did I pack my hemlock?”
Both of them fell back onto the bed laughing through their tears. “There is something you can do,” said Charlie. “It shouldn’t be too hard, because I’m sure he’ll avoid me like the plague. But I definitely don’t want to be alone with him. In fact, I want to stay away from him as much as possible.”
“You’re taking Jace out this morning?”
“Yes. It’ll only be the two of us. So I’m good for the morning. I only need your help in the afternoon.”
“What about Derek?”
“Well... even though I told you I wanted you to kill Josh, I actually want him to be happy. So I guess I need to keep Derek away from Olivia.” Charlie pressed her hands to her temples. “I hope I’m at the very end of the bridesmaids again, as far away from the bride and groom as possible, because that’s going to be one tough wedding.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to use the hemlock?”
Charlie smiled, even as tears began to fall again. “No. No hemlock, and please don’t tell anybody. Not even Spencer. Okay?”
“What about Mom?”
“I’ll tell her myself, when I’m ready. It may be after the wedding, though.”
“Okay. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Thanks, Sister.” Charlie paused before confessing, “I kind of thought I’d lost you.”
Emily felt more tears spring to her eyes. “Stop it—you’re getting me all dehydrated. You will never lose me, Sister. No one can replace you.”
She hugged her little sister, wishing she could take the pain away. Why did love have to be so hard? But she watched as Charlie sat up, wiped her face, and bit her lips.
Charlie said, “Time to put on the game face and go skiing.”
OLIVIA WAS IRRITATED. Nothing was going according to plan. After Josh’s declaration that morning, he’d stuck to her like glue and was acting as solicitous as a starstruck lover. He’d insisted on carrying her skis and poles, had continually offered the use of his lip balm, had ridden up beside her on every lift, and he was always the first on the scene when she fell. They’d even gotten separated from the group at one point, and he’d taken them to an entirely different mountain from Derek and the others. Only by reaching Grace on her cell phone had she managed to reconnect with Derek and her family.
Finally, she’d had enough. She decided to confront him. “What’s going on, Josh? I know you don’t love me. Why are you pretending you want to have a real marriage?”
He looked wounded. “I do want a real marriage. With you.” His brows wrinkled together. “We can do it, Olivia. We can have a real marriage. I’m willing to put your needs over mine. And I’ll promise to love you and be faithful to you. Maybe you don’t love me yet, but maybe you haven’t given me a chance.”
“No Josh! No! You’ve got to stop this. I can’t get married for real. And have sex with you? Are you kidding me?”
“Okay, maybe not the first night. But don’t you think after a while, you’ll grow to love me?”
“Arghhh!” she screamed. She glanced upward, praying for some kind of aid. “Josh, I’m going to ask you a question. And I want you to be absolutely honest. Are you doing this to have sex with me?”
Josh’s mouth dropped open. “No. Of course not. I swear, Olivia. I don’t want to sleep with you at all. I mean... That didn’t sound right. I mean... Of course, any guy would want to sleep with you, but that’s not my motivation.”
“I believed you the first time. And that’s great, because I don’t want to sleep with you either. Sorry to deflate that humongous ego, but there’s at least one woman in the world who doesn’t want to go to bed with you. And she’s sitting right beside you on this chair lift.”
“But, we can still have a real marriage. I’m sure eventually we’ll feel that way about each other. I mean, I bet if I saw you naked, I’d be more than willing.”
“Well, that isn’t happening. You’re not going to see me naked, and this marriage isn’t happening.”
“I’m not giving up. There’s no guy out there who’ll treat you any better than me—I’ll be the best husband you could ever dream of. I’ll make you fall in love with me—you’ll see.”
“Is this the kind of stuff you said to Charlie? No wonder it never worked out between you two.”
“Leave her out of this,” he growled, turning his head away.
“Why should I leave her out of this? You’re still in love with her.”
“I’m not. If I were, why would I want to marry you for the rest of my life?”
“I don’t know,” she said, banging her gloved hands on her helmet. “Why would you want to?”
“If I can prove to you I don’t love Charlie, will you give me a chance?”
“How are you going to do that, Josh? And has it occurred to you I might not want to marry you even if you didn’t love her. Has it occurred to you I wouldn’t want to hurt Charlie like that?”
They dismounted the lift, and Olivia followed behind Josh to the top of the ski run where he stopped, twisting his body to face her. He pressed his lips together. “So that’s it. You think Charlie’s in love with me? Well she’s not. She’s let me know in no uncertain terms she wants you and I to get married. She’s not in love with me—she never has been. So there’s no reason why we can’t get married.”
Olivia felt her patience snap like a brittle twig. Without a thought, she reached over and pushed him just hard enough to make him lose his balance and tumble to the snow.
“Josh, you’re an idiot.”
He stared at her, open-mouthed, as she turned and skied away.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Charlie told Emily. “I don’t think you’ll have any problem taking Jace to Josh. He’s skiing great now. He’s totally skiing parallel. He’s even starting to learn a hockey stop.”
“Where are you going, Aunt Charlie,” asked Jace. “Why aren’t you coming with us?”
“I’m taking a hike so I can ski some stuff off the trails. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Be careful,” said Emily. “Don’t hike by yourself.”
“I won’t—I’m always careful. But I really need this.”
“I know,” Emily said. “Where are you going?”
Charlie pointed to the top of a peak to her left. “Up there, in the clou
ds. Hopefully the sun will come out by the time I get to the top.”
“You’re gonna climb all the way up there?” asked Jace with amazement. “And then ski down?”
“Yep,” said Charlie. “And when I get to the very top, I’m going to turn on this camera on top of my head, and I’m going to talk to you all the way down. And I’ll show you the video when I come home tonight.”
“Cool!” exclaimed Jace.
“See ya later,” Emily said.
WHEN JOSH SAW EMILY skiing down with Jace, he knew Charlie was avoiding him. Not that he cared. It was for the best, wasn’t it? Hadn’t that been his plan? His chest swelled with pride as his nephew skied toward him, making parallel turns.
“You look great, Jace. Are you ready to ski blues now?”
“Yeah! I already skied a blue. And I didn’t even fall except for one time and that was because there was a rut in the snow, Aunt Charlie said.”
“And what did you do with your Aunt Charlie? She didn’t come back with you.”
“She’s hiking to the top of that mountain,” he pointed to a peak that was totally obscured by the snow clouds. “And she’s gonna ski down with her camera on while she talks to me. And I get to watch the video tonight.”
Josh felt a lead weight settle in his stomach. He stared into the cloud as if he could somehow spot her and know she was safe.
Emily was watching him with unveiled interest. “She knows what she’s doing. She’ll be okay.”
“Sure,” Josh said. “I wasn’t worried about her—I was just checking out the clouds. I think it may snow again.”
“Good,” said Emily, sliding down to stop beside him. “I’m glad you’re not worried, and I’m not worried either. At least, not too much. I mean... I’m sure she skis fine when she’s upset. She’s a pro at this stuff. She won’t get distracted and make a mistake or anything.”
“She’s upset?” He peered harder, irritated with the cloud for blocking his vision.
“You know, you wouldn’t be able to see her anyway, even if there weren’t any clouds. She’s climbing so high up there she’d be like an ant. I guess maybe if you had binoculars.”