by Debbie Mason
The meeting between George and her grandparents had been strained at best. They didn’t approve of her chosen name or the way she dressed. Since Olivia had felt the same, she didn’t feel she should judge.
Her reunion with the Sutherlands hadn’t gone much better. Though of course they approved of her white linen pantsuit, designer shoes, and bag. She wasn’t surprised. Celeste and Walter were all about image.
Celeste glanced at Walter and lifted her chin. The older woman played the part of the little woman, always deferring to her husband. It was so far from the truth it was laughable. Celeste wore the pants in the family.
Walter cleared his throat, his wattle wobbling. “Perhaps it would be best to hold off on any future visits until the child settles in,” he said, unable to meet Olivia’s eyes.
George looked up at Olivia from under her dark, curly lashes. There was no evidence of distress on her face, but Olivia sensed it in the way she pressed against her. “Why don’t we leave that up to George?”
“That always was your problem, Olivia. You never set proper boundaries for Cooper. You gave in to his every whim. His—” Celeste began.
Olivia raised a finger to cut off her mother-in-law and call for Anna, the housekeeper who’d been with the Sutherlands for as long as Olivia could remember. She smiled when the older woman bustled into the room. Anna was her favorite member of the Sutherland household and had seven grandchildren of her own. She’d adored Cooper. Knowing she’d be here for George made it easier for Olivia to assuage the concerns that had begun to crop up the moment Celeste had greeted them with her nose in the air. “Anna, would you mind taking George up to see Nathan’s room and the bedroom where she’ll be staying?”
“It would be my pleasure.” Anna smiled, giving Olivia an almost imperceptible wink. She held out her hand to George. “Oh, look at you with your daddy’s and brother’s big blue eyes. Such a pretty little thing. I have a granddaughter about your age. Would you like me to bring her to play one day?” Anna asked as she led George from the room. The little girl glanced at Olivia over her shoulder, and she gave her an encouraging nod.
Celeste narrowed her eyes at Olivia. “It’s no longer your place to order around the help. You aren’t a member of this family. Now I think it’s best you leave.”
“Anna is hardly the help. But I thought it best that George didn’t hear what I have to say,” Olivia said, coming to her feet. “Don’t try and keep me out of that little girl’s life because I failed to meet your standards of grieving mother and wife.”
“You failed to show up at your own husband’s funeral. Do you know the questions I had to field, the gossip that started? You embarrassed us. Embarrassed this family. Sullied our good name and your husband’s with your behavior.”
“Your son was a bigamist, Celeste. And the only way your good name would have been sullied is if I hadn’t paid a small fortune to bury the story. I didn’t do that for you, or for me. I did that in memory of my son. A child your son abandoned. Perhaps if you had set better boundaries for Nathan, we wouldn’t be here today. As for George, your son named me her legal guardian. So I will be here next week to pick her up for the day. I’ll also be calling to speak with her every night before bed.”
Her face tight with fury, Celeste opened her mouth. Walter covered his wife’s fisted hand with his. “That will be fine, Olivia.”
“Good, I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding. I’ll just say goodbye to George.”
Twenty minutes later, Olivia hurried down the steps of her in-law’s town house, waiting for the sense of relief and gratitude to wash over her. There was nothing other than a horrible heaviness in her chest. Something made her glance over her shoulder, and her breath caught in her throat. George stood alone in the front window. Maybe because of the dark, masculine furniture in the background, she looked smaller than Olivia remembered, paler too.
Olivia raised her hand, forcing a smile because her throat ached from keeping the emotions at bay. Not happy ones, not the ones that she’d expected to feel. She mouthed that she’d see her soon. George lifted her stubborn little chin. It was an action Olivia had seen many times over the past couple of weeks…whenever the little girl felt vulnerable and scared.
“Damn you, Nathan Davenport, damn you to hell,” Olivia muttered under her breath, and turned around to walk back up the steps and press the bell.
Chapter Thirteen
Olivia may not have felt either the relief or gratitude that she’d expected to feel when she walked out the Sutherlands’ front door and left George behind. But thirty minutes later, the elusive emotions washed over her as she sat on the end of Cooper’s bed looking through his baseball card collection with his sister.
Olivia hadn’t been back home since she’d left last September. Nothing had changed. Cooper’s bedroom was exactly the way it had been the day they left for the hospital that last time more than two years before. Nathan, his parents, even Olivia’s cousins had told her it wasn’t healthy. She needed to box everything away. But she’d felt close to him here. It was the same today. And even nicer that she had someone to share it with.
The little girl spotted Cooper’s collection of signed baseballs and bats and ran across the room. Olivia joined her on the blue-carpeted floor and told her the story behind each souvenir. In turn, George shared the stories her father had told her. The same ones he’d told his son. But unlike last week or the week before that, George’s stories no longer made Olivia want to cry. They made her smile. It felt like she and George shared a history, a love for Cooper.
Because the more George opened up, the more Olivia realized that Nathan hadn’t forgotten his son after all. He’d built Cooper up in the stories he told George. He created a life for the little boy he would have been, had he been healthy.
After more than an hour of sitting on the floor playing with Cooper’s toys and looking through albums, Olivia said, “We should probably head back to Harmony Harbor before traffic gets bad, George.”
She looked disappointed but nodded. “Can we come back another day?”
“We can come back anytime you’d like.” She started picking up the toys and noticed the way George petted them as though needing to touch them one last time. Olivia smiled. “You know, your brother would have wanted you to have his toys and baseball collection, George.”
Her eyes went wide. “He would?”
She nodded. “Yes, he would. So why don’t we get a box and you can fill it with whatever you want?”
They’d ended up filling four boxes and two suitcases. Olivia had also snuck in two family photo albums that she’d go through before she gave them to George. She’d pick out some photos of just Nathan and Cooper for the little girl.
George gave Olivia a gap-toothed smile from under Cooper’s Red Sox baseball cap while sitting in her booster seat eating a chocolate fudge ice cream cone. Nathan would have had a conniption. Petty as it may be, that gave Olivia a great deal of pleasure. Though that wasn’t the reason she’d parked the Lexus and taken Nathan’s black Range Rover or bought George an ice cream cone. The SUV was more practical for carting around a little girl and all her treasures.
In George’s eyes, it seemed the afternoon they’d spent together had more than made up for Olivia even thinking of leaving her with Nathan’s parents, but just in case, she’d thrown the ice cream cone in for good measure. Celeste and Walter weren’t horrible people. In some ways, Olivia felt sorry for them. The loss of both Cooper and Nathan had affected them profoundly. But they had always been judgmental and strict disciplinarians, and that didn’t seem to have changed.
They’d been the same with Cooper, but they had genuinely loved him, and of course Olivia had been there to mediate and offset any hurts that might arise. But George wouldn’t have had her there, and she didn’t think the little girl would have fared as well with them as her son had. She imagined Nathan had thought the same or he would have named his parents as George’s guardians. Or maybe Stanley was right and
George was a gift to make up for all the pain Nathan had caused.
She was beginning to think Stanley was right about something else. She hadn’t thought much about it until she’d opened the garage at the town house and spotted the Range Rover. Nathan had purchased the SUV when he was home last June. He’d driven it once—taking it off-roading with a couple of friends. It gave credence to Stanley’s belief that Nathan had planned to come home after all. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would have abandoned the little girl in the backseat as easily as he’d abandoned his son. She’d liked to think that he wouldn’t have.
She glanced at the sign announcing ten miles to Harmony Harbor, and the reality of what she’d done set in. For better or for worse, that smiling little girl in the backseat with chocolate all over face was now hers. No one had forced Olivia to do this. She’d made the decision all on her own.
No matter how terrified she was of letting this child into her heart, she had to. From now on, George would know she was wanted, loved. There’d be no half measures. This time, Olivia was all in. Her pulse raced at the thought and instead of heading for the manor, she headed straight for Primrose Lane. George had her Red Sox T-shirt, and apparently Olivia had Finn. “Why don’t we stop by the clinic on our way to the manor and say hello to Finn? Good idea?”
George gave her a smile and a thumbs-up.
Ten minutes and ten cleansing wipes later, they walked into a packed waiting room. The busty blond receptionist sighed when Olivia approached the desk. “Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t have any openings today.”
Olivia glanced around the waiting room. She’d guarantee half the women with appointments to see Finn had nothing wrong with them. “It’s an emergency.”
“And the nature of the emergency is?”
“I’d rather not say. It’s personal.” The blonde gave her a look. “I have poison ivy. It’s spread to places it shouldn’t spread.”
Sherry, who’d been pulling a file from the jam-packed shelves behind the desk, pursed her lips at Olivia before saying, “Poison ivy doesn’t spread. Maybe you have an STD.”
Olivia stared at the woman. She couldn’t believe she’d actually said that to her. It more or less confirmed her suspicion that Finn’s nurse didn’t like her.
Maybe because she didn’t respond, Sherry said slowly and loudly as if Olivia were deaf, “What I said is that you may have a sexually transmitted disease.”
“I understood you the first time. I was just surprised you’d be so rude and unprofessional as to say it out loud in front of witnesses.”
George tugged on her sleeve and asked in her husky voice, which was almost as loud as Sherry’s, “Do you have HIV, Livy?” The only difference was that, while Sherry was trying to embarrass Olivia, George was genuinely worried about her. As the daughter of physicians based in Kenya, the little girl had no doubt overheard her parents talking about STDs.
“No, George, I’m fine. Sherry thought she was being funny.”
Realizing she’d perhaps taken the joke too far, Sherry pointed at the computer screen and the receptionist said, “Dr. Gallagher can see you, but you’ll have at least an hour wait.”
From the looks of the waiting room, it would be longer than an hour. “All right, we’ll be back then.” She wasn’t going to make George sit around a stuffy waiting room, at least a quarter of which may be filled with actual germs. “George.” She looked around. She was gone. “George, where are you?”
“Olivia,” a woman called from behind. Olivia turned. It was Brie Fitzgerald. She managed Guppies, a high-end children’s clothing store on Main Street. Sitting beside Brie was her grandmother, Widows Club member Ida Fitzgerald, who’d made it clear she was actively seeking a husband for her granddaughter. Olivia was a little disappointed to realize the young, pretty blonde must be okay with her grandmother’s plan to ensnare Finn. Brie smiled. “I think she went back to the examination rooms.”
“Thanks, Brie,” Olivia said, and took a step in that direction.
Sherry blocked her way with her arms crossed and feet spread wide. “You’re not bumping ahead. So, if you sent her back there to get in faster, you’re out of luck. Sit down and wait your turn. I’ll get her,” she said, and flounced off.
If Olivia were running the office, Sherry would be gone. The receptionist too. As would half the women sitting in the waiting room. When Nathan first started out, he and two of his friends opened a practice together. Olivia had just finished her MBA and organized their office for them. She ended up staying on because she’d enjoyed working with Nathan. She had fond memories of that time in their life together.
“Olivia,” a woman called from the other end of the waiting room. It was Julia Landon, the owner of Books and Beans. She appeared to be there with the mayor, Hazel Winters. Last year, the mayor had joined forces with Paige Townsend to strong-arm the Gallaghers into selling out to the developer who wanted to buy Greystone. As of late, they hadn’t heard much from the heavyset woman with the big hair.
Julia patted the empty chair beside her. “Come sit down. It looks like we’re in for a wait.”
“Are you not feeling well?” Olivia didn’t know why—it was silly really—but she hoped Julia wasn’t there because she was vying for Finn’s attention like the majority of single women in Harmony Harbor. Which made her feel guilty because it was almost like wishing Julia was sick. And Olivia would never wish an illness on anyone, least of all Julia, who was one of the sweetest women she knew.
Julia turned in her chair to look at Olivia, making her violet eyes go wide in the universal sign of I don’t want to be here. Olivia nudged her head at Hazel, and Julia nodded. She sat back in her chair. “Hazel, have you met Olivia Davenport?”
“Yes”—the woman nodded and gave Olivia an uneasy smile—“but I thought your name was Dana…something.”
“It’s a long story.” Olivia smiled, leaving it at that. Even Julia didn’t know everything. Olivia hadn’t spent much time hanging out on Main Street these past few weeks. She used to spend quite a bit of time in the shops and went out for dinner at least twice a week. Those days were over now that she had George.
The mayor’s cell phone buzzed. Hazel glanced at the screen and frowned. Then she looked at Julia and Olivia. “I’ll take this outside where it’s not so noisy,” the sixtysomething woman said, and got up. “Hold my place, dear.”
Julia smiled, slumping in the chair once Hazel was out of sight. “I can’t believe I let her talk me into this.”
“Into what?” Olivia asked, craning her neck to look for George.
“Don’t worry, she probably ran into Kitty. She’s back there having a visit with Dr. Bishop.” Julia smiled. It was the kind of smile that made you smile in return. There was something otherworldly about the bookstore owner. Fae, Olivia’s Scottish grandmother would have said. Maybe Julia gave off the whimsical aura because she spent so much of her time immersed in fairy tales, either reading them or acting them out for the children. “I’d heard you were bringing George to your in-laws to live. Since you’re both here, I take it that you had a change of heart?”
Olivia nodded. “I couldn’t do it. She’s been through enough.”
“So have you from what I’ve heard. If you ever want to talk, I hope you know I’m here for you, Olivia.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it. And I might take you up on that. Maybe I’ll bring George in for story hour. You wouldn’t happen to have a book on childhood fears, would you?”
“Of course I do. Is there anything in particular that you’re looking for? I can hunt it down for you when I get back to the store.”
“George calls it bad juju, an evil spirit. So maybe something about ghosts?” Olivia pulled a face. “I really didn’t think this through. She slept outside in a tent last night. I hope Finn has some suggestions because I’m not sure I feel like spending the next few weeks roughing it.”
Julia grinned. “Do you realize you light up when you say his name?”
&nbs
p; “I do not,” she said, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “It’s not what you think. He’s just been a very good friend to me through all of this. And he’s wonderful with George.”
Julia gave her a knowing look.
Olivia thought a subject change was in order. “Before Hazel gets back, tell me what you’re doing here with her.”
“Hazel is doing what half the older women in this room are doing for their daughters and granddaughters—she’s trying to find me a husband. And if you haven’t already guessed, your very good friend is on the top of their lists.”
Matchmaking mothers and grandmothers converging on the clinic wasn’t news to Olivia, so she didn’t understand why she felt an anxious twist in her stomach. “But why is Hazel interested in finding you a husband? She isn’t your mother or your grandmother, is she?”
A small frown pleated Julia’s brow and then smoothed out. “Of course, what am I thinking, you wouldn’t have known. I was engaged to Hazel’s son Josh. He died six months before we were to be married. It didn’t change my relationship with Hazel though. She’s always treated me as her daughter-in-law, and I’ve always thought of her as my mother-in-law.”
“I didn’t know, Julia. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” She smiled and gave Olivia’s hand a gentle pat. “Let’s get back to you and George and your ghost. And just tell me to butt out if I’m overstepping, but now that you’re keeping George, have you thought about getting a place of your own? I mean, the manor is lovely, but wouldn’t it be a nice to have some privacy?”
“To be honest, it’s a little terrifying to think of just the two of us on our own. And…” She looked over to see Finn standing by the desk with George. He was looking at Olivia with an expression on his face that she couldn’t read. He lifted George’s hand and raised an eyebrow as if to say, You’re really doing this? She nodded, and he gave her a smile that she felt straight to her toes. A smile that seemed to say, You did good. I’m proud of you. And her chest filled with a fuzzy, warm glow.